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from STUDIES IN EAST EUROPEAN JEWISH MYSTICISM AND HASIDISM
The most original and significant contribution of the Great Maggid in his Ṣaddikology is undoubtedly his stress on the magical aspect of the Ṣaddik's powers. This is the essential innovation of R. Dov Baer. These magical powers do not have the same meaning for him as for the “circle of Maggidim” contemporaries of the Baalshem. The latter's powers consisted of magical means of purifying the community, procedures that equip the preacher with new devices for saving his flock from spiritual peril by means of contemplative techniques for bringing them to repentance, and when need arises for forcing “remedies” upon them.
All these ideas of spiritual regeneration, i.e., redemption on a small scale, are far from the theories of the Maggid. His image of the figure of the Ṣaddik is not that of a leader who redeems or cleanses his followers in a spiritual sense. The Ṣaddik's magical powers, according to the Maggid, are related to the material world. The aim here is not the magical saving of souls, but a simpler, more primary magic, working in stark physical reality. This object is formulated in the dicta that sum up his Ṣaddikology, such as “the Ṣaddik rules through the fear of the Lord” or: “the Holy One, blessed be He, decrees—the Ṣaddik cancels the decree”: and last but by no means least, “the Ṣaddikim overthrow the Divine attribute of Judgment [Middath ha-Din] and replace it with the attribute of Mercy [Middath ha-Rakamim).“
What is the nature of these magical activities? Our object is to see whether it is possible to explain all the texts in nonmagical terms so as to show the Ṣaddik's intervention as merely an act of God or a prayer to God. If such an interpretation were possible, we could remove the Maggid's doctrine from its magical context. Such an exegesis is, however, impossible. The historian of religions is not the only one confronted by this problem for it evidently haunted the Maggid himself. There are passages in his writings that appear to apologize for his own theories and methods. The basic conflict of religion and magic has found explicit and implicit utterance in the Maggid's writings. How is it possible for the human to compel the Will of God? How can His Will be changed? Or, the same question in a more extreme form, how is it possible to annul His Will?
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