There came to our village one winter day a stranger who had neither
the air of a _Schnorrer_ (beggar) nor of an itinerant preacher; nor,
from the brief time he spent at the Beth-Hamidrash, where I sat
pursuing droningly my sterile studies, did he appear to be a scholar.
He was a lean, emaciated, sickly young man, but his eyes had the fire
of a lion's, and his glance was as a god's. When he spoke his voice
pierced you, and when he was silent his presence filled the room.
From Eliphaz the Pedlar (who knew everything but the Law) I learnt at
last that he was an emissary of Rabbi Baer, the celebrated chief of
the Chassidim (the pious ones).
"The Chassidim!" I cried. "They died out with Judah the Saint."
"Nay, this is a new order. Have you not heard of the Baal Shem?"
Now, from time to time I had heard vague rumors of a new
wonder-working saint who had apparently succeeded far better with
Cabalah than I, and had even gathered a following, but the new and
obscure movement had not touched our out-of-the-way village, which was
wholly given over to the old Sabbatian controversy, and so my
knowledge of it was but shadowy. I thought it better to feign absolute
ignorance, and thus draw out the Pedlar.
"Why, the Baal Shem by much penance has found out the Name of God,"
said he; "and by it he works his will on earth and in heaven, so that
there is at times confusion in the other world."
"And is his name Rabbi Baer?"
"No; Rabbi Baer is a very learned man who has joined him, and whom,
with the other superiors of the Order, he has initiated, so that they,
too, work wonders. I chanced with this young man on the road, and he
told me that his sect therefore explains the verse in the Psalms, 'Sing
unto God a new song; His praise is in the congregation of Saints,' in
the following wise: Since God surpasses every finite being, His praise
must surpass the praise of every such being. Hitherto the praise of Him
consisted in ascribing miracles to Him, and the knowledge of the hidden
and the future. But since all this is now within the capacity of the
saints of the Order, the Almighty has no longer any pre-eminence over
them in respect of the supernatural--'His praise is in the
congregation of the saints,'--and therefore it is necessary to find for
Him some new praise--'Sing unto God a new song'--suitable to Him
alone."
The almost blasphemous boldness of this conception, which went in a
manner further even than the Cabalah or the Sabbatians, startled me,
as much as the novelty of the exegesis fascinated me.
"And this young man here--can he rule the upper and lower worlds?" I
asked eagerly, mindful of my own miserable failures.
"Assuredly he can rule the lower worlds," replied Eliphaz, with a
smile. "For to that I can bear witness, seeing that I have stayed with
him in a town where there is a congregation of Chassidim, which was in
his hands as putty in the glazier's. For, you see, he travels from
place to place to instruct his inferiors in the society. The elders of
the congregations, venerable and learned men, trembled like spaniels
before him. A great scholar who would not accept his infallibility,
was thrown into such terror by his menacing look that he fell into a
violent fever and died. And this I witnessed myself."
"But there are no Chassidim in our place," said I, trembling myself,
half with excitement, half with sympathetic terror. "What comes he to
do here?"
"Why, but there _are_ Chassidim, and there will be more--" He stopped
suddenly. "Nay, I spoke at random."
"You spoke truly," said I sternly. "But speak on--do not fear me."
"You are a Rabbi designate," he said, shaking his head.
"What of it?"
"Know you not that everywhere the Rabbis fight desperately against the
new Order, that they curse and excommunicate its members."
"Wherefore?"
"I do not know. These things are too high for me. Unless it be that
this Rabbi Baer has cut out of the liturgy the _Piutim_ (Penitential
Poems), and likewise prays after the fashion of the Portuguese Jews."
"Nay," I said, laughing. "If you were not such a man-of-the-earth, you
would know that to cut out one line of one prayer is enough to set all
the Rabbis excommunicating."
"Ay," said he; "but I know also that in some towns where the Chassidim
are in the ascendant, they depose their Rabbis and appoint a minion of
Baer instead."
"Ha! so that is what the young man is after," said I.
"I didn't say so," said the Pedlar nervously. "I merely tell
you--though I should not have said anything--what the young man told
me to beguile the way."
"And to gain you over," I put in.
"Nay," laughed Eliphaz; "I feel no desire for Perfection, which is the
catchword of these gentry."
Thus put upon the alert, I was easily able to detect a secret meeting
of Chassidim (consisting of that minimum of ten which the sect, in
this following the orthodox practice, considers sufficient nucleus for
a new community), and to note the members of the conventicle as they
went in and out again.
With some of these I spake privily, but though I allayed their qualms
and assured them I was no spy but an anxious inquirer after Truth,
desiring nothing more vehemently than Perfection, yet either they
would not impart to me the true secrets of the Order, or they lacked
intelligence to make clear to me its special doctrine. Nevertheless,
of the personality of the Founder they were willing to speak, and I
shall here set down the story of his life as I learnt it at the first
from these simple enthusiasts. It may be that, as I write, my pen
unwittingly adds episodes or colors that sank into my mind afterwards,
but to the best of my power I will set down here the story as it was
told me, and as it passed current then--nay, what say I?--as it passes
current now in the Chassidic communities.