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Ethics: Questions & Morality of Human Actions, 3rd Edition

Hasidism

by Mary E. Virginia

Definition: Form of emotional Jewish mysticism originating in eighteenth century Poland

Type of ethics: Religious ethics

Significance: Hasidism rejects an intellectual, scholarly model of religious practice and instead insists that true worship is simply the joyous recognition of the immanence of God in all of creation

Modern Hasidism is based on the teachings of the eighteenth century Jewish leader Baal Shem Tov, who was born Israel ben Eliezer. His relatively uncomplicated message of joyful worship appealed to the predominantly uneducated peasant populations of eastern Europe. Many Jews abandoned the rabbinical, intellectual traditions of Talmudic study to embrace Hasidism’s emotionalism. Hasidism stressed God’s mercy, the goodness inherent in human beings, the universality of God leading to the spiritual unity of God and humanity, and the joyfulness of religious experience, which frequently found expression in music and dance.

Despite the opposition of Talmudists who, in 1781, pronounced Hasidism heretical, the popularity of the anti-intellectual movement peaked during the early nineteenth century. While less numerous in the twenty-first century, Hasidic communities remain an active force in modern Judaism, and Hasidism has broader influence in both the Jewish and gentile worlds principally through Hasidic composers, artists, and philosophers, including, notably, composer Ernest Bloch and Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer. Through the works of philosopher Martin Buber, Hasidism has also influenced twenty-first century life, notably, through the adoption of Buber’s system of collective farming known as the kibbutz.

See also: Buber, Martin; I and Thou; Jewish ethics; Kabbala; Tzaddik; Wiesel, Elie.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Virginia, Mary E. "Hasidism." Ethics: Questions & Morality of Human Actions, 3rd Edition, edited by George Lucas & John K. Roth, Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Ethics_0799.
APA 7th
Virginia, M. E. (2019). Hasidism. In G. Lucas & J. K. Roth (Eds.), Ethics: Questions & Morality of Human Actions, 3rd Edition. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Virginia, Mary E. "Hasidism." Edited by George Lucas & John K. Roth. Ethics: Questions & Morality of Human Actions, 3rd Edition. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2019. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.