Spiritual Masters of the World's Religions

1. Jewish Spiritual Masters

55 1 Jewish Spiritual Masters Harold Kasimow And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. —Exodus 19:6 Ye shall be holy; for I the Lord Your God am holy. —Leviticus 19:2 Introduction When I recently told a rabbi that I was writing an essay on Jewish saints, he was somewhat puzzled. I am not surprised. When Jews think about saints, they usually think of Christianity. They think of the Catholic process of beatification and canonization by which the Church declares a person to be a saint. In Judaism there is no official religious body that can recognize someone as a saint. But there are 56 Harold Kasimow saints in the Jewish tradition. When a person lives a holy, pious life, the Jewish community may come to recognize that human being as a saint. In the Jewish tradition a saint, or a spiritual master, may be called a talmid ḥakham (disciple of the wise), tzaddik (righteous person), or ḥasid (pious person). There are also other terms for the spiritually elite in the Jewish tradition, such as gaʾon (genius) and gadol ḥador (Torah leader of the generation). But how does Judaism define a saint? I would define a saint as a person who views Imitatio Dei as the ultimate purpose of life,1 and who is totally committed to the following two commandments from the Torah: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Dt 6:4) and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Lv 19:17).2 The test of a holy life is the willingness to give up one’s life for the sake of the commandments. Saints are always ready to die for God. Because the Jewish tradition places such a strong emphasis on study, on the mind, the Jewish saint will most likely come from the ranks of the talmid ḥakhamim, a sage who has mastered the Torah in an astonishing way and attained great stature in the community.3 Classical Judaism sees such a person as the ideal because the Torah is believed to be the word of God and study of the Torah is seen as “holiness in words.” Study, it is said, not only leads to paradise; it itself is paradise. By studying the Torah we can discern the will of God and fulfill all the mitzvot (commandments).4 The person who submits to God’s will and fulfills both the ritual mitzvot and the ethical mitzvot becomes holy. The Jewish tradition sees Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon of Vilna (1720–1797), who is known as the Vilna Gaon and who studied Torah eighteen hours a day, as the ideal spiritual master in the Jewish tradition . He was known as ha-Gaʾon he-Ḥasid.5 However, some Jews who are not great scholars may also be considered saints. They may be recognized as saints because of their intense love of God or their humility or because they may be blessed with divine inspiration, which gives them special power to influence God. The greatest challenge to the classical conception of a Jewish saint was the Baal Shem Tov (1700–1760), the founder of the Ḥasidic movement, who did not come from the ranks of the talmid ḥakhamim and was not known for his extraordinary knowledge of the Torah. The Baal Shem Tov gave greater emphasis to the heart than to the mind. He himself was a teacher of small children and a laborer who spent a great deal of time meditating in the forest rather than in the study hall. For the Baal Shem Tov, prayer with concentration, with joy, with ecstasy was a better way to cleave to God than study of the Torah. 57 Jewish Spiritual Masters The Baal Shem Tov was viewed by his followers as the ideal saint, the ideal master, the great tzaddik. His followers began to emphasize the doctrine of the tzaddik, whom they saw as an intermediary between themselves and God. According to the doctrine of the tzaddik, if we want to become attached to God we must attach ourselves to the tzaddik, whose thoughts are entirely God-centered. According to Louis Jacobs, the Ḥasidic master Elimelech of Lizensk (1717–1787) claimed that the tzaddik “brings man near to God and he brings down God’s grace from heaven to earth.”6 We should not be...