Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) and Hasidism: Is There Room for a Jewish Vernacular in the Modern...
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Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) and Hasidism: Is There Room for a Jewish Vernacular in the Modern World? Moses Mendelssohn, often considered progenitor
Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) and Hasidism: Is There Room for
a Jewish Vernacular in the Modern World? Moses Mendelssohn, often
considered progenitor of Haskalah, hated Yiddish. Zhargon and say
it as doomed to fade away as Jews became citizens (political
emancipation) and as they became more European. Hasidism emerges
around the same time and elevates the status of Yiddish.
Slide 2
HEVRUTA: Shmuel Niger, one of the foremost scholars of Yiddish
Studies in the 20 th century.Shmuel Niger Yiddish literature is
unique in this one respect, that the needs of a community played
the main role in its formation until recent times; Yiddish
literature emerged because of external needs, not from the
innermost impulse and burning of individuals thirsty for
expression. Questions: Is Yiddish literature unique in this way?
Think about other literatures that may function similarly. Why is
this the case? Is this a question of language/literature or of the
ideology of writing? Why this quote for a discussion on
Haskalah?
Slide 3
Key Terms in Understanding 17 th and 18 th Century European
Jewish History and Yiddish Culture Where are Yiddish-speaking Jews?
Hapsburg Empire Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth (mid 16 th c until
1792) Alsace, Hamburg, Amsterdam Why did Jews move to Poland?
Aristocracy invites Jews to help with economic infrastructure. (15
th -18 th c.) Jewish jobs: tax collectors, moneylenders, trading
class (mostly in Hapsburg empire), international trade, tavern
keepers. Chmelnitsky Uprising/Massacres: Ukrainian national hero,
Jewish mass murderer. Development of moneyed class, middlemen
between Polish aristocracy and Ukrainian peasantry Yiddish-speaking
Jews have a lot of autonomy: Jews have autonomy and power over:
Education Religion Law: who sits on a Jewish court (bet din)?
Rabbis halacha. Community structures (local politics) Media (books,
the town gossip)/Art and culture Jews and non-Jews interact: In the
market Real estate transactions In the management of the estates
(interacting down on the social spectrum) In the negotiations for
privileges to hold arms, live in a town, pay taxes. The Jew
negotiator (lobbyist): shtadtlan (always a man) Jewish women
interact with non Jews in the marketplace. (piece work)
Slide 4
HEVRUTA: What is Haskalah? What is emancipation? 2 Definitions
By the term "enlightenment" we denote secularization of knowledge,
ending the monopoly of religion and its representatives on sources
of authority and on the media of knowledge dissemination; the
development of a new value system that added new moral and
knowledge obligations to those required by Jewish tradition; and
the creation of a "literary republic" composed of people and
institutions who would research, establish, and spread knowledge on
the basis of reason and secular principles. The fundamental
objective of the Haskalah was to modernize Jewishness by creating a
secular, but still distinctly Jewish, culture that could undergird
a modern, secular Jewish identity. The opponents to this were both
religious and secular. Where is the Haskalah? How does it looks
different in various national contexts? When is it? How is it
transmitted?
Slide 5
Haskalah and Yiddish Culture The literature of the Haskalah was
both catalyst and by-product of the social, ideological, and
cultural changes in contemporary Jewish society. Its role in
disseminating the values of the Enlightenment, modernization, and
Europeanization is inextricably bound up with its development and
the expansion of its reading public. Iris Parush Yiddish maskilic
literature: Why would someone write Maskilic literature in Yiddish?
Who is the audience? To what end? I.J. Linetsky, I.M. Dik, Shomer.
Note that this is the EXCEPTION not the rule among Maskilic
writers. Most of them look down on these writers. Writing in
Yiddish, they could take cover under women. To my female readers
Maintaining the gendered order of culture while simultaneously
subverting it. Q: So why dont the Maskilim advocate for the
abandonment of both Jewish languages, Hebrew and Yiddish, and call
for Jews to be like their fellow countrymen? Secular Hebrew
literature emerges: Haskalah (enlightenment) to Tekhiyah (revival)
But 19 th c. Hebrew reading circle is small: 100,000 out of 4
million readers. HISTORIOGRAPHIC DEBATE: Seidman: Enlightenment
only heightened the existing gendered hierarchy between Yiddish and
Hebrew and therefore between Jewish women and men. Yiddish is still
lower status; Hebrew higher status. Parush: NO, there was a radical
shiftwomen gaining power. And whether this reading took them
through the classics of European novels or the popular works in
Yiddish, these women acted unknowingly or not as agents of
modernization. Iris Parush
Slide 6
HEVRUTA Stories, it was once believed, offer a temporary
reprieve from deathBut stories have never enjoyed autonomy within
the Jewish tradition. (Roskies, pp. 20-21) What does this mean? Why
have stories never enjoyed autonomy in Jewish tradition?
Storytelling connected to Jewish law Halacha (Jewish law) and
aggadah (Jewish lore/storytelling)
Slide 7
Key Terms for Hasidic Yiddish Culture Hasidism: piety,
fundamentalismback to fundamentals of the religion; trying to
interpret the original intention as revealed in original texts and
live by them. Aesthetics comes backmusic, joy, Mitnagdism: opponent
to Hasidism (traditional rabbinic Judaism) Shabbetai Tsvi: false
messiah; claims to be the messiahbut alas, is not. (1666-7)
Kabbalah: structure of Jewish mysticism (key text Zohar) Pogroms:
(From the Russian) anti-Jewish popular violence. Chmelnitsky: the
king of anti-Jewish popular violence OR Ukrainian national hero.
(1648-9) Baal Shem: Teacher; occult; Jewish shaman; healers;
inspirers; prophets; explain the unexplainable; storytelling;
mysticism; like a lama. Spiritual leader/teacher. Rabbi/Yeshivas
led by a Rabbi (teacher, legal scholar, community leaderrabbi
school (yeshiva)learnedness. (Rabbi): Jewish law, halacha, this is
how you should act. This is what the law says. Training grants
someone rabbinic status Tsadik/Hasidic Courts led by a Tsadik
(leader of Hasidic community) (rebbe), not necessarily yeshiva
valedictorian; not necessarily a legal scholar; righteous conduct
(not necessarily generated by law); dynastic!!!; sage/wise person;
(implies followers); charismatic leadership
Slide 8
More Key Terms for Hasidism Tikkun: to repair key concept in
Hasidism; the world is broken; creation as destruction. Need to
repair. Tikkun olam (repairing the world): environmentalism,
charity, volunteerism, being nice. Cosmic: fixing the mystical
world. Jews have a special responsibility to fix the world.
Eschatology=messianism. Kavanah (Hasidic theological concept):
intentionality, purpose vs. ritualism/halacha/law. Why do 18 th c.
Jews pray? Devekut: cleaving, clinging, or binding. Trying to get
closer to the divine. PaRDeS (Pshat, Remez, Drash, Sod): (Simple,
Looks for clues (interpretation), allegory/analogy, secret/hidden
reading) Sefirot (Ten Emanations of God), p. 33 Roskies) (show web
chart) Immanence (omnipresent, here and now, always here, mundane)
vs. Transcendence (out there, away from here, heavenly) vs.
panentheism vs. pantheism Hasid means "pious" and is employed in
classical Jewish sources to designate one whose spiritual devotion
extends beyond the technical requirements of Jewish religious law.
The term came to denote an adherent of the popular East European
Jewish religious movement whose history and doctrines are outlined
below.
Slide 9
The Baal Shem Tov Okopy to Miedzhebizh 1700-1760
Slide 10
Slide 11
Slide 12
Slide 13
Slide 14
Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav 1772-1810 Miedzhebidzh to Bratslav
(Breslov) to Uman
Slide 15
The Lost Princess Start with looking at the original text in
Hebrew/Yiddish. What can we learn from it? What is ParDES Who is
the princess? Do we understand how it fits into Kabbalah? Do we
agree with Roskies? How is this significant for Yiddish
culture.