The Hasidic Managing Editor as an Agent of Culture

This chapter traces the history of hasidic books and the individuals who saw them into print. In their humble way, they played a crucial part in the process of converting oral traditions to literary documents and thus of constructing not only the collective memory of the hasidic movement but also people's critical perception of its history. Much of the vast literature of hasidism was derived from the verbal addresses delivered by the leaders of the movement to the gatherings of their followers at their ‘court’, usually for the third sabbath meal or on festival days. The address of the hasidic leader would be committed to memory first and only later, once the holy day was over, would the ‘court’ scribe record it in writing. The outcome was rarely scrutinized, edited, or even approved by the ‘author’. Since the oral traditions of early hasidism are no longer retrievable in their original form, and since the only access to them is through the literary adaptations and translations in which they have been preserved, it is important to shed some light on the often obscure processes of their recension, publication, and dissemination by apparently minor figures whose agency was nevertheless indispensable: the hasidic managing editors.