Chassidism

Yeats to that Newark Jewish writer, Philip Roth, using the stories and sayings of Israel Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Chassidism, as our Rosetta Stone.

"It should be clear to us that Judaism is one of the fundamental aspects of the human being within us, one of the foundations of the 'I' in each and every one of us." Gordon's approach, that of the educated Jew to individual and national restoration of the Jewish people, draws not only from the socialist viewpoint and from the Enlightenment, but also from the Bible, kabbalah, and chassidism (5):

Her knowledge of Judaism, the Jewish textual tradition, Jewish life, Zionism, antisemitism, Chassidism, German-Jewish literature, Yiddish literature and more, in relation to Kafka and Prague, is quite extensive and impressive.

Already in the late 1980s there was a struggle for control of the community between those who favoured the continuation of appointing the Chief Rabbi from the Mitnagdim tradition and those who wanted a Rebbe who practiced Chassidism (Kaplan 1991).

See for example, Avraham Greenbaum, The Wings of the Sun: Traditional Jewish Healing in Theory and Practice (New York: Breslov Research Center, 1995) 58: "Chassidism had restored to the forefront of Judaism the concept of the Tzaddik as a spiritual leader who guides people in healing the maladies of their souls and fires them to serve God.