Letter from Boston: How Hasidism Went Astray

The Baal Shem Tov’s world-embracing legacy was turned into a weapon with which to bludgeon anyone who dared deviate, whether in religious practice, educational views or even in style of dress, from the norms of the 18th century.

How Hasidism Went Astray

By Arthur Green • The Forward

For the past half-century, I have been reading and studying the sources of Hasidism with both affection and respect. I have worked as a historian of Hasidic thought and, more recently, as a theologian trying to construct a contemporary Judaism on the basis of Hasidic insights. Like the Hasidic master Pinhas of Korzec, who once thanked God that his soul came into the world after the Zohar was revealed “because the Zohar kept me a Jew,” I know that I owe my own Judaism primarily to the Baal Shem Tov and his followers.

Over this same time period, however, I have looked with growing dismay at contemporary Hasidism and the various positions it has taken on matters of concern to all Jews. The latest, and most ridiculously degrading, incident is the flap about Ashkenazic-Sephardic integration that is convulsing Israel. At the center of the current furor is the ultra-Orthodox Beit Yaakov school in the West Bank town of Immanuel, where mostly Sephardic girls were literally walled and fenced off from the mostly Ashkenazic girls in the school’s Hasidic track, with religious differences offered as the justification.

I laughed and cried when reading that, in order to attend the school’s Hasidic track, Sephardic girls were required to daven, even at home, using the Ashkenazic pronunciation of Hebrew. How many recall that the Hasidim (themselves Ashkenazim) were once fiercely denounced for adopting Sephardic versions of Jewish prayers, then thought to reflect a higher level of sanctity?

What happened to Hasidism? How did a daring and innovative movement for the spiritual regeneration of Judaism turn into a hard core of embittered defenders of a lost past, squabbling constantly among themselves, producing headline-grabbing violators of Jewish ethical norms, and viewing the outside world as entirely defiled and hostile?

To understand how Hasidism went astray, we need to know its history, including some flaws that were present from the outset.

The goal of the Baal Shem Tov’s followers was a Jewish life refocused on such essentials as the love of God, the joy of living out God’s commandments and the faith that divinity was to be found everywhere. The Jew’s task was to seek sparks of holiness throughout creation and to return them to their root, meanwhile celebrating the privilege of this life of holiness. Divinity was to be found in fields and forests, in the letters of the Torah, and in the Jewish heart.

Left out of the equation was the non-Jewish human community in whose midst the Hasidim lived. It is easy to say that Polish and Ukrainian Christianity, filled with anti-Semitic stereotypes, dehumanized the Jew, and we merely returned the favor. But the history is more complex. The view that gentiles are less fully human than Jews, even said to be lacking the divine soul, had ancient roots in kabbalistic tradition. Sadly, that bit of racist Jewish folklore is alive among the Hasidim (and a few others!) even today. Although it should have nothing to do with internal Jewish divisions, since the unity of Jews is also a cardinal principle, we know that the stain of racism is one that tends to spread.

Two other developments that led to the decline and even degeneration of Hasidism can be attributed to decisions made in the course of its history.

The first is dynastic leadership. The idea that a holy man’s charisma could be passed down to sons and grandsons — instead of the obvious, and more inherently Jewish, choice of master-to-disciple — began in a few key families of Hasidic lineage at the turn of the 19th century. The grandsons and great-grandsons of Hasidic tzaddikim quarreled with one another over loyalties, over doctrines, but especially over money. As the numbers of dynastic claimants swelled, the movement came to be seen as characterized by pettiness and increasingly weak and uninspired leadership. While a few great latter-day figures proved exceptions, the rule was that the quality and originality of those at Hasidism’s helm was already in sharp decline over a hundred years ago.

The second development stems from the Hasidic movement’s response to modernity.

When the brash new Hasidic movement first appeared on the stage of history, the rabbinic leadership of Eastern Europe, famously including the Vilna Gaon, was outraged. For 30 years, beginning in 1772, these mitnagdim — Hasidism’s “opponents” — would excommunicate anyone who had anything to do with the Hasidim. But by 1810, the rabbinic leadership began to feel the pressure of a much more dangerous enemy, that of Haskalah, or Jewish enlightenment. The rabbinic leaders then made common cause with the Hasidim to fight modernity.

The Hasidim, anxious to please their one-time persecutors, enthusiastically led the charge. The Baal Shem Tov’s world-embracing legacy was turned into a weapon with which to bludgeon anyone who dared deviate, whether in religious practice, educational views or even in style of dress, from the norms of the 18th century.

This is the Hasidism that got carried forward into succeeding generations. As the struggle became fiercer, especially once it involved governmental pressures, Hasidic anti-modernism turned spiteful, justifying techniques of resistance that are no source of pride.

By the 20th century, the battle was mostly lost, and children of Hasidim by the drove were turning toward various secular Jewish movements, including Zionism. The surviving Hasidic movement then turned toward politics, creating the Agudat Yisrael movement and other bodies that sought to defend the ever-receding turf of Hasidic and ultra-Orthodox domination.

World War I, the terrible pogroms that followed it and Sovietization ravaged Hasidism in Eastern Europe. Hitler did the rest. By 1945 there seemed to be almost nothing left.

Then the most remarkable period of Hasidic history began to unfold. Out of the Holocaust’s ashes, the community began to rebuild itself.

The fiercely anti-Zionist Satmar rebbe, Joel Teitelbaum, re-created a large chunk of pre-war Hungary in Williamsburg and Jerusalem. The surviving Bobover scion, Solomon Halberstam, who had lost nearly all of his following, reached out to surviving Hasidim who had lost their own rebbes to re-build Galicia, first in Crown Heights, then in Boro Park. The Lubavitchers had an active underground network that was keeping some sparks of Torah alive in the Soviet Union. The Lubavitchers — eventually followed by the Bratslavers — reached out, often with some success, to the children of modern Jews. The Gerer and Belzer rebbes, both rescued in the midst of the Holocaust, rebuilt their empires around grand fortresses in Jerusalem, then conquered ever-larger swaths of Israel.

All of this happened with the support of other Jews, very prominently including the government of Israel. We were all deeply moved and impressed by the faith-energy displayed by this old-new Jewish community, committed to reconstituting itself in new and uncomfortable surroundings. Impressive natural increase, in contrast to the rest of us remarkably infertile Jews, helped the postwar Hasidim regain significant numerical representation within world Jewry. Israeli military draft exemption laws worked to create a huge society of largely idle Hasidic males, supposedly full-time Torah students, a phenomenon completely unlike anything in earlier Hasidic history.

With Hasidim accustomed to viewing all outsiders through the lens of Eastern European hostilities, the Hasidism that has emerged is a strange combination of inner-directed love and joy, an inheritance from the movement’s first period; uncompromising and often hysterical degrees of ultra-Orthodox extremism, combined with shrill denunciations of all other Jews, coming from the second era of Hasidic history; and disdain for the non-Jewish world, the legacy of persecutions old and new.

Of course, there are still sparks of holiness to be found among the Hasidim. There are young people at the edges of Hasidism still concerned with the real struggle for avodat Hashem, true worship. But most of the movement is pure imitation and entrenchment in the past. As the Kotzker rebbe taught long ago, a Hasid by dint of imitation is an imitation Hasid.

How shall we who love Hasidism, who still pore over such writings as the “Kedushat Levi” or the “Sefat Emet” to find inspiration, relate to the narrowly exclusivist, self-righteous and intolerant version of Judaism that is one face of contemporary Hasidism? The answer is that we need to rescue the Baal Shem Tov from his latter-day followers. The religion of today’s Hasidim, themselves victims of a tragic and complex history, cannot be allowed to stand as Hasidism’s only legacy.

Rabbi Arthur Green is rector of the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College. He is the author of “Radical Judaism: Rethinking God and Tradition” (Yale University Press).

Comments

[chicagosam]

I personally think that the personal veneratonof the tsadk in all of the early writings of the first Hasidim carried within itself the seeds of its own eventual ruination. In short, the Hasidic program has been one collosal failure.

[Reader]

Americanization of it after the WWII was what finally ruined it.
"Up to now, America has not been a good milieu for the rise of a mass movement. What starts out here as a mass movement ends up as a racket, a cult, or a corporation."
o Frequently misquoted as "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket."
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer

[Reader]

There were no real threats to Orthodox Judaism in the US after the war. Let's face it - it's easier to be an observant Jew in the US than almost anywhere else in the world. I believe this led to even greater isolationism, and various chumrot to replace the genuine Eastern European suffering.

[Bill]

talk about a false premise.

The Golden Age of hassidut is a fiction. They stole, slept with the help, and molested children as early as the movement itself (and perhaps even more so back then).

All that changed was the Internet and the flow of information.

[Abracadabra]

I would think the leadership problem - because it goes by "familly dynasties" is the source of all of the problems. If a Rebbe would be voted in it would be an ever-adapting and ever-growing movement with leaders who have the ability to change the status quo. There is no interest for Chassidic Rebbes to do anything but retain power. Hence the Rebbes who squabble for power (in the secular courts) like the 2 current Bobov Rebbes and the 2 current Satmar Rebbes - it was all just a big fight for power and assets.

With elected leadership, there is a CHANCE for growth and change.

Anyway, Chassidim in the USA and Israel will be the downfall of world Jewery and the cause of the next Holocaust. The Yeshivish will be right there with them, as the Yeshivish are growing more and more similar to the Chassidish - the Roshei Yeshiva inheriting their fathers' yeshivos and it becoming a family power-business, making the dress code that of the 1950's (black fedora hats) the shunning of everything modern, and making "Gedolim" into gods like the Chassidish do with Rebbes.

.......G-d save us from ourselves.

[Nobody]

"Left out of the equation was the non-Jewish human community in whose midst the Hasidim lived. "

Oh please. What a ridiculous notion that THAT is the problem of chasidim.

First question is, why does it have to be something inherent to hasidism as opposed to the people themselves and a culture they've developed? That sssumption which begins his "quest" is not necessarily true, although worth exploring.

But then to blame the hassidic problems on their philosophy not including goyim? Ridiculous. It's a JEWISH philosophy.

This is just another self-flagellation and pathetic begging for the approval of non-Jews that we see with all leftist forms of "Jewish" thought.

I can see the other critisms - ie, dynasty, rebbe-worship, trying to recreate lost Jewish societies of the past and from foreign lands and cultures in the Jewish land today rather than adapting to new situations, etc. But the first argument strikes me as some sort of "guilt-ridden" confession he's making.

[chaim]

nobody-

i disagree with you. i think that green's wording needs work, but the idea of dehumanizing the outsider has a way of drawing its borders ever inward. first it is the outsider, then it is insider-now-outsider. it is a way of thinking that metastasizes quickly... and it is undeniable that dehumanizing of gentiles existed in early hasidic texts (eg. an early chapter in the tanya that refers to gentiles as being of the 3 utterly impure "husks").

[Yochanan Lavie]

One of the main reasons I turned away from kabbalah was the anti-goy stuff. That, and the fact that it strays very far from the pshat of the miqra.

However, there are aspects of chassidut I like: the emphasis on prayer, the stories, the music, and the fact that one doesn't have to be a talmudic scholar to be a good Jew.

I can't abide the dress, the disdain for secular studies, the tzaddik worship, and the goy hatred that chassidut entails, however.

[Jeff Eyges]

Chassidim in the USA and Israel will be the downfall of world Jewery and the cause of the next Holocaust. The Yeshivish will be right there with them

I'm not sure about this (though you may be right), but they will certainly bring about the fall of Orthodoxy. They now outnumber the Modern Orthodox and have taken over the franchise. As their world collapses, they'll be taking all of Orthodoxy with them. The most leftward-leaning factions - such as Avi Weiss and his crowd - may be spared, but only temporarily. There aren't enough of them left to sustain a subculture. There probably aren't even enough to provide a viable gene pool - and they lack the fervor for active proselytizing.

[Jim Lando]

ISO the spiritual center of the post-denominational neo-Hasidism...committed Judaism imbued with modern egalitarian values.

[sifter]

Don't write off Orthodoxy so fast. With all of its problems, movements tend to evolve in order to survive. If their survival is at stake, we may see some revelatory changes down the road.

[Dovy]

They grow exponentially and aere so damned thick-skulled. I have no hope...

[Yosef ben Matitya]

as reader jeff commented @ the forward:
"...I also think Rabbi Green's desire to rescue and rehabilitate Hasidism is misguided. Hasidism as a subculture is unsalvageable ....."
in fact hassidism never signaled any universal light. it did signal hope to those wallowing in the darkness of ignorance that there is hope for salvation to those ignorants in the world to come. racism was a part of hassidism from day one. the besht was about glorifying ignorance, the superiority of the jewish soul as such, vs that of others.

[Jeff Eyges]

"...I also think Rabbi Green's desire to rescue and rehabilitate Hasidism is misguided. Hasidism as a subculture is unsalvageable ....."

Yeah, that was me.

[yaacov]

Art Green is not himself chasidic but neo-chasidic

[Fed Up]

Art Green is not himself chasidic but neo-chasidic

Neo-chasidic, indeed. He certainly did a good job of summarizing how the chasidic movement lost its was since the days of the Baal Shem Tov. However, there is also a rising neo-Chasidic movement which incorporates the spirituality of the early chasidim without the extremism of today's crowd. You can see it in the Carlebach movement and the kabbalah movement. Matisyahu has also gotten into the act: he remains observantly Jewish, but his current music expresses themes of unity and universal spirituality. All these streams of neo-Chasidism have two things in common: they are universally lambasted by the haredi community, and they represent the greatest hope for the survival of our people.

[A E ANDERSON]

The current problem will resolve itself as economic imperatives mean the hasidim can no longer "re-create" but must react and eventually adapt, even passively.

As soon as an Israeli government substantially shuts off the shekel spigot -- and it will probably happen in stages, planned or out of necessity -- the haredim will have to accommodate the world outside. They will have to earn money to purchase commodities with which to feed themselves and their children, to pay the inevitable private school tuition fees that will have to be imposed when the state says "Enough!" and generally to support the religious apparatus they have erected.

They will take jobs. Sweeping streets. Buying and selling. Whatever it takes, just like anybody else. And, yes, they might do a little rioting, scamming and stealing on the way.

I predict many haredim, or ex-haredim as the case may be, will flock to a number of isolated occupations that require relatively short periods of prior study, but offer potentially remunerative occupational licenses: the various property (real estate) occupations come to mind, as does insurance (sales, adjusting), and the many other broking licenses necessary to work in the commercially aligned occupations. Those less fortunate will likely resort to that age-old Jewish occupation not seen of late, peddling. And there will certainly be lots of schnorring to boot.

Anybody who doubts haredi ingenuity ought remember New York's Diamond District, and the nearby swarm of electronics stores once staffed mostly by haredim.

As to the Lubavitchers, who brilliantly created an international religious empire which is also their primary employer, a saturation point will be reached. Boys coming out of 770 already have to settle for suburbs of suburbs to open Chabad Houses.

Chabad is interesting because within the same religious movement it offers Haredi and Orthodox options: some schools offer full secular high school programs with NYS Regents exams; others nix these entirely.

At the same time, we have already seen Habad's womens schools offer a full BA in Israel. Many graduates of Habad's New York seminary now go on to Touro College, which has a reputation of accommodating virtually every conceivable haredi humra.

It will be a bit more difficult for the boys, but not as extreme as one might imagine. For the bona fide, diligent rabbinical students, the semicha certificates are already augmented by degrees accredited by the Association of Advanced Rabbinic and Talmudic Schools (AARTS) which is authorised by the US Department of Education to accredit (Orthodox) rabbinic and talmudic programs of a post-secondary character. Equivalent or superior to typical liberal arts degrees, these qualifications at least offer a middle class running start.

That leaves us with the Haredi Eruv Rav, the hangers on, those on the margins, the yeshiva students who don't study. De-funding these haredim would then have the positive effect of cleaning up the haredi world by making it more efficient, productive and of better service to its legitimate core constituencies and to the Toyrah and mitsvoys they so adore.

[Jeff Eyges]

The current problem will resolve itself as economic imperatives mean the hasidim can no longer "re-create" but must react and eventually adapt, even passively.

I don't want them to adapt and survive; I want them to go away - and they can take the evangelicals and Islamic fundamentalists with them.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

and they can take the evangelicals and Islamic fundamentalists with them.

cool, reb jeff!

[Cheskel]

"talk about a false premise.

The Golden Age of hassidut is a fiction. They stole, slept with the help, and molested children as early as the movement itself (and perhaps even more so back then).

All that changed was the Internet and the flow of information.

Posted by: Bill | June 24, 2010 at 05:13 AM ""

What a filthy person you are.

[One]

I would think the leadership problem - because it goes by "familly dynasties" is the source of all of the problems. If a Rebbe would be voted in it would be an ever-adapting and ever-growing movement with leaders who have the ability to change the status quo. There is no interest for Chassidic Rebbes to do anything but retain power. Hence the Rebbes who squabble for power (in the secular courts) like the 2 current Bobov Rebbes and the 2 current Satmar Rebbes - it was all just a big fight for power and assets.

With elected leadership, there is a CHANCE for growth and change.

Anyway, Chassidim in the USA and Israel will be the downfall of world Jewery and the cause of the next Holocaust. The Yeshivish will be right there with them, as the Yeshivish are growing more and more similar to the Chassidish - the Roshei Yeshiva inheriting their fathers' yeshivos and it becoming a family power-business, making the dress code that of the 1950's (black fedora hats) the shunning of everything modern, and making "Gedolim" into gods like the Chassidish do with Rebbes.

.......G-d save us from ourselves.

Posted by: Abracadabra | June 24, 2010 at 05:44 AM

This actually shows that people to vote for the next leader, otherwise there would be only one.

[NotHarold]

If your son marries a girl from a Hasidic family the Jewish thing to do is to sit shiva for that son.

[Yonah]

Chicago sam is right. There's a lot that's very, very beautiful about Chassidut, but things like tzaddik worship kind of killed it from the start. Yet, probably the best idea chassidut ever had was the story of the lamed vav tzaddikim. People just can't keep in mind that the whole point is that they're hidden, not sitting court. I suspect the homeless Russian guy who somehow keeps feeding the cats of Jerusalem.

Also, DUDES, I saw the Chareidi Brokeback Mountain (Eyes Wide Open) which was advertised here. Very depressing, but not bad! However, to steal a joke someone else made from that thread, it does show shockingly graphic scenes of Chareidim cv"s going to work.

[ej]

Rabbi Green says today most chasidim are imitation chasidim, and “we” need to rescue the Baal Shem Tov from his current followers. That remark is needlessly provocative and insulting. It is just wonderful that Arthur Green would like to create a new type of American chasidus, without the xenophobia of traditional chasidim. Kol hakavod as the Israelis say. When he gets to 25,000 “haiyse” new chasidim, he should let the rest of us know. Until then it’s mostly a Jewish Renewal dream. And that’s also good, one Jew,a minyan Jews, a chavura, a permanent denomination all good. But until he can show that his reading of chasidus has some staying power, and can amount to more than studies, lectures and retreats, it’s really not cricket to rain on everyone’s parade. Today, any one of the groups he dissed,Satmar,Bobov, Lubavitch, Belz and Ger are more substantive in so many different ways than the entire Jewish Renewal movement. There is no reason for a sophisticated Jewish Renewal to copy those who would define themselves by what they are not.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

renewal is fine, but if he is modeling it after the sorcerer they call besht, what good is mr green and his renewal?
the torah was very clear on mekhasefim and meonenim.

[Abracadabra]

There was a time when I really liked some of the more spiritual teachings and philosophies of Chassidus. The idea that holiness can be found anywhere is one of them. The rest of the Chareidi/Litvish/Orthodox do not believe this. Chassidus (the teachings, not how it is practiced nowadays) teaches that G-dliness and holiness is everywhere, not just in the Beis Medrash. It started with the ignorant and semi-ignorant poor farmers who were the "lower" class frum, who were told by the "higher" class frum (the yeshiva scholars who were supported by the wealthy Jews) that they were spiritually void of any holiness because they work in the fields doing all forms of mundane fieldwork all day. Chassidus said "You can be holy and serve G-d WHILE working in the fields! Holiness and G-dliness can be found in the mundane and in everything. You don't have to be in the beis medrash all day to be a good Jew or to serve Hashem."

Philosophically that was a HUGE leap and one of the reasons the Vilna Gaon faught the movement. (Another was because they were duped not long before that by Shabsai Tzvi, and all new movements were suspect, especially one that elevated a leader so much!)

On a practical level, what this means to a contemporary Jew, is that if a good Rock & Roll song makes your heart sing, lifts your spirits, and inspires you - it is something HOLY. You can then daven better, be inspired to do a mitzvah, etc - and THAT is a HOLY inspiration, even though it came from a seemingly unholy place. The philosophy maintains that if G-d is everywhere, even in the most mundane and unholy places, then everything can be used for holy purposes, and used to serve G-d. The Yeshivish/Litvish/Vilna-Gaon philosophy (the only one at the time the Besht came along) was that Holiness and G-dliness can ONLY come from a holy and G-dly source - such as Torah, Beis Medrash, Yeshiva, Tefila, etc. And if you hear a Rock & Roll song and it inspires you - FEH! (aka: Yuck! Unholy!) It is unholy because its source is unholy, and the inspiration is then worthless, and you should do teshuva immediately for being moved by something whose source is unholy.

So, I liked that Chassidic philosophy. It resonated with me. An outgrowth of that idea was the singing and dancing on Shabbos. Did you know that the Litvish/Yeshivish say that dancing is NOT ALLOWED on Shabbos?! (They say it is assur!) So, Chassidic philosophy has much more of a chilled-out philosophical/theological approach in certain ways. The teachings also stress a focus on positive reinforcement, instead of mussar. It's the difference between:

"Here is an opportunity to do a mitzvah and bring more G-dliness and holiness into the world"

VS

"If you don't do this mitzvah you're going to burn in hell".

It's sad that a movement that had all these positive philosophies ran amok in it's practical application of them in so many fundamental ways. I would think that that is what Arthur Green is also talking about.

I'd like to see a Modern Orthodox version of those positive aspects of Chassidism - without the dress, tzadik-worship, shunning of change, and disparagement of the goiy or the "other" - but WITH the much more positive philosophies incorporated into everyday life.

Those philosophies are much more sustaining and inspiring than the current (and old) Orthodox/Litvish/Yeshivish philosophy and approach to religious observance.

Anyone here care to start a new movement?

[Dr. Dave]

Did you know that the Litvish/Yeshivish say that dancing is NOT ALLOWED on Shabbos?! (They say it is assur!)

Actually the Mishna in Beiah (Beitza) says that it is forbidden:

THE FOLLOWING ACTS ARE CULPABLE AS A SHEBUTH (rabbinical decree): ONE MAY NOT CLIMB A TREE, NOR RIDE A BEAST, NOR SWIM IN WATER, NOR CLAP THE HANDS, NOR SLAP [THE THIGHS], NOR DANCE.
ALL THESE THINGS THEY [THE RABBIS] PRESCRIBED [AS CULPABLE] ON A FESTIVAL, HOW MUCH MORE [ARE THEY CULPABLE] ON SABBATH.

[PishPosh]

Since we only know second or maybe its even third hand information about the Besht, I can accept that he was a simple person, a frum person without his being a zealot.

If you ask me to define what mysticism is, I can tell you, but I couldn't give you the feeling anymore then if you told me that you got married, I can only imagine your joy or having your first child. I know my feeling and experience but I can never truly present it in a way that your brain could mimic the pheromones and adrenaline that racked my system during that experience let alone my neshama . Its my experience with things unexplainable, but yet not illogical or disturbing but something to meditate about.

I dont think its the Beshts fault that Rabbinic Fan clubs sprung up. That suddenly everyone who has an opinion or speech to make about Chassidut is ergo worthy of the title Chasid. I think one that one must be a Chasid on his own terms, be a bit of a hermit at times like the Besht, must create joy in and for himself.In this way by example he can spark the same desire in others without preaching. Without joing Rabbinic fan clubs.

Where all the Rabbis self serving power hungry gurus? no, I dont think the Berditchev was or the Kotzker, but most of them saw a way to make a name for themselves and they took it.

Its our fault these dynastys sprung up. Starting with the Resh Geluta and all the Babylonian and Pumbeditha power struggles, it only became natural that the teachings of the Besht became fodder for self seekers and aspirants to sainthood with as many followers as they could get. Wonder Working miracle stories became fodder for us yokels to laugh at these bozos. I think the call of the Besht was for all of us to wake up and start thinking a little harder about many things we dont think about on the whole.

[Jeff Eyges]

Actually the Mishna in Beiah (Beitza) says that it is forbidden

Which demonstrates that Rabbinic Judaism was a miserable thing long before the Besht showed up on the scene.

[Abracadabra]

Which demonstrates that Rabbinic Judaism was a miserable thing long before the Besht showed up on the scene.

I couldn't agree more! We need to start a non-Rabbinic form of Modern Torah Observance of some sort, maybe even similar to Modern Orthodoxy but with a little more of the Chassidic philosophies I wrote about above. Anyone else here interested?

Jeff?

[Jeff Eyges]

Thanks, but I'm afraid not. I've become the stereotypical angry atheist, and if God does exist, he's a shit and I want nothing to do with him. Harold and the evangelicals are welcome to him; they deserve one another.

[Oych Mir A Meinung]

I grew up chasidic satmar. we were brainwashed in hating everyone else, even or esp. other chasidim belzer, klausenburger, skverer, bobover and above all ZIONISM ('they made the holocaust; worse than hitler') any wonder we are fighting like crazy and making biggest chilull hashems?

[EX]

Oych: Thank you for your insightful note. Just terrible.

Jeff: The problem with rabbinic Judaism is the issue of centralized power of individual men over their followers. I don't think it has anything to do with G-d. For that matter, I don't think Halacha has anything to do with G-d.

Abracadabdra: I appreciate your idealism. Hatzlachah.

[Abracadabra]

Ex,

I'm not THAT idealistic - but I used to be once upon a time. Recently, I've come closer to becoming what Jeff called an "angry athiest" - or maybe an "angry agnostic" or an "angry doubter". But I'm a two-faced one, in that I still am observant. I'm stuck in the Orthodox world with all my family, friends, social support, and world built within and around Orthodoxy, not to mention my identity. Changing all of that at middle age is not a simple task. I wish I had come to this place 20-25 years ago. Well, you know what they say about wishes...

[Abracadabra]

Oych -

I didn't know that Satmar brainwashes their kids to hate OTHER CHASSIDIM!! I mean, I knew they were against Lubavitch, but against Belzer, Bobover, Skverer!?!?

Yes - it is no wonder then that Satmar is causing so much Chillul Hashem....

And do they REALLY say that Zionism CAUSED the Holocaust??????? Oiy!! Pathetic.

I'd retort that THEY caused the Holocaust, but they were too irrelevant before the Holocaust to have caused anything!!

[Jeff Eyges]

Ab - I'm 53 now, and while I was never frum, I've spent the entirety of my adult life studying the various world religions. Unfortunately, I got absolutely nothing out of them. I finally walked away largely convinced there's nothing there. Also, as I said, I'm the angry atheist now; if there's a personal being, it's beneath contempt, and if it's an impersonal absolute - so? It can't do anything to mitigate human suffering, and I have no ability to "connect" to it in any way - so what can it do for me? (Cue the frummies telling me how selfish my attitude is, that it's my obligation to serve it regardless, in 3, 2, 1...)

In any case, it's much easier for me to walk away, as I have no social support structure tied to any of it. Frankly, I can't stand people of faith at this point; I've driven pretty much all of the remaining few from my life. I've come to see faith as the most selfish thing in the world - as long as they get the existential security blanket, that's all that matters. Everyone else can literally and metaphorically go to hell.

Re: the Satmars - my nephew in Chabad has told me they were never actually Hasidim. He said they arrived here at the same time as the other groups, and were dressed similarly, so everyone took them for Hasidim, and they began considering themselves as such. He said that until recently, their rebbes produced no Hasidic literature, and they weren't even called rebbes - the title was "HaRov Satmar". Of course, there's been a lot of bad blood between Satmar and Chabad, and my nephew is a brainwashed BT who believes whatever the hell they tell him, so who knows? I'm certainly not interested enough to investigate it.

[flailed]

Excellent article.
1...I want to hear more. How does he propose to “…rescue the Baal Shem Tov?” Is he suggesting a new movement, or just learning and clarification of his ideology?
2...“Anti-modernism” What a farce. Use new and improved scams to obtain Paris fashions, latest model cars,interior decorators, hi tech everything. But stick a dead animal on your head and rationalize your dark age perspectives
3...Abracadabra. Dig up that magic wand. We need help.