Early Hasidism: Some Old/New Questions

This chapter looks at some old and new questions on early hasidism. In reopening the two great questions—hasidism's origins and its success—contemporary scholarship has negated almost all the once clearly established answers. One can no longer say that hasidism began because of persecution, especially not that it arose in reaction to the Chmielnicki massacre a century earlier or its long aftermath, as was once widely claimed. Nor can one say that hasidism was primarily or necessarily a reaction to Sabbateanism. What, then, is left by way of explanation? The chapter then considers four questions about the beginning and success of hasidism. How and why did hasidism begin? What was the secret of its great success and rapid spread? What, if anything, is new in hasidism? How are the parameters of the movement to be defined—who is and who is not a hasid? From the perspective of the current state of research, the chapter answers each of these questions, identifying the present stand.