[Download] "Hermeneutics in Hasidism (Essay)" by Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Hermeneutics in Hasidism (Essay)
- Author : Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies
- Release Date : January 22, 2010
- Genre: Religion & Spirituality,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 201 KB
Description
From the Oral Community to Written Documents Hasidism is a revivalist religious movement that started in the regions of Ukraine in the mid-18th century. A paramount popular movement based upon verbal communication, and basically dependent upon the vernacular, Yiddisch, no book authored by a Hasidic master has been printed or even written during the first generation of this movement. This is no doubt part of a preference of the oral contact over the written literature. Indeed in a later Hasidic legend, this oral propensity has been put in relief in connection with the founder of the movement R. Israel Ba'al Shem Tov, known by the acronym ha-Besht: "There was a man who wrote down the Torah [=teaching] of the Besht that he heard from him. Once the Besht saw a demon walking and holding a Book in his hand. He said to him: "What is the book that you hold in your hand?" He answered him: This is the book that you have written. The Besht then understood that there was a person who was writing down his torah. He gathered all his followers and asked them: "Who among you is writing down my Torah?" The man admitted it and he brought the manuscript to the Besht. The Besht examined it and said: "There is not even a single word here that is mine"." (1)