Was The Original Popularity Of Both The Hasidic Movement And Kabbalists Based On Exorcism?

Was "skill" at casting out "spirits" and "dybbuks" the reason for the popularization of anti-rational movements within Judaism?

Allan Nadler writes in Jewish Ideas Daily:

…In late Roman antiquity, the demonic possession of individuals was a belief so widely accepted that the ability to "cast out" was one reason why numbers of Jews in first-century Palestine became convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was their divinely anointed savior. Such casting-out was, indeed, the very first of Jesus' miracles recorded in the Gospels (Mark 1:23-26). While, for almost a millennium after the talmudic era, there are no clearly recorded accounts of either possessions or exorcisms, the belief regained prominence with the rise of the Lurianic school of kabbalah in the mid-16th century.

The kabbalists of Safed developed elaborate theories about the transmigration of souls, both benevolent and malevolent; in dealing with the latter, they touted the expertise of Rabbi Isaac Luria and his disciples in banishing what came to be known as dybbuks—malevolent, "clinging" spirits from the netherworld. It cannot be entirely coincidental that in both Judaism and Catholicism, a formal liturgy for the rite of exorcism began to develop at around the same time. (The Safed kabbalists were mostly descendants of Marranos who had lived as Catholics for generations.).…

A recent book by J. H. Chajes, a scholar of kabbalah, offers a history of dybbuk possessions and exorcisms from the 16th century until the eve of modernity. As Chajes establishes, Isaac Luria's own fame as an expert banisher spawned a cottage industry among itinerant kabbalists that reached its heights in the 18th century. Professional baalei Shem, masters of the Divine name known mostly for healing the ill and the infertile, might also be capable of exorcising spirits from individuals, homes, synagogues, and sometimes entire Jewish villages. Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, was among those renowned for prowess in this area.…

In other words, the majority of haredim are following Jewish versions of witch doctors.

Comments

[Der Nister]

Ooh Eeh Oohh Ah Ah. Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang.

[Aleksandr Sigalov]

In other words, the majority of haredim are following Jewish versions of witch doctors.
This is correct, and even worse today. I just do not understand your point, Shmarya?

[yudel]

Here we have a comment about witch doctors. Gd forbid you ever run into a demon or possession or encounter any kind of dangerous spirit. It is no picnic and without someone who is adept and a spiritual warrior terrible trouble can ensue.

The truth is the age of rationalism produces this vapid notion of spirituality where even the charedim know nothing of possessions, demons, trapped spirits that need help to move on and much more.

Both have great trouble with Gd and the many spiritual worlds beyond the curtain.

But for nearly 50 % of americans they all have experienced some aspect of the power of the paranormal. And of course we can go spit in the face of all the medicine people of our Indian tribal brothers in the Americas and tell them we Jews are just like the white man spiritually.

Confusion is no excuse for ignorance and for not doing further research. Fear of the unknown is also something terrifying to most people. Ignorance is not bliss. It is ignorance.

Do not confuse the fallen degraded charadi world with the Divine Spirit. Do not ever assume that was before was always primitive.

If you do --
not only was the Baal Shem Tov a stupid witch doctor but so too was
Ben Franklin and most of the founding fathers not to mention Isaac Newton and a much longer list. Modern does not mean smarter. It means access to other things further not noted from the past in terms of technology , etc.

And of course Moshe Idel is also a witch doctor too.

[Garnel Ironheart]

This article shows a stunning ignorance of history.
Chasidim's origins and development are thoroughly historically developed. Yes, the "ooga booga" factor played a role in it but it was far from the defining reason. Similarly the kabbalah predates the revealing of the Zohar and many study it in a serious fashion, not for exorcism. This article takes a fringe element of both groups and makes it seem like they're the mainstream.

[Nirc Guy]

Most of the kabbalist were descended from maranos?

[A. Nuran]

Yudel...

The Woo is strong in you. I recommend a good dose of skepticism. James Randi or Martin Gardner might be too strong for you. A lot of the Skeptic blogs are run by women; their evil girl-cooties might damn you to an eternity of angels stabbing you with semen-spears.

So start of with Tim Minchin. Here's one which might be what you need.

[Shmarya]

This article shows a stunning ignorance of history.
Chasidim's origins and development are thoroughly historically developed. Yes, the "ooga booga" factor played a role in it but it was far from the defining reason. Similarly the kabbalah predates the revealing of the Zohar and many study it in a serious fashion, not for exorcism. This article takes a fringe element of both groups and makes it seem like they're the mainstream.

You can hardly call the Ari or the Ba'al Shem Tov "fringe elements."

[IH]

As late at the 16th century, the occult played a significant role in "science".

Anyone interested should read "Kabbalah, Magic, and Science: The Cultural Universe of a Sixteenth-Century Jewish Physician" by David E. Ruderman. Harvard Press 1988. Selections available on Google books.

Ruderman writes, in his introduction, "There is as yet no modern work of scholarship on the meeting of Jewish thought and early modern science. This book represents a small part of such a larger undertaking, now in progress. It offers a comparative view of the interplay of the religious and magical with the scientific proclivities of the age, using specific texts and context of an individual embedded in the Jewish tradition. [...] Yagel strove to merge Judaism with European science by highlighting the centrality of the former within the latter. For Yagel, Jews since Solomon's time had always demonstrated a keen interest in naturalistic learning; they had always excelled in the occult and medical arts; and their unique kabbalistic heritage allowed them to penetrate the mysteries of the universe in a manner unattainable by the best of natural philosophers."

[YbM]

no doubt about it.
when u read shivchei habesht, and they talk of so called "spirituality" all they talk about really is his success against black dogs, demons, wicked gentiles and bringing material salvation to jews - whom he consider all tzadiqim. spirituality, my butt. cheap sorcerer, him and his followers. according to the torah, not jewish at all!

[the usual chaim]

Nadler is not a fair source in evaluating matters dealing either with kabbalah or hasidism. He is a devoted mitnaged as demonstrated by his extensive writings on the mitnagedim. asking him to talk about hasidism is like asking john mcain to talk about obama. Idel offers a much more rounded view. it includes magic, but also mysticism. see "hasidism: between ecstasy and magic". one might not value mysticism, but i dont think it can be dismissed as an illegitimate expression of western religion as easily as magic can.

moreover, though yudel expressed himself as a quack, he is driving at something larger. there is a lot of cultural hegemony that devalues folk culture, magical ceremonies being a part of it. There is nothing wrong with magical ceremonies pe se. prayer itself is a sort of magical practice in that one imagines that by speaking certain words supernatural intervention is possible - yet, it is not being devalued as a legitimate religious expression.

The problem, for me, lies in cases where magical thinking is used to support abusive power structures (eg. paying rabbis for blessings)and or dissuade people from also making rational choices (Eg. going to an exorcist instead of (rather than in addition to) a psychiatrist.) - If these violations are not occurring and magic brings comfort then why not?

[YbM]

Most of the kabbalist were descended from maranos?

Posted by: Nirc Guy |
no, nirc the black magic originated in ashkenaz,
even Moses de León (c. 1250 – 1305, precedes 1492 (and hence the period where most marranos pretended to convert) by a good 2 centuries, although I must admit that introduction of (old) chassidic kabbala to iberia contributed to the spread of these idiotic doctrines there.
For chassidei ashkenaz- of the early middle ages check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasidei_Ashkenaz :-)

[YbM]

though kabbala and chasidut are contaminated with sorcery, i think j.h. wilde chaye, will do well to study history before proposing hare brained theories on origins of kabbala.

[Catcher50]

@Der Nister...You got me. I never thought I'd see a reference to a a cowboy named Sheb Wooley (Kinky Friedman, maybe) on this site.

Frankly, many of the defenders of the Chasidim should try the Amazing Randi's site, Ricky Jay's site, and take a good course in reality.

[Menachem Mendel lll]

“Religions are all alike -- founded upon fables and mythologies”

-Thomas Jefferson

[yidandahalf]

To answer the question posed in the title: "Was the original popularity of both Hasidic movement and the Kabbalists based on exorcism?" No, exorcism came afterward. The closer the early one drew to G-d and the sacred, the closer the evil side drew nigh. Therefore, any of the early and pure ones were tormented often and thusly their abilities to counterattack and protect other victims came to the fore.
Then as now, exorcism and the like is good for media; everyone likes a good ghost story (even the non-believers).

[Adam Neira]

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Yeshiva bochur, Torah scholar, long beard, payos. Seeks same in woman.

Nice Jewish guy, 38. No skeletons. No baggage. No personality.

Female graduate student, studying kaballah, Zohar, exorcism of dybbuks, seeks mensch. No weirdos, please.

Staunch Jewish feminist, wears tzitzis, seeking male who will accept my independence, although you probably will not. Oh, just forget it.

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Single Jewish woman, 29, into disco, mountain climbing, skiing, track and field. Has slight limp.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Der Nister: LOL!

[Yochanan Lavie]

Apologies to Santana:

Got a black magic Rebbe
Got a black magic Rebbe.

Yes I got a black magic Rebbe,
Got me so blind I can't see
That he's a black magic Rebbe
And he's tryin to make a Hasid out of me.

Don't turn your back on me rabbi
Don't turn your back on me rabbi.

Nu, don't turn your back on me rabbi
Stop messin' round with your shtick.
Don't turn your back on me rabbi
'Cause you just might pick up a Shabbos brick.

You got kabbalah on me bubbie
You got kabbalah on me bubbie.

Nu, you got kabbalah on me baby
Turning my brain into stone.
I need you so much magic Rebbe
I can't own a mobile phone.

[A. Nuran]

Aaaaaaannnnnnnnddddddd

Yochanan nails it again!

[Adam Neira]

Who needs a jukebox when you have Yochanan Lavie ?

[Dovy]

Adam: Ads like those were the rage-of-the-moment a few years back.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Thanks, Adam.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Thanks, AN.

[Chicago Sam]

Actually, the miracle stories of the 1st-3rd century Roman world proved to help make Christianity a world religion. The parallel with the Hassidic "miracle" stories is suggestive.

[Jeff]

@yudel: Do not confuse the fallen degraded charadi world with the Divine Spirit. Do not ever assume that was before was always primitive.

@yidandahalf: The closer the early one drew to G-d and the sacred, the closer the evil side drew nigh. Therefore, any of the early and pure ones were tormented often and thusly their abilities to counterattack and protect other victims came to the fore.

I long ago ceased to be astonished by the lengths to which people will go to exonerate God - but I still find it damned annoying.

If you guys are correct - that there is a malevolent, unseen world, that we are constantly under attack, that those who draw closest to God are especially vulnerable, that the only hope one has is to find someone who just happens to have a special gift and the training to use it properly, but that, tragically, such people are rare-to-nonexistent today - what does this say about a God who would place frail, fragile human beings in such a horrendous position in the first place?

And, before you answer (if you choose to), let me head you off at the pass -

1. "It's because of man's sinful nature - the yetzer hara"

Sorry, it doesn't let God off the hook. He created us to be this way (supposedly).

2. "Free will"

See no. 1

3. "The rewards of Gan Eden will make it all worthwhile."

No, thanks. You can keep eternal life. I'd settle for things to suck less in the here and now.

[ah-pee-chorus]

a nuran-
that clip is effin hilarious!!! i look forward to seeing his other vids. thanks..

[A E ANDERSON]

One has be careful not to incorporate the virulent anti-mystical polemic of the Jewish Enlightenment into historical models of Jewry in the early modern period. This is hardly a simple task: until almost our own generation, we lived under the pioneering shadow of Graetz and the scholars of the Wissenschaft des Judentums with all their High German prejudices.

It has been common to portray Isaac Luria as a thinker and conceptualist of Jewish cosmology: calling him a witch doctor because he and his disciples engaged in mystical activities -- something still common to all religions in the early modern period -- seems an unnecessary if not entirely untruthful depiction of the great master.

[A. Nuran]

ah-pee-chorus, Tim Minchin is always worth listening to. My favorites are "Storm", "The Pope Song" and a Xmas song which even Jews can get behind "White Wine in the Sun".

[Friar Yid]

This is a particularly interesting point given the various stories about R. Yosef Karo and his "maggid."

[MoshiachDoh!]

is there any concept that you can't reduce to a cartoon scraped from the bottom of a sippy cup? wake up.