R. Abraham Kalisker's Concept of Communion with God and Men

Summary

The figure of R. Abraham Kalisker (d. 1810) emerges in Hasidic tradition as that of a revivalist enfant terrible whose wild behavior scandalized practically everybody and evoked revulsion and anger even among Hasidim, to say nothing of their opponents, the Mithnaggedim. According to R. Shneur Zalman of Ladi, the Maggid of Mesritz rebuked his disciple R. Abraham in the strongest terms for his and his followers’ conduct. Hasidic tradition speaks of the “ Talk Hasidim,” the group connected with R. Abraham, as a kind of religious anarchists.

Very little is known of his teaching. He wrote no book, neither were his homilies noted down and collected by disciples. Some sayings of his appear at the end of Sefer Ḥesed Le-Avraham, but these contain little that is new or of interest to the student of the doctrinal history of Hasidism. In many respects, e.g., in his emphasis on emunah (faith), he is evidently under the influence of his older friend to whom, in a letter, he refers as his master, viz., R. Menaḥem Mendel of Vitebsk.

The letters, however, written by R. Abraham from Palestine, where he had emigrated (1777), together with R. Menahem Mendel, are full of interest in many respects. During the latter's lifetime, R. Abraham would add only a few lines to R. Menaḥem's long letters. When he died (1788), R. Abraham himself wrote long epistles containing much information concerning the life of the small Hasidic community and its relations with those around it. The epistles abound with unceasing complaints of the high and ever-rising cost of living.

Fortunately these letters comprise not only historical but also doctrinal material that both in content and literary form surpass what is otherwise extant of his teaching and homilies. Moreover, here we do not have secondhand notes made by some clumsy- handed disciple, but authentic letters of R. Abraham himself, although most probably these (like R. Menahem Mendel's letters) were dictated to a scribe.

It is intended in this article to analyze one of R. Abraham's letters—which is unfortunately undated—dealing mainly with devekuth, the ideal way of life in Hasidic theory and practice.

The letter is clearly divisible in two. The first part analyzes the concept and practice of devekuth proper, while the second part analyzes a secondary state of devekuth, namely, those phases in which, through lack of spiritual concentration, devekuth proper is not attainable.