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The ideal of piety of the Ashkenazi Hasidim and its roots in Jewish tradition

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Notes

  1. Cf. G. Scholem,Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York, 1954 = London, 1955), 81, 83.

  2. For the theosophic-esoteric traditions of the Ashkenazi Hasidim see J. Dan,The Esoteric Theology of Ashkenazi Hasidism [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1968); idem,Jewish Mysticism and Jewish Ethics (Seattle and London, 1986), 45–75.

  3. Scholem,Major Trends, 80–118.

  4. Cf. Scholem,Major Trends, 80; see also M. Awerbuch, “Weltflucht und Lebensverneinung der ‘Frommen Deutschlands,’”Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 60 (1978), 53–93.

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  5. See Baer's “The Religious and Social Tendency of Sefer Hassidim” [in Hebrew],Zion 3 (1938):1–50 = idem, “The Socioreligious Orientation of ‘Sefer Hasidim,’” inBinah (New York, Westport, London, 1989), 57–95.

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  6. See hisPiety and Society. The Jewish Pietists of Medieval Germany (Leiden, 1981).

  7. Piety and Society, 150f. nn. 54 and 57.

  8. Jewish History 1 (1986):7–26.

  9. Jewish History 1 (1986):25 n. 34.

  10. Deut. 14:18 Targum Onkelos:hawarita; Targum Pseudo-Jonathan:hiwwarita; Fragment-Targum:hiwwarta.

  11. Sefer Hasidim. Das Buch der Frommen nach der Rezension in Cod. de Rossi No. 1133. Zum ersten Male herausgegeben und mit Anmerkungen versehen von J. Wistinetzki, Frankfurt a.M.2, 1924, no. 975; cf. also the facsimile edition by I. Marcus,Sefer Hasidim. MS. Parma H 3280 (Jerusalem, 1985), [“Kuntresim.” Texts and Studies, 66–67].

  12. Sefer Hasidim, no. 976.

  13. Sefer Hasidim, no. 978.

  14. See Marcus,Piety and Society, 59ff.; H. Soloveitchik, “Three Themes inSefer Hasidim,”AJS Review 1 (1976):330ff.

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  15. Sefer Hasidim, no. 119; cf. also nos. 118 and 1009.

  16. Major Trends, 92f., 96.

  17. Major Trends, 96.

  18. Sefer Hasidim, no. 975.

  19. Sefer Hasidim, no. 977.

  20. Major Trends, 92f.

  21. See, e.g.,Sefer Hasidim, no. 1979, to which Scholem (Major Trends, 93 and n. 45) refers in making his case for the altruism of the Hasidim.

  22. Who these “others” were is not our subject here; see Soloveitchik, “Themes,” 351, who argues that the “loss by the old Rhineland aristocracy of the commanding heights of prestige and power” may be one of the reasons for this sharp antagonism between the “disinherited” Pietists and their opponents, the new ruling class. The elitist character of the Pietist movement has also been stressed by Soloveitchik (e.g., p. 356).

  23. For the “elitistic” attitude of the Qumran community see G. Vermes,The Dead Sea Scrolls. Qumran in Perspective (Cleveland, 1978), 87ff.; H. Lichtenberger,Studien zum Menschenbild in Texten der Qumrangemeinde (Göttingen, 1980) [StUNT 15], 212ff.; B. Janowski and H. Lichtenberger, “Enderwartung und Reinheitsidee. Zur eschatologischen Deutung von Reinheit und Sūhne in der Qumrangemeinde,”JJS 34 (1983):31–62; L. H. Schiffman. “Purity and Perfection. Exclusion from the Council of the Community in the Serekh Ha-'Edah,” inBiblical Archaeology Today. Proceedings of the International Congress on Biblical Archaeology, Jerusalem, 1984, Israel Exploration Society, (Jerusalem 1985), 373–89.

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  24. Interwined to the extent that we have become increasingly uncertain what is to be viewed as genuine Merkavah mysticism in the manuscripts of theHekhalot literature and what is actually the work of the Ashkenazi sages in general and the Ashkenazi Hasidim in particular, and thus the result of their own specific adaptation of Merkavah mysticism; see I. Ta-Shema, “The Library of the Ashkenaz Sages in the Eleventh to Twelfth Centuries” [in Hebrew],Kiryath Sefer 60(1985):298–309; P. Schäfer,Hekhalot-Studien (Tübingen, 1988) [TSAJ 19], 3ff.

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  25. P. Schäfer, ed.,Synopse zur Hekhalot-Literatur (Tübingen, 1981) [TSAJ 2], nos. 81–92.

  26. G. A. Wewers, “Die Überlegenheit des Mystikers. Zur Aussage der Gedulla-Hymnen in Hekhalot Rabbati 1, 2–2, 3,”JSJ 17 (1986):3–22.

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  27. Synopse, no. 83; translation according to P. Schäfer, ed., Übersetzung der Hekhalot Literatur II (Tübingen, 1987) [TSAJ 17], 3f.

  28. Synopse, no. 86; translation according toÜbersetzung der Hekhalot-Literatur II, p. 6.

  29. Synopse, no. 85.

  30. Synopse, no. 84.

  31. Synopse, no. 85.

  32. Synopse, no. 91.

  33. See my “Aim and Purpose of Early Jewish Mysticism,” inHekhalot-Studien, 292f. (=Gershom Scholem Reconsidered: The Aim and Purpose of Early Jewish Mysticism, Twelfth Sacks Lecture [Oxford, 1986]).

  34. Synopse, no. 86.

  35. Major Trends, 89.

  36. Sefer Hasidim, no. 630.

  37. b San 98a.

  38. It is, of course, an exaggeration to conclude from this thatSefer Hasidim completely denies the traditional messianic expectation; there are enough traditional elements in the book to prove the contrary (see Scholem,Major Trends, 88ff.). However, this story and the individualistic ideal of salvation as a whole point to a strong anti-eschatological bias.

  39. Sefer Hasidim, no. 978; cf. also no. 980.

  40. Sefer Hasidim, no. 984.

  41. Sefer Hasidim, no. 986; cf. also no. 980.

  42. Major Trends, 92.

  43. Major Trends, 96.

  44. Sefer Hasidim, no. 984; cf. the story of the four rabbis who entered (nikhnesu) thepardes: Synopse, no. 338f., 344., 671f., and Schäfer,Hekhalot Studien, 238 ff. It is mentioned also in the Talmud (b Hag 14b; cf. also t Hag 2, 3–4; y Hag 2, 1, fol. 77b), but this confirms the inner Jewish line of development from Rabbinic literature viaHekhalot literature to the Ashkenazi Hasidim.

  45. m Hag 2, 1.

  46. Sefer Hasidim, no. 984.

  47. Synopse, nos. 81–92.

  48. Synopse, no. 314.

  49. P. Schäfer, ed.,Geniza-Fragmente zur Hekhalot-Literatur (Tübingen, 1984) [TSAJ 6], 165 (fol. la, 11–14).

  50. m Av 1, 5.

  51. Synopse, no. 507.

  52. Sefer Hasidim, no. 984, see above. In referring to “his wife,”Sefer Hasidim is probably alluding to the anonymous Baraita in m Av 1, 5: “Do not cultivate frequent conversation with a woman —they said this of a man's own wife.”

  53. Synopse, no. 623, MS New York 8128.

  54. No. 986.

  55. E.g., nos. 978, 980.

  56. E.g., nos. 980, 981, 119.

  57. E.g., no. 815.

  58. Synopse, no. 199; cf. N. A. van Uchelen, “Ethical Terminology in Heykhalot Texts,” in J. W. van Henten et al., eds.,Tradition and Re-interpretation in Jewish and Early Christian Literature. Essays in Honour of J. C. H. Lebram (Leiden, 1986), 254ff.

  59. For the seven Noachidic commandments, see, e.g., b San 56a (end) andEJ 12, s.v. “Noachide Laws.”Sefer Hasidim, no. 815, mentions the three commandments of idolatry, lewdness, and bloodshed, which frequently represent the seven “commandments of the sons of Noah” as a whole; see M. Kadushin, “Introduction to Rabbinic Ethics,” inJehezkel Kaufmann Jubilee Volume. Studies on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday (Jerusalem, 1968), 96.

  60. Major Trends, 92.

  61. Sefer Hasidim, no. 978.

  62. Synopse, no. 507.

  63. Synopse, no. 94; cf. also nos. 154, 687;Geniza-Fragmente, 185 (fol. la, 35).

  64. Synopse, no. 199; see above.

  65. Synopse, no. 234.

  66. Synopse, no. 248.

  67. Sefer Hasidim, no. 1556.

  68. The Hasid even competes with the Suffering Messiah; cf., e.g.,Sefer Hasidim, no. 975, where the image of the Hasid is apparently influenced by the Servant of the Lord of Isaiah (Isa. 42:1ff., 50:6, 53:3ff., and especially 53:7).

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  1. Institute für Judaistik, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany

    Peter Schäfer

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This article is the revised version of a lecture given at the Third Congress of the European Association of Jewish Studies, held in Berlin, July 26–31, 1987. I thank Israel Yuval for commenting on the first German draft, and Kenneth Stow, Sarah Gluck, and Aubrey Pomerance for their efforts in shaping and improving the English translation.

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Schäfer, P. The ideal of piety of the Ashkenazi Hasidim and its roots in Jewish tradition. Jew History 4, 9–23 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01668648

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