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THIS CHAPTER and the next consider the same phenomenon from different perspectives. The present chapter is a story of historical processes: the emergence of the enclave form of the haredi paradigm, contrasting with early hasidic inclusivism and the revival of the inclusivist ethos in twentiethcentury Habad. Chapter 2, with the ‘Sacred Epistle’ of the Ba’al Shem Tov at its centre, considers the development of Habad outreach in terms of the idea, expressed in the Ba’al Shem Tov's letter, that the ‘spreading forth of the wellsprings’ hastens the advent of the messiah.
IN THIS FIRST CHAPTER I explore the interaction of two separate phenomena in the Jewish history of the past two and a half centuries. One is the development of hasidism (focusing on certain aspects of its ethos, particularly a form of inclusivism); the other is the rise of exclusivist haredi Orthodoxy. The latter ideology conflicts with the inclusivist aspect of hasidism, which theoretically makes room for the ‘sinner’. Haredi exclusivism expels the sinner and everything which might lead towards what it considers sin.
In the twentieth century hasidic groups were among the most forceful practical exponents of the separatist haredi ethos. One might think that the early hasidic inclusivist ideal, as preached by Rabbi Jacob Joseph of Polonnoye (Połonne; d. c.1784), the first hasidic author, was dead, a relic of history. However, after the Holocaust this ideal was revived and intensified by the Habad-Lubavitch school of hasidism. Habad emphasized inclusivist paradigms for looking at secularized society, such as ‘even though he sinned he is a Jew’ (BT San. 44a), or considering secular Jews to be like children ‘taken captive among gentiles’ (BT Shab. 68a–b). It utilized the theme of ahavat yisra’el (love of one's fellow Jew) to enable a positive interaction with secularized Jews, with the goal of drawing them towards Jewish practice but not dismissing the ideal of love if they did not respond.
In the process of westernization and secularization, the stringencies of the halakhic codes and their commentaries tended to be dismissed, ignored, and eventually forgotten. The preservationist, traditionalist, and generally exclusivist stance of the haredim was expressed and reinforced precisely by preserving and even extending the observance of halakhic details.
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