Some Notes on Ecstasy in Ḥabad Hasidism

Summary

The small book, Tract on Ecstasy, written by the Middle Rabbi, Dov Baer, son of Shneur Zalman, will certainly be of interest to students of religion in general and of mysticism in particular. Over eighty years ago, a Westerner, Aaron Marcus, who had arrived at Hasidism by unusual paths, attempted to translate this work into German, as he realized that it was worth a wider public than Hebrew readers and students of Hasidism alone. Marcus, who was then living in Cracow, began to translate the work into German and to publish it in German in his Krakauer Juedische Zeitung, 1898—99.

But only a few instalments of the translation were published, and the experiment, for some unknown reason, failed, perhaps due to the perverse nature of the translator, who was a highly interesting man, a sort of fantast who attempted many things beyond his capacity.

Now we have the first English translation of this small book, by Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs. He has also added a useful introduction summarizing the conceptual patterns of the work. It serves as an Ariadne's thread through the labyrinth of the cluttered sentences of the tract, for it is written in the style typical of Habad literature created by the Old Rabbi, the father of our author. Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Ladi, the Old Rabbi, was the pupil of Rabbi Dov Baer of Mesritz, who was himself the pupil of Israel Baalshem Tov. R. Shneur Zalman was thus a third-generation Hasidic leader, and became the founder of a new school, called Habad, which flourished in Lithuania for many generations, and is today the strongest and most vital Hasidic school in the United States, where it was relocated during the war.

Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Ladi initiated a new Hebrew literary style, which his pupils and pupils’ pupils inherited. It is easy to recognize this style after reading only a few lines of any Ḥabadic text. It is marked by long sentences, extremely condensed in character, with the main and subordinate clauses often mixed up, and frequent anacoluthic constructions. As for the lexicographic elements, abstract nouns abound largely taken from medieval philosophical literature, translated from Arabic into Hebrew by the Tibbon family.

As far as I can see, little attention has been paid to the stylistic and lexicographic provenance of Rabbi Shneur Zalman's writings.