Holiness and Law : : Kabbalistic Customs and Sexual Abstinence in Hasidism / / Benjamin Brown.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Plus DeG Package 2024 Part 1
• VerfasserIn: Brown, Benjamin,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2024]; ©2024
• Year of Publication: 2024
• Language: English
• Series: Studia Judaica : Forschungen zur Wissenschaft des Judentums , 129
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (XII, 232 p.)

Hasidic groups have myriad customs. While ordinary Jewish law (halakhah) denotes the “bar of holiness” mandated for the ordinary Jew, these customs represent the higher threshold expected of Hasidim, intended to justify their title as hasidim (“pious”). How did the hasidic masters perceive the enactment of these new norms at a time in which the halakhah had already been solidified? How did they explain the normative power of these customs over communities and individuals, and how did they justify customs that diverged from the positive halakhah? This book analyzes the answers given by nineteenth-century hasidic authors. It then examines a test case: kedushah (“holiness”), or sexual abstinence among married men, a particularly restrictive norm enacted by several twentieth-century hasidic groups. Through the use of theoretical tools and historical contextualization, the book elucidates the normative circles of hasidic life, their religious and social sources and their interrelations.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- A Note on Interpretation and Transliteration -- Introduction: The Normative World of Hasidism as a Historical and Theoretical Question -- Part I: Hasidic Custom and Halakhah— Five Self-Perceptions -- 1 Introduction to Part I -- 2 Hasidic Custom as a Hyper-Halakhic Voluntary Personal Norm: The Early R. Shneur Zalman of Lyadi and R. Ḥayim of Sanz -- 3 Hasidic Custom as a Communal Norm: R. Moshe Teitelbaum of Uyhel -- 4 Hasidic Custom as a Full-Fledged Halakhic Norm: R. Yitzḥak Isaac of Komarno and R. Ya’akov of Keidan -- 5 Hasidic Custom as Custom: R. Avraham Yitzḥak Sperling and R. Shalom of Koidanov -- 6 Hasidic Custom As a Legitimate Deviation from Halakhah (‘Averah Lishmah): The Seer of Lublin and R. Tzvi Hirsch of Liszka -- 7 Hasidic Custom and Halakhah: Intermediate Summary -- Part II: Kedushah: The Sexual Abstinence of Married Men in Three Contemporary Hasidic Groups -- Introduction to Part II -- 8 Kedushah in Gur: The Ordinances of R. Yisrael Alter, the Beys Yisroel -- 9 Kedushah in Slonim: A Morality of Aspiration -- 10 Kedushah in Toldes Aaron: The Milder Version -- 11 Halakhic and Ethical Background (1): The Duty of ‘Onah -- 12 Halakhic and Ethical Background (2): The Dos and Don’ts of Conjugal Relations -- 13 Hasidic Background: Sources and Trends from Early Hasidism -- 14 Kedushah in its Theological Context (1): The Beys Yisroel of Gur -- 15 Kedushah in its Theological Context (2): The Nesives Sholem of Slonim -- 16 Kedushah in its Theological Context (3): The Rebbe of Toldes Aaron -- 17 The Kedushah Polemic -- 18 Kedushah in its Historical Context: Why the 20th Century? -- 19 Kedushah and Modern Hasidic Identity: Intermediate Summary and Conclusion -- Conclusion: Ethos, Custom-in-the-making, Custom, Halakhah-in-the-making, Halakhah: Normative Categories of Jewish Religiosity -- Appendices -- Bibliography -- Index