In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

1 Asceticism, Pietism, and Perishut The Approach of Hasidei Ashkenaz The German Pietists combined their interest in esoteric studies with an extensive program of pietistic behaviors and outlooks. These included manifestations of asceticism and perishut such as acts of self-denial (beyond those observances mandated byJewish law), the professing of extreme humility bordering on self-humiliation, and sustained or pronounced stringency in ritual matters.1 In order to identify and evaluate properly the presence of ascetic and pietistic practices within the larger rabbinic culture of medieval 1 See, e.g., Yitzhak Baer, "Ha-Megammah ha-Datit/ha-Hevratit shel Sefer Hasidim," Zion 3 (1937): 1-50, esp. 6-7; Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (Jerusalem, 19543 ), 92; Yosef Dan, Sifrut ha-Musar veha-Derush (Jerusalem, 1975), 6265 ; Haym Soloveitchik, "Three Themes in the SeferHasidim" AJS Review 1 (1976):31820 , 329-37, 352-54; Ivan Marcus, Piety and Society (Leiden, 1981), 11, 34; Daniel Sperber, Minhagei Yisra^el 1 (Jerusalem, 1989), 194-97, Minhagei Yisra'eX 2 (Jerusalem, 1991), 106-7; and Israel Ta-Shma, Halakhah, Minhag u-Mez?ut (Jerusalem, 1996), 16063 , 249-50. Scholem lists "ascetic renunciation of the things of this world" as one of the "three things above all others [that] go to make the true Hasid." Of course, the tiqqunei teshuvah (penances) of the German Pietists were also suffused with a large measure of asceticism. See Baer, 18-20; Scholem, 105-6; Asher Rubin, "The Concept of Repentance Among Hasidey Ashkenaz,"Journal ofJewish Studies 16 (1965): 161-76; Dan, 133; idem, "Le-Toledot Torat ha-Teshuvah shel Hasidut Ashkenaz," Yovel Orot, ed. B. Ish Shalom and S. Rosenberg (Jerusalem, 1985), 221-28; Marcus, 124-28; Sperber, 1:128-32; Shimon Shokek, Ha-Teshuvah be-Sifrut ha-Musar ha-Ivrit, be-Filosofyah ha-Yehudit uva-Qabbalah (Lewiston, 1995), 64-70; Talya Fishman, "The Penitential System of 33 CHAPTER 1 Ashkenaz, it is worthwhile to assess briefly the scope and intent of these practices in the thought of Hasidei Ashkenaz. Stringency, self-denial, and even self-affliction were cultivated and valued by the German Pietists not as ends unto themselves, but as means of fulfilling the hidden Will of God, securing atonement, or achieving future rewards: "for according to what one enjoys in this world, one loses reward in the world to come."2 Passages in Sefer Hasidim recommend regular fasting and other forms of personal asceticism not only as part of the German Pietists' penitential system—i.e., as a response to sins that have already been committed—but also as a means of avoiding sin and enhancing an individual's devotion by recognizing his debt to his Creator.3 R. Judah he-Hasid himself fasted regularly Hasidei Ashkenaz and the Problem of Cultural Boundaries," Journal ofJewish Thought and Philosophy (forthcoming). Several of these studies discuss the impact of Christian penitential practices on the penances prescribed by the Pietists. See also M.-D. Chenu, Nature, Man, and Society in the Twelfth Century, ed. Jerome Taylor and Lester Little (Chicago, 1968), 204-13; and I. Ta-Shma, Ha-Sifrut ha-Parshanit la-Talmud, vol. 1 (Jerusalem, 1999), 95-96. Paragraph 1661 (p. 400) in SeferHasidim, ed. Jehuda Wistinetzki (Frankfurt, 1924) [based on ms. Parma (De Rossi) 1131, referred to hereafter as SHP]—which appears as part of a unit entitled mwnsn miTOl rwnw W& ]KD m—asserts that in cases where rabbinic opinions differ, it is best to follow the stringent position in situations where no economic loss is involved, even if the halakhah can be legitimately decided in favor of the more lenient position. See below, ch. 2, n. 59. 2 SHP para. 277 (p. 89), and cf. para. 15 (p. 15). See also SeferHasidim, ed. Reuven Margoliot (Jerusalem, 1957) [based on the edition published in Bologna (1538), referred to hereafter as SHB], para. 89 (rariKi ,tpjfr nrmtti zbb "»iaa n^ii/n ]» ^n n n u nbw), 97 (=SHP 280): nn "in"P rum K^W inb my irm UV n^niK vbv r a y xbw ntn n^iyn. [Cf. the formulations of Rabbenu Yonah, below, n. 90.] On the nature and provenance of the penitential material in the first unit of SHB (sees. 1-152), see Ivan Marcus, "The Recensions and Structure of Sefer Hasidim," Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 45 (1978): 137, 15253 , and cf. Yehudah Galinsky, "Rabbenu Mosheh mi-Coucy ke-Hasid, Darshan u-Folmosan: Hebbetim me~c Olamo ha-Mahshavti u-Fec iluto ha-Zibburit," (M.A. thesis...

Share