Alan Brill - The Spiritual World of a Master of Aw,e Divine Vitality, Theosis, And Healing in the Degel Mahaneh Ephraim

1

The Spiritual World of a Master of Awe:Divine Vitality, Theosis, and Healing

in the Degel Mahaneh Ephraim

Alan Brill, Yeshiva University

Second Draft- 1999

Graetz characterized Hasidism primarily as a popular revivalist movement, one,

which contained elements of superstitious magic and obscurantism. In contrast, twentieth

century scholarship has followed the neo-hasidic views of Buber and Dubnow, presenting

Hasidism as a form of romanticism reflecting modern experiential and pietistic

sensibilities.1 Gershom Scholem's kabbalistic conception of Hasidism, while consistent

with this romantic trend, emphasized the kabbalistic background of this romantic outburst

of experiential piety and mysticism. Scholem's dialectic of history reconfigures Hasidism,

seeing it as a popularist channeling of the myth and symbols of Kabbalah and of Sabbatian

antinominalism into a devotional movement dedicated to finding God in the physical world.2

Accordingly, then, contemporary scholarship, with its view of Hasidism as a romantic

movement based on popularized Kabbalah, has produced elucidations of the quietism and

1Martin Buber, The Origin and Meaning of Hasidism (New York: 1960); Simon Dubnow, Toledot HaHasidut3

(Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1960). On Dubnow's use of the romantic image of Jesus in his characterization of earlyHasidism see R.M. Seltzer, "The Secular Appropriation of Hasidism by an East European Intellectual:Dubnow, Renan, and the Besht," Polin 1 (1986). On the origin of the romantic view of Hasidism see JosephDan, "A Bow to Frumkinian Hasidism" in Modern Judaism 11 (1991). The ideology for these approaches wascreated by Peretz who affirmed the need to mold ethnographic reports into a positivistic and enlightenedfolklore, see Mark W. Kiel, "Vox Populi, Vox Dei: The Centrality of Peretz in Jewish Folkloristics," Polin 7(1992) 88-120.

2Gershom Scholem, "Martin Buber's Interpretation of Hasidism" in The Messianic Idea in Judaism (NewYork: Schocken Books, 1971), 228-250.

2

mysticism of the Maggid of Miedzyrec,3 the social ethos of the court of the Hasidic Zaddik,4

and the classical Safed piety of the Toldot Yaakov Yosef.5 Recently, there has been a trend

in scholarship to return to the nineteenth century's perception of Hasidism as magic, but

now, with a positive evaluation of magic.

Most recently, some scholars relate Hasidism in a panoramic way to renaissance

magic and the magic working baalei shem of Eastern Europe.6 In light of this trend, this

paper will present the magical elements of a single work, the Degel Mahaneh Ephraim,

whose author (henceforth the Degel) is a representative example of the wonder-working

Zaddik. The Degel has a complete worldview that integrates healing, story telling, the

interpretation of dreams, and perceptions of God in the physical world that seems to have

more in common with other faith healers than with mysticism or the Kabbalah.

The Degel describes different types of spiritual experiences; he characterizes his

grandfather the Baal Shem Tov as possessing what may be characterized as strong

3Joseph Weiss, Studies in Eastern European Jewish Mysticism ed. David Goldstein, (London: LittmanLibrary-O.U.P., 1985); Rifka Shatz, Hasidism as Mysticism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).

4Rachel Elior, "Between Yesh and Ayin: The Doctrine of the Zaddik in the Works of Jacob Isaac, The Seer ofLublin" in Jewish History: Essays in Honour of Chimen Abramsky (London: 1988), 393-45; David Asaf,Derekh Ha-Malkhut: R. Israel MiRyzhin and his Place in the History of Hasidism (Jerusalem: ZalmanShazar, 1997) [Hebrew]. Much scholarship is still needed in order to account for the world recorded by JiriLanger, Nine Gates to the Chassidic Mysteries (New York: David McKay, 1961).

5Mordechai Pachter, "Traces of the Influence of R. Elijah de Vidas's Reshit Hokhmah upon the Writings of R.Jacob Joseph of Polonnoye" in Studies in Jewish Mysticism, Philosophy, and Ethical Literature PresentedTo Isaiah Tishby eds. J. Dan and J. Hacker, (Jerusalem: 1986), 569-592; Mendel Piekarz, The Beginnings ofHasidism (Jerusalem: Bialek Press, 1978); idem, Between Ideology and Reality: Humility, Ayin, Self-Negation and Devekut in Hasidic Thought (Jerusalem: Bialek Press, 1994); Zev Gries, Conduct Literature: ItsHistory and Place in the Life of Beshtian Hasidism (Jerusalem: Bialek Press, 1989).

6Moshe Idel, Hasidism: Between Ecstasy and Magic (Albany: Suny Press, 1995); Immanuel Etkes, "TheRole of Magic and Baalei Shem in Ashkenazic Society in the Late Seventeenth and Early EighteenthCenturies" in Zion 60:1 (1995), 69-104; Moshe Rosman, Founder of Hasidism: A Quest for the HistoricalBaal Shem Tov (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996).

3

shamanic characteristics, including communication with the dead, trance states, and the

power of clairvoyance. In contrast, the Degel portrays himself as a faith healer using the

energy of a universal life force to heal the sick. An analysis of the healing techniques,

dreams, and worldview of the Degel, shows that he is not shamanic. Rather, he uses

techniques for channeling energy within his rabbinic profession.

Furthermore, the Degel requires those seeking to find this universal life force to

maintain an ascetic life, in order to sense the divine vitality in the physical world. Life in the

world is seen as being “lost at sea,” and reaching the divine vitality leads one to a safe

shore. The divine becomes embodied as a theosis in which the divine literally indwells in

the zaddik's body.

Degel Mahaneh Ephraim: Author and Context

Rabbi Moses Hayim Ephraim of Sudylkow (c. 1740-1800?), son of Adel, the

daughter of the Baal Shem Tov, and brother of the enigmatic Baruch b. Jehiel of

Medzhibozh,7 was a preacher, a rabbi who rendered legal decisions (posek), and a

zaddik.8 His work the Degel Mahaneh Ephraim,9 is an outstanding text of early Hasidism

7One cannot safely use the work of his brother because it is difficult to ascertain details about R. Barukh,based on the current state of research. See A. Shisha, "On the Book Bozina di-Nehora" in Alei Sefer,Volume 8 (1980), 155-157; he claims a late nineteenth century forgery of some the sayings of R. Baruch inthe Bozina di-Nehora (Lvov: 1880); Raya Haran, "On The Copying and Transmission of Hasidic Letters," Zion56 #3 (1991), 299-320, shows the unreliability of the letters describing R. Barukh; The traditional work aboutR. Barukh is Margaliot MiLvov, Sefer Mekor Barukh: Toldot R. Barukh MiMedziebuz, (Zamosch: 1931).

8Moshe Hallamish, Encyclopedia Judaica Volume 12 col 430; M. Gutman, Geza Kodesh (1951); S.Dubnow, Toldot Hahasidut (Tel Aviv:Dvir 1930-1932); I. Tishby "The Messianic Idea and Messianic Trends inthe Growth of Hasidism," Zion 32 (1967), 1-45; J. Weiss, "On the Beginnings of Hasidism," in Zion 16(1951), 46-105; A translation of some of his homilies is found in Jay Rock, "Rabbi Moses Ephraim ofSudlikov's Degel Mahaneh Ephraim" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California at Berkeley, 1986); Elliot R.Wolfson, “Walking as a Sacred Duty: Theological Transformation of Social reality in Early Hasidism,” Alongthe Path (Albany: Suny Press, 1995), 102-4.

4

because he wrote it himself, and because it does not come from the school of the Maggid

of Miedzyrec.10

The Degel's identifies with the conservative Polish feudal system that controlled the

Ukrainian countryside and was rejecting the encroachments of modernity. Podolia was

resettled and prospered under Polish magnates who rebuilt the area after the Ukrainian

uprising of 1768.11 Limited to the very mild cosmopolitanism of a Polish private town-

without the enlightened thinking developing within Vilna, Skhlov, Brody or Warsaw- Hasidic

thought easily espoused a rejection of enlightenment education, social theory, leisure

activities, and scientific knowledge.12 R. Moses Hayim Ephraim of Sudylkow signed a

9n.p., 1808. The Hebrew of the text is awkward in syntax and non-grammatical at points. There is greaterrepetition than usual in homilies. The same thought is stated in Genesis as the meaning of the Torah usedin creation, is repeated in Exodus as the meaning of Revelation, then it is repeated in Leviticus as themeaning of ritual, and again in Numbers and Deuteronomy as the meaning of Moses' Torah. Almost everyidea is repeated with regularity.

The exegesis is based on the mystical elements in the commentary of R. Hayyim Ben Attar (1696-1743), Or ha-Hayyim; see 14a, 19a. On Ben Attar's closeness to Hasidism see below, footnote 167. R.Nathanson writes in his approbation to the Degel "that some of the comments are close to the true peshatof the Torah," and R. Nathanson further mentions that he wrote similar things in his youth.

10Weiss raised the question of its authenticity as a representation of the teachings of the Besht becausethe Degel himself used the Zafnat Pa'aneah of R. Jacob Joseph a secondary source and paraphrased it bylimiting the teaching to the Zaddik alone. See Joseph Weiss, "The Beginnings of Hasidism" in Zion 16(1951); Ada Rapoport-Albert, "God and the Zaddik as the Two Focal Points of Hasidic Worship," reprinted inEssential Papers on Hasidism ed. Gershon David Hundret (New York: New York University Press, 1991),327, shows that the paraphrase is consistent with the thought of R. Jacob Joseph. For my purpose, thespiritual world of the Degel himself, does not have to be in continuity with earlier thinkers.

11Gershon Hundert, "Early Hasidism in Context" lecture given at Harvard University March 14, 1995;Rosman, Founder of Hasidism chapter 3; Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History (Toronto: University of TorontoPress, 1988), 189-190, points out that these Polish magnates who returned still held 46% of the land and54% of the industry in 1904; See M. N. Litinsky, Korot Podoliah ve-Kadmoniot haYehudim Sham (Odessa:1895). Raphael Mahler, Hasidism and the Jewish Enlightenment (Philadelphia: J.P.S., 1985), 10. Economicwealth was based on God's gift and the work of the gentiles, and not on self-sufficiency and initiative. "WhenIsrael are occupied with Torah then the non-Jews do the work of Israel as a slave for a master," Degel 38b,based on Isaiah (60:22) as interpreted by Berakhot 35b. See Mahler, 262-267 on appealing to wonderworkers for economic concerns.

12As a case in point, the Degel gave a sermon on the Sabbath before Passover 1782 pointing to the needto fight the heretical views of the unbelievers. On the debate between the traditionalist feudal hasidim andthe hedonistic and materialistic bourgeois life of the Maskilim, see Steve Zipperstein, Jews of Odessa

5

contract in 1798 with "the chiefs of the holders of arenda (lessees from the princes) in the

neighboring villages." They would "submit to his authority in all that he might say," and he

would "help them with his teaching and prayer which effectively aids all who cleave to him"

in return for 6 guilden of every thousand of their income.13

An important element of Hasidism was its anti-modern trends especially its practice

of folk healing, in opposition to the modern Western practice of medicine.14 As Arthur

Green notes, the zaddik's role as healer and holy man, particularly in times of illness or

childbirth, was part of the Eastern European culture. "Here he [the zaddik] was acting as

priestly holy man, in a way that probably would have been quite familiar to the [Eastern]

Orthodox clergy just across the town square."15 This prototype of the elite wonder working

(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), chapter 1; Raphael Mahler, Hasidism and the JewishEnlightenment (Philadelphia: J.P.S., 1985); Israel Zinberg, A History of Jewish Literature (New York: Ktav,1976) vol. 12 chapter 8; On the anti-modernity of the Hasidim in Beloruss see David Fishman, Russia's FirstModern Jews: The Jews of Skhlov: (New York: N.Y.U. Press, 1994) chap. 6.

13Shmuel Ettinger, "The Hasidic Movement-Reality and Ideals" 236 reprinted in Essential Papers onHasidism ed. Gershon David Hundret (New York: New York University Press, 1991); A. Kahana, SeferHasidim (Warsaw: 1922), 304. It is interesting to note that a rabbinic appointment included the responsibilityfor the intercession by prayer before the Divine as part of one’s duties. From the fourteen signatories, on thiscontract alone, he earned at least 84 guilden per thousand. In contrast, the Encyclopedia Judaica writesthat he lived a life of poverty and humility due to his failure to become a popular Hasidic leader.

14There was a period in which some Jews rejected modern medicine, just as various Protestant groupsdid. Other contemporaries who rejected medicine include R. Nahman of Bratzlav, R. Pinhas of Koretz, andR. Levi of Berdichev. Part of the social patterns that created the Mitnagdim includes their acceptance (withsome reservations by the Vilna Gaon) of modern medicine.

15A. Green, "Typologies of Leadership and the Hasidic Zaddiq," Jewish Spirituality Volume 2 ed. ArthurGreen (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1987), 141. There are many works in Russian and other Slaviclanguages that provide bibliographies on spiritual healing in areas that possibly influenced Podolia. Works inEnglish include on Poland, Z. Libera, A. Palvich "Ethnomedicine and the Pilca" in Poland at the 12thCongress of Anthropological and Ethnological Science ed. Slawoj Szyniciewicz (Wroclaw: 1988). OnRussia, Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, ed. Russian Traditional Culture: Religion, Gender, and Customary Law(Armonk N.Y: M.E. Sharpe, 1992); On Romania, Mircea Eliade, Zalmoxis: The Vanishing God (Chicago:University of Chicago, 1970); On Tartars, Thomas A. Sebock, Frances J. Ingemanns, Studies inCherinis:The Supernatural (New York: WennerGren Foundation, 1956). On southern Slavs, Richard and EvaBlum, Health and Healing in Rural Greece (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1965); P. Kemp, HealingRitual: Studies in the Technique and Tradition of the Southern Slavs (London: Faber and Faber, 1936). Itwould be instructive to compare books of baalei-shem to these works.

6

rabbi is important for the Degel Mahaneh Ephraim in his own theoretical presentation of

Hasidism.16

Shamanistic Ascents and Faith Healing

Recent studies, which have situated the Baal Shem Tov both historically and

phenomenologically within traditions of folk medicine and magic, show that the early

Hasidic leaders were carrying on the tradition in which Rabbinic leadership was involved in

preserving the knowledge contained in folk-medical works, including natural medical

knowledge (refuot), special remedies (segulot), and amulet writing (shemot).17 Someone

who had proficiency in using the divine name was called a master of the name (baal

shem).18 The books of the Baalei Shem, (including the Baal Shem Tov) discuss demons,

natural medical cures, amulets and shemot, or warnings of danger before adjuring

angels.19 In contrast, the Degel does not discuss demons or natural cures. Instead, the

special status of the Zaddik is based on his connection to the inner light of Torah and his

sense of the divine vitality within objects that cures and gives power over nature.

16218b. On the elitism of the Degel see Mendel Piekarz, Between Ideology and Reality:Humility, Ayin,Self-Negation and Devekut in Hasidic Thought [Hebrew], 203, 209.

17Moshe Idel, Hasidism: Between Ecstasy and Magic (Albany: Suny Press, 1995); Immanuel Etkes, "TheRole of Magic and Baalei Shem in Ashkenazic Society in the Late Seventeenth and Early EighteenthCenturies" in Zion 60:1 (1995) pp. 69-104.

18On the magical cultural climate in Ashkenaz see Herman Pollack, Jewish Folkways in Germanic Lands(1648-1806) (Cambridge, M.I.T. Press, 1971) chapter 6. A traditional collection of many sources iscontained in Moshe Hillel, Baalei Shem (Jerusalem: 1993).

19There are no mentions of specific diseases either but one can ascribe that difference to his claimedgenre of Biblical commentary.

7

Functionally, the Zaddik's own spiritual energy has replaced both natural healing and

kabbalistic shemot. In common with the Baalei Shem literature the Degel discusses dream

interpretation, ascents of the soul, and some talismanic astrological magic. While the

Baalei Shem literature claims that the world works by natural or astrological means, the

Degel sees nature as consisting of divine vitality, in which every object has this life giving

energy as light or sparks.

P. Kemp made the important observation that spiritual healing in Eastern Europe is

divided by regional and not ethnic differences.20 Similarly, Moshe Idel notes the similarities

between the ascents of the soul practiced by the Baal Shem Tov and those experienced by

the shamans in the Moldavian Carpats.21 If this comparison between the Baal Shem Tov

and the Eastern European shamanic faith healers is valid, then from the perspective of the

phenomenology of religion, the shamanic experience of an ascent of the soul found in

Hasidism is different from kabbalistic mysticism. The shamanic elements would be more

important for understanding Hasidic phenomena than the antecedents of Hasidic

terminology in Lurianic, Heikhalot, or Abulafian writings.22

20P. Kemp, Healing Ritual, 181.

21M. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives p. 321 note 137, referring to Mircea Eliade, Zalmoxis: TheVanishing God (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1970), pp. 191-194. Idel in note 133 mentions the parallelbetween the cosmic column linking the lower paradise to other levels of reality in both Hasidism andshamanism. Yet, Eliade himself in this discussion of the healers and sorcerers of Romania writes that theypossess ecstatic qualities of oracle dreams, trances, and ascents, without most of the other characteristicsof shamans including: initiatory malady, costumes, ritual death and resurrection, or the ability to turn into ananimal. Furthermore, in reference to Rumanian Orthodox ecstatic healers who invoke God and the saintsEliade writes that they "lack all of the constituent elements of shamanism," 202-203.

22The use of Kabbalah in the Degel is limited to a few set sefirotic metaphors and a few elements of theLurianic prayer book. Only a few works are cited, including a Lurianic prayer book, Toldot Yaakov Yosef, OrHayyim and Brit Menuhah in the name of the Baal Shem Tov. In addition, he seems to have consulted anEin Yaakov on the Aggadot in the Talmud and possibly a Zohar or a Shnei Luhot Habrit. Most importantly,he used one of the recensions of Shaar ha-Yihudim (Koretz: 1783) on Lurianic kavvanot, see 13b. The Degelcontains a popular orientation towards the Lurianic prayer book with many citations of Leshem Yihud and

8

There are various definitions of shamanism ranging from those who limit it to

Siberian healers alone to those who use it as a cross-cultural phenomenon. Eliade

provides a narrow definition of shamanism as a technique of ecstasy leading to a journey

or flight of the soul based on prior initiatory malady, costumes, ritual death and resurrection,

or the ability to turn into an animal.23 A broader definition of shamanism includes an altered

state of consciousness based upon entering the realm of the spirits and the dead, which is

used for out of body traveling, healing, dreams, possession, future knowledge, and

knowledge of the dead.24 Related to these shamanic traditions are various religious

practices including those of medicine men and of healing priests who serve communities.25

The shamanic journey to the realm of the dead and spirits is undertaken for a

specific purpose after preparatory fasting, intoxication, and sleep deprivation. Mental

concentration is increased and shamans maintain control of the experience, keeping their

sense of self intact when they encounter the dead and the spirits. They can enter or leave

the experience at will and are partially able to determine the type of imagery and

experience they will have.

In contrast, the mystical ascent as found in the Kabbalah and as described by most

hamtakat hadinim;see 274b. He is also acquainted with the Lurianic doctrine of gilgulim. On knowledge ofLurianic kavvanot in early Hasidism, see the dissertation in progress by Menahem Kalush at the HebrewUniversity.

23Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (Princeton: Princeton U.P., 1976); RogerWalsh, The Spirit of Shamanism (Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1990). Jane Monnig Atkinson, "ShamanismsToday" Annual Review of Anthropology 21 (1992) 307-30 is an important essay surveying the state of thefield.

24Holger Kalweit, Dreamtime and Inner Space: The World of the Shaman (Boston: Shambhala, 1988).Carlo Ginzburg, Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witch's Sabbath (New York: Viking-Penguin, 1992) sees auniversal folk culture in Europe of witches and sorcerers fighting spirits of the dead.

25Roger Walsh, The Spirit of Shamanism, 742.

9

mystics is quite different. In a mystic state, arousal is decreased and the mystic is calm,

maintaining heightened emotional pleasure of divine bliss and terror of the dark night of the

soul. In shamanism, arousal is increased and there is no mystical union or merging with the

divine. Mystics generally do not have out of body experiences; instead they lose awareness

of their bodies, occurring with various degrees of egolessness and loss of the self. Idel

notes that the ascent of the soul in Heikhalot and Hasidut is different than the types of

mental ascent of Bonaventure in Christian mysticism or that of kavvanah in the Kabbalistic

tradition.26

In light of this dichotomy, the experiences of the Baal Shem Tov and the Degel

Mahaneh Ephraim cannot simultaneously, in the same act, be both mystical and shamanic.

If it is shown that they have controlled their aroused altered states of consciousness, those

experiences are not mystical even if they use the mystical language of Cordovero and the

Zohar. It is important to state clearly that the Neoplatonic ascent in Kabbalah and the

ascent in Hasidism are possibly worlds apart even if they share a similar textual tradition.

The actual relationship is more complex because the Degel combines both mystical and

shamanic elements in his system.27

In contrast to the literary nature of the Kabbalah, shamanism is generally an oral

tradition. In the case of the Degel we find an oral tradition with an authoritative reliance on

26Walsh, The Spirit of Shamanism.; Idel, Kabbalah p. 317, n. 88.

27Studies on shamanism are usually limited to oral religious cultures and those on mystics to literatecultures. Yet some literate mystics, such as Julian of Norwich are far from a calm Neoplatonic ascent orBuddhist samadhi. But this proves the point, Julian of Norwich has a different experience than Augustine orBonaventure even if she uses some of their language. For a four-level model of the mind that creates acongruence between altered states of consciousness, including the shamanic and mystic see StanislovGrof, The Adventure of Self Discovery (Albany: SUNY Press, 1988); idem, Realms of the HumanUnconscious (New York: Viking Press, 1975).

10

the spoken statements of his grandfather, the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov is

described as having ascents of the soul and communication with spirits that are similar to

shamanic experiences, but without a prior initiatory malady, costumes, or ritual death and

resurrection.

R. Moses Hayim Ephraim relates a story of shamanic ascents to higher worlds

experienced by the whole circle of early Hasidism, and not just the Baal Shem Tov. The

Degel identifies R. Yehudah the mokhiah of Polnah absorbed in the midst of an ascent,

which he immediately recognized because of his familiarity with heavenly ascents.

I saw R. Yehudah Leib the mokhiah of Polnah, who returned from the higherworld in intensely high and elevated [spirits]. I was in his house, and leapedup quickly with all my strength and requested that he bless me. I said to himthat I know that he had returned from the higher world. He took his two hands,and placing them on my head, blessed me. I said to him that I would give hima message (kvit) for my grandfather in the higher world that he should blesshim there, for the blessing, which he blessed me here.28

Heavenly ascents give the ascendant the ability to bless and to channel the blessing to

others. In addition, the Degel considered the communications in an ascent an actual

communication with the Besht and assumed, as in most shamanic traditions, that people

are able to converse with the dead during the heavenly ascent.29

28283b-284a.The shaman has a reduced awareness of the environment, though in some cases theshaman can still communicate with spectators. In this case, however, the communication was after hisreturn.

29On heavenly ascents, see Ioan Couliano, Out of this World (Boston:Shambhala, 1991); within hasidismsee Naftali Lowenthal, Communicating the Infinite: The Emergence of the Habad School (Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press, 1990). See the instructional formula for an ascent to the Garden of Eden (a similar versionwas probably known in early Hasidism) in Sefer Mifalot Elokim, (Jerusalem: Bakal, 1972) 14a-b. One isinstructed write on a leaf an oath to the angels to bring one to heaven. Then one fasts for three days andplaces the leaf under one's pillow. See Heinrich Flesch, "Sympathetische Mittel und Rezepte aus demBuche Mifalot Elokim des Rabbi Naftali Kohen und Rabbi Joel Baal Shem" MGJV XLII (1912) 41-48.Heavenly ascents and the vision of the Heikhalot continued to be a source of religious experience andcreativity and did not cease with the rise of the theosophic and ecstatic Kabbalot. Ascents that bearsimilarities to the shamanic ascents found in Hasidism, and Heikhalot are to be found in German Pietist,Zohar, Tikkune Zohar, Brit Menuhah, Cordovero, Luria, Vilna Gaon, and Magical texts.

11

One finds a similar process at the core of daily prayers containing "an ascent

through higher worlds in the morning prayers".30 In addition, the Besht ascended to heaven

by adjuring, or invoking the angels in oaths in 1746, 1749, and 1757. Related stories in the

Shivhei Habesht record that the shamanic yihudim of the Baal Shem Tov during prayer

caused thousands of dead souls to flock to him and that he fell into ecstatic trances.31 The

structure of ascent during prayer is similar to a heavenly ascent, and while praying one

would also be able to communicate with the dead, intercede in heaven with the angels, and

fight cosmic battles to ward off evil. The Besht's prayers seem closer to a shamanic ascent

than to a mystical ascent based on Safed Kabbalah.32

Another shamanic aspect in the zaddik's role is the ability to gain knowledge by

clairvoyance.

"And God saw that the light was good" (Genesis 1:4) The Midrash teachesthat “’it was good’, means good to store up for the zaddikim who use it inevery generation" [BT Hagigah 12a]. I heard from my grandfather [the BaalShem Tov] (may he be remembered for a blessing, his soul in Eden, zllh'h)asked where the [original divine] light and he said that Hashem, has hiddenit in the Torah. Through it zaddikim in each generation use this light, that is,by means of Torah which has in it that light, they are able to see (lehistakel)in it from one end of the world until the other end, as literally (mamash) my

3037b.

31 In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov eds. Dan Ben-Amos & Jerome R. Mintz (New York: Schocken, 1984),on the ascent of 1757, see 54-58; on souls coming during prayer, see 46. On the ascents, see M. Rosman,Founder of Hasidism chapter 6. In addition, there were attempts to control the princes of the nations on thenew moon of Nisan by the Degel himself. "God showed me on the new moon of Nisan 1788, in Medziebuz:Why is the first of Nisan the new year for kings? (Rosh Hashanah 2a.) Because on this month the ten sefirotare the secret of the skull of the king which includes all aspects of the ten sefirot of malkhut, which includesall kingship (malkhut) and government," 99a. On the Maggid inheriting the ability to fight these battles inNisan, see, Shlomo Lutzker, Dibrat Shlomo (Jerusalem: 1955), introduction; also printed as the introductionto Dov Baer of Mezhirech, Maggid Devarav Le-Yaakov, ed. Rivkah Shatz (Jerusalem: 1976).

32 On the relationship of the Heikhalot to shamanism, see James R. Davila, "The Heikhalot Literature andShamanism" SBL 1994 Seminar Papers pp. 767-789.

12

own eyes have seen in numerous incidents.33

He then relates an incident in which the Besht knew about the activities of his brother-in-law

R. Gershon Kutover in the land of Israel; he saw that he had temporarily left Israel to attend

a circumcision.34 Rather than letting his readers think this an isolated incident, he adds:

I can cite many cases similar to this and more. Even of how he, in fact, sawfrom one end of the world until the other end, all of which was accomplishedwith the hidden light in the Torah.35

This hidden light is also the Degel's goal in Torah study, even if he has not attained

clairvoyant ability.36

In contrast to the Degel's presentation of the Baal Shem Tov, which bears a close

similarity to the broad category of the shaman and to the Moldavian Carpat healers, the

Degel does not claim for himself these shamanic powers of ascent, clairvoyance, and

communication with the dead. Rather, the Degel's role is that of spiritual healer and mystic.

The Degel distinguishes between the heavenly ascents of the "Baal Shem Tov and his

generation who were on [so high a] level as not to pray at all for their personal needs, only

for the needs of the shekhinah," and the lower level of his own generation, cleaving to the

shekhinah for their own healing needs. The shekhinah is embodied in

the vitality of all the sensations of a person from the source of vitality of all life.[Because of this] I hear and feel (as if it were possible) the pain of the holy

333a. Based on a dream he writes that all cannot have this ability, only zaddikim, see 143a.

343a. An alternate version of this story is contained in Shivhey Habesht ed. Ben-Amos #193. On the extrasensory abilities of Hasidic zaddikim see Aharon Zeitlein, Ha-Metziut Ha-Aharet (Tel Aviv: Yavneh, 1967)168-177. On R. Gershon Kutover see Abraham Joshua Heschel, "Rabbi Gershon Kutover: His Life andImmigration to the Land of Israel" in The Circle of the Baal Shem Tov (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1985),44-112, this story is discussed on 96.

353a.

363a, 8b. On Torah study as seeing the hidden light see below on Torah study.

13

shekhinah... filling her physical wants. The wise will understand

that physical needs are infused with the shekhinah's vitality and will.37 This lower level does

not ascend; instead the shekhinah inheres in the purified body.

The faith healing approach of the Degel is stated in his comments on the verse,

"The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul" (Psalms 19:8), the Degel assumes that

the restoration of the soul by means of Torah pertains to healing the sick.

We see that souls are healed by kabbalistic healings, segulot, divine namesand amulets, which are part of Torah. If one has enough faith then a mercy(hesed),38 or prayer or Torah study alone would be sufficient.

One can be healed without recourse to the ordinary techniques of a baal shem. In order to

heal, one needs faith, characterized here by the Degel as belief in the divine vitality within

physical objects.39

The power for healing and control over nature is contained in the Torah itself, and

the study of Torah gives these powers to the talmid hakham:40

Just as the Creator of All created the natural [realm]41 in the world by meansof wisdom (hokhmah), so too man can create by means of new naturalknowledge (hokhmah). From this one can understand how through thephysical, one can quiet the soul (heshiv nefesh) with Torah. [It is] becausedejection and weakness of the soul (bittul ve hulshat ha-nefesh) comes froma deficiency in one of the natural elements... When the elements are rectifiedto function with complete balance, the soul is quieted to its original point. We

3789a.

38Possibly a reference to any physical act done as a yihud.

392a. On the definition of faith see 56b; 67a; 283a. The name of someone with faith works also, 48a on theBesht. On the use of the name of the Besht, see Idel, Hasidism 74-78.

40On the natural healing powers of the Baal Shem Tov using herbs, blood letting and the spiritual ability toread pulses see In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov eds. Dan Ben-Amos & Jerome R. Mintz (New York:Schocken, 1984) 26, 27, 59, 119, 157, 231, 232, 245.

41[or nature], he is not exact in his use of the definite article.

14

already said "in the beginning" means "with wisdom"42 which is Torah as it iswritten "In wisdom hast Thou made them all" (Psalms 104:24). Therefore, therectification and strengthening of nature is also by means of Torah, becausethere is in the Torah matters of healing also. Understand this.43

Just as physical harmony cures the soul, the converse is also true; physical sickness is

based on a spiritual problem, indicating a lack of harmony with the shekhinah.44 The Degel

shows his familiarity with the Lurianic method of pulse diagnosis, writing "human blood

flows from the name Eh-yeh;" a clot in the blood is reflective of a clot in the flow of divine

blessings.45

This power over the natural realm is the special quality gained by a man of faith that

relates to the divine vitality within things. The zaddik has mastered the talent of relating to

the spiritual dimension within all aspects of nature. "From my grandfather [I heard] that each

zaddik has holy sparks which relate to the source of his soul which he needs to rectify and

raise even his servants, animals, and utensils."46 The ability to find the divine vitality in

42In contrast to midrash and Zohar, where reshit and hokhmah are synonymous with Divine Wisdom, herethey refer to the letters themselves. Combinations of letters (zerufei otiot) have healing powers almost likerecombining an internal DNA pattern see: 180a-181b.

432a; also 102a-103b. On nature as theosophy see Antoine Faivre, "Nature: Religious and PhilosophicSpeculations" in vol. 10, The Encyclopedia of Religion ed. Mircea Eliade (New York: MacMillan, 1987), 328-331.

44102b.

45243b. On diagnosis by means of pulses, see Tikkune Zohar #69 108a; R. Isaac Luria Shaar RuahHakodesh, 3 provides a yihud which distinguishes between ten types of pulses, corresponding to the tensefirot and the ten vowel points. It is further described in Likkutei Torah, Taamey HaMitzvot, Vayera. TheBesht also used this method, Praise of the Baal Shem Tov 245. Dan, Ha-Sippur Ha-Hasidi points out thatthe Besht used ordinary means and not miracles to heal, 96-110.

4615b. Compare Gershom Scholem, "The Neutralization of Messianism in Early Hasidism" The MessianicIdea in Judaism, 189 where it is cited as giving a concrete and personal tone to the Kabbalistic idea ofDivine sparks.

15

objects is called the Torah of mercy (Torat hesed), and allows one to "change all nature."47

These abilities or techniques for raising sparks can only be gained through purity

from lust. "Yosef who kept the covenant of peace [of sexual purity] was able to change

hunger to satiation, understand it."48 The power of divine wisdom (hokhmah) gained by

sexual purity allows one to channel or sublimate one's vitality, and thereby, literally apply

mind over matter. Notice that food is not associated with raising sparks nor embracing the

physical. One gains the physical sustenance or healing ability directly from the food's divine

source. This ability is less a miracle or magic than an ascetic mind control technique for

gaining mastery over the physical.

Quoting R. Nahman of Horodenka, the Degel shows that he aims to gain this ability.

He defines true worship as identifying with and thereby, controlling nature itself:

To worship Hashem one needs to include himself with all creations, from thesmallest worm to the wild ox.49

The secret (sod) of man is in all the worlds and all minerals, plants andanimals. One understands this by an analogy: when a person does not eat forseveral days, he may die from hunger, but when he eats an olive size piece(ke-zayit) of bread his soul is stilled. Automatically (memele) we understandthat in this small piece (ke-zayit) is the secret of complete man. That is thespiritual vitality, which contains divine energy within it, which is the secret of

47 "and sweeten all judgements." 47a-b. See 83a for another good example. A parallel to the thought ofthe Degel is found in R. Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl, Meor Eynayim (Jerusalem: 1968). R. Menahemwrites that a Divine vitality (hiyyut) is found in all things. Healing can be by means of this vitality, and itschanneling by various means including visiting graves of zaddikim. The Torah gives the Zaddik these powers:"All seven wisdoms, the wisdom of medicine, and other wisdoms... are also Torah, and Torah is theirvitality," 291; 26; “likkutim, Masekhet Shabbat”. One example on the healing powers of Zaddikim has beentranslated in Upright Practices, The Light of the Eyes (New York: Paulist Press, 1982) trans. Arthur Green,148-157.

48273b.

49196a. On Nahman see Mendel Piekarz, In the Beginning of Hasidism (Jerusalem: Bialek Press, 1978),23-25; 260-265.

16

man.50

Zaddikim bind themselves to the divine vitality in all the physical activities that they perform.

They eat only a minimum amount of food because that amount is sufficient for them to

reach the divine vitality in that item, while ignoring its physicality. Therefore, their own

bodies become pure and exist solely as a conduit for the divine.

The Degel considers this minimum amount of vitality in objects as the reason for the

legal requirement of using an olive size as a minimum measure in the laws of leavening

and mazot on Passover, the sacrificial cult, and the laws of ritual slaughtering. The Degel

further proves that this vitality inheres in all objects; he points to the ability to heal a person

by means of crystals and "the transnatural property (segulah) of precious stones to sustain

a person, as is known in the case of the crystal (yahalom)."51

He presents a general theory of divine energy within physical objects, which is

contained in the following directive:

When one sees a material object, whether human, animal, vegetable, ormineral, one draws from the mind (moha) to it a praiseworthy thought ofdesire and awe. One draws to them vitality from the higher mind by means ofthe influx that descends into the procession of the worlds and comes to theangel appointed on that object. [He] leads it, masters it and causes it to growand generate, until everything is completed. Afterwards, when the object

5036b. On food and the body as major categories of pre-modern thought see Piero Camporesi, Bread ofDreams: Food and Fantasy in the Early Middle Ages (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989); idem,Incorruptible Flesh (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), considers the references to the wormsas a death reference.

51151a. Yahalom in the Bible is probably a green opal or jasper. The Degel probably refers to a clearstone, possibly quartz. Emil Hirsch, "Gems" Jewish Encyclopedia vol 5, 594. This importance of a yahalomcrystal is not found in the recent anthology by Raphael Patai, The Jewish Alchemists (Princeton:PrincetonUniversity Press, 1994. On crystals in shamanism see: Michael Ripinsky-Naxon, The Nature ofShamanism: Substance and Function of a Religious Metaphor (Albany: Suny Press, 1993), p. 123, whodescribes the shamanic use of rock crystals as living or solidified light and compares it to Ezekiel's vision oflight crystals on the Divine throne. The Degel’s concept of minute amounts as sufficient is also found inhomeopathy, see Samuel Hahnemann, The Healing Art of Homeopathy presented by Edmond C. Hamlyn,(New Canaan, Conn.: Keats Publishing Co., 1979).

17

established in the world, the person reciprocates (hozer) and enjoys takingmore vitality from it. This is the secret of "the vitality (hiyut) runs to and fro."52

This passage is similar in part to the concept of kavvanah found in the circle in Gerona and

in the writings of Cordovero. Yet, the Degel ignores the sefirot and their channels, the

panentheistic indwelling of the divine, and the Neoplatonic psychology. What remains is a

system that sees the physical world as infused with energy of higher unseen realms, and

mystical practice is required to transfer this energy to the physical world. The Degel's

description of finding the hidden vitality descending from above into physical objects and of

channeling the energy is similar to Moshe Idel's panoramic typology of magic by ascending

and bringing down the power. Yet, the Degel's tone is focused more on the horizontal

aspects: One ascends and binds objects above. “Then when the object comes to be in the

world, the person reciprocates (hozer) and enjoys taking more vitality from it.”53 The

emphasis is on causing it to grow and on the horizontal plane, with a transfer of the vitality

from the zaddik to the object and back again.

There are variations on these ideas of immanent energy in Hasidic texts.

Cordovero's Kabbalah has two applicable metaphors for the flow of the immanence of the

divine within the world, vessel (keli) and channel (zinnor). The divine essence is either

contained in vessels, or streams into the world as a channel. These metaphors are

adapted and used in Hasidism, but the essence is now not Cordovero's emanation of an

52151a.

53151a. The passage associates the animals/angelic beings (hayot) with the vitality (hiyut).

18

infinite divine essence,54 but a universal life force -as an almost tangible quality- within

everyday objects. This universal life force permeates all things, and all things depend on it

for health and life, similar to the Hindu prana, the Chinese chi, or the Japanese ki. The two

metaphors of immanence become two different approaches to this life force. A statement

that one is a vessel (keli) for the divine vitality is similar to a Taoist statement that the

immanence is within the human body as chi. While a statement that one is a channel

(zinnor) for the divine is similar to a more shamanic ki of Seiki-Jutsu in which one channels

this life force from outside the body.55

In the Degel, the life force is obtained by desire and awe, which transform the

ordinary physical world into an interactive divine energy field. "One cleaves himself in the

Holy One Blessed be He and raises everything he sees with thought to the Holy One

Blessed be He." This passage describes an extrovert mystical oneness with the vitality that

pulsates through the physical world.56

54There are also perfect Cordoverean passages of opening channels to bring an influx from above such as15a, on these see Idel, Hasidism chapter 6.

55On the internal energy of Chi see Da Liu, Tai Chi Chuan and Meditation (New York: Schocken Books,1986); On the external energy of Seiki-Jutsu see Ikuko Osumi and Malcolm Ritchie, The ShamanicHealer:The Healing World of Ikuko Osumi and the Traditional Art of Seiki-Jutsu (Rochester, Vermont:Healing Arts Press, 1988); This energy has been called by a variety of names and explained by manytheories, some considered scientifically valid and some not, including pneuma by Galen, telesma by theCorpus Hermetica, magnetic fluid by Mesmer, prana (and focused on chakras) in Hinduism, and bioenergyby current Eastern European researchers. The relationship of pneuma, healing, and the soul in Westernthought is discussed in Ioan Couliano, Eros and Magic in the Renaissance (Chicago: University of ChicagoPress, 1987), 9 and see his extensive bibliographic references. 56151a. Similar ideas on the relationship of healing, faith and power in objects are found in R. Nahman ofBreslov:

Know that each herb has a unique power to heal a particular illness. But all this is only forthe person who has failed to guard his faith and morality, and has not been careful to avoidtransgressing the prohibition against despising other people (Avot 4:3). But when someonehas perfect faith, guards himself morally and lives by the principle of not looking down onanyone at all, his healing does not depend on the specific herbs that have the power to curehis illness. He can be healed with any food and any drink, as it is written, "And He willbless your bread and your water, and I will remove sickness from you (Exodus 23:25). Sucha person does not have to wait until the specific remedy for his illness is available.

19

Another faith healing trope found in many places in the Degel is the positive imagery

of snakes as being able to physically heal or wound, similar to the use of animal powers in

shamanic traditions.

"Every talmid hakham who does not begrudge and revenge like asnake..."(Yoma 22b.) The explanation is that a snake has two aspects: at firsthe bites and afterwards he looks to heal and revive. Similarly, the talmidhakham must have these two aspects: one to bite and one to guard andwatch. He needs to be able to heal and revive the one that he bites."57 "A talmid hakham cleaves in God's Torah, the Torah of truth which has thesetwo aspects. The sages write, "if you are worthy, it is an elixir of life; if youare not worthy, it is a poison (Yoma 72b.)" When the talmid hakham studieslishmah, it is an elixir of life to those who cleave to him. One who disgraces atalmid hakham, there is no healing for his wound (Shabbat 119b).58

A talmid hakham who has the divine power and power of the Torah has, inthe words of Torah, [the ability] to kill and to revive. Through his hands hefights God's wars. Whether he needs to kill or revive, all is through his hands,as a talmid hakham in his cleaving to the Torah of God.59

The talmid hakham, by means of his Torah, is seen as possessing the powers of the

snake to heal and wound. The Degel writes that some can heal with the words of prayer,

some with the words of Torah, and some by means a physical act. "One who is

continuously fortified in faith and trust in the Blessed Name (Hashem yitborakh) does not

require any act of healing."60

Sefer HaMidot with notes of R. Zadok (Lublin: 1915) refuah #1, p. 243, translated by Moshe Mykoff as TheAleph Bet (Jerusalem: Breslov Research Institute, 1986). See also Likkute Moharan II, 1:6-9. On R. Nahmanand healing see the traditional Breslov anthology, Sefer HaRefuah (Jerusalem: 1992); Abraham Greenbaum,The Wings of the Sun (Jerusalem: Breslov Research Institute, 1995). Nahman did not personally engage inhealing and the few stories ascribing a cure due to his power were accomplished solely by faith.

57103a The Degel quotes this from the Toldot Yaakov Yosef vol. 1, yitro p. 194; however, the snake imagealso occurs in Binyamin of Zlotchov, Amtahat Binyamin (Minkovitch: 1796), Kohelet, in the name of theBesht. On the invoking of animal powers in shamanism, see Eliade, Shamanism, 98.

58104a, The talmudic quotes are from the original homily of the Toldot.

59105a; also 85a.

60273b. See 279a on the healing qualities of the Sabbath. This statement needs to be compared to theviews of the Pentacostals who believe that faith will heal them. Pentacostals also believe in speaking in

20

These healing abilities have generally been relegated, in twentieth century

academic scholarship, to the realm of magic and superstition, meaning that they were

false, primitive, or deceptive. A more tolerant and less condescending view of these

matters has led to a more balanced view of these as literary records of folklore and oral

tales. They were and are primarily stories, based on set genres and motifs.61 The

anthropological approach to the workings of healing of E. E. Evans-Pritchard presented

spiritual healing as an ascription by those healed of a supernatural causality to a natural

event and the healing itself is accomplished by means of the faith in the symbolism of the

healer.62

Currently, scholars are willing to consider the healing as an actual diagnostic and

healing process employing altered states of consciousness.63 This marks a return to the

tongues while in a state of enthusiasm similar to that of Hasidism see Felicia Goodman, Speaking inTongues:A Cross-cultural Study of Glossolalia (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1972).

61See In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov eds. Dan Ben-Amos and Jerome R. Mintz (New York: Schocken,1984), with its index to motifs from Thompson's folklore classifications; G. Nigal, Magic, Mysticism, andHasidism (Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson, 1994); Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic andSuperstition 7th ed. (New York: Behrman House, 1984).

62E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande (Oxford: Clarendon, 1976);Unlike the Azande, The Degel does not seem to have a separate belief in a realm of healing; he expectedhis healing to work as in the intellectualist approach described by Robin Horton, Patterns of Thought inAfrica and the West:Essays on Magic, Religion, and Science (New York: Cambridge University Press,1993).

63This began as research into transpersonal psychology; the current state of the field can be gauged fromRoger Walsh, and Frances Vaughan, Paths Beyond the Ego: The Transpersonal Vision (Los Angeles:Tarcher, 1994). A popular version of this paradigm shift towards the transpersonal occurred with Bill Moyers,Healing and the Mind (New York: Doubleday, 1993). Most current literature on Shamanism accepts itshealing power based on first-hand fieldwork with shamans see footnotes 23, 24 above. On fieldwork withcontemporary Christian monastic hermits of Ethiopia, showing that ASC (altered states of consciousness)can heal wounds, control the autonomic system, and perform "miracles" of healing which parallel those inpatristic desert spirituality, Kabbalah, and Hasidic healing, see William C. Buschell, "Psychophysiologicaland Comparative Analysis of Ascetico-Meditational Discipline: Toward a New Theory of Asceticism" inAsceticism eds. Vincent L. Wimbush and Richard Valantasis (Oxford: O.U.P., 1995) 553-575; andBuschell's unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University, 1993). A popular narrative of acontemporary Greek Cypriot spiritual healer similar to the Degel in several respects is found in Kyriacos C.

21

late nineteenth and early twentieth century American scholarly tradition of an acceptance of

psychic healing. The most famous scholar of these phenomena is William James, who,

based on his approach of a radical empiricism, took seriously the claims of the

mesmerists, faith healers, and hypnotists.64 The best typology of these healing phenomena

is still that of Thomas Jay Hudson, written in 1893, that classifies these cures under six

rubrics. His six categories include: (1) healing as accomplished by faith alone, as at

Lourdes; (2) hypnotism and trances, also studied by Breuer, Freud and Jung, yet, left as

applicable only to hysterics until the recent trend towards "healing and the mind,"; (3)

mental cures based on positive thinking, which was James' explanation of faith healing; (4)

Christian Science, in which the world and its illnesses are illusionary and if one realizes it,

one can change it; (5) shamans and spiritual forces (which later anthropologists further

divided between ascents and possessions); (6) Mesmerism, auras, and all other healing

such as Reiki, Taoist Chi, or Hindu prana exercises based on channeled energy. The

Degel's description of healing using the divine vitality seems closest to number six, and

that his general approach of cleaving to the divine vitality is closest to numbers two and

three.65

The Degel's own explanation of healing is based on this universal life force (hiyut)

Markides, Fire in the Heart: Healers Sages and Mystics (New York: Paragon House, 1990). The spiritualhealer Daskalos is a master of metaphysical knowledge, psychic powers, with abilities to fly out of his body,visit the world of descended souls, all in full consciousness.

64William James, Essays in Psychical Research (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986).

65Thomas Jay Hudson, The Law of Psychic Phenomena (Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1897), 150. It isinteresting to note that Joseph Weiss describes the Maggid of Miezrich as close to number four, ChristianScience, by showing how the zaddik returns everything beyond the illusion of this world to its primordialnothingness and can then transmute it. "The Great Maggid's Theory of Contemplative Magic," Hebrew UnionCollege Annual 31 (1960) 137-148.

22

on which all things depend for health and life. God is immanent in this life force as an active

and unpredictable force in the everyday natural physics of the world.66 The energy of this

divine vitality is channeled from above into the physical, yet many objects like crystals, food,

and living beings have stores of it that can be used. Unfortunately, he never explains the

mechanics of channeling the energy, other than by suggesting the use of asceticism and

the Torah.

An innovative new work on spiritual healing by Thomas J. Csordas gives an

explanation of the process that facilitates an understanding of the Degel.67 Csordas

observed that spiritual healing orients a person back to his real self and grants healing

control through direct divine contact over life. This orientation is accomplished by imagining

embodied waking images of the healed spiritual self. Spiritual healing employs religious

images that involve the whole psychosomatic person and not just the mind. Memories of

traumas held in the body are healed by associating them with divine coincidence and

releasing oneself into the hand of God. The process does not return the patient to a pre-

illness state but reconceptualizes the pain and suffering into a healed state. This process

creates a sense of intimacy, presence, and wholeness that overcomes many

psychosomatic diseases and can give one an ability to struggle with disabilities and pain.

When applied to the Degel, Csordas' theory emphasizes that the way to be healed

6632b. The Degel does not show familiarity with the medieval Jewish works presenting a fixed view ofnature or the need for a doctrine of occasionalism. On the topic in general see Benedicta Ward, Miraclesand the Medieval Mind (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982).

67Thomas J. Csordas, The Sacred Self: A Cultural Phenomenology of Charismatic Healing (Berkeley andLos Angeles, University of California Press, 1994). A work that integrated and applied Csordas's thesis asformulated in an earlier article is Loring M. Danforth, Firewalking and Religious Healing: The Anastenaria ofGreece and the American Firewalking Movement (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989). Danforthpoints out that in some situations, when it is not a sign of inclusion to be healed and a sign of exclusion ifone is not healed, then even if the healing failed, the reorientation itself is seen as the goal, p. 280.

23

from the trauma of this worldly existence is through direct divine contact channeled by the

master of awe in his embodied connection with the divine. The zaddik uses stories to

create healing images, and teaches a doctrine of openness to the divine providence in life.

One is no longer lost in physical existence; instead one is oriented to the light and

blessings of the shekhinah. This new healing orientation of a body basking in divine light

would integrate the various different elements found in the Degel's spirituality of

transcending ordinary life through (1) awe of the shekhinah, asceticism, and finding the

divine vitality in all things (2) theosis, (3) pneumatic Torah study and (4) story telling.

The Charismatic Catholics, whom Csordas studied, found their healing through

direct divine contact, spontaneity, control over one's life, intimacy, and a sense of divine

involvement in one's own life. Csordas points out that in contrast, the same effects are

achieved in Scientology when the spontaneity, control, and intimacy are found in divine

timelessness above the individual’s existential concerns.68 The Degel’s resolution of

problems through connection to the timeless shekhinah and divine vitality is more in line

with the latter approach. This quest for timelessness combined with its asceticism makes

an romantic reading of meeting God in the this-worldly moment difficult to sustain. In the

Degel, one does indeed find a sense of intimacy, spontaneity, and organic ties to social

group; yet, it is combined with an otherworldly, ascetic, and God fearing piety.

An additional point made by Csordas is that the Charismatics show their modern

sense of self by favoring controlled, and consciously willed images attained while awake.

The images used pertain to a person's life story incorporating his unique experiences and

68Csordas, 146-147.

24

traumas.69 The Degel, however, in line with most traditional approaches, favors images

from the universal, timeless world of the symbolic found in the dream, the inspired

revelatory image, and the allegorical story.

Awe, Asceticism, and Divine Vitality

The main hasidic directive for the Degel is "to continuously cleave to the inner

awe"70 of an object by renouncing pleasure, allowing one to experience of the inner light of

the shekhinah. The well known Hasidic concepts of "finding God in all things" (bekhol

derakhekha daehu), and "cleaving to God" (devekut) are both defined by the Degel as the

ability to relate to the hidden divine vitality in all things.

This experience of the inner awe is itself neither mystical nor appreciative of this

world. While in the world a person should fear the world:

Until his soul cleaves unto the shekhinah (as if it were possible),71 as it saysin Song of Songs: “say to wisdom, ‘you are my sister’". When one bindsoneself strongly to the shekhinah, one will not fear [the corporeality of theworld] anymore.72 A parable: when a person wishes to enter a deep pit hefears that he will not be able to climb up. Therefore, he takes a ladder withhim into the pit in order that he can ascend. The moral (nimshal) is that theshekhinah is the ladder, and he is the one that the Holy One, blessed be He,tells not to have fear. The saint who fears the evils of the pit of the physicalworld cleaves to an inner awe, and [obtains] the conviction that he is literallythe shekhinah (as if it were possible).

69Csordas, 93, 146-147.

70189b.

71He usually reserves the phrase “as if it were possible” (kiveyakol) for identification with tiferet and notwith the shekhinah, compare 110a.

72It is important to note that the reference to wisdom in the quote from the Song of Songs "say to wisdom,‘you are my sister’" is taken as a reference to the mental cleaving to the shekhinah and not a reference tothe sefirah of hokhmah as in earlier Kabbalah.

25

The inner awe and the cleaving to the shekhinah serves as a ladder, which remains

connected to a person as a lifeline, when he enters difficult terrain.73 Everyone needs to

sense, according to his spiritual level, this inner awe in order to ascend from the world.74

The binding to the shekhinah while engaged in ordinary activities is an inner

transformation of the whole person into a state of holiness; one then senses the divine

nature of reality. The Degel requires awe and the rejection of physical pleasure in order to

cleave to the shekhinah, which then allows the experience of the inner light of the Holy One

Blessed, be He (tiferet).75

For most people the world is not a place infused with the divine, rather it is a snare

of corporeality leading away from the divine. The doctrine of the Degel is puritanical toward

the enjoyment of physicality while simultaneously affirming the world as a divine

manifestation.76

This world is like a sea. When a person finds God (HKBH), whose Glory fillsall the earth, in physical matters then he has performed (as if it werepossible) a unification(yihud). The path toward unification...[is to guard

7352a.This parable is translated by Samuel Dresner, who demonstrates the influence on it of R. MenahemMendel of Bar's view that life in this world is a descent fraught with danger. See Samuel H. Dresner, TheZaddik: The Doctrine of the Zaddik According to the Writings of Rabbi Yakov Yosef of Polnoy (New York:Schocken Books, 1960).

7480a-b, 116b. This acute sense of awe, fear and trembling is also characteristic of the Baal Shem Tov;see Dan, Ha-Sippur Ha-Hasidi 91-92. The stories describe the Besht as frozen in a trance of awe. Thistradition was alive in the twentieth century Lelover Rebbe R. Moshe Mordekhai Biderman (died 1987), whowould fall into a spasmatic seizure of trembling in prayer. This form of mystical ASC (altered state ofconsciousness) is very different than the portrayal of hasidism as based on the Maggid's cleaving in thought.

75Sometimes the Degel formulates the influx of divine light of tiferet as coming from wisdom (hokhmah)and defined as charity, providence (hesed), and the sweetening of the judgement (hamtakat hadinim). 170a.Hokhmah, hesed, and gevurah are treated as metaphors for wisdom, mercy, and judgement respectivelyand are not given their own independent status in the sefirot. 175a-b;182a.

76 See Louis Jacobs, "Eating as an Act of Worship in Hasidic Thought" In Studies in Jewish Religious andIntellectual History: Festschrift A. Altmann edited Siegfried Stein and Raphael Loewe, (Alabama:Universityof Alabama, 1979), 157-166.

26

oneself] from immorality. On weekdays it is difficult to reach this level exceptfor masters of the name (anshei shem or people of renown)77 and mastersof the soul. However, on the Sabbath it is easy for everyone to reach thislevel. Therefore God commanded to eat, drink and enjoy oneself on theShabbat.78

Life in this world is seen as being lost at sea, while the ascetic fear of God becomes the

path that navigates. The masters of the name can regularly navigate the physical; most

people can attempt it only on the Sabbath. Fundamentally, the Degel senses an existential

disorientation if one is not steered though the world. If one cultivates a life of awe and

devotion then one has a rudder to steer oneself even in physical activities.79

In order to properly fulfill the dictum "in all your ways know him" (bekhol derakhekha

daehu), one renounces physical pleasures:

If a pleasurable matter comes, attend to the source and origin of allpleasures, the cause of causes which revives all and gives vitality in all thingsand from there comes the pleasure. When one attends to this and believes itwith a total faith, all physical pleasure will be nullified.80

The need to renounce pleasure in order to reach God is presented as a dichotomy

between the soul seeking to cleave to the divine and the physical pleasure of the world.81

The dualism of divine soul and corporeal body is overcome by sensing the divine vitality

even in the body. This realization can be accomplished by the soul of a talmid hakham

77Later in the passage he calls them princes (nasi) and high priests. See A. Green, "Typologies ofLeadership and the Hasidic Zaddiq" in Jewish Spirituality Volume 2, ed. Arthur Green (New York: CrossroadPublishing, 1987); There are strong feudal and reactionary aspects of these models, on the most famouscase see David Assaf, Derekh Ha-Malkhut: R. Israel Mi-Ryzhin.

78274b-275a.

79Compare Rav Nahman's outburst that the world is a narrow strait.

8056b; 67a.

81168a. See 176a-b on sweetening judgement (hamtakat hadim) as the psychological removal of pride,allowing the natural vitality to be sensed.

27

because "God and the Torah (identified with the soul) are one (Kudsha Berikh Hu ve

Oraita Had)." Therefore, the talmid hakham can use the power inherent in his divine soul

to transform his body into a vessel of divine light.82

The Degel writes that one who cleaves to God needs to be able to be in that state

so as to sense the inner awe while engaged in ordinary activities. "Every person needs to

go up and go out" into the world. "Even someone committing a sin, God forbid, who

receives pleasure from the sin, does so from the vitality of the shekhinah, without it, he

could sin and could not receive pleasure from the sin."83 This passage shows a faith in an

animistic ontology of divine vitality within all things. However, the Degel’s worldview is not a

form of quietistic antinomianism; only mizvot and asceticism leads one to cleave to the

inner light.

Louis Jacobs writes, "Hasidism utilizes the concept of the holy sparks to a far

greater degree than the Lurianic kabbalists themselves. But although on the surface

nothing has changed, in effect the whole concept has undergone a radical transformation."

Jacobs views the difference as based on contrasting Lurianic asceticism with Hasidic

worship through corporeality.

Some Hasidic masters did engage in severe denial and mortification of theflesh, their ascetic mode of life belonged to their background as Lurianickabbalists or to individual temperament. It was only incidental to the Hasidicway of life, which stressed the idea of avodah be-gashmiyyut, "divineworship through the use of material things." This involved a positive embraceof things of this world as means toward the service of God. In the essentialHasidic doctrine, God is worshipped not only by the study of the Torah,

82On this dictum, see Isaiah Tishby "God, Torah and Israel are One-The source of the Dictum in Ramhal'sCommentary on Idra Rabba." in Kiryat Sefer 50 (1975)480-92, 668-74; Bracha Sack "More on... God, Torah,and Israel are One." Kiryat Sefer. 57 (1982).

8353b.

28

prayer, and the observance of the precepts but also by engaging in worldlypursuits with God in mind. Little is made in the Lurianic Kabbalah of the holysparks residing in food and drink... abstinence and holy living are the way inwhich the sparks are rescued.84

The doctrine of worship through corporeality is seen as world affirming, non-ascetic, and

involving "a positive embrace of things of this world as means toward the service of

God."85

In contrast to Jacobs' world affirming portrayal of Hasidism, the doctrine of worship

through corporeality in the Degel is mildly ascetic, available only to someone who can

avoid physical pleasure and thereby see the divine vitality in the world. Rather than a

rejection of the Lurianic ethos, the concept of worship through corporeality in the Degel is

based on a single-minded use of the ascetic Lurianic intentions of eating, which are then

applied to all life. The transformation was from the contemplative mystical ascent of the

soul and theurgic spirituality of Luria into a Hasidic enthusiasm and asceticism. An

example of this embodied asceticism is the ubiquitous hasidic fear of involuntary seminal

emission (keri) and the corresponding importance attached to regular mikveh immersion.

Heschel cites the severity of this sin within most Hasidic texts including the Magid of

Miezrich and his followers.86

84Louis Jacobs, "The Uplifting of Sparks in Later Jewish Mysticism" in Jewish Spirituality Volume 2 ed.Arthur Green (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1987) pp. 99-126, especially p. 115-116. One of Jacob'sexamples (121) is the Hasidic fondness for smoking. It is interesting to note that during the same timeperiod Siberian shamans switched from native hallucinogenics to the New World plant, tobacco, as thepsychoactive drug of choice. See, V.N. Basilov, "Chosen by the Spirits" in Shamanism: Soviet Studies ofTraditional Religion in Siberia and Central Asia ed. Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, (Armonk, New York: M.E.Sharpe, 1990), pp. 3-48.

85Jacobs, "The uplifting of Sparks" p. 115.

86See 236a-b. On involuntary keri as a mortal offense, see Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Circle of theBaal Shem Tov (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1985), 190. Asceticism, worry over sexual sins, andHasidei Ashkenaz fasting for sins are contained in most Hasidic texts, and not just those of R. Nahman of

29

The Hasidic approach of the Degel creates a psychophysical theosis that allows an

active life as a channel of divine vitality. "Even if a person performs mizvot and actively

pursues mizvot, without the fear of heaven it is completely disregarded."87 The mizvot do

not count because they do not fulfill their function of bringing the divine light into the person.

The act without the corresponding fear of heaven does not work on the physical level of

transforming the person into the divine. Awe and physical asceticism comprise the lower

religious consciousness (katnut) while bringing the infinite Divinity into the physical is

called the higher consciousness (gadlut).

Abraham kept only the mizvah of circumcision- while equivalent to all the

commandments as a curb of lust and physical pleasure- was only able to achieve an

ascetic removal from the world. In contrast, the mizvot of the Torah correspond to all 248

limbs and 365 sinews which in turn correspond to the divine name and the divine soul in

man. This embodied manifestation in the physical by means of all the limbs is considered a

higher consciousness.88 The negative commandments all fight the "other gods" such as

lust; the positive commands develop the embodied soul.89

The Degel quotes the Baal Shem Tov's explanation of the meaning of the angels

ascending and descending the ladder in Jacob's vision as the secret of lower (katnut) and

higher (gadlut) religious consciousness, also called the secret of running to and fro (ratzo

Bratzlav and R. Elimelech of Lyzinck, as stated by I. Tishby, and Y. Dan, in "Hasidut." Encyclopedia HaIvritvol. 16, 769-821. The penitences of Hasidei Ashkenaz and Luria, remain in effect in the Hasidic world, unlikethe Mitnagdim who substituted Torah study. Compare Tanya: Iggeret HaTeshuvah chapter 1 to Nefesh Ha-Hayyim, gate 1.

8781a.

8887a; 216a.

30

veshav), and of falling for the sake of rising (yeridah lezorekh aliyah), and "you shall seek

God from there."90 These phrases indicate that from the lower space, into which one

regularly has to fall, one can reach out to God and return to higher consciousness. The

lower consciousness can be used to ascend to higher consciousness, but it is not an end

in itself.91

Similarly, when the messiah comes, there will no longer be a lack of knowledge

(daat) and the widespread lower consciousness (katnut). Instead all will be filled with divine

knowledge, and people will live a religious life of only higher consciousness (gadlut),

allowing people to gather the sparks by raising them to the higher consciousness of the

divine name. Gathering sparks does not bring the messianic age; rather the opposite is

true. The messianic age will be a time of corrected consciousness allowing all people to

relate the manifestation directly to the divine in all things.92 Raising sparks93 is the

definition of living in oneness with the divine vitality in the world, which will continue even

89157a-158a.

90See also 206a. This is radically different than the approach of Polish Hasidism. It was said in the nameof R. Simhah Bunim of Przysucha (1765-1827): "And you shall seek God from there" this refers to all thephilosophical and intellectual investigations to grasp God and His unity which are call "from there" that isanother place. But, in reality the truth is that there [referring to philosophy], is the actual place of the heart.When a person properly purifies his ethical traits as presented by Maimonides in his Laws of Deot, then hewill find in his heart the Blessed Divinity." Torat Simhah, (Pitrokov: 1910) sec 133. Compare the rejection ofphilosophic questioning in the Degel, 18a.

9140a-41a.

9293a. This higher consciousness is a state of identity with the Divine vitality. It is not an individualizedredemption, as in the thought of the Maggid, nor does it undo the "Lurianic breaking of the vessels," as inScholem and Tishby. The sparks are always ontologically scattered in the lower physical world, themessianic age allows the ideal religious life of continuously relating the physical directly to the Divine.

93The Degel here uses the idea of the raising sparks found in the Lurianic writings, and converts it from aKabbalistic concept into one of spiritual enthusiasm. It is a metaphor for the fallen world and the access todivine vitality. The ideal enthusiastic life of identifying with the shekhinah is seen as undoing this fallen statebut the story of the fall itself is not part of his theory.

31

during the messianic age.94

Theosis of the Talmid Hakham

The Degel states that the body and not just the soul are perfected in the keeping of

mizvot. This psychosomatic whole is a different experience from the experience of the

Neo-Platonic ascent of the soul; it is more of a theosis than an ascent.95 In the Degel, one

identifies with the exile of the shekhinah in the physical world. Through prayer and piety the

master of awe becomes one with her in order to cleave to the infinite divine light. The

shekhinah receives the influx of the infinite divine light from the Holy One, Blessed be He

(tiferet), and gives it to the world. Prayer for the shekhinah means that one senses the

inner vitality and connects it above for a blessing.96 Therefore, the joining of the divine

vitality in the physical to the mental, is a yihud of shekhinah and tiferet, a conduit for divine

light.97 One becomes like the shekhinah, both through a unification (yihud) of the physical

9499b. Messianism is politically neutralized as a longed for embodied redemption, when people cancollectively live in a state of higher consciousness. The Degel is in line with the letter of the Baal Shem Tovin which he spoke to the messiah in an ascent and was told that the Messiah will come when the Besht'steachings are disseminated. Yet, it remains, in an ironic sense, the ever, unfulfilled desire because it isneither actively politically pursued nor spiritualized.

95Idel, Hasidism, 246. It is closer to St. Symeon than to Gregory of Nyssa. The combination of activismand enthusiasm as found in both, the Hesychast spirituality of St. Symeon and some Hasidim was noted byRivka Shatz, Hasidism as Mysticism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).

9615a. Compare Louis Jacobs, Hasidic Prayer (New York: Schocken Books, 1978), who explains thestatement of the Baal Shem Tov that “prayer should be for the sake of the shekhinah” as an expression ofthe tension between his mystical prayer and ordinary petitionary prayer. Jacobs' work is based on thetypology between mystical and petitionary prayer of F. Heiler used by Rivka Shatz in her Mysticism asQuietism. M. Idel, Hasidism sees it as a magical drawing down of the Divine energy.

9718a; 27a. The shekhinah has become the symbol of both purity (usually ascribed to yesod) andknowledge (usually ascribed to hokhmah).

32

and mental, and by cleaving to wisdom in order to receive the reflected light from tiferet.98

This allows the shekhinah to shine on the person praying and not the sitra ahra.99

The resting of the shekhinah on a zaddik and the identification with the divine

effects a theosis of the righteous, who becomes an incarnation of the shekhinah. The

Degel writes that in the Zohar "in several places, the shekhinah actually dwells in [the

zaddikim's] bodies, and their countenances literally display the shekhinah."100 An excellent

example of this physical perfection is the change of Moses' ascent to God from a vertical

metaphor of ascent to the embodied one in which by "purifying his materiality he became

all form as the vitality of the divine light."101 The Degel points out that purification involves

the body and not just the mind, yet one can transcend his physicality and have a body of

divine light.102

Zaddikim literally radiate the lower aspect of divine energies, the shekhinah, but

they are not identified with the higher divine image of the king, the Holy One Blessed be He

(Hakadosh Baruch Hu) [tiferet]. The tiferet is received as an influx to those in communion

9857b; In another passage tiferet speaks through the throat during prayer, not the shekhinah 68b.

99191b. There is a real choice between gaining powers from the shekhinah or from the evil side anddemons. One wonders if this marriage, while similar to the Kabbalistic theme of marrying the shekhinah, isalso a parallel to the shamanic marriage to a female demon to gain its powers, as described in HolgarKalweit, Dreamtime and Inner Space. The Baal Shem literature warns against binding oneself to demons,yet there are stories of it occurring, see Sarah Zfatman, Nissuei Adam Ve-Sheidah (Jerusalem: Akademon,1988); G. Nigal, Magic, Mysticism, and Hasidism (Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson, 1994) chapter 5.A twentieth century marriage of a rabbi and a she-demon is recounted in Yoram Bilu, Without Bounds: TheLife and Death of Rabbi Yaacov Wazana (Jerusalem: Magnes Press 1993) [Hebrew] 53-60.

100110a.

1012b-3a.

102It might literally be an aura or radiance of Divine energy.

33

with the shekhinah. "He dwells in their midst, as if it were possible."103 The higher aspects

of the Divinity- the infinite divine of the Eyn Sof - are only an influx temporarily dwelling

below.104 On a practical level this is done by the contemplation of various combinations

(zerufim) of letters of the divine name as found in Brit Menuhah and the Lurianic writings.105

The zaddik resists or elevates the distracting thoughts that come into his mind while

contemplating the divine name,106 and thereby attains a complete identification with the

shekhinah, the base of the sefirotic hierarchy. A similar description is found in the writings

of Eastern Orthodox Hesychast thinkers such as Pseudo-Marcarius, St. Symeon, and

Gregory of Palamas. George A. Maloney writes that in their thought "an affective spirituality

sought to integrate body, soul, and spirit in prayer to experience God's indwelling presence

in the purified Christian as a transforming light."107 Similarly, the Kabbalah has been recast

103110a.

104One cleaves as a means of access to the attribute of Jacob, tiferet, called truth (emet) as the source ofthe divine light.42b; 45b;48; as faith 95a.

105See Shatz Ha-Hasidut Ke-Mistikah 153; Idel, Hasidism 160. On Brit Menuhah and kavvanot, see R.Moses Cordovero, Pardes Rimonim shaar 27, chap. 1 118; 112, especially on his identification of the finalletter heh of the Divine name. The Degel does not downplay the demand to use kavvanot as much as relyon Cordovero and Luria without the need for study of the theosophic tree of emanation or to follow all thedetails of the kavvanot. He does not give explicit directions or discussion of the Lurianic yihudim.

10683a. On resisting sexual thoughts see the passage quoted by Weiss, Studies, 169.

107 Pseudo-Marcarius (New York: Paulist Press, 1992), 4, describes the Neoplatonism of theCappadocians as integrated into the mystic's body as a psycho-somatic wholeness. The physical theosis ofSt. Symeon may is considered by some scholars a mental Neoplatonic ascent because of his use of thewritings of Gregory of Nyssa and the metaphors of the contemplative Neoplatonic tradition, especially hisemphasis on the vision of light. On the Neoplatonic reading see B. Fragneau-Julien, Les Sens Spirituels etla Vision de Dieu selon Symeon Le New Theolgien (Paris: Beauchesne, 1985). However, other scholarsemphasize that St. Symeon sees the perfected state of man as a purified body in which the Neoplatonicbackground has been completely recast into a doctrine of psycho-somatic wholeness. For the latterpresentation, see Basil Krivocheine, In the Light of Christ, St. Symeon the New Theologian (Crestwood,N.Y.: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1986). G.A. Maloney, The Mystic of Fire and Light: St. Symeon theNew Theologian (Denville, N.J.: Dimension Books, 1975). John Meyendorff, Byzantine Theology (New York:Fordham U.P., 1974).

34

into a doctrine that transforms body and mind into the vitality of the divine light. This activist

approach of fighting lusts, acquiring awe, and theosis, into the shekhinah is R. Ephraim's

definition of the faith healing talmid hakham. The Degel's discussions of Torah study show

this pneumatic emphasis on awe and theosis.

Torah

Moshe Idel points out that some Jewish mystics held that the text of the Torah was to

be interpreted on the basis of one's pneumatic inspiration.108 He quotes R. Moses Hayyim

Ephraim that "a person who is righteous is close to the Torah and that the Torah is in him

and he is Torah."109 Idel sees this formulation as linking the text of the Torah and religious

experience similar to both Abulafia and R. Shneur Zalman of Habad Hasidism, both of

whom use Aristotelian psychology in their intellectual mysticisms.

However, R. Moses Hayyim Ephraim's discussion of pneumatic interpretation

provides a very non-intellectual definition of Torah. He defines Torah solely as the

pneumatic statement of the zaddik based on the indwelling of the divine in his soul, and

without a text subject to interpretation. The Torah given on Mount Sinai contained directions

for spiritual purity.110 The Torah is not made up of stories, but rather it teaches "the path to

walk in and the action to do."111 The Torah is literally in the Zaddik and the Zaddik has

108M. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives 234-249.

109Idel, 245; Degel 284.

110112a.

11153b. Citing the famous Zohar passage "How to view the Torah," usually read as showing the theosophiclevels to the text. Daniel Chanan Matt, Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment (New York: Paulist Press, 1983),43-45.

35

bound himself to the Torah by purification.112

A spiritualist reading of the Torah as the revelation of ineffable secrets on the soul is

shown in the following passage:

The innovations in Torah made by the wise of the generation come throughGod's revealing His secret to His servants. [The wise] shine from the light ofHis Torah, its midpoint and innerness. However, [the Torah] is still notconcretized in words, because something taken from the divine wisdom(hokhmah)... is a non-confinable divine power... it is inconceivable, and anineffable nothing (efes veAyin)... When the Zaddik finds clear knowledge,how can he clothe the matter [in words]?113

He defines this ineffable Torah knowledge, based on inspiration, as the Torah of truth

(Torat emet). The application to life, in which the ineffable is clothed in words, content, and

form, is the Torah of mercy (Torat hesed). The passage continues:

God gives knowledge to the wise only as an essence and pith of the matter(nekudah vetokhen). Afterwards the zaddik builds on it based on his graspsof it. This manifestation (hitpashtut) of the Torah... in language... in expandedconsciousness (gadlut)... is called the Torah of mercy. [The zaddik] needs tosee and understand the need to do mercy with the Torah according to theneeds of the era and generation. The enlightened will understand.114

The following passage shows that the reading of Torah is itself a pneumatic

experience.

I heard in the name of my brother the famous holy rabbi, R. Baruch, explainthe [reason] that the end of the Torah "to the eyes of all Israel" is joined[during the Torah reading on Simhat Torah] to Genesis. When the eyes ofIsrael are gazing into the Torah, their gaze into the Torah is the renewal of the

112p. 284a.

113278b. This is close to the position of Bernard of Clairvaux who in his commentary on Song of Songs 3:1writes that: "today the text we are to study is the book of our own experience." See Kilian Walsh, TheWorks of Bernard Of Clairvaux Vol. II (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1979) 16. The experience of theDegel is a more submissive one, and involves identification with the text itself.

114278b.

36

work of creation, which is renewed on each day.115

The spiritualist approach to textual reading-, which is also found in the writings of other

Hasidim-, is here linked to the continuous renewal of the work of creation.

The Degel created a single concept in which the Torah is the source of wisdom, is

defined as the experiential life of awe, and is identified with the shekhinah. One senses the

divine vitality of the shekhinah, which flows through all creation in order to provide the

knowledge to heal and to relate to the natural world as divine (gathering sparks, doing acts

of tikkun, and yihud). Healing and communion with the divine in nature is the very essence

of Torah and the life of the zaddik transformed by the divine light and his healing ability is

Torah itself.116 The Torah itself which Moses received on Mt. Sinai regulates the earthly

natural life, and contains "all natural things and events."117 The letters of the Psalms have

the power to perform wondrous acts of healing.118

When one learns Torah for its own sake (lishmah), one becomes purified from

one’s physical needs. If one cleaves in thought (davak bemahshavah) to the heavenly

wisdom, the Torah of truth (Torat Emet), then everyday statements become Torah (Torat

11598b.

116In 43b he quotes the Zohar Hadash in which torah lishmah gives knowledge of the language of birds,plants, and angels. On the Baal Shem Tov's use of this knowledge see In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov eds.Dan Ben-Amos & Jerome R. Mintz (New York: Schocken, 1984) 49, 198.

1172b.

118283b. The five books of Psalms are an earthy application -oral Torah- of the five books of the writtenTorah. "I heard that daily King David would daily record as a Psalm everything that occurred to him. Hewould infuse the events into the letters, which have permutations and vitality allowing sweetening...Similarly, when one prays, i.e. [due to] a sickness, and clothes the matter in letters, sometimes a greatevent [occurs]. One needs understanding of this far-reaching explanation."

37

hesed).119 The Psalms and their powers are equated with both the Oral law as the Torah

of mercy (Torat hesed), the application of the Torah of truth (Torat Emet) to this world.120

In common with other hasidic texts, the written Torah is considered a spiritual

experience of devekut and not merely intellectual knowledge. The letters of the Torah

consist of divine names and a channelable divine vitality.121 Even the functional content of

the Torah is viewed as incarnate in the zaddik: "Mizvot and hukkim are the zaddikim

themselves."122 This statement has several implications: zaddikim bring the light through

performance of the mizvot, mizvot correspond to the limbs of the body, and the body

engaged in a divine act is itself a mizvah incarnate.

The zaddik has usurped the role of rabbinic interpretation; and R. Moshe Hayyim

view involves a breakdown of traditional legal authority, based on interpretation, in favor of

a pneumatic and charismatic form of leadership.

It is well known that the written Torah and the oral Torah are all one, not to beseparated from one another at all... In interpreting the Torah and revealing itssecrets, the sages at times uprooted something from the text... All this theydid by the power of the Holy Spirit that appeared in their midst, so that thevery wholeness of the written Torah depends on the oral tradition... Such isthe case for each generation and its leaders; they complete the Torah. TheTorah is interpreted in each generation according to that generation's needs,and according to the soul-root of those who live at that time. God enlightensthe sages of the generation in His Holy Torah. He who denies this is as onewho denies the Torah itself, God forbid.123

1195a.

120278b; 5a;47a-b;83a.

121On 105a he explains that this vitality heals and wounds, and gives life and death as din and rahamim.

12229b. This definition shortens the extension made within Yiddish culture to consider any good deed ormeritorious act as a mizvah, see Moshe Waldoks, "Mizveh" in Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought eds.A. Cohen and P. Mendes-Flohr (New York: Charles Scriber's Sons, 1987), 587-588.

1236a; On 12a he gives an alternate formulation in which the eternal Torah is seen to differ with each time

38

While the Degel certainly followed the Shulkhan Aruch in his role as rabbi and legal

decisor, for him, to some extent, the text of the Torah was no longer simply subject to legal

analysis and intellectual understanding. Torah is now incarnated as the zaddik himself; the

text serves as a pneumatic source of divine light able to perfect the 613 body parts, and to

be applied to real life situations through its healing light.124

In his response to the anti-hasidic criticism that "learners (lomdim) study while

hasidim do not," the Degel shows that he himself knows that Hasidic learning consists only

of the pietistic and homiletical works. As a response he returns a criticism of the learners:

Whatever the “learners” study it increases their haughtiness, and theyconsider themselves as having learned much about every situation. WhileHasidim, the more that they learn the greater humility. And this is the entirepurpose, that they learn to be humble and modest.125

This study involves not just learning halakhah for devotional reasons, but learning is rather

defined as the study of pietistic literature. He gives a similar response in another place; he

asserts that those who study much practical law and look down on those who study

pietistically are wrong: those that study for the sake of devotion have truthfulness in their

and person. I used Green's translation pp. 149-150 however, I omit his insertion of the words “[theinterpretation of]” before "His holy Torah" because I wish to emphasis that, according to the Degel, Godenlightens the zaddik directly.

124Green "Typologies of Leadership," pp. 151-152. On Hasidic halakhah, see Izhak Englard, "Mysticismand Law: Reflections on Liqutei Halakhot from the School of Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav”[Hebrew] Shanatonha-Mishpat ha-Ivri vol. VI-VII, (1979-80) 29-44; Samuel Eisenstadt, Zion Bemishpat (Tel Aviv: 1967) 251-259.On some of the extremes of Hasidic halakhah, see Yitzhak Zev Kahane (Kahan), Mehkarim be-Sifrut ha-Teshuvot (Jerusalem: Mosad haRav Kuk, 1973). He cites cases such as riding a horse on the Shabbat tobring a kvit to a rebbe, allowed as an act of saving a life. There has been little research into the role of thetraditional folkways within Hasidic piety and their influence on Eastern European Halakhah.

125149b. This is the opposite of the strictures of R. Hayyim of Volozhin, Nefesh Hahayim,shaar 4. Morecomplex is the relationship of early Hasidim to the kabbalistic klois in Brody which studied Talmudic textsand not pietistic works. See Elhanan Reiner, "Wealth, Social Position, and the Study of Torah: The Statusof the Kloiz in Eastern European Jewish Society in the Early Modern Period" in Zion vol 58 #3 1993, 287-328. He sees the early Hasidim as emphasizing charisma over the organized social elite of the kloiz whilestill holding the kloiz in respect.

39

hearts, and the shekhinah dwells with them.126

The talmid hakham engages in "learning for its own sake" (lishmah), 127 defined as

a selfless form of worship, in love and fear, as a yihud, and to reach the divine.128 Study for

its own sake provides wisdom (hokhmah) for consecrating one's limbs to be holy by

fighting lust.129 And the very purpose of the giving of the Torah was to provide wisdom for

removing lust.130 The hasidic zaddik is a walking persona of this wisdom; therefore, his

ordinary talk can change nature, give awe, perform yihudim, and channel divine influx.131

The Degel sees a social tension between the talmid hakham as a member of the

spiritual elite following this path of awe and the common Jewish peasant:

The masses hate the talmid hakham because the talmid hakham busieshimself in Torah, worship and holiness, and they [the masses] areundisciplined [or left abandoned (hefkara)]. This is fitting for them becausethey also despise the Torah that was given to Moses.132

12616b; 43a.

127 Roman A. Foxbrunner, Habad (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1992), 143, summarizeshasidic study well when he writes, "The phrase Torah li-shemah became a catchall that was defined almostevery way, but literally. The word li-shemah (meaning for its own sake) was turned on its head and wasgenerally interpreted as referring to everything but Torah itself: for the sake of devekut, yihudim, love, fear,purification, mystical enlightenment, redemption of the shekhinah and even for the sake of spiritual power."On the differences between Hasidic and Mitnaged definitions of lishmah see Norman Lamm, Torah Lishmah(N.Y.: Ktav, 1988).

12816b; 43a. On Torah lishmah in the Degel see Roland Goetschel, "Torah lishmah as a Central Conceptin the Degel Mahaneh Ephraim of Moses Hayyim Ephraim of Sudylkow" Hasidism Reappraised ed. AdaRapoport-Albert (London-Portland, OR: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 1996), 258-267.

1293b-4a.

13094a; 106a.

13128b.

132127a. The average Ukrainian Jew was not particularly observant or studious, despite his folk piety. Onthe lack of observance of the Sabbath and tefillin, see H.H. Ben Sasson, "Sabbath Observance Laws inPoland and their Economic and Social Context" Zion 21 (1956), 183-206. The Hasidic leader was not achampion of the common man, though they were sometimes lenient in their halakhic stance. See Dubnow,

40

This social distinction is seen as based on the people not striving to avoid physical

pleasure and to observe the commandments.

There is a distinction between the masses and the zaddikim who cleave tothe secret of thought. [Zaddikim] see the origin and source of things, andthrough this, elevate all levels to their source. But, the masses and the wickeddo pursue nothing but the materiality of things. They do not recognize thesecret of thought at all, and do not contemplate the source of things.133

The Degel gives a segulah for a "society of Torah" (hevrah be-divrei Torah) to avoid the

clutches of the ever threatening physicality by studying Torah right after prayer.134

A complete zaddik and hakham in the awe-inspiring secrets, and also onewho has a tradition from his teacher, ... can partially relate to the source of hissoul and to his [path] of worship. Every Jew is required to contemplate, seek,and pray for God to illuminate his eyes in this matter, even slightly. He shallfind the [shekhinah], our bride according to his soul and to the extent that heseeks. “More than a calf wants to suck a cow wants to give suck.” Therefore,it was engraved on the tablets for every Jew to innovate in Torah, as long ashe intends his heart to heaven. If it is fit (kosher), then it is fitting and he willenlighten our eyes with Torah."135

One binds the lower world to its source in the upper world in order to nullify the kelipot. In

general, all Israel must bind itself to Torah or to a talmid hakham in order not to drown in

this world.136

The Biblical verse "Man and beast Thou preserveth O Lord" (Psalms 36:7) is

explained in a rabbinic homily as comparing those who live only a sensory life to naked

beasts (Hullin 5b). Here the Degel presents three spiritual levels in the community: the first

Toldot HaHasidut, 23 on Ukrainian non-observance where he quotes Gorland-Kahane, Le-Korot ha-Gezerot(Odessa: 1892) p. 87ff.

133144a.

134146a.

135147a.

13647a; 129a.

41

level includes persons oblivious to anything except the physical, like an animal. The second

level includes those fighting their physical lust through Torah. While the third level includes

those on the level of the talmid hakham who can come close to the Creator, through

performing the yihud of Hakadosh Baruch Hu and the shekhinah.137

If one makes oneself a chariot for wisdom (hokhmah) and his thoughtcleaves in it continuously, as it is written, "And to Him shall thou cleave"(Deut.10:20), then Hakadosh Baruch Hu sends to him the words that are neededto rectify the person, to rectify the world, to raise them and to sweeten them.

One should notice the absence of the mention of specific mizvot and the equation of the

talmid hakham with Hasidic piety. The talmid hakham is connected to the divine, raised to

a new plane, and sweetened by the integration of this divine energy. His successful prayers

lead him to what Csordas called imaginal sacred self, which provides "life, mercy, and

healing."138

Stories

The spiritual healing element is also found in the Degel's telling of hasidic stories.

The Degel quotes the Baal Shem Tov on the utility of telling stories in order to raise the

level of ordinary people with parables or as theurgic acts designated by the zaddik's

intention (kavanah) able to raise the souls and places mentioned in the stories.139 In

addition, the Degel endorses the approach of the Magid of Bar in which stories effect the

world by bringing blessing into the void of this world, drawing an influx from above and

137150a.

1385a; 168a.

13914a; 19b mentions secular songs (lieder) of love and fear 55b 271a. See Joseph Dan, Ha-Sippur Ha-Hasidi (Jerusalem: Keter, 1975) 40-52.

42

changing his listeners.140 The Degel considers stories as a performance of yihudim,

defined as achieving an influx of higher consciousness (mohin). The Degel heard from the

Magid of Bar of a hierarchy of yihudim leading from those optimally performed during

prayer, those performed in thought, and those done in stories.

There are several types of yihudim with which a person is able to unify Godin all the levels. When one cannot speak or pray, one unifies in thought...[These are performed] all in joy because there is no yihud in consternation;understand this. Similarly, in activities and stories with other people, there isa yihud, by means of speaking to them he is [able to] draw them close... andafter he draws them close to him, he is able to raise them a level. This is thesecret of female waters.141

The Magid of Bar states that when the theurgic yihudim of prayer cannot be done, one may

still achieve theurgic effects through performing ordinary activities. Even ordinary

conversation and stories can have the ability to raise people to allow an influx of blessing

from above. The zaddik has this talent to transform ordinary life into theurgy.

It is possible that the intention of the verse "see the life with a women youlove” (Ecclesiastics 9:9), concerns the matters of this world and the stories ofevents, which are called “woman.” The hakham who is called her husband isbound to make from her female waters to draw minds (mohin), called life;understand this. This is the meaning of "a zaddik shall live by his faith,"(Habakuk 2:4). This is also the secret of the verses of the priestly blessing;understand this. Occasionally there is a yihud in a lower level with thecommon people... by means of prayer or a sermon… If one intends (titkaven)this in all stories of physical things it fulfills the verse "in all your ways knowhim" (Proverbs 3:6) (bekhol derakhekha daehu); it is easy to understand.142

140On the Maggid of Bar and his doctrine of descent into the physical world, see Joseph Weiss, "On theBeginnings of Hasidism" in Zion 16 (1951), 46-105; On his commentary to Psalm 107 see Rivka Shatz, "TheCommentary of the Besht on Psalm 107," Tarbiz 42 (1972), 154-184; Roman A. Foxbrunner, Habad(Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1992), 206-207.

141283a. On female waters (mayyin nukvin) see R. Moses Cordovero, Pardes Rimmonim 8:19; RonitMeroz, Redemption in the Lurianic Doctrine (Ph.D. Dissertation, Hebrew University, 1988).

142283a.

43

The zaddik's stories are literally like the priest's blessing, able to open the conduits of

divine blessing. His consciousness is a simultaneous communion with the hidden vitality of

the world and the higher sources of divine power. The theurgic acts of stories are a lower

level (katnut), while Torah is a higher level (gadlut).143 One should view the stories as part

of a faith healer's creation of a new healthy vision, Csordas' model of an embodied "sacred

self."144 This telling of stories is a means through which the zaddik can therapeutically raise

the people.

Dreams

Many shamans and mystics cultivate a spiritual dream life. R. Ephraim recorded

seventeen of his dreams, which he deemed to be auspicious, in a dream diary appended

to the Degel Mahaneh Ephraim.145 However, he gives no indication that the dreams were

incubated or shamanic dreams, nor are they predictive of the future or involved in healing.

They also do not appear to be visions of a maggid or brought about by a special prophetic

technique.146 In eight of them, the Baal Shem Tov appears to him, giving him blessings and

love. The rest envision the synagogue, or relate to prayer and blessing. They are ordinary

143On Hasidic stories in addition to Dan, see the popular work of Yitzhak Buxbaum, Storytelling andSpirituality in Judaism (Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1994).

144Csordas, The Sacred Self, see footnote 69 above.

145284-285, and one dream interpretation on 143a. The last two dreams are out of sequence, indicatingthat they may be from a different manuscript.

146On paranormal dreams, see Rachel Elior, "Nathan Adler and the Frankfort Pietists: Pietist Groups inEastern and Central Europe During the Eighteenth Century" Zion LIX 1 (1994) 31- 64, especially 60-61 whereshe cites the dreams of Karo, Vital, and Luzzatto.

44

dreams in which one sees a deceased relative or one is given a message.147 All of the

dreams are optimistic and encouraging, indicating a positive evaluation of his own

growth.148

In 1780, the Degel dreamt that his head was shaved at a priest's consecration,

which he interpreted in the dream itself "as a sign that he will be raised, God willing, to

prominence." The dream then flows into an image of his taking a walnut, cracking open the

shell and eating the hatred in its midst. The Degel explains it himself as a promise that:

God will break from me all the husks both spiritual and physical, and will giveme all spiritual and physical benefits. He will raise all the holy sparks from thehusks and we will see wonders from the Holy Torah, and other similar things,Amen.149

This dream reiterates his ideology of needing to break the hated husks of this life, of

raising the sparks from this world, and performing wonders from the Torah's power. The

dream together with the following dream, both of which occurred eight years after the

Magid of Miedzyrec's death, shows that the Degel expected to gain leadership status

among Podolia Hasidim. The Degel dreamt that his grandfather singled him and his

brother Barukh out for leadership:

I saw my grandfather in a dream. He gave me a hand full of money. In it wereseveral quarter rubles, a half ruble, white coins, old coins, and copper coinslike the old guilden. And to my brother Barukh Leib he gave two or three old

147It is interesting to note that only one of his dreams concerns Torah and he writes that he forgot itscontent remembering only its beginning. His dreams are about his identification with the Besht or theshekhinah, indicating something of the nature of his mystical experience. When the Baal Shem Tov teacheshim wisdom, it is not Torah but the letters of the aleph-bet, 284b. Compare R. Zadok HaKohen of Lublin,whose dreams concern interpretations of Torah, "Dream Notebook" printed with Resisei Laylah (Lublin:1903).

148Compare the stern superego reproach given by Karo's maggid, R.J. Zwi Werblowsky, Joseph Karo:Lawyer and Mystic (Philadelphia: J.P.S., 1980) 279-280.

149284a. He has a repeat the dream of eating the insides of nuts the following year, 285a.

45

[guilden]. This was during our journey towards Medziebuz.150

The giving of the old money shows that they are the inheritors of the old path possibly in

contrast to new innovations that came from Miedzyrec, it seems that they are to inherit the

Besht's position in Medziebuz.

The following year, 1781, he dreamt that the Baal Shem Tov gave him a baby to

circumcise while the Besht was sitting on Elijah's chair. In another dream in 1781 he saw

the Besht again:

I brought myself close, literally face to face. In a oneness he cleaved andhugged me with both hands. He said in these words to me: Your nature andmy nature came to the world, I as master of the name (baal shem) and yourgood name as a servant of God (eved Hashem) to learn and to tell Torah toIsrael. A man was standing there, one of the regular important visitorscoming to hear from zaddikim. My grandfather nodded to him and shook hishead, meaning, this will certainly be. I stood on the bench and saw his headshake.151

In these dreams several important points about the Degel's conception of Hasidism shall

be noted. The Baal Shem is portrayed as a grandfatherly Elijah figure who functions as a

Baal Shem, in contrast to his grandson the Degel, who has a good name as a servant of

God (eved Hashem).152 The Degel explains this dream on the manifest level as

acknowledging that he is his grandfather's successor, and that the Hasidim (the important

visitor) know this, as well as himself. Yet, this knowledge is only known through the allusive

sign of a head nod; thus the masses of the Hasidim would not know it. This is possibly an

150285a-b. Podolia had been recently transferred from Poland to Russia, therefore, the old coins werepossibly still in use.

151284b.

152On servants of God see Yaakov Hisdai, The Emergence of Hasidism and Mitnagdim in the Light of theHomiletic Literature (Dissertation, Hebrew U., 1984).

46

allusion to his lack of eminence compared to the Magid of Miedzyrec's disciples.

In 1781, he dreamt that the Besht came to him and blessed him, and in another

dream the Besht hugged and kissed him. His identification with and love of the Besht

reaches its peak when:

I cleaved my body to his holy body and in the midst of his beard of his holyface. Afterwards I heard that the congregation was reciting the thirteenattributes [of mercy]... I also started to recite in my mouth (throat) withoutarticulation of the lips. Because I said 'Is this not literally the thirteenattributes, that I am in the midst of his holy countenance'.153

This dream deserves special attention for it shows the actual theosis of the Baal Shem Tov

into the body of God. The perfection of both the Degel and the Besht is seen as an

hypostisized or incarnate body. The body imagery is reminiscent of St. Symeon's body

mysticism, yet it also clearly draws on the Idrot of the Zohar, where God's body, and

specifically his beard, are discussed.154 In general, the Degel identifies this world with the

feminine, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, and his insemination of mercy (hesed) as

masculine.155 In this dream of cleaving to the Besht's body, the Degel is male in his

identification with the Besht, and his personification of the divine mercy, while the people

are the female. In respect to the Besht, the Degel's passion for self-perfection are

"feminine waters" in order to merge with the male.156

The dream also shows three levels of reality, the divine as personified by the Baal

153284b.

154On the thirteen attributes as God's beard see Yehudah Liebes, "How was the Zohar Written" Studies inthe Zohar (Albany: Suny Press, 1993), 85-132.

155168a and see Idel, Hasidism, 134.

156On feminine waters see note 142. The Degel writes that while living the Besht hugged and kissed him,282b. One should be careful not to read these passages anachronisticly in light of late twentieth centuryideas of sexuality.

47

Shem Tov, the divine mercy as personified by the Degel, and the earthly people in need of

the mercy. The congregation is clearly below him spiritually; he is their source of divine

mercy, and it seems he is no longer in need of it himself because he now personifies it,

and now cleaves to the Torah itself.

In the same year 1781, when in his dream the Besht was assuring him of his status,

the Degel also dreamt that he ascended twice on a staircase while wearing three sets of

tefilin. In following years he had two dreams of frustration symbolized by a non-climbable

staircase. In the first he writes that

I am climbing a staircase, which had steps very close to one another.Because of this I was not able to expand my consciousness (leharhiv daati)and my walking path. I pressed the first step of the stairs with my foot and fellto the ground, to a place of dung and mud. In order to increase my step I wentunder with my steps.157

This dream finds him unable to leave the confines of his narrow life. He wants to climb the

stairs as well as, he explains himself, to expand his consciousness. He falls, back to his

unfortunate current state, a place of dung and mud. His solution to go under may refer

either to go under the stairs in order to increase his domain laterally, to descend further still,

or possibly to go under on his toes carefully.

His longest dream, in 1785, was one, in which he saw the Baal Shem Tov blowing

shofar and announcing his own notes (tekiot) before blowing them. He then put the shofar

next to his mouth while blowing slightly:

Afterwards he grabbed it with both hands held near his body while the sound 157285a. An alternate version of this dream finds him in his late uncle's house R. Zvi Hirsh, in which thestairs contains lulavim and etrogim. Etrogim are symbolic of Torah for the Degel see 176b, so it means thathe cannot reach the proper level of Torah. The Besht was present in the dream performing the PassoverSeder and Purim festivities. In this dream he was distant from the Besht and did not have direct contact.

48

came from the shofar. I was astounded. What am I do to when the Beshthimself announces the tekiot and blows himself? Then the congregationcalled out arise (ya'amod) as if they were reading the Torah. I went up andstood by with the shofar. I recited a blessing as if I had ascended to analiyah, and I [saw myself] standing literally inside the shofar as the soundissued from the shofar. Afterwards I took the shofar home myself and blew init tekiah, shevarim teruah, tekiah myself.158

Here, the Degel sees the Baal Shem Tov as not relinquishing authority; and performing

each action himself. The shofar is the manifestation of God's mercy, occurring at the side

of the Baal Shem Tov's body. The Degel goes up and becomes part of the conduit of this

mercy, which he can then, despite his subsidiary role, reproduce at home. The Degel

interprets his own dream:

This is our interpretation: [this dream] is better and greater than other[dreams]. Certainly, all these things are to sweeten the judgement from me,and to humble all adversaries, and to illuminate (the whole world and) mewith the great shofar, which is the holy countenance, higher mother etc.159

He acknowledges that his interpretation is only an interpretation, not necessarily better than

others are. Thus implying that he discussed the dream with other people or had thought

about other options.160 This discussion shows that he did not consider his dreams as

healing, nor as containing mystical insights, but as ordinary (possibly precognitive)

dreams.161 In general, the Degel is emblematic of those Hasidic writers not strongly

influenced by the Maggid, who do not require a nullification of the ego and therefore show

158285b.

159285b.

160In contrast to the tradition of symbolic dream interpretation contained in works such as SolomonAlmoli, Pitron Halomot (Venice: 1623), the Degel interprets dreams on the manifest level.

161The Degel's views on dreams employs the Or Hayyim, who writes that dreams are images andmetaphors that reveal higher and future knowledge, see Genesis 4:1; Numbers 12:6. Shamanic dreamsenter the realm of the dead or of the spirits and bring back information for the community as in the ascentsof the Baal Shem Tov. See footnotes 21 and 22 above.

49

greater introspection and interest in dreams.162

In the Degel’s theoretical discussion of dreams, they are indicative of the non-

consciousness of sleep. Dreams create a false reality; "dreams are illusionary and not

true." He parallels the falseness of dreams to the non-connection to divinity found in this

world exiled from the divine. Torah study while awake is the reconnection of the sleeping

mind to the divine, and is the redemption from exile of the world. If one is purified and

connected to Torah, then amidst the falseness of dreams one may find truth and prophecy.

As a result, "All dreams are true and all seen is true, and all true is seen. One has left exile

and falsehood; instead, all of one's actions are true."163 This is not a shamanic theory of

dreams to heal, enter other realms, or commune with spirits. It is, again, an ordinary

psychological process to purify the mind, leading to true knowledge.

An example of the ordinariness of his dreams is his ability to continue them as a

waking dream the next day. One night he sees that he will overcome his political

adversaries and that he will be illuminated by the Shekhinah and Holy One, blessed be He,

allowing him to illuminate the world. The next day this theme continues in his thoughts,

creating a waking dream, which confirms the defeat of his adversaries and his achieving

prominence. He saw himself walking "in a kittel with embroidered rows of silver and gold,

literally a royal garment." That night the theme continued, and he dreamt that he saw the

162An example is R. Pinhas of Koretz, Midrash Pinhas (Bilgorai: 1931), p.10b paragraph 72, "Dreams arethe refuse of the mind". Compare the charismatics whom Csordas, Sacred Self studied p. 93; they rejectthe use of dreams because of their lack of conscious control and existential spontaneity. The Degel islooking for a connection to the shekhinah and a timeless illumination of the everyday.

16342b; 41a-42b. In contrast, for the school of the Maggid, as typified by Zaavat HaRivash 4a, Torah andsleep are both evaluated as negative, in comparison to the true reality of devekut. In the Degel, reality isTorah and purification, while sleep is the impurity of this world.

50

Baal Shem Tov rejoicing on Simhat Torah. He interprets this as implying that God will

sweeten the judgement for him and all Israel.164

Conclusions

The Degel, whose theoretical writings are about the process by which one becomes

a zaddik, closes the alleged chasm between Hasidic theoretical literature and Hasidic

stories. His theoretical discussions about the wonder working zaddik show that Buber and

Scholem may have created a false dichotomy between the stories and the theoretical

works. Buber was correct in comparing Hasidism to the ecstatic, embodied mystics such

as St. Symeon. Yet, he was phenomenologically wrong in romanticizing it into a this-worldly

meeting of the moment. Conversely, Scholem was correct to emphasize the theoretical

literature, yet wrong not to link Hasidism to the wonder working literature giving usable

techniques for inner work and paranormal experiences. The Degel represents a world that

reads for guidance Hayyim Vital's Shaar HaYihudim, and Shaarei Kedushah, Shlomel

Dresnitz's, Shivhei Ha-Ari, Yosef Karo's, Magid Mesharim, and the anonymous Brit

Menuhah.165

The parallels of wonder working saints bringing a life of ascetic holiness to the

physical world also include Talmudic rabbis such as R. Haninah ben Dosa, 166 and the

164285b, the image of the Baal Shem Tov is a positive sign similar to the incubated dream images of theR. Shimon Bar Yohai, see Yorum Bilu, "Dreams and the Wishes of the Saint" in H. Goldberg (ed.) JudaismViewed from Within and From Without (Albany: Suny, 1987). On waking dreams, see Mary Watkins,Waking Dreams (Dallas: Spring, 3rd ed. 1984).

165Similarly, Idel, Hasidism writes that Hasidism is magic and ecstatic mysticism and Piekarz, BetweenIdeology and Reality writes that it is a continuity of Safed pietistic literature. Both are correct if theseparanormal magical manuals of Safad are seen as the model for the Hasidic zaddik.

166On wonder working rabbis in Rabbinic texts, see Jack N. Lightstone, "Magicians, Holy Men, and Rabbi:

51

Sefardic R. Hayyim Ben Attar (1696-1743) and R. Israel Abuhazera (1890-1984).167

Moshe Rosman writes: "The spread of mystical-ascetic hasidism from Safed to Europe

from the sixteenth century onward put the Moroccan, Hayyim ben Attar, the Ukrainians,

Gershon of Kutow, and the Besht, and the sages of Jerusalem in the same universe of

discourse."168 This model of mystical-ascetic hasidism in various communities

reconceptualizes the nature of Ukrainian Hasidism away from a specific uniqueness into

general trends of magic, lay prophecy, veneration of saints, hagiography, and wonder

working that have yet to be explored. It can also explain women as healers and counselors

outside the Hasidic court.169

The Degel did not see himself as a theoretical Kabbalist. He was a Talmid

Patterns of the Sacred in Late Antiquity," in ed. William Green, Approaches to Ancient Judaism, vol. 1(Missoula, Mont: Brown Judaic Studies, 1985).

167On the Besht's appreciation for Ben Attar and his aborted attempt to meet him see, G. Nigal, "ThePraises of Rabbi Hayim Ben Attar" in Kav LeKav: Studies in Maghreb Jewry in Memory of Shaul Ziv(Jerusalem: 1983); Dan Manor, "R. Hayyim ben Attar in Hasidic Tradition" Pe'amim 20 (1984), 88-110. OnMorrocan saint veneration including Abuhazera see Isachar Ben-Ami, Saint Veneration Among the Jews inMorocco (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1984). This is currently a sociological phenomena of closeness of the saintreverence among Moroccan and Hasidic Jews in Israel. The influence of the Ottoman Empire on Hasidism isa still unresearched topic: Lurianic and other Kabbalistic works traveled North, traders traveled South toConstantinople, and Podoloia was under the Ottoman Empire at the end of the seventeenth century.

168M. Rosman, Founder of Hasidism, 130. Compare Scholem's dichotomy between Hasidism and theSefardic Kabbalists of Bet-El, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism 328-330.

169I.M. Lewis, Ecstatic Religions: An Anthropology of Spirit Possession and Shamanism (Harmondsworth,England: Penguin, 1971) wrote that ecstatic religions give a sense of empowerment to women. While histheory has received criticism, it can be applied to Hasidism in a modified form. The approach of the Degel,when learned and ascetically practiced, could offer some women the possibility of being known as healers,wonder-workers, and saints. Nevertheless, they were excluded from the religious public realm of synagogueand public lecturing and relegated to the "private" realm of healing and counseling. On women in Hasidism,see Nehemia Polen, "Miriam's Dance: Radical Egalitarianism in Hasidic Thought" Modern Judaism 12(1992) 1-21; Ada Rapoport-Albert, "On Women in Hasidism: S.A. Horodesky and the Maid of LudmirTradition," in Jewish History:Essays in honor of Chimen Abramsky, ed. A. Rapoport-Albert, S.J. Zipperstein(London:1988), 508-525. On the importance of not overlooking study done by women in non-formalinstitutions, outside the rabbinic high culture, see Shaul Stampfer, "Gender Differentiation and Education ofJewish Women in Nineteenth-Century Eastern Europe" Polin 7 (1992) 63-87.

52

Hakham who thought that rabbis could heal, reach the inner light of the text, pneumatically

interpret the text, and find religion by cultivating awe and practicing yihudim in everyday

embodied life. Only an exceptional religious leader such as the Baal Shem Tov could

shamanicly ascend to heaven, communicate with the dead, and have a theosis to become

identified with the divine. In the Degel's psychic life, he was emotionally wedded to the

shekhinah, the Baal Shem Tov, and the divine vitality. A rabbi was to be ascetic,

devotional, and concerned with connecting this world to the higher divine vitality. The true

act of faith was to see the sparks of divine vitality in this physical world, and to gather the

sparks meant to harness that spiritual energy into mastery over the physical, in order to

heal by creating a physical, emotional, and imaginal sacred self.