Search

The Online Encyclopedia and Dictionary

 
     
 

Encyclopedia

Dictionary

Quotes

   
 

Mitnagdim

Mitnagdim (also: misnagdim) is a Hebrew word (מתנגדים) meaning "opponents"; this term was used to refer to European religious Jews who opposed Hasidic Judaism.

Today the term mitnagdim is loosely used to refer to European religious Orthodox Jews who are not Hasidic, although they are not necessarily opposed to Hasidic Judaism.

There are many non-Hasidic Orthodox Jews, such as Lithuanian Jews ("Litvaks"), Modern Orthodox Jews, Sephardic Orthodox Jews, and Yemenite Orthodox Jews.

Origins

The rapid spread of Hasidic Judaism in the second half of the eighteenth century greatly troubled many traditional Jewish rabbis; many saw it as a potentially dangerous enemy.

The movement's founder was Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov, or simply "the Besht"; he taught that man's relationship with God depended on immediate religious experience, and less so on knowledge and observance of the details of the Torah and Talmud.

Much of Judaism was still feaful of the pseudo-messianic movements of Sabbatai Zevi, who inspired the Shabbethaians, and of Jacob Frank, who inspired the Frankists. Many rabbis, incorrectly as it turned out, suspected Hasidism of an intimate connection with these movements.

The first attacks on Hasidic Judaism came during the mission of Israel ben Eliezer (the Besht), the founder of Hasidic thought. These earliest missives against Hasidic thought were written by Rabbis Moses ben Jacob of Satanov and Solomon ben Moses Chelm. Moses ben Jacob attacked Hasidic Jews as greedy, rude and contemptuous of Jewish law.

Two bans of excommunication against Hasidic Jews first appeared in 1772, accompanied by the public burning of several early Hasidic pamphlets. Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, the Gaon of Vilna galvinized opposition to Hasidic Judaism.

  • He believed that the claims of miracles and vision made by Hasidic Jews were lies and delusions.
  • Opponents of Hasidim held that Hasidim viewed their rebbes in an idolatrous fashion. The Encyclopedia Judaica article on Hasidism states that:
the zaddik provides the spiritual illumination for the individual Hasid and the hasidic community from his own all-pervasive radiance, attained through his mystic union with God. This union and the ensuing enrichment of his soul are used for the sake of the people, to lead them lovingly to their creator. The zaddik is a mystic who employs his power within the social community and for its sake. A wonder-healer and miracleworker, in the eyes of his followers he is a combination of confessor, moral instructor, and practical adviser....In Hasidism the zaddik is conceived of as the ladder between heaven and earth, his mystic contemplation linking him with the Divinity, and his concern for the people and loving leadership tying him to earth....The zaddik even has powers over life and death. God may have decreed that a person should die but the prayers of the zaddik can nullify this decree. This is because the zaddik's soul is so pure and elevated that it can reach to those worlds in which no decree has been promulgated since there only mercy reigns.
  • The stress of prayer over study, and the Hasidic disparagement of Torah study for its own sake, was seen as a rejection of the traditional Jewish views.
  • Hasidic Jews added some stringencies to traditional Jewish halakha on kashrut, the laws of keeping kosher. They made certain changes in how livestock were slaughtered and in who was considered a reliable mashgiach (supervisor of kashrut). The end result was that they essentially considered other kosher food un-kosher. This was seen as an attack on non-Hasidic Judaism, and a violation of halakha (Jewish law.)
  • Hasidic Jews rejected the traditional Ashkenazi prayer rite, and instead created their own rite which was a combination of Ashkenazi and Sephardi rites, along with the ideas of Isaac Luria, a mystic from Safed, Israel. This was seen as a rejection of the traditional Jewish liturgy.
  • Hasidism was criticised because some Hasidic rebbes lived a life of affluence, based on contributions from their followers. Hasidic Jews believed that by financially supporting their rebbe with worldly goods, their rebbe would better be able to intervene on their behalf with God. The Encyclopedia Judaica article on Hasidism states:
The zaddik performs a double task: he brings man nearer to God and he brings down God's bounty to man. The zaddik must be supported by his followers. This financial assistance is not for the sake of the zaddik but for the sake of those privileged to help him. By supporting the zaddik with their worldly goods his followers become attached to him through his dependence on them, which he readily accepts in his love for them. Their welfare thus becomes his and his prayers on their behalf can the more readily be answered.
  • Hasidic Jews developed innovative ideas in Jewish theology, such as the idea that all of the world is actually God. Depending on how this idea was preached and interpreted, it could give rise to either pantheism or panentheism. These beliefs were attacked as blasphemy. Pantheism today is still generally considered false by Orthodox Judaism; however panentheistic theology is now considered acceptable.
  • The Hasidic doctrine of bittul ha-yesh, which is the belief that ones entire existence is only to do what God wants, was held to be dangerous, as it could lead to immoral behaviour.

A bitter struggle soon arose between traditional observant Jews and the newer Hasidim. At the head of the Orthodox party stood Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon. In 1772, when the first secret circles of Hasidim appeared in Lithuania, the rabbinic kahal ("council") of Wilna, with the approval of Rabbi ben Solomon, arrested the local leaders of the sect, and excommunicated its adherents. Letters were sent from Wilna to the rabbis of other communities calling upon them to make war upon the "godless sect."

In many places persecutions were instituted against the Hasidim. The appearance in 1780 of the first works of Hasidic literature created alarm among the Orthodox. At the council of rabbis held in the village of Zelva, government of Grodno, in 1781, it was resolved to uproot Hasidism. In the official letters issued by the council, the faithful were ordered to expel the Hasidim from every Jewish community, to regard them as members of another faith, to hold no social intercourse with them, not to intermarry with them, and not to bury their dead.

Hasidism in the south of eastern Europe had established itself so firmly in the various communities that it had no fear of persecution. The main sufferers were the northern Hasidim. Their leader, Rabbi Zalman, attempted to allay the anger of the Mitnaggedim and of Elijah Gaon.

On the death of the latter in 1797 the exasperation of the Mitnagdim became so great that they resolved to denounce the leaders of the Hasidim to the Russian government as dangerous agitators and teachers of heresy. In consequence twenty-two Hasidic Jews were arrested in Wilna and other places. Hasidic Rabbi Zalman was arrested at his court in Liozna and brought to St. Petersburg (1798). There he was kept in the fortress and was examined by a secret commission, but he and the other leaders were soon released by order of Paul I. The Hasidim remained, however, under "strong suspicion." Two years later Zalman was again transported to St. Petersburg, through the further denunciation of his antagonists, particularly of Abigdor, formerly rabbi of Pinsk. Immediately after the accession to the throne of Alexander I., however, Zalman was released, and was given liberty to proclaim his religious teachings, which from the standpoint of the government were found to be harmless (1801). Thereafter Zalman openly led the White-Russian or Chabad Hasidim until his death, toward the end of 1812. He had fled from the government of Moghilef to that of Poltava, in consequence of the French invasion.

The struggle of rabbinism with Hasidism in Lithuania and White Russia led to the formation of the latter sect in those regions into separate religious organizations; these existing in many towns alongside of those of the Mitnagdim. In the south-western region the Hasidim almost completely crowded out the Mitnagdim.

By the mid-1800s most of non-Hasidic Judaism had discontinued its struggle with Hasidism and had reconciled itself to the establishment of the latter as an accomplished fact. Gradually the Mitnagdim and the Hasidim began to intermarry, which practise had formerly been strictly forbidden. Today, Hasidic Judaism is seen as a mainstream part of Orthodox Judaism in specific, and of Judaism in general.

See also

Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04