Transcript Chasidism - Jews and Judaism

Hasidism
Mysticism and Joy
Hasidism
• Mystical movement of devout Jews
– Chasid = devout, religious, pious
– 12th & 13th c. – Jehuda Chasid: Sefer Chasidim
• Best known is though the chasidism that was formed in the Eastern
Europe in the 18th c.
–
–
–
–
–
Ukraine, Poland
1648 – Bogdan Chmelnicky massacres
Izrael ben Eliezer Baal Shem Tov – founder of East European Chasidism
Dov Bär – his student; chasidism  religious and spiritual system
First criticised by the ortodox rabbis – later became an ortodox
movement
Hasidism
 Optimistic
movement,
underline
the role of
happiness
 Traces of
goodness
are
everywhere
 Tzadik =
Just –
spiritual
leader and
a saint that
mediates
the
communica
tion
between
man and
God
Hasidism
There’s a Hasidic tale about a famous rabbi who was on his way to teach a
village that was very interested in his ideas. This was going to be a very big
event, and each Jew in the community made great preparations, pondering
what question he or she might ask the wise man.
The rabbi finally arrived and, after the initial welcome, he was taken into a
large room where people gathered to ask their questions. There was
tremendous anticipation and excitement all around.
The rabbi walked silently around the room and then began to hum a Hasidic
tune. Before long, everyone started humming along with his soft voice. As
people became comfortable with his song, the rabbi started to dance. He
danced everywhere in the room, and, one by one, every person danced with
him. Soon everyone in the whole community was dancing wildly together.
Each person’s soul was healed by the dance, and everyone experienced a
personal transformation.
Later in the night, the rabbi gradually slowed the dance and eventually
brought it to a stop. He looked into everyone’s eyes and said gently, “I trust
that I have answered all of your questions.”
Hasidism
• Martin Buber (1878-1965) –
philosopher – wrote popular
books on chasidism
– important cultural Zionist
– promoted Jewish cultural
renewal through his study of
Hasidic Judaism
– recorded and translated Hasidic
legends and anecdotes
– translated the Bible from
Hebrew into German
– numerous religious studies
– advocated a bi-national IsraeliPalestinian state and argued for
the renewal of society through
decentralized, communitarian
socialism
Hasidism
When asked which is the right way, that of sorrow or that of
joy, Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev said: “There are two kinds of
sorrow and two kinds of joy. When a person broods over his
misfortunes, when he cowers in a corner and despairs of help
– that is a bad kind of sorrow, concerning which it is said, ‘The
Shechinah does not dwell in a place of dejection.’ The other
kind [of sorrow] is the honest grief of a man who knows what
he lacks. The same is true for joy. One who is devoid of inner
substance and, in the midst of empty pleasures, neither feels
that, nor tries to fill his lack, is a fool. [In contrast,] one who is
truly joyful is like a man whose house has burned down, who
feels his need deep in his soul and begins to build anew. Over
every stone that is laid, his heart rejoices.”
Haskala
Jewish Enlightment
Haskala - Enlightment
• Sceptical about chasidic mysticism
• The end of the 18th and the 1st half of the 19th c.
– Feudal system in Europe collapses
– Joseph II, Edict of Tolerance and the following edicts
• Jews became almost equal and were allowed to study at
public schools
• Banned from using hebrew and „Jewish language“ in their
public and commercial records
• Germanization: names to be chosen from a governmentprepared list
• Jews are liable for military service
• Abolished rabbinical juridical autonomy
• Did not gain the right of citizenship
Haskala
Moses Mendelsohn, 18th c., Berlin
• Son of a poor scribe
• Studied in Berlin where he developed friendships
with Kant and Lessing (main character of Lessing´s
Nathan the Wise, spokesman for love of humanity)
• philosophical treatises
• "the world results from a creative act through which
the divine will seeks to realize the highest good."
• accepted the existence of miracles and revelation as
long as belief in God did not depend on them
• revelation can not contradict reason
• reason can discover the reality of God, divine
providence and immortality of the soul
• The first to speak out against the use of
excommunication as a religious threat.
• He recognized the necessity of multiple religions and respected each
one : call for religious tolerance and pluralism
• Wanted to take the Jews out of a ghetto lifestyle and into secular
society.
• Translated Tanakh into German
• Systematic demonstration of the compatibility of traditional Judaism
with the precepts of the Enlightment
Haskala
• Importance of education
– New Jewish schools
• New rationalistic interpretation of traditional
religious values  often conflicts with ortodox
Jews
• Reform of Judaism
Reform of Judaism
1) Reform movement in Germany
Organ music and quires introduced into the service
Service more in the national langugage
Skipping of some controversial parts (against assimilation) of the prayers
2) Conservative Judaism
New ortodoxy against reform judaism
Unity of the jewish people, continuity of the jewish tradition, importance of
jewish science
3) Reconstructionism
Developed from the conservative judaism in North America since 1920´s
Judaism = a type of civilisation
Halakha is not considered binding, but is treated as a valuable cultural remnant
that should be upheld unless there is reason for the contrary.
Secular morality has precedence over Jewish law and theology. It does not ask
that its adherents hold to any particular beliefs, nor does it ask that Jewish law
be accepted as normative.
Jewish Personalities of the 19th
Century
Emancipation liberated exceptional
intellectual capacities
Albert Einstein
• 1879-1955
• Sojourned in Prague
repeatedly (1911-12)
• Gave here lectures on
his Theory of Relativity
(1921)
• “Soon I'll be fed up with
the relativity. Even such
a thing fades away when
one is too involved with
it.“ From a letter to his
wife Elsa
• 1933 has to emigrate
from Germany to the
USA - Princeton
Sigmund Freud
• 1856-1939
• Born in Moravia
(Příbor/ Freiberg)
• Lived in Vienna
• Psychanalysis
• Fled Nazis to London
in 1938 where he died
(euthanasis)
Edmund Husserl
• 1859 - 1938
• Born in Prostějov in
Moravia
• Founder of modern
phenomenology
• Got baptized (protestant)
• Forced by Nazis to leave
the university where he
taught and in 1936 he had
to move out of his
appartment;
Gustav Mahler
• 1860-1911
• Born in Czech-Moravian
highlands
• Lived in Vienna and
New York
• Monumental
symphonies
Franz Kafka
• 1883-1924
• Born and lived in Prague
• All his sisters murdered by
Nazis in concentration
camps
• Convinced sionist – was
fluent in hebrew and
dreamt about the life in the
land of Israel
• Burried at the New Jewish
Cemetery at Prague 3,
Žižkov (Želivského metro
stop)
Joseph Roth
• 1894-1939
• Born in Galicia
• Studied in Lvov and
Vienna – felt lost after the
dissipation of the AustroHungarian Empire
• 1933 fled to Paris; his
wife was killed by Hitler in
frame of „euthanasy of
mentally ill people“
Stephan Zweig
• 1881-1942
• Born Moritz Zweig in
Vienna
• World famous writer in
1920´s
• Emigrated in 1938 and
he and his wife suicided
themselves near Rio de
Janeiro when he learnt
about the Nazi rampage
Lion Feuchtwanger
• 1884-1958
• Born in Munich
• Emigrated to Los
Angeles
• Active anti-fascist writer
• Romans, historical
romans, theatre plays...
• Josephus Flavius, The
Jewess from Toledo