Home Page -Foreword - Introduction -  One The Commitment at Birth - Two  The Role of Shabbos - Three The Tzadik -  Four Humanity’s Five Categories -  Five Body Versus Soul -  Six The Body Can Complement The Soul -  Seven The Soul and Body of a Tzadik  Eight The Five Parts of the Soul -  Nine The Image of God  Ten to Twenty Six – NOT ON THE WEB YET.

 

Foreword

 

  There was once a king whose only son was a source of enormous pride and joy.  Then disaster struck. The young man contracted a mysterious illness, collapsed into a deathly coma, and no royal doctor could revive him.

          In desperation, a professor of herbal medicine was summoned to the palace. The specialist examined the boy and prescribed an unconventional remedy.

 

“Grind a twenty eight karat ruby gem stone to a pulp, and then mix it with several common herbs and mineral water and feed it to the boy.”

 

Many of the king’s attendants heard the professor’s words as quackery.  The rare and precious stone he had requested was the centerpiece of the setting on the king’s crown.  These skeptics felt that the king’s crown should not be destroyed on the directives of a shaman.  Other officials contended that their king certainly wanted his court to attempt every possible cure, regardless of cost or plausibility.  The professor did not wait for the two groups to resolve their fight.  He seized the crown, tore out the jewel that was its heart, and crushed the stone into granules.  After feeding the potion to the prince, the boy immediately opened his eyes, and eventually recovered fully.[1]    

 

 

The King in the parable is God, the Ultimate Sovereign.  The Jewish nation is the crown prince, as we are called in the Torah, “children of God.”[2]   The wise professor who saved the prince was Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov,[3] known as the Besht,[4] who started a movement of ecstatic Jewish observance, Chassidus. 

In the mid eighteenth century, the Jewish nation in Europe underwent a momentous change. After centuries of discrimination and suffering, sounds of civic, economic, and political emancipation began to resonate behind the ghetto walls.  Yet, this emancipation engendered a debilitating spiritual infection, which struck the Jewish people and emerged fully once the Jews stepped beyond the strictures of the ghetto and took their place among the ranks of European citizenry.  Jews began to forsake the traditions of their ancestors and assimilate into gentile societies.  To ingratiate themselves with newfound gentile friends millions of Jews forsook their identity and religious heritage.  R. Yisrael Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement, fashioned a unique remedy to this epidemic.   

He seized the initiative. He took the Torah, God’s crown, and extracted the wisdom of Sod, Jewish Mysticism, Torah’s most precious part.  To enable the digestion of the stone he ground it up; he translated mystical concepts into the realm of the common man; he explicated principles, popularized esoteric imagery, and encouraged spiritual practice for all.  He organized the devotees of his lessons into a movement that is still vibrant in our times, Chassidus. 

The secrets from the inner meaning of Torah form the soul of the movement’s thought. They inspire, revive, and enflame Jewish souls with a passion to constantly increase observance and devotion.[5]  This ecstatic Jewish practice and belief has stood the test of time; for more than two centuries it has inoculated millions from the ravages of secularism and preserved the spiritual life of the Jewish nation.   

          Chassidus emerged for it was needed as a protection from the storm winds of modernity.  Today’s Jewish community might benefit from a new look at the Chassidic movement’s beginnings and reflections.   Intermarriage is rampant and assimilation into American culture has become the norm.  Even those Jews who fulfill their religious obligations frequently perform ritual in a lifeless and habitual way.  Were we to discover the depth and soulful vitality that fill Chassidic literature, Chassidic passion might inflame our faltering Jewish experience with the warmth of Torah.  Unfortunately, for many of my contemporary American Jews, access to the gem stones of the Chassidim has been denied.

Chassidic works are overwhelmingly in Hebrew and few good translations exist.[6] For the American Jew whose Hebrew is not fluent, these books are welded shut.  Even those who can read Rabbinic Hebrew find Chassidic literature challenging, for the Chassidic masters assumed that their readers were knowledgeable about basic mystical concepts and terms.  Absent an introductory course many try to absorb the warmth of Chassidic torah and then give up in frustration when the texts do not seem to explain their basic assumptions.[7]  This book is an attempt to fill that void.  It attempts to provide an introduction to the basic terms and ideas of Chassidic texts so that once it is mastered the reader will be able to comprehend the works of the Chassidic masters directly.

This book is written for the interested layman who may be new to Torah study. That is why I have endeavored to translate all terms into English.  It is also directed to the Yeshiva student who is knowledgeable about Biblical narratives and Talmudic law, but he may be new to the world of Chassidus.  Hopefully, these introductory lessons will open the door to new dimensions of observance, piety, and study. 

Home Page -Foreword - Introduction -  One The Commitment at Birth - Two  The Role of Shabbos - Three The Tzadik -  Four Humanity’s Five Categories -  Five Body Versus Soul -  Six The Body Can Complement The Soul -  Seven The Soul and Body of a Tzadik  Eight The Five Parts of the Soul -  Nine The Image of God  Ten to Twenty Six – NOT ON THE WEB YET.

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[1] This parable was related by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady (1745-1813).  Rabbi S.Z. was one of the greatest thinkers of the Chassidic movement.  His book, called the Tanya or Likutey Amarim, is the essential handbook of Chassidic thought.  He related the story to explain the timing of the appearance of the Chassidic movement.

[2] C.f. Deutoronomy 8:5

[3] He was born circa 1698 and passed away in 1760.  The name Baal Shem Tov literally means “Master of the good name.”  He had a good name for he always judged the deeds of others favorably and his prayers for others brought about miracles.

[4]Besht is an acronym from his name Baal Shem Tov.

[5] Chassidic thought is an encounter with the depths of Jewish experience.  Once your soul has been lit with the spark of Chassidus other section of Jewish knowledge, such as Talmud study, in Hebrew called Gemarrah, will display similar flames.  One usually considers Talmud study to be a cold, intellectual, endeavor; however, Rabbi Aharon  Karliner (1736-1772), a contemporary of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, would teach that the word Gemarrah means a burning ember, “gumrah diaisha.”  “For when someone learns Torah for its own sake, his heart burns with a desire to dedicate his entire being to the Master of the Universe.” (Beis Aharon page 5a)  Rabbi Shraga Feivel Medelowitz o.b.m., the founder of Mesivtah Torah Vadaath, taught Chassidic thought to his American born students in Torah Vadaath for he felt that once inspired with the profundity of Chassidus his boys would experience Talmud study and Mitzvah observance in a warmer, more passionate, and joy-filled manner. (Rav Wolfson)

[6] Fortunately, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan (1934-1983), the great expositor of Jewish thought to the masses of American Jewry, published several excellent volumes of Chassidic though in English.  However, there are still many works of Chassidus that have yet to be translated.

[7] See Chassidic Masters chapter 1