Contemplation as Self-Abandonment in the Writings of Hayyim Haika of Amdura

Summary

Hayyim Haika of Amdura takes his place in the history of Hasidism as the disciple of the Great Maggid Dov Baer of Mesritz. Indeed, his teaching is dependent to no small extent on that of his master. However, there are new tones in the doctrine of Hayyim Haika that have no parallel in the works of the Great Maggid or indeed in the entire history of Jewish mysticism, including Hasidism.

What is the nature of these new tones and how are they to be defined in terms of the science of religion? The peculiar climate of Hayyim's teaching cannot be mapped without resort to the concept of quietistic mysticism; in many respects Hayyim may himself be termed the quietist par excellence of Hasidism. In Hayyim's scale of values the supreme religious task is no longer contemplation in its two basic forms, i.e., the cleaving of the soul to God, and the elevation and transformation (toward God) of one's human qualities as they are expressed in wayward thoughts.

In Hayyim's teaching man approaches God with the human will as his vehicle rather than emotion or intellect. The annihilation of human will in face of the Divine Will, in the famous saying of Rabban Gamaliel, the son ofjudah the Prince (Avot 2:4), contains the most elementary features of a quietistic standpoint. Although the pure form of the doctrine was not reached in that rabbinic maxim, the scholar Dean Inge was nevertheless right in his book on Christian mysticism to quote the words of Rabban Gamaliel in his exposition of that approach to religion which finds the basis of the worship of God in complete surrender and abrogation of the will. In fact, however, Hayyim of Amdura lends the idea a greater complexity, a more religious basis, than does the simple moralist Rabban Gamaliel.

Hayyim developed a doctrine of quietism. The long list of his exhortations on the subject of will begins with general statements such as may apparently be found in every Jewish religious system, and yet they suggest a very specific climate of religious thought: “It is necessary to direct oneself solely to perform the service of the Holy One blessed be He” (Ḥayyim va-Ḥesed [Warsaw, 1891], f. 62b), or “One should desire to do solely the Will of the Creator without regard to one's own needs” (63a).