Neo-Hasidism

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Neo-Hasidic Judaism, also Neo-Chassidus, is an approach to Judaism in which adherents delve into classic Hasidic texts and stories to create a Jewish, modern spiritual revival movement. It is a form of Hassidus חסידות (Hasidic thought) without creating any new Hasidic dynasty. This movement encourages intellectual autonomy.

Neo-Hasidut is not a denomination, but rather an approach, which can be found in any denomination of Judaism. One can be neo-Hasidic and Reform, Conservative, or Orthodox.

Over the last century it has been popularized by the works of writers such as Hillel Zeitlin, Martin Buber, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Lawrence Kushner, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Arthur Green.

In the last 30 years there has been an explosion of interest in Hasidic masters. As recently as the 1990s few would have predicted a growing thirst for learning Hasidic texts from Reform, Conservative, and Yeshivish Orthodox Jews. Yet we see more books, articles, and learning groups focused on the works of Hasidic rabbinic luminaries such as Nahman of Bratzlav (1772-1810), Menahem Mendel of Kotzk (1787-1859), and Kalonymus Kalman Shapira of Piaseczno (1889-1943)

Hachnasat Sefer Torah painting by Chana Helen

This painting is by Chana Helen

What does neo-Hasidism teach and hope for?

Neo-Hasidi find Hasidic practices more rewarding than other forms of Jewish life – they help individuals in a community bond with each; they may help parents role-model a committed, meaningful Jewish life to their children.

Neo-Hasidut is a view that says instead of locking one’s self into just one Hasidic group, one should experience spirituality from any of the Hasidic groups.

Neo-Hasidim learn about and practice classic Hasidic concepts such as

Making simcha – שִׂמְחָה – joy, an essential element of observance.

Avodah b’gashmiut עבודה בגשמיות worshiping God through corporeality

Bitul ha-Yesh ביטול היש negation of the existent

Hitbodedut (hisbodedus) התבודדות‎ Prayer in seclusion (as well as through communal tefila)

Devekut דבקות bonding with God by nullifying the ego

Hitpashtut Hagashmiut התפשטות הגשמיות divestment of corporeality

Understanding God through Kabbalistic texts

Recognizing that Leit atar panui mineih – לֵית אֲתַר פָּנוּי מִנֵּיהּ – No place is empty of God

Mitvzot, halakhah and observance

Neo-Hasidism is about more than just reading & feeling: Rabbinic Judaism views halakhah as normative, what one is religiously obligated to do. (It is a given that significant differences of opinion can exist in good faith, in understanding what halakhah is.)

More significantly, Hasidic Judaism is based on Kabbalah – this teaches that our actions actually affect spiritual dimensions: Kabbalah ascribes a remarkably significant meaning to tefila (prayer) and observance of halakhah, and this is a major part of neo-Hasidism.

Kabbalah reveals that if we have the right intentions and perform the correct rituals, then we actually repair our imperfect, shattered universe. Conversely, choosing other words and actions can negatively affect – on a real and spiritual level – the universe.

A very different view develops from neo-Hasidism in liberal Jewish communities. They don’t generally accept halakhah as normative, nor do most accept the Kabbalistic teachings that our actions affect reality. This creates a significant tension between wanting to be neo-Hasidic while simultaneously rejecting basic Hasidic concepts.

Arthur Green in particular has been attempting to create a non-halakhic, antinomian approach to Kabbalah, which is becoming accepted among liberal Jews, although his critics hold that his project may not have the boundaries and beliefs necessary to keep the resulting theology actually Jewish.

For progressive Jews, what it might mean to connect with the divine is often unclear…. “There is no set doctrine of God in the Neo-Hasidic view,” Green and Mayse write in their introduction to Branches, “and an insistence [that there is one] would immediately raise our antidogmatic hackles.” …

But Green’s and Mayse’s reticence to be dogmatic raises questions: What boundaries, if any, separate Neo-Hasidism from other Jewish religious and cultural phenomena? And without clear boundaries, how can Neo-Hasidism be conceptualized—let alone representatively anthologized—at all?

Daniel Kraft, Shaping the Neo-Hasidic Canon

Balancing Aggadah and Halakhah

The transformation of the original Hasidism to a wing of ultra-Orthodox Judaism happened over the course of a century. Neo-Hasidism who accept halakhah seek to return to the original Hasidic ideas –

Ariel Evan Mayse writes

[Heschel] underscored that halakhah and the commandments more broadly are key tools for attaining self-transcendence and a life of piety. He took the leaders of Reform Judaism to task for heedlessly abandoning religious practice. Instead, Heschel argued that we must follow the example of the early Hasidic masters by restoring balance between the twin forces of halakhah and aggadah, and to remember the order of priorities of religious life: “To many Jews the mere fulfillment of regulations was as the essence of Jewish living. Along came the Besht [Baal Shem Tov] and taught that Jewish life is an occasion for exaltation. Observance of the Law is the basis, but exaltation through observance is the goal.”

Expanding on this in his Between God and Man, Heschel writes

Halakhah represents the strength to shape one’s life according to a fixed pattern; it is a form-giving force. Aggadah is the expression of man’s ceaseless striving that often defies all limitations….

Aggadah deals with man’s ineffable relations to God, to other men, and to the world. Halakhah deals with details, with each commandment separately; aggadah with the whole of life, with the totality of religious life. Halakhah deals with the law; aggadah with the meaning of the law. Halakhah deals with subjects that can be expressed literally; aggadah introduces us to a realm that lies beyond the range of expression….

Egalitarianism, in Neo-Hasidism

Neo-Hasidism replaces Hasidic Judaism’s strict gender segregation with egalitarianism. This appears in different ways, depending on the individual and the community, such as equality in learning opportunities and equality in viewing both women and men as spiritual leaders. This also appears in the use of gender sensitive or gender neutral translations of prayers

The specifics of how egalitarianism looks will vary:

Egalitarian commitment to mitzvot and halakhah; women can count in a minyan, be shaliach tzibur שליח ציבור (prayer service leader,) leyn לייענען‎ from the Torah, wear tallit and tefillin, etc. This may be thought of as Conservative/Masorti style egalitarianism. Many havurot, Hadar communities, and Trad-Egal groups fit this model.

or

A feminist-Orthodox egalitarian commitment to mitzvot and halakhah; in this view, although women don’t count in a minyan or act as shaliach tzibur, they are recognized as equals. Women may lead Kabbalat Shabbat services, read from the Torah, pasken halakhic questions. This is Partnership-minyan style egalitarianism, like Shira Hadasha in Jerusalem.

or

Non-halakhic approaches. Here, viewing mitzvot and halakhah as normative is replaced with informed personal autonomy (The assumption is that one should be deeply read in Jewish and Hasidic texts, and use this information when exercising personal autonomy.)  Women count in a minyan, are shaliach tzibur שליח ציבור (prayer service leader,) leyn from the Torah, wear tallit and tefillin, etc. This may be thought of as Reform/Liberal style egalitarianism.

History of Neo-Hasidic Judaism

Hasidism was originally an eighteenth century spiritual revival movement which became a unique form of Ashkenazi Orthodox Judaism. There are many different Hasidic groups; each has some common beliefs and practices, but is led by a different rabbinic dynasty. Hasidic leadership is hereditary, and always male. Hasidic families are adherents ofone particular Hasidic sect.

Generally, Jewish people would either be born into Hasidism or not be a part of it. However. many Jewish writers in the early twentieth century incorporated Hasidic stories and themes into their work, exposing the wider Jewish community to the world of Hasidim. Ariel Evan Mayse writes

Literary figures such as Y.L. Peretz, Micha Josef Berdyczewski, S.Y. Agnon, and Elie Wiesel incorporated Hasidic themes into their writings. These authors did so not in order to satirize or parody mysticism, but because they understood that creatively adapting Hasidic motifs could serve as a powerful tool for cultural revival. Their interest in Hasidism, however, was primarily for its literary potential.

The following section has been loosely adapted, and expanded, from the Wikipedia article on Neo-Hasidic Judaism.

Hasidic stories written by Martin Buber (early 1900s) helped develop interest in Hasidism among other Jews, especially his Tales of the Hasidic Masters and the Legend of the Baal Shem Tov. In these books, Buber focused on the role of storytelling and charisma of early Hasidic masters as a vehicle for personal spirituality. These books represent an aspect of Buber’s larger project of creating a new form of personalistic, existential religiosity.

Buber came under criticism, especially from younger contemporary Gershom Scholem, for having interpreted Hasidism in a way that misrepresented Hasidic belief and literature. Nevertheless, Buber’s sympathetic treatment of Hasidism proved attractive to many and started the 20th century romance between (idealized) Hasidism and non-Orthodox Jews.

Following World War II, when the Hasidic centers of Central and Eastern Europe were decimated, some of the surviving communities relocated to America. This created new opportunities for American Jews to have direct experience with them, their practices and their beliefs. Most of these communities remained determinedly insular, but a few, primarily the Chabad Lubavitch and Bratslav (Breslov) Hasidim, adopted an attitude of outreach to the larger Jewish community, seeking to win more Jews to the Hasidic way of life.

In the 1960s the last Lubavitcher Rebbe (Menachem Mendel Schneerson) started commissioning young Chabadniks to seek out and teach young secular and religiously liberal Jews. Two of the early “shluchim” שְלִיחִים‎ (emissaries) were Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Shlomo Carlebach.

Shlomo Carlebach was a charismatic singer who used music as a tool for outreach, he stayed (largely) within the circle of the Orthodox community from which he arose.

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi charted an increasingly independent course, leaving Chabad to eventually study at Hebrew Union College (HUC), the leading academic institution of Reform Judaism. He developed a neo-traditional, kabbalistic, observant form of Jewish spiritual renewal as an approach to Judaism; this was an influential neo-Hasidic approach. These ideas are now common in many different types of synagogues. Over time some of his disciples created a liberal, non-halakhic, religious-political group, Aleph: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal.

Equally important was Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a Holocaust refugee and scion of Hasidic royalty. He began his academic career in America with a life-saving but difficult wartime stint at the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College. In 1946, he moved to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the intellectual and academic heart of Conservative Judaism. He initially felt marginalized for his Hasidic interests and customs. Nonetheless he surrounded himself with a circle of devoted students (and eventual congregational rabbis) drawn to his mystically flavored phenomenology.

As the 1960s began, Heschel was achieving increasing recognition as a theologian of stature with the publication of his books God in Search of Man and The Prophets. With that fame came an interest in his Hasidic roots and their role in his teachings. His social activism in the 1960s and 1970s further endeared him to many young Jews. He is now widely accepted as perhaps one of the most important theologian in 20th century Judaism.

Several of Heschel’s students at JTS during the turbulent 1960s and early 1970s eventually became involved in the embryonic Havurah movement, a loosely defined project of creating an alternative, informal type of Jewish community.

In 1968 an unassuming book, The First Jewish Catalog: A Do-It-Yourself Kit, was written. When expanded in 1971, it became an unexpected hit. It brought together Jewish spirituality, the DIY movement, the 1960s/70s counter-culture movement, and the ethos of the Whole Earth Catalog. The ideas in this book were a warning shot across the bow of mainstream, establishment synagogues: thousands of Jews were not spiritually satisfied with the life offered by their synagogues. They wanted something more – and if it wasn’t provided to them then they would make it themselves. The authors of this book (and its two sequels) were Richard Siegel and, Michael Strassfeld, and Sharon Strassfeld, each of which has a place of influence in today’s Judaism.

Another source of Neo-Hasidic Judaism was Havurat Shalom, founded in 1968. This was a quasi-communal havurah (prayer fellowship) started jointly by Arthur Green and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in Somerville, Massachusetts. It developed simultaneously with The First Jewish Catalog; members of the havurah were its authors. Many consider the Jewish Catalog books to be the greatest product  of the Havurah movement.

Arthur Green trained for the rabbinate at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he studied privately with Abraham Joshua Heschel. He co-founded Havurat Shalom in 1968. He became President of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, and eventually became a founding dean of the non-denominational rabbinical program at Hebrew College in Boston. Through books like Tormented Master, The Language of Truth and Your Word Is Fire, Arthur Green (and others) made Hasidism both more accessible and compelling for Jews seeking personal spirituality amidst the outwardly focused and sometimes spiritually dry world of the formal American Jewish community.

In the 1970s and 1980s, a neo-Hasidic approach developed amongst baalei teshuva in Orthodoxy, influenced by Shlomo Carlebach, Aryeh Kaplan, Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld and others, reflecting the prevailing counterculture movement.

In Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism

The Reform Jewish community remained resistant to this trend for a long period; Kabbalistic teachings and the idea of mitzvot as normative commandments are contrary to Reform theology. Yet a few Reform rabbis, such as Herbert Weiner and Lawrence Kushner, have translated neo-Hasidism into a Reform idiom, expanding its influence.

The greatest challenge to neo-Hasidic thought in Reform and Reconstructionist communities is that on an official level they reject the concept of halakhah – observance of mitzvot -as normative, while all forms of Hasidic thought view mitzvot as essential and primary.

In Modern Orthodoxy

Neo-Hasidism has been brought to the Orthodox community through thinkers such as

Abraham Isaac Kook אַבְרָהָם יִצְחָק הַכֹּהֵן קוּק‎ 1865-1935, pre-state Israel

Aryeh Kaplan אריה משה אליהו קפלן 1934-1983, United States

Shimon Gershon Rosenberg שמעון גרשון רוזנברג, of Yeshivat Siach Yitzchak, Israel. (1949-2007)

Moshe Weinberger (1957 – ), mashgiach ruchani (spiritual supervisor) at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), New york

Rabbi Steven Rohde Gotlib writes

Modern Orthodox neo-Chassidus is a trend that takes various chassidishe ideas and transposes them onto an otherwise Modern Orthodox or traditional yeshivish-leaning experience. An emphasis is placed on adding stringency to a hopefully already meticulous observance of Jewish Law; learning Hasidic works regularly; embracing a “simple faith” in God and His Will; believing, as Kabbalah teaches, that each action truly has a metaphysical effect on reality; at least partially nullifying yourself and connecting yourself to a rebbe who can guide you.

How halakhic neo-Hasidism differs from non-halakhic neo-Hasidism

Rabbi Steven Rohde Gotlib writes

Thirsting for Hashem and being quenched by unmitigated emotional passion can lead to drowning out some aspects of Torah observant Judaism. This is where the more common form of Neo-Hasidism comes into play. This is a largely non-Orthodox phenomenon based…

For Green, as articulated in his most recent book, Neo-Hasidism is about learning “how to read all of Jewish praxis, the mitzvot and the halakhah, as pathways along that inner journey [of life] and as means of expressing and sharing the joys and struggles [encountered] on the way.”

Such an approach is not bound by Jewish law, but by Jewish spirit and imbued with an understanding that one must choose their own religious path for themselves.

For Green, “…I feel that the legalistic approach often gets bogged down within itself, and that the real human being – the ‘agunah and the mamzer are only the most blatant examples – often gets lost in the welter of a trivializing quest for precedents and lack of legislative courage.”

Ultimately, in this understanding of Hasidism, Jewish Law and tradition are meant to help us connect to an inner light and use that to guide our lives after being accepted out of love rather than pressure. They are means to that end rather than the end in of itself.

Green’s Neo-Hasidism is about proclaiming a unity in all of reality that calls us to act in the best interests of the world and see ourselves as part of a mission that is bigger than ourselves and unites all of humanity. This requires understanding that we are our own rebbes, and responsible for making our own informed choices towards living life that is guided by rationality and common sense while carefully accepting the aspects of hasidic teachings that facilitate that and rejecting what does not.

How one might synthesize approaches

Rabbi Steven Rohde Gotlib writes

Though sharing a name, these two understandings [Halakhic, mitzvot observant forms of neo-Hasidism, and liberal forms] are night and day. Is there a middle path? I think so, and I think such a path can be found in the teachings of Abraham Isaac Kook, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Joseph B. Soloveitchik (yes, really), Norman Lamm (yes, really), Shimon Gershon Rosenberg (Rav Shagar), and others.

Neo-Hasidism should not be an excuse to abandon tradition, but it must also allow for individuality, rationality, and critical thinking. Emotional attachment does nothing if the intellect is left to starve.

Where neo-Hasidism has differences with Hasidism

Neo-Hasidim has some significant differences with Hasidism, notably:

rejects the Hasidic practice of replacing local nusach and minhagim with Ashkenazi practice.

For example, when Chabad rabbis offer services in Mizrachi or Sephardic communities, or take over synagogues formerly from those communities, they often replace the local nusach with the Chabad Hasidic one, changing most local melodies and customs. This steamrolls all Jewish cultures except theirs.

In contrast, Sephardic and Mizrachi neo-Hasidic Jews generally wish to retain their customary nusach and minhagim.

rejects the Hasidic concept of dynastic succession.

rejects the Hasidic doctrine of rebbes as near-infallible, as leaders whose decrees must be followed.

rejects the strict gender segregation of Hasidism

rejects the idea that a Rebbe is like God. Hasidim often compare their Rebbe in some ways with God.

“A Tzadik is like the creator, he is unified in the lower and higher worlds.”
Hillel Halevi of Paritch

“The will of God and the will of the tzadik are one“.
Dov Ber of Mezeritch

“He describes how Ya’akov was called God because he was pure. From this he derives that one may bow to a zaddik/rebbe by virtue of his purity and obedience to God. He further notes that to bow to an angel for its own sake is heresy whilst to bow to him as a messenger of God is permissible.”
Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev, Kedushat Levi

Such beliefs are not accepted by any Jews outside of Hasidism.

Reading list

Tales of the Hasidim, Martin Buber

Jewish Spiritual Practices, Yitzhak Buxbaum

Hasidic Spirituality for a New Era: The Religious Writings of Hillel Zeitlin, Editor Arthur Green, Translator Joel Rosenberg, Paulist Press

God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism, Abraham Joshua Heschel

Inner Space: Introduction to Kabbalah, Aryeh Kaplan, Moznaim Publishing

God Was in This Place & I, i Did Not Know, Lawrence Koshner

Orot by Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook, translated by Bezalel Naor, Maggid Books, Koren Publishers

The Sayings of Menahem Mendel of Kotsk, Simcha Raz (Author), Edward Levin (Translator)

The Chambers of the Palace: Teachings of Rabbi Nachman, David Y. Shulman (Author)

The First Jewish Catalog: A Do-It-Yourself Kit, Richard Siegel, Michael Strassfeld, and Sharon Strassfeld

Conscious Community: A Guide to Inner Work, Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Piaseczna Rebbe

Further reading

NeoHasid.org, Rabbi David Seidenberg

The Development of Neo-Hasidism: Echoes and Repercussions Part II: Abraham Joshua Heschel and Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky, Ariel Evan Mayse

This article, presented in four parts, is a revised version of a paper presented at the Orthodox Forum… It will appear in the forthcoming volume, Contemporary Uses and Forms of Hasidut, ed. Shlomo Zuckier (Urim, 2019)… It is intended to spark a conversation about the origins of neo-Hasidism and to consider its contemporary relevance

The Role of Kabbalah in Revitalizing Modern Orthodoxy, Ariel Evan Mayse

Shaping the neo-Hasidic canon, Daniel Kraft, Jewish Currents, 9/17/2020

Walking together, walking apart: Conservative Judaism and neo-Hasidism, Yaakov Ariel, Jewish Culture and History, 21:2, 172-187

Abraham Joshua Heschel: Recasting Hasidism for Moderns, Arthur Green, Modern Judaism 29(1) Feb 2009

A review of “Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America, 1940–1972,” Review by Edward K. Kaplan of the book by Michael Lerner, Theology Today, 4/1/2009

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A New Hasidism: Roots, By Arthur Green and Ariel Evan Mayse

“This first-ever anthology of Neo-Hasidic philosophy brings together the writings of its progenitors: five great twentieth-century European and American Jewish thinkers—Hillel Zeitlin, Martin Buber, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Shlomo Carlebach, and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi—plus a young Arthur Green. The thinkers reflect on the inner life of the individual and their dreams of creating a Neo-Hasidic spiritual community. The editors’ introductions and notes analyze each thinker’s contributions to Neo-Hasidic thought and influence on the movement. Zeitlin and Buber initiated a renewal of Hasidism for the modern world; Heschel’s work is quietly infused with Neo-Hasidic thought; Carlebach and Schachter-Shalomi re-created Neo-Hasidism for American Jews in the 1960s; and Green is the first American-born Jewish thinker fully identified with the movement.”

Who Owns the Black Hat? Shaul Magid, By Shaul Magid, Tablet Magazine, 1/14/2020

The Hasidism of Rav Kook, Bezalel Naor, The Lehrhaus, 12/25/2017

Neo-Hasidic Revival: Expressivist Uses of Traditional Lore, Tomer Persico, Modern Judaism, Vol. 34,#3, 10/2014, backup at Neo-Hasidic Revival: Expressivist Uses of Traditional Lore

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