The words
‘hasid’ and ‘hasidism’ have become so familiar to people interested in the
Jewish world that little thought is given to understanding exactly what
hasidism is or considering its spiritual and social consequences.



What, for
example, are the distinguishing features of hasidism? What innovations does it
embody? How did its founders see it? Why did it arouse opposition? What is the
essential nature of hasidic thought? What is its spiritual essence? What does
its literature consist of? What typifies its leadership? What is the secret of
its persistence through the centuries? How have scholars explained its origins?
Is hasidism an expression of mystical ideas, or a response to changing social
circumstances? What is its connection to kabbalah? To Shabateanism? To
messianism? What is its relationship to the traditional structures of authority
in the Jewish world? This book aims to answer all these questions in a lucid
and accessible manner.



Rachel Elior
focuses on the fundamental positions and the factors of primary importance: the
substantial issues that recur in the hasidic texts, including how hasidim have
seen themselves over the centuries, how they have constructed a new spiritual
and social ideal, and how that ideal has stood the test of reality. The goal is
to present the main characteristics of the hasidic movement and to examine the
social implications of its mystical ideas. The text is fully supported by
references to the relevant hasidic sources and academic literature. The book
concludes with a list of the hasidic texts on which the discussion is based and
a comprehensive bibliography of scholarly works on kabbalah and hasidism.