Hasidism and the Kahal in Eastern Europe

This chapter assesses the relationship between hasidism and the kahal in eastern Europe. Contrary to the opinion of a number of historians, neither the revolutionary or radical religious teachings of the new movement, nor its alleged opposition to the oligarchic structure of the traditional leadership institutions of the kahal, were the reason for the eruption of the anti-hasidic polemic of 1771–2. Rather, it was the personal intervention of Elijah, the Gaon of Vilna, which brought it about. The Gaon of Vilna, who was not a communal officer as such, and who was described in all the documents of the polemic as ‘the hasid’—a mystically oriented pietist—was himself the moving force behind the campaign to eradicate the heretical ‘sect’ (kat) of the hasidim, a violent campaign which lasted for a quarter of a century. The first initiative to oppose hasidism may have come from the leaders of the community of Shklov, but it did not gain wider support until the Gaon of Vilna was mobilized to lend it his personal authority.