A Heart Afire: stories and teachings of the early Hasidic masters

Notes

Notes INTRODUCTION 1. In the summer of 2005, I made a trip to the Ukraine with my youngest son, Yotam, with whom I visited the graves of numerous Rebbes. —Z.M.S-S. 2. I have pursued this theme in “Neo-Hasidism and Reconstructionism: A Not-Only Imaginary Dialogue,” Paradigm Shift: From the Jewish Renewal Teachings of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, 127–33. —Z.M.S.-S. 3. This applies to our respective students and colleagues, Manuel Goldmann, a Christian Evangelische Pfarrer in Germany, and Thomas Atum O’Kane, a Sufi Murshid in the lineage of Hazrat Inayat Khan, who leads spiritual guidance programs around the United States and Europe. 4. I too was guilty of treating Neo-Hasidism as such. See Zalman M. Schachter, “Forward” to Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov: A Monograph on the Life and Teachings of the Founder of Chassidism, 9–11; and Zalman M. Schachter, “Hasidism and Neo-Hasidism.” —Z.M.S.-S. 5. See Salomon Maimon, Lebensgeschichte: Mit einer Einleitung und mit Anmerkungen / neu hrsg. von Jakob Fromer. 6. The Hasidim ha-Rishonim (“the first pious ones”) are referred to in the Mishnah (Berakhot 5:1) and may be related in spirit if not in lineage to the Dead Sea community at Qumran. The Hasidei Ashkenaz lived in 12th- and 13th-century Germany and were led by Yehudah the Hasid of Regensburg (d. 1217) and Eleazar of Worms (d. 1230). 7. The term “turnings” is borrowed from Vajrayana Buddhism, which speaks of “three turnings of the Wheel of Dharma.” These refer to three successive evolutionary stages of Buddhist teaching through the centuries, emphasizing a greater and greater integration of life and spiritual practice. 8. Martin Buber’s first book, The Legend of the Baal-Shem, was published in 1907. 9. There is some evidence that this was the case in the Ba’al Shem Tov’s time as well. The Ba’al Shem Tov has become the symbol of Hasidism for us today, but it is well known that the Ba’al Shem Tov had many colleagues who were not disciples. It is very likely that each of them, in their own way, was participating in a Zeitgeist that desired a renewal of the spirit in their time. See Abraham J. Heschel, The Circle of the Baal Shem Tov: Studies in Hasidism. 339 10. This, of course, is a great oversimplification of a partly academic dispute having to do with determining authoritative sources for the proper interpretation of Hasidism’s relationship to Jewish mysticism. Nevertheless, the basic thrust of the argument is consistent with how we have framed it here. 11. See Martin Buber, “Replies to My Critics,” in The Philosophy of Martin Buber, ed. Paul Arthur Schlipp and Maurice Friedman, 731–41; and Maurice Friedman, Martin Buber’s Life and Work: The Later Years, 1945–1965, 280–99. 12. See Gershom Scholem, “Martin Buber’s Interpretation of Hasidism,” in The Messianic Idea in Judaism, 228–50. 13. For a different version, see Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim: The Early Masters, 222 (“The Drayman”). 14. Levi Yitzhak ben Meir of Berditchev, Kedushat Levi, 316. 15. Elie Wiesel’s grandfather Dodye Feig; see Elie Wiesel, Souls on Fire: Portraits and Legends of Hasidic Masters, 7. 16. It should be noted that it was Arthur Green who once pointed out: “The controversy between Buber and Scholem as to the historical worthiness of the Hasidic tales could best be tested out around the figure of Levi Yizhak”; see his Tormented Master: A Life of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav, 123–24, n. 2. 17. Still other aspects of the Rebbe’s life that might round out his distinctiveness for the Hasid would be the style of the Rebbe’s davenen, the unique flavor of the niggunim (melodies) he composed, or the manner of the tish (table) the Rebbe conducted. 18. There is no better example of this phenomenon than the Hasidic writings of Elie Wiesel; see the bibliography. 19. Sources that might be seen as non-kosher include teachings from psychology and other religions. The “enemy camp,” according to traditional Hasidism, refers to the mitnagdim (the Orthodox opponents of Hasidism) and the maskilim (members of the Jewish Enlightenment movement). 20. I once heard the Bobover Rebbe, Reb Shlomo Halberstam, say, “When a person comes to see me dressed in his Shabbat clothes, I can’t help him very much; I want to see what he looks like during the week.” —Z.M.S.-S. 21. Tanna de...