Hasidism: A New History

891 Pages·2017·12.405 MB·English

by  David Biale, David Assaf, Benjamin Brown, Uriel Gellman, Samuel Heilman, Moshe Rosman, Gadi Sagiv, Marcin Wodziński

HASIDISM

HASIDISM
A NEW HISTORY
With an Afterword by Arthur Green
•
DAVID BIALE, DAVID ASSAF, BENJAMIN BROWN,
URIEL GELLMAN, SAMUEL C. HEILMAN, MOSHE ROSMAN,
GADI SAGIV, AND MARCIN WODZIŃSKI
Princeton University Press
Princeton and Oxford
Copyright © 2018 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press,
41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street,
Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR
press.princeton.edu
Jacket illustration by Shlomo Narinsky, A Hasid of the Chabad dynasty and his great-grandson
in Hebron, 1910–1921. Photogravure. 8.7×13.5 cm. Copyright the Tel Aviv Museum of Art
(Photo: Dima Valershtein)
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Biale, David, 1949– author. | Assaf, David, author. | Brown, Benjamin, 1966– author. |
Gellman, Uriel, author. | Heilman, Samuel C., author. | Rosman, Murray Jay, author. | Sagiv,
Gadi, author. | Wodziński, Marcin, author.
Title: Hasidism : a new history / David Biale, David Assaf, Benjamin Brown, Uriel Gellman,
Samuel C. Heilman, Moshe Rosman, Gadi Sagiv, and Marcin Wodziński ; with an afterword by
Arthur Green.
Description: Princeton ; Oxford : Princeton University Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017021879 | ISBN 9780691175157 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Hasidism—History.
Classification: LCC BM198.3 .B53 2017 | DDC 296.8/33209—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017021879
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
This book has been published with the financial assistance of the Thyssen Foundation.
This book has been composed in Garamond Premier Pro
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
CONTENTS
•
List of Illustrations and Maps vii
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
Note on Spelling, Transliteration, and Annotation xi
Introduction: Hasidism as a Modern Movement 1
Section 1— Origins: The Eighteenth Century
PART I. BEGINNINGS
1. Hasidism’s Birthplace 17
2. Ba’al Shem Tov: Founder of Hasidism? 43
3. From Circle to Court:
The Maggid of Mezritsh and Hasidism’s First Opponents 76
PART II. FROM COURT TO MOVEMENT
4. Ukraine 103
5. Lithuania, White Russia, and the Land of Israel 118
6. Galicia and Central Poland 141
PART III. BELIEFS AND PRACTICES
7. Ethos 159
8. Rituals 183
9. Institutions 222
Section 2— Golden Age: The Nineteenth Century
Introduction: Toward the Nineteenth Century 257
10. A Golden Age within Two Empires 262
PART I. VARIETIES OF NINETEENTH- CENTURY HASIDISM
11. In the Empire of the Tsars: Russia 291
12. In the Empire of the Tsars: Poland 332
13. Habsburg Hasidism: Galicia and Bukovina 359
14. Habsburg Hasidism: Hungary 387
PART II. INSTITUTIONS
15. “A Little Townlet on Its Own”: The Court and Its Inhabitants 403
16. Between Shtibl and Shtetl 429
17. Book Culture 457
PART III. RELATIONS WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD
18. Haskalah and Its Successors 477
19. The State and Public Opinion 502
20. The Crisis of Modernity 530
21. Neo- Hasidism 556
vi • Contents
Section 3— Death and Resurrection: The Twentieth and Twenty- First Centuries
Introduction: The Twentieth and Twenty- First Centuries 575
PART I. BETWEEN WORLD WAR I AND WORLD WAR II
22. War and Revolution 579
23. In a Sovereign Poland 597
24. Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Romania 623
25. America and the Land of Israel 637
26. Khurbn: Hasidism and the Holocaust 652
PART II. POSTWAR PHOENIX: HASIDISM AFTER THE HOLOCAUST
27. America: Hasidism’s Goldene Medinah 677
28. The State of Israel: Haven in Zion 707
29. Hasidic Society 740
30. Hasidic Culture 770
31. In the Eyes of Others: Hasidism in Contemporary Culture 793
Afterword by Arthur Green 807
Annotated Bibliography 813
About the Authors 847
Index 849
ILLUSTRATIONS
•
Figures
Figure 1.1. Mezhbizh tax roll. 16
Figure 1.2. Tavern. 22
Figure 1.3. Jewish Factor. 23
Figure 2.1. Bet Midrash in Mezhbizh: 1915. 43
Figure 2.2. Amulet. 47
Figure 2.3. Shivhei ha- Besht. 69
Figure 3.1. Children in Miedzyrzcez. 76
Figure 3.2. Eliyahu, the Vilna Gaon. 88
Figure 6.1. Israel of Kozhenits. 150
Figure 8.1. Shirayim. 196
Figure 8.2. Tomb of the Ba’al Shem Tov. 199
Figure 8.3. Siddur Hekhal ha- Besht. 203
Figure 8.4. Bekeshe (tsaddik’s white costume). 205
Figure 8.5. Chair of Nahman of Bratslav. 207
Figure 8.6. Shemira cup of Sadagora rebbes. 210
Figure 8.7. Hasidic dance. 216
Figure 8.8. Mitzveh tants. 219
Figure 9.1. Genealogy of Besht. 233
Figure S2. Portrait of a Young Hasid. 254
Figure 10.1. Hevra Mishnayot. 271
Figure 11.1. Sholem Yosef of Trisk- Proskurov (1883– 1945) and
his grandson. 317
Figure 13.1. Avraham Friedman of Sadagora. 367
Figure 13.2. Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue. 368
Figure 13.3. Belz synagogue. 370
Figure 13.4. Zvei Deveikim. 375
Figure 14.1. Moshe Teitelbaum. 393
Figure 15.1. Sadagora court. 406
Figure 15.2. Chortkov synagogue. 408
Figure 15.3. Tsaddik’s carriage. 410
Figure 15.4. Young Hasidim come to visit Gerer Rebbe (1927). 417
Figure 15.5. Kvitl 421
Figure 16.1. Der rebbe kimt. 429
Figure 17.1. Sefer ha- Zohar. 456
Figure 18.1. Yosef Perl. 484
viii • List of Illustrations
Figure 19.1. Dress Decree Exemptions. 516
Figure 20.1. Tsaddik of Slavuta. 530
Figure 20.2. “Le chasside et sa femme.” 534
Figure 21.1. Hasidim at Marienbad. 558
Figure 22.1. Nahum Moshe of Kovel. 581
Figure 23.1. Wedding of the son of the Gerer Rebbe (1923). 601
Figure 23.2. Sarah Schenirer application for identification card. 604
Figure 23.3. Portrait Study of the Daughter of Byaler Rebbe (1927). 607
Figure 27.1. Menachem Mendel Schneerson. 695
Figure 28.1. 770 Eastern Parkway. 732
Figure 28.2. Tashlikh ceremony at Uman. 738
Figure 29.1. Rebbetsin of Belz. 746
Figure 29.2. Toldot Aharon woman. 752
Figure 29.3. After upsheren. 754
Figure 30.1. Shneur Zalman with other rebbes. 788
Figure 30.2. Tsemah Tsedek. 789
Figure 30.3. Yosef Yitzhak Schneersohn. 790
Maps
Map 1.1. Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth 19
Map S2.1. Partitions of Poland 258
Map 10.1. Geopolitical Map of Nineteenth- Century Eastern Europe 262
Map 10.2. Hasidic Courts (1815– 1867) 274
Map 10.3. Hasidic Courts (1867– 1914) 275
Map 11.1. Western Russia (1815– 1914) 292
Map 11.2. Chernobyl Dynasty 310
Map 12.1. Nineteenth- Century Kingdom of Poland 333
Map 13.1. Galicia and Bukovina 360
Map 13.2. Sadagora Dynasty 366
Map 14.1. Nineteenth- Century Hungary 388
Map 22.1. Geopolitical Map of Interwar Eastern Europe 578
Map 23.1. Interwar Poland 596
Map 24.1. Interwar Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Romania 622
Map 27.1. Major Hasidic Centers in North America, 2015 676
Map 28.1. Major Hasidic Centers in Israel, 2015 706
Tables
29.1 Census Data 2010 758
29.2 Mean and Median Incomes 758
29.3 Median Value of House 2009 759
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
David Biale
•
The story of Hasidism is a saga of extraordinary vitality and adaptability: from
its origins in the eighteenth century, Hasidism confronted different challenges in a
changing world and succeeded in reinventing itself to survive and flourish. Given its
great importance to understanding Jews in the modern world, it is surprising that a
comprehensive history of the movement from its eighteenth- century origins to the
present day does not exist. Although it has been the subject of historical research for
over a century, most of the scholarly as well as popular literature focuses on the eigh-
teenth century and much of it is specialized in nature. Moreover, the fruits of the most
recent research have yet to be synthesized in a new narrative of the history of this
movement. Such a narrative must not only integrate a century of research but must
also emphasize how Hasidism shaped modern Jewish history.
To tell this story requires vast knowledge and an approach that is less encyclopedic
than analytic and synthetic. Thus this new history does not discuss every Hasidic
“court” but instead identifies patterns of ideas and social structures. There is much
that we do not know, since not every phase of the history of Hasidism has been as
deeply researched as, for example, its eighteenth- century origins. In particular, the
late nineteenth century, when the Hasidim began to migrate to Eastern European
cities, is poorly understood. There is also a dearth of research on important aspects of
twentieth- century Hasidism, particularly between the World Wars. A particular chal-
lenge is demographic: how to determine how many Hasidim there were in any given
place and time. Census data is often fragmentary and unreliable, and numbers must be
inferred indirectly. For all these reasons, this study must remain partly incomplete.
But since Hasidism today is still highly vital and dynamic, the story of its evolution is
itself unfinished.
This work represents an innovative collaboration of scholars—j unior and senior—
from three countries. Given the division of Hasidism into many courts and dynasties,
its geographical spread and intellectual diversity, a new history of Hasidism requires a
team effort of researchers with different expertise and methodologies: intellectual and
social historians as well as sociologists.
Our book could never have seen the light of day without the help of many individ-
uals and foundations, and we are delighted to acknowledge these debts. The project
owed its earliest formation to the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies (then under the
auspices of the Hebrew University), which hosted a research group that included most