In the 18th century, the Jews of Eastern Europe, mainly in Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and other surrounding areas, were in a state of great depression as a result of the massacres of the Cossack Bohdan Khmielnicki, the persecution of the Church, the disillusionment with false messiahs such as Shabbetai Zvi and the negative treatment they received from the oligarchy that presided over the community, made up of rabbis, scholars and the wealthy.

In response to this, groups arose, especially among artisans, who broke away from the rabbinically dominated Kehilot and formed communities with their own synagogues and new forms of religious practices, such as meditation and lyricsless melodies, nigunim, for prayer. There also arose preachers who went from town to town, who did not teach Torah or Talmud, but a kind of popular Kabbalah, using Hasidic tales to convey profound messages with simple stories.

One of them was Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov (Besht) the “Lord of the Good Name” (1698-1760), who soon attracted these masses of poorly educated Jews. He maintained that all men were equal before God, both the ignorant and the great scholars, that purity of heart was more important than study and that devotion in prayer and fulfilling mitzvoth was more important than formal and cold practices. He said that Divine Energy was in everything.

The “Besht” must have been a very charismatic character, because he managed to unite the groups that opposed the rabbis and integrate them into the movement that we now know as Hasidism. Professor Abraham Rubinstein called it “the first great revolution in Judaism since the time of the Second Temple.” The Besht did not write any books and what we know of him is due to his disciples, who wrote down his teachings, despite the teacher’s opposition. After his death, his student Dov Ber of Mezhirich systematized his Hasidic teachings, aligning them with the mysticism of the great Kabbalist Isaac Luria and attracting a large number of followers.

The Besht’s disciples spread throughout the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe and established Hasidic groups that were led by a “Tzadik,” the spiritual leader. The members of these groups faithfully followed their Tzadik. Upon the death of a Tzadik, it was usually his son who succeeded him, thus giving rise to the great Hasidic dynasties, which exist to this day, such as the Satmer, Chabad Lubavich, Gur, Beltz and others.

The rabbis and leaders responded by forming an opposition movement, the Mitnagdim, opposed to the ideas and practices of the Hasidim. For a long time both currents coexisted simultaneously in the same places, each practicing their own style of Judaism. Hasidism had become established as a new way of understanding and practicing Judaism.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: “Yiddish Civilisation” by Paul Kriwaczek, “The Jewish Religion” by Louis Jacobs, The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia and other sources.