Hasidei Ashkenaz

This article discusses various rabbinic approaches to the story of Elisha and Gehazi (recorded in the Book of Kings), in which the former sends the latter with his staff to resurrect the Shunammite woman's dead child. Gehazi proves unsuccessful in that endeavor and Elisha himself ultimates revives the dead child.

SUMMARY – This paper explores the notion of divine sonship in both Eckhart and the Askhenazi Hasidim. Though we ignore if there was any intellectual interaction between them, it remains interesting that in both the motif of sonship plays a crucial role. Being, or rather, becoming son of God entails a spiritual breakthrough that connects theology and anthropology. However, if Eckhart allows for the birth of God's son in the individual soul as the possibility of eternal rebirth, for the Ashkenazi Hasidim, becoming a son of God entails the eternal task of self-completion and attraction of the Godhead.

This article examines the role of gematria in the commentary of R. Eleazar of Worms to the Book of Esther. Gematria is one of many hermeneutical tools, known as the “50 Gates of Understanding” that R. Eleazar applies to the biblical text to extract related rabbinic teachings taught in the Midrash and Talmud. Instead of viewing rabbinic traditions of the Oral Torah as extra-textual, R. Eleazar seeks to demonstrate that these traditions are intrinsic to the text itself, perceptible and present within its very letters. This approach, outlined in his mystical Sodei Razei Semukhim, reinforces the authority of the Oral Torah and the unified nature of the Written and Oral Torah.

This paper attempts to trace a legend of medieval surgery in the writings of the Hasidei Ashkenaz, as well as its persistence in later medical and rabbinic works.

My thanks and appreciation to Professor Ephraim Kanarfogel for the basis and original references about this account, and his equal measures of erudition and kindness.

In the blood libel – especially in non-Jewish sources – myth and history are dangerously intertwined. There have been countless studies on the subject in the fields of history, an- thropology and literature. In addition to “external sources”, such as legal records of ac- cusations brought against Jews, and research on Christian anti-Judaism, there are extant “internal sources” as well. These are the written accounts by Jews in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, which detail the various forms of persecution they suf- fered on account of accusations of ritual murder, and also present their defence against the false claims. In this paper I wish to present a story in Yiddish from the sixteenth century, which is connected with written and oral traditions about the blood libel. In it, memories of historical events blend with legendary Jewish figures and motifs from Medieval German literature. I propose that this story can also be regarded as an illustration of one of the forms devised by Jewish “historiographic creativity”.

This article examines several medieval pietistic works in northern France and Germany that shed light on the influence of Hasidei Ashkenaz. It also considers recent scholarship by Israel Ta-Shma, Ephraim Kanarfogel, Haym Soloveitchik, and Benjamin Richler. Ta-Shma
and Kanarfogel have argued that the Tosafist school of Evreux was influenced by the religious ideals of the Ashkenazi pietists, whereas Soloveitchik has insisted that no significant Hasidic influence can be detected in the Tosafist school. Relying on manuscript evidence, Richler claimed that Sefer ha-Yir’ah, which had long been attributed to the Catalan scholar Jonah of Gerona, was an Ashkenazi work titled Hayyei ‘Olam. Nevertheless, the scholarly consensus today views the traditional attribution as correct. The present study contends that the medieval practice of copying and circulating the works of others upholds Richler’s theory.

The final chapter of Sefer haMiddot—a popular ethical work by an anonymous late medieval author, entitled Orchot Tzaddikim in its printed versions—is Sha’ar Yir’at Shamayim. An early manuscript restores the original conclusion to the chapter, followed by an epitome called Simmanei Sefer haMiddot. This material was lost for well over five centuries.

Sha’ar Yir’at Shamayim asserts a dualism in which the soul animates the body like God animates the cosmos. The soul takes clear precedence over the body. To appreciate this dualism leads to fear of heaven, which is God’s greatest treasure. This chapter devoted to a theological doctrine is unique within Sefer haMiddot.

Sha’ar Yir’at Shamayim is a natural continuation of Sha’ar Yir’at Shamayim. It also sharpens a global theme in the book, which places middot (ethics) alongside mitzvot (commandments) as the will of God in its fullness. This substitutes ethics for older doctrine of the Chasidei Ashkenaz, and is distinct in medieval Jewish thought. It does not depend upon the final chapter’s doctrine, and the book thus ends in two different ways.

An appendix presents the full conclusion to Sefer haMiddot—Sha’ar Yir’at Shamayim followed by Sha’ar Yir’at Shamayim—in a Hebrew text based upon a full synopsis of the manuscripts and in an annotated English translation.

[Please contact me privately for a full copy of the paper. Available at JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/stable/48712915.]

in: Metatexte. Erzählungen von schrifttragenden Artefakten in der alttestamentlichen und mittelalterlichen Literatur (hg. v. Friedrich-Emanuel Focken und Michael Ott,  Materiale Textkulturen 15), Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016, 299–334 (Open access: http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/455285).

פירוש ע' שמות למטטרון, המיוחס לר' נחמיה בן שלמה הנביא מארפורט, מתאפיין במתודה פרשנית יוצאת דופן, שהיחידה הלשונית "שם" היא בו בזמן נקודת המוצא שלה ויעדה. לאור זאת, נראה כי הניסיון לפענח את תפיסתו הלשונית של ר' נחמיה עשוי לתרום תרומה משמעותית להבנת הגותו. העבודה מוקדשת לעניין זה, תוך התמקדות בשאלת הקשר בין השמות לבין האובייקט אותו הם מציינים.

The present study interprets and frames a long-standing question concerning Judah he-H. asid's motivations in migrating to Regensburg against the social and geographical contexts of the Jews of Ashkenaz. By examining the use of Hebrew geographic terminology during the High Middle Ages (Loter, Ashkenaz, Ashkelonia), the article demonstrates that twelfth-century Jews perceived and were engaged in contemporary political and territorial processes of the surrounding kingdom. The Hebrew terms describe the cultural tripartite division of the German kingdom (Regnum Teutonicum) in Lotharingia, the five duchies of the earlier tribes (Saxony, Franconia, Thuringia, Swabia, and Bavaria), and the still Slavic territories of the East. These imperial territories were settled and Christianized by mostly German migrants from the west of the kingdom from the eleventh century onwards. Comparable developments are evident in the movement and expansion of Jewish settlement in the German Kingdom. After many Jewish communities were founded in the Ashkenazic heartlands, beginning in cities on the Rhine, Main, and the Danube, i.e., in the territories of the five duchies (Ashkenaz), Jewish settlers founded new communities and settlements in the still Slavic areas (Ashkelonia), beyond the Elbe and Saale rivers, as part of the German settlement movement. Judah he-H. asid's family's migration is part of this development. With his relocation to Regensburg, he lived on the border of the Ashkenazic heartland (Old/West Ashkenaz) and the new Ashkenazic settlement areas in Ashkelonia (New/Eastern Ashkenaz). In Regensburg he became one of the central spiritual and halakhic authorities for the communities of the eastern neighboring territories. Through his work Judah he-H. asid opened the way to an "Ashkenazation" of the Jewish communities in eastern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. Keywords Medieval Ashkenaz • Jews in Slavic lands • German Eastern expansion • Ashkenazic migration • Judah he-H. asid

the last decades, the Pietists of medieval Germany (Ashkenazi Hasidim), who set their stamp on German Judaism for a little more than one hundred years, are still an undefined mass on the landscape of the history of Jewish ideas and culture. What we know about them with any certainty is meager: Their main representatives belonged to the famous Qalonymus family that immigrated to Germany from Italy in the ninth century and settled in the central Rhineland in the "Shum" cities ? Speyer, Worms, and Mainz ? as well as in Regensburg on the upper Danube. Their productive period extended from about 1150 to 1250, and is connected with the name of Samuel b. Qalonymus (mid-twelfth century), his son, Judah b. Samuel he-Hasid (d. 1217), and his relative and student, Eleazar b. Judah of Worms (d. ca. 1230). We have very little reliable information, if any, about the lives of these representatives of Hasidic thought; only a small part of their extant works has been edited and their interrelationship is obscure. On the one hand, the ethical "Volksbuch," Sefer Hasidim, ostensibly reflects the thinking of the "simple man,"1 and seemingly eschews philosophic and talmudic erudition. On the other hand, the authors of Sefer Hasidim produced many highly speculative, theosophic-esoteric writings. Classifying the pietist movement, with its peculiar literary expression, within the history of Jewish ideas and culture, and identifying its origins and goals, thus poses enormous difficulties. In this essay, we will deal only with the ethical-pietistic aspects of Ashkenazi Hasidic teaching, especially as they are found in Sefer Hasidim, not with the theosophic-esoteric ones.2 * This article is the revised version of a lecture given at the Third Congress of the European Association of Jewish Studies, held in Berlin, July 26-31, 1987. I thank Israel Yuval for commenting on the first German draft, and Kenneth Stow, Sarah Gluck, and Aubrey Pomerance for their efforts in shaping and improving the English translation.

The story of Elisha and the Shunammite woman reaches its dramatic climax when the woman's son dies and her impassioned plea to Elisha is heard. Elisha responds by dispatching Gehazi, his faithful acolyte, to perform a miracle and resurrect the child. As the Bible relates: He [Elisha] said to Gehazi: 'Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy hand, and go thy way; if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not; and lay my staff upon the face of the child.' And the mother of the child said: 'As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.' And he arose, and followed her. And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Wherefore he returned to meet him, and told him, saying: 'The child is not awaked.' (II Kgs. 4:29-31) Even though he possessed his master's staff, Gehazi was unable to resurrect the child, and instead appealed to Elisha directly to do so. Elisha himself entered the room where the child lay dead and brought him back to life. The Bible does not explain why Gehazi was unable to fulfill his master's assignment of reviving the dead child, leaving Elisha himself to realize that undertaking. 1 The fact that Elisha would ultimately have to assume responsibility for that which he had originally delegated to his student might imply that Elisha had erred in delegating the task instead of doing it himself. This would explain why Gehazi was unable to use his master's staff to revive the child. Because God wanted Elisha to do it himself, He did not allow Gehazi to perform the miracle of resurrection, but left it to Elisha. Alternatively, Elisha may have given too much importance to his staff by making it a necessary component of the miracle. Therefore, God decided to withhold the miracle in order to teach Elisha the ever-important lesson that miracles are done by God alone, not by physical objects. 2 These explanations follow the as

This article discusses various rabbinic approaches to the story of Elisha and Gehazi (recorded in the Book of Kings), in which the former sends the latter with his staff to resurrect the Shunammite woman's dead child. Gehazi proves unsuccessful in that endeavor and Elisha himself ultimates revives the dead child.

The Michael Mahzor, produced in Germany in 1258, one of the earliest illuminated Mahzorim, is a two-volume prayer book containing liturgical poems for the Holy Days and the 'four special Sabbaths,' when liturgical additions are made to the regular weekly chapter reading during the month of Adar. The manuscript is copiously illuminated, with animals adorning the opening words of the liturgical poem, and contains a militant iconographical plan, including knights and fighting warriors. The relationship between text and image in illuminated manuscripts is important, because they need to be 'read' together in order to understand the illuminations in their immediate and general context. The novelty of this study is in a holistic reappraisal of the manner in which we think about illustration in connection with text. This paper addresses three scenes containing animals in the Michael Mahzor: El Mitnase, Mich. 617, f. 4v; Zakhor, Mich. 617, f. 11r; and Kol Nidrei, Mich. 627, ...

Short remarks concerning theodicy in the context of the Crusades, the Medieval Pietists (Hasidei Ashkenaz) and the theme of the suffering Messiah in Midrash and Sefer Hazohar (Book of Splendor). The Hebrew source material is on a separate link at the same site: http://www.cismor.jp/uploads-images/sites/2/2014/01/yudaya7Doron3.pdf

Paper discusses Moses de León's efforts to construct a kabbalistic form of penitential pietism, focusing on evidence from his still unpublished "unnamed composition," and considers its importance in relation to contemporary developments in Ashkenaz, Franciscan penitential culture, Sefer ha-Zohar, and early kabbalistic musar.

The seminar will survey the central stages in the development of Jewish hagiographic literature from the German pietists of (Hasidei Ashkenaz), the sixteenth century Kabbalists in Tzfat and Sabbatean texts to works written by the Hasidic followers of Israel Baal Shem Tov in Eastern Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In other words, we will trace the appearance of Jewish hagiographical literature influenced by Kabbalah. This is one of the most popular, widespread literary genres in Jewish society in the modern period and has been extremely influential. We will discuss the unique nature of this literature and its major trends, we will read and analyze a selection of texts from the various periods (in Hebrew and Yiddish) on the background of the specific contexts in which they were written and printed. We will focus in particular on the theological and sociological aspects of how this literature was created, the figure of the Tzadik/saint/Kabbalist in Jewish society, as well as the manner in which the Jewish Haskalah Movement (The Jewish Enlightenment) and early scholars of Jewish studies (Wissenschaft des Judentum) from the nineteenth century onwards viewed this literature.