Neo-Hasidism, alsoNeochassidut orNeo-Chassidus, is an approach toJudaism in which aspects ofHasidic Judaism are incorporated into non-Hasidic religious Jewish practice. Over the 20th century, neo-Hasidism was popularized by the works of writers such asHillel Zeitlin,Martin Buber,Abraham Joshua Heschel,Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, andArthur Green.
Neo-Hasidism is not a denomination of Judaism but rather an approach to Judaism that can be found in all its Orthodox and non-Orthodox movements. Among non-Orthodox Jews, one can find adherents of neo-Hasidism.
In the 1970s and 1980s, a similar movement amongstbaalei teshuva—withinHaredi Judaism—was observed in the US,[1] influenced byShlomo Carlebach,Aryeh Kaplan,Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld and others, and reflecting the contemporarycounterculture movement. To some extent, it has persisted as theCarlebach minyan and theBreslov movement.
Martin Buber helped initiate interest in Hasidism among modernized Jews through a series of books he wrote in the first decades of the 20th century, such asTales of the Hasidim and theLegend of the Baal Shem Tov. In these books, Buber focused on the role of storytelling and the charisma of early Hasidic masters as a vehicle for personal spirituality. As such, these books represent one aspect of Buber's larger project of creating a new form of personalistic,existential religiosity. Buber came under considerable criticism, especially from younger contemporaryGershom Scholem, for having interpreted Hasidism in an eccentric 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 an idealized Hasidism and non-Orthodox Jews.
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AfterWorld War II, some surviving Hasidic communities fromEurope relocated to America, allowingAmerican Jews to experience their practices and beliefs directly. While most communities remained insular,Chabad and Breslover Hasidim adopted anoutreach approach to engage more Jews in the Hasidic way of life.
Equally important wasAbraham Joshua Heschel, aHolocaust refugee and scion of Hasidic royalty, who began his academic career in America with a life-saving but difficult wartime stint atHebrew Union College. In 1946, he moved to theJewish Theological Seminary of America, the intellectual center forConservative Judaism. There, he still found himself marginalized for his Hasidic interests and customs, yet he surrounded himself with a small circle of devoted students (and eventual congregationalrabbis) drawn to his mystically flavoredphenomenology. As the 1960s began, Heschel was achieving increasing recognition as a theologian of stature with the publication of his booksGod in Search of Man andThe 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.
Several of Heschel's students at JTS during the turbulent 1960s and early 1970s eventually became involved in the embryonicHavurah movement, a loosely defined project of creating an alternative, informal type of Jewish community first proposed by Reform theologianJakob Josef Petuchowski in the 1960s. While the movement spanned a broad spectrum of spiritual proclivities, some Jews in the founding circles, likeArthur Waskow,Arthur Green, andMichael Lerner, under the combined influence of Heschel and Schachter-Shalomi, took up the project of further exploring Hasidism and recasting it in an American idiom.Havurat Shalom, the flagship of this experimental quasi-communal movement, which was started jointly by Green and Schachter-Shalomi in Boston, produced the greatest artifact of Havurah Judaism, theJewish Catalog series, a set of three books devoted to "do-it-yourself" Judaism, written with a healthy dose of information and enthusiasm for things Hasidic.Kabbalah also influenced Havurah communities, which Hasidism influenced.
These future neo-Hasids focused on selected attractive aspects of traditional Hasidism while rejecting teachings they found incompatible with modern egalitarian commitments, such as Hasidism's attitudes toward women, sexuality, and non-Jews. A few of these devotees, like Waskow and Lerner, became writers of note and public square intellectuals in the Jewish community and in theJewish Renewal movement. Others, such as Green and Lawrence Fine, became leading scholars in the Jewish academic world, bringing an appreciation of Hasidism and an interest in adapting its ideas and customs to contemporary mores and life.
Through books likeTormented Master,The Language of Truth andYour 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. Among the liberal movements, the Reform community remained resistant to this trend for a longer period, but a few rabbis, such asHerbert Weiner andLawrence Kushner, also started translating Hasidism into a Reform idiom, expanding its influence.
This overlapping of amorphous interest in Hasidism among academics, seekers, religious functionaries, intellectuals, "alternative" rabbis, and teachers has led to the coining of the term "Neo-Hasidism (NH)."[2]
A few formalized groups and institutions, such as the P'nai Or congregation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Elat Chayyim Retreat Center in Falls Village, Connecticut, and Central Reform Congregation in Saint Louis, Missouri, are substantially influenced by NH. NH also enjoyed a period of pre-eminence at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Seminary (RRC) during Arthur Green's tenure there as dean.
In the past several years, many in modern-Orthodoxy began exploring the texts and way of life of Chasidic masters. Most notable are Chabad works (such as theTanya) and the writings of RabbiNachman of Breslov. RabbiMoshe Weinberger, founding rabbi ofCongregation Aish Kodesh inWoodmere, New York, is widely considered the "senior spokesman" of the Neo-Hasidic movement in Modern Orthodoxy.[3]
By definition, neo-Hasidic Judaism has significant differences from Hasidic Judaism.
Hasidic Jews view their rebbe as a person who is literally in a state ofdevekut (communion) with God in a way that most people are not; that a rebbe (or tzaddik) has purged his heart of theEvil Inclination. Further, Hasidim compare their Rebbe with God, in that the tzaddik becomes a channel for the divine will.
In contrast, these beliefs are completely rejected by neo-Hasidism. Adherents of neo-Hasidic Judaism view their rabbis and prayer group leaders as people who are superior only in academic credentials - for instance, someone with rabbinic ordination and an academic record of studies in some topic (liturgy, rabbinic literature etc.) is respected as an academic. No human is considered to be more holy than any other. Neo-Hasidism aims to be more egalitarian.
Neo-Hasidim reject the Hasidic doctrine of bonding with the Tzadik (התקשרות לצדיקים); Hasidic Jews view their Rebbe as an intermediary between God and man (albeit in a functional and not an essential sense). Hasidic Jews are seek to bind themselves to God by virtue of being bound to their rebbe. Such ideas are largely rejected by Jews outside of Hasidic Judaism, including by neo-Hasidism.
Neo-Hasidim reject the Hasidic doctrine of dynastic succession. In Hasidic communities, the son (or son-in-law) of a Rebbe usually becomes the next rebbe. In contrast, this dynastic succession is rejected by neo-Hasidim.
In Hasidic Judaism, there are many mitzvot, including wearingtallitot,tefillin, and writing amezuzah scroll, done by only men. Neo-Hasidism allows women to do some or all of these. In non-Orthodox neo-Hasidism, women are equal to men in every way: they can count in aminyan and be ashaliach tzibbur. In Modern Orthodox neo-Hasidic groups, women may not count in a minyan or be a shaliach tzibbur, in alignment with Orthodox Jewish law.
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