Page "Hasidic Judaism" Paragraph 17

The seminal teachings of the Baal Shem Tov captured new ideas and interpretations of Judaism, and were articulated and developed by his students and successors.

These ideas offered the unlearned a folk spiritual revival, while also giving the scholarly elite a new depth and approach to mysticism.

Hasidism gave a ready response to the burning desire of the common people, in the simple, stimulating, and comforting faith it awakened in them.

The scholars attracted to Hasidism, also sought to learn selfless humility and simple sincerity from the common folk.

In contrast to other sectarian teaching, early Hasidism aimed not at dogmatic or ritual reform, but at a deeper psychological one.

It aimed to change not the belief, but the believer.

By means of psychological suggestion, it created a new type of religious man, a type that placed emotion above reason and rites, and religious exaltation above knowledge.

Traditional devotion to Jewish study and scholarship was not replaced, but was spiritualised as a means to cleave to God.

The unlearned common folk were given spiritual enlivenment, as their sincerity also made them close to God.