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Another Parallel to the Maenadism of the Bacchae: Hasidism in Modern Jewry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

Louis H. Feldman
Louis H. Feldman
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
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Extract

E. R. Dodds, in his article “Maenadism in the Bacchae,” notes a number of parallels in other cults to the Dionysiac practices mentioned in Euripides' Bacchae. His list of parallels, while long, is by no means intended to be exhaustive; and it is proposed here to point out still another — the dancing and ecstasy characteristic of that unique movement in modern Jewry known as Hasidism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , January 1949 , pp. 65 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1949

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References

1 Harvard Theological Review, XXXIII (1940), pp. 155 ffGoogle Scholar.

2 “Hasid” is the Hebrew word for a pious person. This movement is not to be confused with that of the Hasidim (Assideans) of Maccabean times. Nor does it have any connection with medieval Hasidism, though both are epochs in the development of Kabbalistic thought. Cf. on this latter point Scholem, G. G., Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (Jerusalem, 1941), pp. 117–118Google Scholar. For a bibliography on the subject of modern Hasidism, cf. Scholem, pp. 426–428. The most authoritative treatments are by Dubnow, S. M., Geschichte des Chassidismus, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1931)Google Scholar; by Horodezky, S. A., Ha-Ḥasidut veha-Ḥasidim, 4 vols. (Berlin, 1922)Google Scholar; and by Schechter, S., Studies in Judaism (New York, 1896), I, 1–45Google Scholar. In English, the most complete study is an unpublished work by I. J. Kazis, Hasidism: a Study in the Sociology and History of Religion from the Beginning of the Movement (1740) until 1804 (Harvard Univ. Diss., 1939), which also contains an extensive bibliography.

3 “Baʻal Shem was the traditional title of a miracle-worker.

4 Ps. 35:10.

5 Lapson, D., “The Chassidic Dance,” The Dance Observer, IV (1937), p. 109Google Scholar.

6 Phinehas of Koretz, Nofet Ẓufim, p. 49. Translated by Newman, L. I. and Spitz, S., The Hasidic Anthology (New York, 1934), p. 525Google Scholar.

7 Michelson, A. S. B., Ohel Naftali (Warsaw, 1911), pp. 107–108Google Scholar. Translated by Newman and Spitz, op. cit., p. 328. Ordinarily, however, the Hasidim avoided such extremes. Cf., e.g., Aaron b. Zebi Hirsch Cohen, Keter Shem-Tob (Warsaw, s.a.), p. 38.

8 See the parodos, 11. 64 ff.

9 Huxley, A., Ends and Means (New York, 1937), p. 235Google Scholar.

10 Cf. D. Lapson, “Dance,” Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, III, p. 460, who notes that the Hasidic followers of Rabbi Aaron of Karlin (d. 1792) in Poland gained the nickname of “Kullyikes” (“Rollers”) from their habit of rolling in dance rhythm on the ground before morning prayers. Cf. also Kazis, Hasidism, p. 217, who quotes Zawwa’at ha-Ribash (Warsaw, 1913), p. 11: “Man must first arouse himself through his body…. Afterwards he will be able to worship through thought only, without the movements of his body.”

11 Lit., “the righteous one,” colloquially called “Rebbe,” from the Hebrew Rabbi.

12 Horodezky, S. A., Leaders of Hasidism (English trans. by Horodezky-Magasanik, M., London, 1928, p. 134Google Scholar).

13 Cf. the description of the dancing of the Bacchae in the parodos of Euripides' play. Similarly, Cadmus and Tiresias, despite their old age, are not too tired to join in the dance (1. 184).

14 Lapson, D., “The Chassidic Dance,” The Dance Observer, IV (1937), p. 109Google Scholar.

15 Ibid., p. 110.

16 Cf. D. Lapson, “Dancing,” Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, III, p. 460, who notes that during the late Middle Ages, Kabbalists of Safed in Palestine similarly welcomed the Queen Sabbath with processions and dances over the hills of Galilee.

17 D. Lapson, “The Chassidic Dance,” op. cit., p. 110.