| 1648-9 | 1683 | 1682 - 1725 | 1740 | 1791 | 1815 | 1848 transition from: pre-modernity |
1881 to: modernity |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Cossack massacres in Eastern
Europe –
Jewish population
movement trend reverses.
Formerly from west to eastern Europe. Now, a tendency to move westward, away from Slavic lands. |
Peace of Westphalia in Central and Western Europe |
Ottoman Turks repulsed from Podolia
Province, (left bank of Dniester River in today's Ukraine) |
Reign of Peter "The Great"
in Russia The Great Northern War – |
Hasidism consolidates 1740 onward: The Industrial Revolution 1730 - 1790: The Enlightenment |
"The Great" annexes Poland; also annexes Ottoman lands along the north shore of the Black Sea. Russia gains a |
End of Napoleonic aggression – Confederacy of the Rhine |
German Confederation Hasidism fully flourishes – primarily in Poland, Ukraine, and Eastern Galicia (eastern Austria-Hungary). |
from the Russian Pale of Jewish Settlement begins in the wake of |
| A | Hasidism Begins | General History | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Rabbi Israel, the Ba'al Shem Tov
son of Eliezer and Sarah 1698 - 1760 Born in Okopy, Podolia
Province (Poldil's'ka, today's Ukraine).
Known by Jews as Okup or Okop.
Podolia
was then part of the
Because
of poverty, R. Israel's parents lived in a
Podolia Province. The left bank
of the Dniester (Dnister) River downstream from the Seret
River (southeastward) in today's Ukraine. (Not to be
confused with the Siret River in Romania.) The
Carpathian Mountain Range lies to the southwest and
west. Volhynia (Wołiń) lies to the northwest of
Podolia.
|
Ba'al Shem Tov –
"Possessor [ Owner / Master ] of a Good Name" – . . . the
crown of a good name surpasses them all [ Torah
scholarship, the priesthood, and royalty ]
– Mishnah, Tractate Avot 4:13
Judaism has always been
orthopractic and
Ba'al Shem –
"Possessor [ Master ] of a Name"; an appellation for –
an
appellation - This title had been used for
several generations. The leader of a study group
of mystics was called a ba'al shem. The plural form is ba'alei shem.
His mastery was to know how to use Such dysfunction included illnesses, both physical and mental as well as the illnesses of domestic animals, difficult childbirths, infertility, weather disasters which interfere with the water or food supply, political and religious oppression from the neighboring Gentiles or their overlords, danger from rampaging gangs of thieves and murderers, and so on. Jews in their community and the
surrounding communities treated the ba'alei shem as
professionals. Clientele was established by the ba'al shem issuing
a slip of paper which the client / patient inserted
into an amulet. Common belief was that the ba'al shem had
written some Rabbis deferred to the judgement of ba'alei
shem as far as using Jews outside the circle of mystics were not supposed to look at the content, the texts, of these slips of paper, and apparently they didn't. I'm not aware of any surviving notes. The practice of the mystics has been shrouded in mystery. |
1440 - Gutenberg's printing press 1470s - first printed Hebrew books 1482 - Talmud was printed in Guadalajara, Spain (perhaps only parts) 1485-92 - first printed Mishnah by J. S. Soncino 1488? - first printed complete edition of the Hebrew Bible (Italy) around 1500 - Gershom Soncino establishes his family's printing press; Constantina (Constantinople?) 1511 - Daniel Bomberg's Hebrew printing press in Venice, Italy 1517 - first printing of Hebrew Bible (Venice) 1519-23 - the Talmud is printed by Daniel Bomberg 1546-49 - Mishnah is printed in Venice 1553-54 - the Pope orders burning of existing printed copies of the Talmud in Rome & Venice. 1558 - The Book of the Zohar - first printed in Italy 1559 - Talmud appears on the first Christian index of forbidden books Machiavelli
1469 - 1527
Thomas More 1478 - 1535 1540 onward: The Scientific Revolution Copernicus 1473 - 1543 Martin Luther 1483 - 1546 Johannes Kepler 1571 - 1630 Galileo 1564 - 1642 Isaac Newton 1642 - 1727 1683 -
Ottoman Turks repulsed from the left bank of Dniester
(Dnister) River in today's Ukraine.
1683 - Maximum extent of the Ottoman Empire into Europe. 1699 - Treaty of Karlowitz ends the Great Turkish War (January 26, 1699). 1688 - Hebrew printing press in Amsterdam |
|
|
From age seven, Israel studies for four years with
itinerant hidden mystics. With time, these mystics
come to be called tsadikim – "righteous
saints" in Hebrew; singular is tsadik.
Hasidism will crystallize around tsadikim in the
next few generations or so.
At 11 years old, Israel is
invited to join this elite fraternity of hidden tsadikim.
At 14 years old, as a
Rabbi Adam Ba'al Shem Tov of Ropshitz
(Ropczyce), Galicia, Poland, about 100 miles west of
today's L'viv, Ukraine, leads the hidden tsadikim, but never
meets Rabbi Israel, then only called a ba'al shem.
R. Adam corresponds through intermediaries such as his son Leib. Sends R. Israel Kabbalistic manuscripts. Despite his age, 14 years old, Israel presents 5 ingenious ideas that would change the landscape of Judaism (in the column at right). |
Hasidism
introduces remedies –
|
1648 -
1649 Cossack Massacres
The Great Northern War – Sweden against Russia, Denmark, and Saxony. Sweden is defeated. Most battles are fought on northern Polish territory. |
|
|
Sometimes, R. Israel signs his name
'from Okup'; sometimes 'from Tlust' (Tłuste in
Polish). He could have run away from Okup to Tłuste
before seven years old – he wasn't a
Another possibility is that he made Tłuste his home base during his teenage years. (Some say that he becomes a bahelfer – an assistant teacher there before he settles in Brod.) Tłuste was a village near Okup. Wiesel (1972) locates it on left-bank Dnister across the river from Horodenka, Ukraine, about 45 miles (or 70 km) west of Okup. A Ukrainian village, Tovste, appears there on contemporary maps. When he is 18, he settles
in the town of Brody (today's Ukraine), one of the
larger towns (a city?) in Volhynia. There he becomes
a bahelfer –
an assistant teacher, in keeping with promoting Jewish
education.
Raising an orphan in his
house in Brody, Rabbi Abraham Gershon (usually known as
Rabbi Gershon Kitover, R. Israel's future
Israel meets R. Gershon's
sister, Leah Rachel. They marry despite strong
objections from her brother – Israel is not believed
to be a scholar but an ignoramus.
|
Brody –
about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of today's L'viv,
Ukraine.
Rabbi Abraham Gershon Kitover, originally from Kutów (today's Kuty, Ukraine, if I am not mistaken). As a member of the hidden tsadikim, R. Israel hides his scholarship, at first even from his wife. They have two children – Tzvi, a boy, and Adel, a girl. |
||
|
At around age 26, R. Israel and his
wife move to Bucovina Province, a region in the
northeastern Carpathian Mountains.
There, R. Israel's wife supports them by running an inn. R. Israel poses as a lime porter who spends his week in the Carpathian Mountains. |
Bucovina Province –
now split between Ukraine and Romania and populated by
ethnic Ukrainians, Romanians, and Russians. Right
bank of the Prut River.
They seem to have relocated
between Polish/Ukrainian Kuty and Kosiv – Kitev and
Kossov, according to Wiesel (1972), near today's
Chernivsti, Ukraine (11 km apart). It wouldn't
surprise me if today's Kuty is the
|
||
|
R. Israel studies the
Torah intensively and meditates while alone, secluded in
the Carpathian Mountains, for 10 years. Among his
subjects, he studies the Kabbalistic manuscripts from R.
Adam Ba'al Shem.
Prepares
himself until he is 36 years old for the role of
popularizing Hasidism – the Jewish mystical
dimension to be presented to ordinary people.
As his stature grows,
Rabbi Israel earns the title "Ba'al Shem Tov" within the
circle of hidden tsadikim.
|
By the
time Rabbi Israel reaches the age of 29 (1727), change has
swept through many Jewish communities.
|
1730 - 1790
The Enlightenment 1740 onward: The Industrial Revolution |
|
|
Rabbi Israel becomes
publicly known as the Ba'al Shem Tov from age 36 (1734)
when Rabbi Adam Ba'al Shem Tov
had just passed away (also see section
E).
|
| B | Who is a Hasid? | Also spelled 'Chasid' |
|---|---|---|
| A Hasid observes the tenets of Judaism above and beyond the letter of the law. | "Study is not primary; rather action is." Mishnah, Tractate Avot 1:17 | |
| The term hasid appears in both the Mishnah and Talmud. | Especially see the Mishnah, Tractate Avot, Chapter 5. | |
| This word is a derivative of the Hebrew word hesed – kindness (also spelled chesed) | Also, Mishnah, Tractate Avot 2:8 – "Rabbi Yosei HaCohen is a Hasid." | |
| "The one who says, 'Mine is yours, but let yours be yours,' is a Hasid." | Mishnah, Tractate Avot 5:10 – However, not to the foolish extent of becoming a ward of the community. | |
| "A Gentile who accepts the
Seven Commandments [of Hasidei is a plural form for Hasid. |
Maimonides' Code - The Book of Judges, "The Laws of Kings and Their Wars." Chapter 8, ruling 11. |
| C | Hasidic Teachings | Earlier Hasidei Ashkenaz * – in contrast |
|---|---|---|
| Piety | Piety | |
| Altruism | Altruism | |
| Concern about people, not condemnation | Preoccupied with theory | |
| Optimistic
attitude – gladness Banish sadness and negative thoughts |
Asceticism, stoicism (see Scholem) | |
| Religious and ethical stringency – observance above and beyond the letter of the law | Religious and ethical stringency – above and beyond the letter of the law | |
| Heart and feelings are guides Spontaneous feelings Experience and intuition |
Austere Scholarship and logic |
|
| Encourage recital of Psalms and
Divine praise Both common people and elites can serve the Almighty through singing and dancing |
Elites must
bear the iniquities of the generation by undergoing moral
tests and |
|
| Mindfulness of Divine
Providence – learning how to serve the Almighty from what one sees and hears |
Din Shamayim – Harsh heavenly judgment is just | |
|
Promote Jewish education
for adults as well as children
Populist movement;
all inclusive
Uplift sincere and simple people
|
Elitist
fellowship of Exclusiveness, separatist Led by members of the Kalonymos dynasty |
|
| Seeks to expand the movement to the entire Jewish world | Largely confined to the Archdiocese of Mainz, Speyer, and Wörms ** | |
| Unconcern
toward neighbors' observance of Christianity But fear of "Russification" – the Russian elites' and Russian Church's desire to convert Jews |
Fear that the Christian
establishment cannot protect Jews as before. *** Fearful of Christian neighbors Avoidance of all things Christian |
|
| Jews in rural areas are not especially strange to their non-Jewish neighbors. | Marginal non-Jews massacre
Jews *** on the way "to purify Jerusalem" – the Crusades. Disenfranchised non-Jews begin to believe blood libels. *** |
|
| Scholars make mysticism accessible to ordinary Jews. | Mysticism is confined to accomplished, older scholars. | |
| Reasons for suffering are unfathomable | Justification of Jewish suffering due to sins | |
| Bolster economic stability | ||
| Anticipation of redemption ushering in the
Messianic Era – "When will the Messiah come?" "When your [ the Ba'al Shem Tov's ] wellsprings spread outward [ reaching the ends of the earth ]." |
Lacrimose
concept of Jewish history Martyrdom for the faith is an ideal |
|
| De-emphasis of observing the calendar days which commemorate tragedies | Commemorate each new tragedy | |
Book of the Devout (Hebrew), Rabbi Judah HaHasid, 1150 -1217 Rokeach (Hebrew), Eleazar of Wörms, 1160?-1237? (In one source, I saw that Eleazar is the son of Judah, son of Kalonymos, who received from Judah Hasid, son of Samuel, son of Kalonymos the Elder.) |
||
| ** Called
by Jews These three towns were chartered by the royal crown and surrounded by ecclesiastical lands forming one archdiocese in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. Jews had been granted special privileges. |
||
| *** See Stowe, "Crusades," Alienated Minority, Chap 5. |
| D | Socio-Economic | General History / General Life |
|---|---|---|
| 1500s - Polish authorities
begin to shape a central Jewish leadership. In 1503, Polish
King Alexander appoints Rabbi Jacob Polak as "Rabbi of the
Jews." In 1551, Jews in Great Poland themselves choose a
chief rabbi and religious judges by the decision of the
state. Jewish autonomy expands. Council of Four Lands Social stratification - Torah Scholars and the wealthy become aloof from ordinary Jews. |
Copernicus 1473 - 1543;
born in Toruń (Thorn), Poland, a city off-limits to Jews. Great Poland: the homeland of the Polish people. 1572 - Jagello dynasty in Poland dies out. Poland becomes weak and defenseless. 1440 - Gutenberg's printing press 1517 - first printing of Hebrew Bible (Venice) 1519-23 - the Talmud is printed by Daniel Bomberg |
|
Until the 16th century, about 95% of the world's Jews lived in Muslim lands. By 1700, the balance would shift. Increasingly, the majority of Jews are living in Christian Europe. |
1540 onward: The Scientific
Revolution 1543 - Martin Luther turns against Jews 1559 - the Talmud appears on the first Christian index of forbidden books Galileo 1564 - 1642 Descartes 1596 - 1650 1618 - 1648 Thirty Years War |
|
|
1648
- 1649 Cossacks of Ukraine, under their hetman
Bogdan Khmelnitsky, rise against their absentee Polish
masters, venting their anger especially at Jews.
100,000 Jews perish
between 1648 and 1658.
Cossacks slaughter indiscriminately – an untold number of Polish Catholics are also murdered. 1654 - Russian Czar
invades Lithuania and White Russia (Belarus); expels
Jews.
|
1648 - 1649 Cossack
Massacres; Orthodox Ukrainians from the east invite
Tatar khanates to attack Catholics in the west.
1642 - 1649 English Civil
War
ca. 1654 - Charles X of
Sweden invades a weak Poland from the west (Roth pp.
324-6).
|
|
| Heresy
of Shabbetai Zvi - 1665 onward Declares himself to be the Messiah (see section G). |
When he was given the choice
of either converting to Islam or being executed, he
justified himself becoming a Muslim. |
|
|
Before 1648 - 10,000 inhabitants
live in Miȩdzybóż, Podolia (Medzhybizh in today's
Ukraine), where the Ba'al Shem Tov would live the last two
decades of his life. (Pronounced by Jews as
Mezhbizh, Mezhbuzh, or Mezhəbuzh.) An important
commercial and population center in Podolia, about 160
miles (260 km) east of Lwów (L'viv) and a similar distance
southwest of Kiev (Kyyiv). About 25 km east of
Khmel'nyts'kyy at the juncture of the Boh and Buźek Rivers
(in Ukrainian, Buh and Buzhok).
A fortress town, the last
line of defense against Cossacks and Tatars from the
east. Destroyed in the Cossack Massacres.
Returns to Polish hands in 1686 in the face of a Polish
offensive against the Turks.
Miȩdzybóż is a town
chartered by landowners, the Czartoryski family.
This family's archive is in Kraków, Poland (Rosman).
In Miȩdzybóż, the
non-Jewish population availed themselves of the Ba'al Shem
Tov's services, calling him kabalista and doktor
(Rosman, p. 57 n.59).
Pronounced Miendzhybi in
Polish.
By 1740, a Polish
administrative center and one of the largest towns in
Ukraine. Population is then about 5,000,
1700 - 1,000 Jews
emigrate from Europe to the Holy Land.
|
1648 -
the
1681 - 1,500 Jews live under Turkish rule in the
entirety of Podolia.
1683 - Ottoman Turks repulsed from part of Podolia (left bank of Dnister River in today's Ukraine) Turkish War of 1672 ends in
1686 in Miȩdzybóż.
1682 - 1725 Reign of
Peter "The Great" in Russia; Jews are victimized.
1700 - 1721 The Great
Northern War. Russia defeats Sweden. Most
battles are fought on northern Polish territory.
Central authority in Poland weakens even with economic
improvement.
John Locke 1632 - 1704
Isaac Newton 1642 - 1727 Alexander Pope 1688 - 1744 Jonathan Swift 1667 - 1745 |
|
| In Miȩdzybóż, intergroup friction occurs, but not frequently. On occasion, the Church is in conflict with the Jewish community. Occasional fights break out between Christians and Jews. Nevertheless, Jews and Christians cooperate when their interests coincide. Strife within the Jewish community is not uncommon, usually between the Jewish elites and the rest of the community (Rosman). | 1701 -
1740 War of Spanish Succession 1733 - 1735 War of the Polish Succession |
|
| 1741 - The minor commercial center Tłuste, having been a home for Rabbi Israel before he arrives in Brody, suffers from passing Muskovite troops. This town does not appear on contemporary maps. The Ba'al Shem Tov is already living in Miȩdzybóż in 1741. | 1740 - 1748 War of the Austrian Succession | |
| Glückel of Hameln - relative
prosperity for Jews in Western Europe 1645 - 1724 |
1730 - 1790 The
Enlightenment 1740 onward: The Industrial Revolution |
| E |
Hasidism Consolidates |
General
History |
|---|---|---|
| 1734 - Rabbi Adam Ba'al Shem from Ropshitz (Ropczyce), Poland, dies. | 1683 - Ottoman Turks
repulsed from Podolia (left bank of Dniester River (Dnister)
in today's Ukraine) 1682 - 1725 Reign of Peter "The Great" in Russia; Jews are victimized. |
|
|
1734 - R. Israel Ba'al Shem
Tov makes himself known by visiting Jewish settlements in
Podolia and Volhynia Provinces.
This region is north of the Dniester (Dnister) River in
today's Ukraine. The Ba'al Shem Tov had grown up in
this region. His wife was from Brody, one of the
larger towns (a city?) in Volhynia.
Previous to 1734, he had passed himself off as
ignorant of Torah learning. Only his wife –
sister of a Rabbi in Brody – was eventually aware of
his scholarly attainments. Also, it seems that
before 1734, the Ba'al Shem Tov worked for awhile as a
lime porter from up in the Carpathian Mountains, in the
Province of Bucovina, across the Dniester and Prut Rivers,
so that he could be alone to study and meditate.
|
The name Volhynia harkens back to an
older time, before the When Jews began to emigrate to America from this region in the late 1800s, Galizien (German spelling) was a It remains a cultural region of Ukrainians - latinized as Ruthenians. The name Volhynia now has only been used as the name of a Russian / Soviet guberniya / oblast. |
|
|
1740 - R. Israel Ba'al
Shem Tov settles in Mezhbuzh,
Podolia (Medzhybizh in today's Ukraine).
(Polish spelling is Miȩdzybóż; pronounced Miendzhybi
by Poles.) Jews also call the town Mezhbizh and Mezhəbuzh.
He selects a circle of 60 disciples. They will
live in select Jewish communities, but convene in Mezhbuzh
from time to time.
|
||
| 1759,
summer - Archbishop Sekulski and Bishop Tikulski of L'vov
(L'viv), § Ukraine,
sponsor a debate between Jacob Frank (1726-1791) and three
Hasidic rabbis. The rabbis are victorious. The
debate takes place one year before the death of R. Israel
Ba'al Shem Tov. (Is a text of the debate
extant?) The date, 26 Tammuz, is made a holiday.
(See section G.) After Frank's death, his followers are called Frankists. |
||
| 1760 - R. Israel Ba'al Shem Tov passes away during the summer in Mezhbuzh (Miȩdzybóż in Polish), Podolia, Ukraine, where he had settled as leader of the nascent Hasidic movement. | 1730 - 1790 The
Enlightenment 1740 onward: The Industrial Revolution |
|
| End of
an era, birth of a new one. The Ba'al Shem Tov becomes legendary. |
||
| 1760 - Rabbi Tzvi, the
Ba'al Shem Tov's son, takes his father's seat. References to ba'alei shem become fewer. Rabbi Tzvi is a tsadik. |
||
| Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritch (Velyki Mezhirichi, Ukraine) is a senior disciple of the Ba'al Shem Tov. He has been a preacher, a maggid. As a maggid from the town of Mezritch, he is called, in Yiddish usage, "the Mezritcher Maggid," instead of being referred to by name. (born 1710 in Volhynia - d. 1770) | The town of Mezritch is about 135 miles (220 km) northeast of L'viv and 180 miles (300 km) west of Kyyiv (Kiev), and about 40 km east of Rivne on the road to Kyyiv. Highway E40 across Ukraine (from west to east) connects the cities L'viv, Rivne, Zhytomyr, and Kyyiv (Kiev). Mezritch is off the highway to the north about 8 km. Mezritch is about 90 miles (145 km) north of Mezhbuzh. | |
|
1761 - The Ba'al Shem Tov's inner circle of tsadikim elect Rabbi
Dov Ber of Mezritch to become the next leader of the
Hasidic movement instead of the the Ba'al Shem Tov's son,
Rabbi Tzvi. R. Tzvi steps down.
Leadership of the Hasidic movement as a whole will not be inherited. |
Place
names in Crown Poland within the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth – Lwów (L'viv), Równe (Rivne), Zytomierz (Zhytomyr), Kijów (Kyyiv), Miȩdzybóż (Mezhbuzh). Yiddish speakers may call Lwów by its German name, Lemberg. |
|
| R. Dov Ber has 300 disciples which include most of the Ba'al Shem Tov's inner circle. | ||
| R. Dov Ber disperses the
Ba'al Shem Tov's inner circle, as well as his new disciples,
to promote Hasidism throughout Eastern Europe. Among
his disciples are 39 who lead and found their own
dynasties. Each tsadik develops his own style. R. Dov Ber himself does not travel, although the Ba'al Shem Tov did. |
||
| 1770 - R. Dov Ber, the Maggid, passes away in the late autumn of 1770 in Mezritch. | 1776 - The U.S. Declaration of Independence | |
| Jews in Eastern Europe are now calling leaders of Hasidism "Rebbe." A rebbe is a tsadik, but not all tsadikim are rebbes. | 1791 - Czarina Katherine
"The Great" annexes the |
| F | Opposition – Mitnagdim |
General
History |
|---|---|---|
| Social stratification – Torah Scholars and the wealthy are aloof from ordinary Jews. This elite feels threatened by how Hasidic doctrine enables ordinary Jews. | 1682 - 1725 Reign of Peter "The Great" in Russia; Jews are victimized. |
| G | Mystical Antecedents | False Mysticism | General History |
|---|---|---|---|
|
"Ba'alei Shem" – Folk
healers, diagnosticians, scholars, and teachers of
Kabbalah (the Jewish Esoteric Tradition) in small circles
of students.
"Masters
of
1590 onwards:(See Mishnah, Tractate Avot 4:13, section A above) Ba'alei shem from the Rhine River Valley on the west to east of the Dnieper River (Dnipr) (Russia's western extent) [ Germanic, Slavic, and Hungarian Europe ] |
1453 - Constantinople falls to Moscow becomes the "Third Rome" through about 1550 - the Italian Renaissance Machiavelli 1469 - 1527 Copernicus 1473 - 1543 Thomas More 1478 - 1535 Martin Luther 1483 - 1546 |
||
| Rabbi Elijah Ba'al Shem ca. 1533 - ca. 1638 (born in Kraków) 1590 – appears in Wörms as a Ba'al Shem 1624-5 – relocates to Prague The phenomenon of wandering
mystics begins under the direction of Rabbi Elijah Ba'al
Shem. To a one, these men study the Kabbalah (the
Jewish Esoteric Tradition), but as a society their mission
is to elevate the spiritual level of the Jewish people.
Halachist rabbis have been openly studying the Kabbalah since the Zohar was printed in 1558. |
1540 - 1700 The Scientific
Revolution 1553 - 1603 Galileo 1564 - 1642 1607 - Jamestown 1611 - King James Bible published 1629 - Massachusetts Bay Company |
||
| Rabbi
Joel Ba'al Shem 1613 - ? 1633-38 – studies with Elijah Ba'al Shem in Prague 1638 – becomes a Ba'al Shem in Zamoshtch (Zamość), Poland, about 70 miles (110km) northwest of today's L'viv, Ukraine. |
Shabbetai Zvi - False Messiah 1665 - travels to the Holy Land Nathan of Gaza (1643-80) claims to be the herald of the false messiah. |
Descartes 1596 - 1650 1618 - 1648 Thirty Years War 1648 - 1649 Cossack Massacres |
|
|
Rabbi Adam Ba'al Shem Tov of
Ropshitz (Ropczyce), Galicia, Poland, about 110 miles (175
km) west of today's L'viv, Ukraine. §
fl. 1709 - d. 1734
R. Adam
never meets R. Israel, then only called a ba'al shem,
but R. Adam corresponds through intermediaries such as his
son Leib.
Sends R. Israel Kabbalistic manuscripts. 'Adam' may be an
abbreviation for A'braham D'avid M'oses.
|
Jacob Frank 1726 - 1791,
Podolia Province, today's Ukraine 1759 - L'vov (L'viv), § Ukraine, summer; Hasidic Rabbis defeat Frank in a debate. 26 Tammuz is made a holiday. |
John Locke 1632 - 1704 Isaac Newton 1642 - 1727 1730 - 1790 The Enlightenment 1740 onward: The Industrial Revolution |
|
| § Known to German
speakers as Lemberg; Lwów in Polish. |
| H | Kabbalah / Cabala (the Jewish Esoteric Tradition) |
General History | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1492 - Expulsion of Jews from
Spain 1496 - Expulsion of Jews from Portugal Many refugees establish themselves in the lands of the Ottoman Empire, including the Holy Land. Scholars are especially attracted to Safed (see below). |
1488? - First printed complete
edition of the Hebrew Bible - Italy around 1500 - Gershon Soncino establishes 1511 - Daniel Bomberg's Hebrew printing press in Venice, Italy |
1453 -
Constantinople falls to the Ottomans Moscow becomes the "Third Rome" 1457 - Gutenberg Bible 1492 - Reconquista complete 1499 - Vasco Da Gama reaches India for Portugal 1500s - Spain begins to acquire a New World empire |
|
| Jewish community of Safed,
Galilee, Israel, flourishes. Center of both Jewish mysticism and Talmud scholarship. Rivals Jerusalem. |
Rabbi Joseph Karo, known as
the Beit Yosef, 1488 - 1575 (Beit Yosef is the name of his first composition.) R. Joseph Karo's Ways of Jewish Life: Shulchan Arukh Code, 1563 in Safed, Galilee, Israel Rabbi Moses Isserles, known as the Ram"aw, 1520 - 1572 Glosses on Ways of Jewish Life Code for Ashkenazic Jewry, which includes among them codification of Kabbalistic customs |
1517 - 1530 - John Calvin's debates 1530s - England's King Henry VIII breaks with Rome 1533 - 1592: Michel de
Montaigne – his mother was an Iberian Jew; his
father a French Catholic
|
|
| The Book of the Zohar | 1558 - First printed in Italy | 1559 - Talmud appears on the first Christian index of forbidden books | |
| Rabbi Isaac Luria of Safed,
Galilee, Israel, 1534 - 1572 "The Holy Ari Zal" -
[ za"l =
(The first Hebrew letter of Eloki is Alef. In an abbreviation it may receive a different vowel.) |
Taught Jewish mysticism only orally, and only for the last 2 or 3 years of his life. "Lurianic School of
Kabbalah" derives from him
|
1542 - 1563
Council of Trent, reform of the Catholic Church 1543 - Martin Luther turns against Jews 1553 - 1603 Elizabethan Age |
|
| Rabbi Chaim Vital - Student of the Committed Lurianic Kabbalah to writing |
Galileo 1564 - 1642 Johannes Kepler 1571 - 1630 1607 - Jamestown 1611 - King James Bible published 1629 - Massachusetts Bay Company Descartes 1596 - 1650 John Locke 1632 - 1704 |
| I | Bibliography |
|---|---|
| Abramsky, Chimen; Maciej Jachimczyk; Antony Polonsky; eds. 1986. The Jews in Poland. Oxford, U.K.: Basil Blackwell. Papers presented at the International Conference on Polish-Jewish Studies, Oxford, Sept. 1984. | |
| Ben-Sasson, H. H., ed. 1969. A History of the Jewish People. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. | |
| Birnbaum, Salomo, compiler; Irene Birnbaum, tr. from German; Maximilian Hurwitz, ed. 1933. New York: Hebrew Publishing Company. This book seems to have been compiled from the book Shivchei HaBesht. As such, biographical information is unreliable. | |
| Cartographia. 2006. "European Road Map: Ukraine, Moldova, Belorussia." Hungary: Budapest. | |
| Friedman, Rabbi Eli, compiler; Rabbi Elchonon Lesches, tr. from Hebrew. 2004. The Great Mission: the Life and Story of Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov. Brooklyn: Kehot Publication Society. | |
| Gilbert, Martin. 2007. The Routledge Atlas of Russian History. New York; Oxon, UK: Routledge. | |
| Grayzel, Solomon. 1968. A History of the Jews: from the Babylonian Exile to 1968. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, and New York: New American Library (paperback 1984). | |
| Hilsenrad, Zalman Aryeh, compiler and translator. 1999. The Baal Shem Tov: a Short Biography of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, the Founder of Chasidus. Brooklyn: Kehot Publication Society. This book seems to have been compiled from the book Shivchei HaBesht. As such, biographical information is unreliable. | |
| Jacobs, Louis. 1999. A Concise Companion to the Jewish Religion. Oxford Paperback Reference series. Oxford: Oxford University Press. | |
| Jotischky, Andrew and Caroline Hull. 2005. The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Medieval World. London: Penguin Books. | |
| Meyer, Marc Anthony, ed. 1994. Landmarks of World Civilizations: from 1500 to the Present. The Search for Order, series, vol. 2. Guilford, Connecticut: Dushkin Publishing Group. | |
| Miské, Karim et. al., writers; Jean Labib and Anne Labro, producers. 2013. Jews and Muslims: Intimate Strangers. Series, episode 2. "The Place of the Other (721-1789)." DVD. ARTE France. Released in English and French with English subtitles. Wheeling, Illinois: Film Ideas, 2014. www.filmideas.com, www.fichannels.com. | |
| National Geographic. 2005. Atlas of the World: Eighth Edition. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic. | |
| Rosman, Moshe. 1996. Founder of Hasidism: a Quest for the Historical Ba'al Shem Tov. Berkeley: University of California Press. | |
| Roth, Cecil. 1953. A Short History of the Jewish People. London: East and West Library. | |
| Schneersohn, Joseph I. 1944. Kuntres Chai Elul 5703. Yiddish and Hebrew. Series booklet 45. Brooklyn: Kehot Publication Society. | |
| Schneersohn, Joseph I., Nissan Mindel, trans. 1960. Lubavitcher Rabbi's Memoirs: the Memoirs of Rabbi Joseph I. Schneersohn, the Late Lubavitcher Rebbe. Vol. 2. Brooklyn: Kehot Publication Society. | |
| Scholem, Gershon. 1995. Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. New York : Schocken Books. | |
| Stow, Kenneth R. 1992. Alienated Minority: the Jews of Medieval Latin Europe. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. | |
| Tanner, J. R., et al., eds. 1964. The Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. V. "Contest of Empire and Papacy." Cambridge University Press. | |
| Wiesel, Elie; Marion Wiesel, tr. 1972. Souls on Fire: Portraits and Legends of Hasidic Masters. New York: Random House. Content about the Ba'al Shem Tov seems to have been compiled from the book Shivchei HaBesht. As such, biographical information is unreliable. | |
| Zalmanov, Shmuel,
et. al., eds. 1971.
"Kovetz HaTamim." Hebrew and Yiddish. 8 issues. Warsaw: Igud
Talmidei HaT'mimim. Reprints from 1935-1937 in a single
volume. |
|