Immanuel Etkes, Baءal Hashem: The Besht—Magic, Mysticism, Leadership. Jerusalem: Merkaz Zalman Shazar, 2000. 327 pp. (Hebrew).

Extract

During the past two decades, many important works have been published—mostly by Israeli scholars—on virtually every aspect of Hasidism. The writings of David Assaf, Rachel Elior, Zeev Gries, Moshe Idel, Gedalia Nigal, Ada Rapaport-Albert, and Moshe Rosman, to name only the most prominent contemporary scholars of Hasidism, range from sweeping critical re-evaluations of earlier Hasidic historiography and theology to close studies of major sects within the Hasidic movement. In the course of this outpouring of Hasidic scholarship, the pioneering work of Scholem and his disciples has been demolished and rehabilitated several times over. Beyond even more detailed studies of later and minor Hasidic sects, it would have seemed, at this late date, that there was little left to add to the discussion of the origins and theology of classical, or “Beshtian,” Hasidism. Thus the appearance, in the year 2000, of a new book by Immanuel Etkes dedicated to the “Founder of Hasidism,” R. Israel Baal Shem Tov, could hardly be greeted without the question with which the author himself begins his introduction: “Why another book on the Besht? What can this book hope to add to all that has already been written and published on this topic?” (p. 9).