An Introduction:
Over two centuries ago, a young man walked out of the forest, revealed himself to be a divine healer, teacher and master. He spent his life wandering, teaching, healing bodies and souls, regularly communicating with the upper realms including some encounter with Messiah himself.
The mysterious young Baal Shem Tov had a tremendous effect on laymen and scholars alike. Some of those came to revere him enough to abandon all and hang around with him. they considered his teachings revolutionary and set out to spread his message.
It took the traditional Jewish world by storm, they too saw it as dangerously revolutionary. Only they were late- the Besht peacefully passed on in 1760. The Besht passed on but his teachings continued to inspire, excite and change people. It spread like wildfire, and -in some places- communities, towns, villages now considered themselves "Chassidim". They were met with all the power and might of the Rabbinate, who had the new movement and its followers- excommunicated.
While we, the Chassidim, won the battle (having successfully taken over the Jewish world, to the extent that "Chassidus" now represents mainstream Judaism), the war was not won yet; few even amongst Chassidim know what was the Besht's contribution to life in general and Judaism in particular. the year of the Beshtian revelation "hisgalus" occurred in 1734. nearly 3 centuries later, the borders of traditional Judaism and of the "new" Chassidic teaching- have become increasingly blurry.
Thinking about the first generation Chassidim, one simply cannot help but wonder; what was so dangerously revolutionary about the Besht teachings that had so many Jews put their lives on the line for it (- Chassidim to preserve it, others to try and make it go away)? what made them give up material possessions and earthly pleasure just to get another glimpse, another teaching from their beloved master? Can the these teachings, that have intoxicated so many, possibly have something soothing for us?
With your permission I would like to use this blog as a platform to clarify, resurrect and study the Besht's teachings. I intend to do so by using first-hand materiel (writings of the holy Besht and what his disciples quote in his name). I will try, and i hope that you will assist, in bringing the Besht and his teachings back to life, raw, unfiltered and pure.
Only first generation materiel will be used, focusing strictly on teachings specifically given over in the name of the Baal Shem Tov and only by those who personally knew the Besht. I think it would be a great idea to re-examine the following books:
(All of them can be studied in the first print online, i will post the URLs so you can get a look at them first hand)
Toldos Yaakov Yosef, Koretz, 1780 http://aleph500.huji.ac.il/nnl/dig/books/bk001845343.html.
Kavonas Ha'Mikveh (and commentary to Psalms 107) of the Besht, Koretz?, 1780? (anyone have any more info?) http://aleph500.huji.ac.il/nnl/dig/books/bk001745684.html
Magid Devorov Le'Yaakov, Koretz, 1781 http://aleph500.huji.ac.il/nnl/dig/books/bk001870067.html
Ben Poyras Yosef, Koretz, 1781 http://aleph500.huji.ac.il/nnl/dig/books/bk001124890.html
Zofnas Paaneach, Koretz, 1782 http://aleph500.huji.ac.il/nnl/dig/books/bk001124891.html
Degel Machneh Efraim, Koretz, 1810 http://hebrewbooks.org/23525
Perhaps we will also get to examine the Shivchei H'Besht, but enough for now. Let us actually get started!
Stay tuned! I sincerely hope that we all enjoy the coming journey!
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Whoa, beautifully written stuff here. A little less obsfucated then the prveious heavy stuff written here, I'd venture.
ReplyDeleteWhich leads me to the issue raised by a few commenters here. Why delve in these abstruse (if not archaic) concepts and philosophies? Shouldnt we work on a philosphy of LIFE, rather than 'how many angels rest on the head of a pin'? Then again, maybe it's just me.
In the same vein on a much lesser scale, I would urge caution in your Herculian undertaking. Let's not get carried away too far with all the underlying theories and philosphies of the Besht. Let's study it as a philosophy of life. Let's get some Eitz Hachaim going.
Again let me express my joy and, more importantly, my anticipation for the stuff you write. I won't be able to really contribute here as my knowledge base is limited. But as the quintessential Litvak told God; You say a Sevoroh and I'll Shlog it Op.
Luckily, the Besht lived fully. In my opinion, his teachings are deeply rooted in life (rather than theory), being mostly techniques and meditations for the advanced student of life.
ReplyDeleteIt would seem that only later did the Beshtian disciples attempt to reconcile his teachings with those of Luria (henceforth Ariz"l).
Sometimes they failed to limit the Besht to the Lurian box. The first shtikkaleh in Toldos, one i am currently working on and hope to post soon, is just one little example of this.
soon to come.
Rabbi Dekel,
ReplyDeleteA heady journey lies ahead of us, eh.
I have a few comments to make on your approach, which is probably more appropriate once we will see your Mehalech in action. But being appropriate is not a strong point by us Chasidim, (we will possibly discover why, in this series) so I'll comment now.
We should maybe put some emphasis in seeing what the opponents argued. That can sometimes bring out the Chiddush of Chassidus in bold relief.
Sure, first generation material is important. So we should see the first generation material of the Opponents too. That will bring us back in time to 3 generations ago where the lines between Rabbinate Judaism and Chassidism were very clearly, even antagonistically, defined.
Yet I understand that we will need a lot of nuanced reading in all the texts in order to find the revolutionary thoughts. After all there was an agenda by the Chassidim to claim that they are not inventing anything. A strategy they needed in order to have even a slight chance of success in the rigid traditional culture they were operating in.
Here’s a question (actually I didn’t intend it as a question but while writing it turned into one)
I always assumed that there's probably one underlying principle for chassidus, and that was validated to me by many present day Chassidic Mashpiem. (For whatever that's worth)
The core principle, according to them (somewhat), is, Ein Oid Milvado. God being Bli Gvul is All, there’s no place or thing that is not completely and fully God. All of existence is God, essentially saying that Pirud is also God. The question then arises if Pirud is God why are we fighting Pirud? Isn’t our eternal struggle against evil a struggle against ego centrism?
Yet on the other hand this selfsame concept that everything is God (and hence it follows that it’s ok to be Pirud) obliterates the very notion of Pirud as a complete Pirud. For by its very utterance we say that Pirud is also part of the Whole, so it is not Nifrad.
In our deepest inner sense we cannot agree to pirud only if we see it as not being real Pirud
Then again, what do we really mean by ‘not real Pirud’?
I once studied a Mamar from one the Chabad Rabbis, he claims that we have to live fully in the realm of pirud (if there’s no Pirud we don’t exist) yet realizing and being guided by Achdus.
Now if that means that for all practical purposes we accept Pirud as our way of life, that then seems to fly in the face of any practical consequence of Ein Oid Milvado.
Well well, having the cake and eating it was never touted to be an easy feat.
Recently I came across the following possible solution.
Mind will never have an answer to this question. The answer lies at levels transcending Mind. The only thing we can do to harmonize this seeming contradiction of our very being, is by allowing ourselves to be loosened from the grip of Mind.
So I say we will be working to loosen ourselves of Minds viselike grip. We should put our heart and mind to it and we will succeed, right? Wrong! If we put our mind to fight mind we stay with mind, jumping from the frying pan to the fire, in the process (for we have given chizuk to our goal/will/mind/ego that fights the mind) as Trojan a Horse as ever there was one.
The trick is to simply laugh at the Mind, see clearly that it’s all arbitrary, that all our goals are a part of an arbitrary way of seeing our (and all of) reality. To constantly see how our vision hence our expectation hence our goals and hence our wants is completely arbitrary from the very first and deepest level.
We just see and internalize this idea long enough so that we gently guide ourselves to do things according to this new way of being, no fighting allowed.
That’s how we finally (lose) transcend our mind.
Please excuse all the half baked ideas. This is more a question than an answer. Help me out here guys, please.
the cover-up on things new in chassidus, happens much later. As long as we remain familliar with the Nefesh Ha'Chaim (and the like) the differences stand out.
ReplyDelete"הרב צבי יהודה זצ"ל היה ממליץ ללמוד תניא ובתנאי שיש ללמוד לפני כן את נפש החיים"
We all start off in pirud- the realm of this world: the chassidim (contrary to popular believe they too started) got started in pirud. only they found it to be to small, insignificant and painfull.
they were reaching for a higher ground- a place above all pirud, struggle and suffering. the place existed before they got there, it is known in Zohar and chazal as "almeh d'osi" and "olam haba" respectovly.
but they noticed that while remaining in this world and body- some time would have to be spent in Pirud world, they tried to understand why, how increase achdus moments and how to give over these teachings.
this is as you said an "Herculian undertaking"- the teachings will become more understood, defined and digestable with every toyreh of the besht.
as to your spirit vs. mind solution: there is some of that in chassidus- we do have a touch of Zen. but chassidus still has much use of the mind. as we will, hopefully get to see.