The Regal Way: The Life and Times of Rabbi Israel of Ruzhin

by David Assaf

Overview

This is a pioneering study of the nineteenth century Hasidic movement as shown through the life of one of the most controversial and influential Hasidic leaders, Rabbi Israel Friedman of Ruzhin (1796-1850). The dramatic episodes of his life—including his involvement in the murder of Jewish informers, his imprisonment in Russia, his subsequent escape to Austria where he successfully reestablished his court—are echoed by the contradictory and highly critical opinions of his personal character and his role as leader of one of the largest and most opulent Hasidic courts of the nineteenth century.

Nineteenth-century Hasidism has been a comparatively neglected topic in Jewish historiography largely because of the traditional view that the movement was in a degenerate state during this period. The natural interest that scholars found in the eighteenth-century origins of the movement, alongside their personal dislike of the nineteenth-century Hasidic courts and their machinations, led them to concentrate on the earliest years and the more recent phases of Hasidism.

The book is in four parts. Part I draws on surprisingly rich non-Hasidic sources as well as on Hasidic materials to recreate the early life of Rabbi Israel from his childhood to his leadership of a Hasidic community. Part II concentrates on his activities as a famous spiritual leader, his adventures in Russia, and his final years in Austria. In Part III, the author analyzes major aspects of Rabbi Israel’s career and thought as a Hasidic leader and public figure, with emphasis on his approach to materialism, wealth, and luxury. Part IV describes in detail the royal Hasidic court of Rabbi Israel and his sons—its formation, buildings, economics, social structure, functionaries, and administrative organization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804744683
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	06/19/2002
Series:	Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture
Edition description:	1
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)
Lexile:	1540L (what's this?)

About the Author

David Assaf is Professor of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University. He is the editor of the English translation (from Yiddish) of Journey to a Nineteenth-Century Shtetl: The Memoirs of Yechezkel Kotik and the compiler of Bratslav: An Annotated Bibliography.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
	A Note on Translation and Transliteration	xiii
	Introduction	1
I.	Method	1
II.	On the State of Research and Hasidic Historiography	8
III.	The Sources and Their Nature	21
Part I	The Young Rabbi Israel
1.	"But I Was Never a Boy": Accession to Leadership	31
I.	"That Child Understood Everything": Childhood	31
II.	Rabbi Abraham of Pohorbishch	33
III.	"I Myself Have No Time to Study": Adolescence	35
IV.	The Power of Inferiority	41
V.	Conclusion	44
2.	"The Main Thing Is One's Own Distinction": The Argument over Succession	47
I.	Hereditary Leadership and Schism in Nineteenth-Century Hasidism	47
II.	"Ancestral Merit" or "One's Own Distinction"?	51
III.	Ancestral Lineage in the Ruzhin Clan	57
IV.	The Victory of the "Sons of Zaddikim" and Its Implications	63
Part II	From Ruzhin to Sadgora: The Making of a Hasidic Leader
3.	"The Untrod Path": Emergence and Expansion	69
I.	On the Throne of Leadership	69
II.	From Pohorbishch to Ruzhin	72
III.	Avenues of Expansion and Growth	76
IV.	His Personality and the Secret of his Charisma	81
V.	A New Mode of Worship	89
VI.	Opposition	94
VII.	Rabbi Israel as Seen by the Maskilim	98
4.	"The Jewish Kingdom Is Falling": The Ushits Case	105
I.	Informers and the Law of the "Pursuer"	105
II.	The Murder Case and the Investigation	108
III.	Historical Significance of the Ushits Case	114
5.	"Princes Have Persecuted Me Without Reason": In Prison	116
I.	The Imprisonment and Its Repercussions	116
II.	Rabbi Israel versus Nicholas I	121
III.	Affliction and Its Significance	124
6.	The Fugitive: Flight from Russia	128
I.	The Memoirs of Yossi Rath	128
II.	Return to Ruzhin	129
III.	Flight from Russia	131
7.	"A Guest at the Inn": The New Court at Sadgora	136
I.	The Danger of Expulsion and Legal Problems	136
II.	"For I Have No Strength to Endure": Instability and Discontent	144
III.	Between Center and Periphery	147
IV.	The Geographical Context	149
V.	Economic Consolidation: Purchase of the Potik Zloty Estate	153
VI.	The Fame of the New Court	156
8.	"Broken and Mortified": The Last Years	163
I.	In the Evening of Life	163
II.	The Zaddik's Death and Succession	168
Part III	Rabbi Israel as a Hasidic Leader
9.	"The Law of People": Rabbi Israel's Approach to Communal Leadership	175
I.	Between Rebbe and Rabbi	175
II.	Appointments and Dismissals	181
III.	"A Remedy to Aid Israel": Intercession for the Jewish Community	187
IV.	Working for the Land of Israel	202
V.	Conclusion: Rabbi Israel as a Leader	209
10.	"All the Money in the World Is Mine": Visions of Wealth and Royalty	212
I.	The Novelty of the Regal Way	212
II.	The Claim of Descent from King David	216
III.	"Hidden Worship": The Ideological Basis	218
IV.	Objection to Self-Mortification	225
V.	Criticism of the Regal Way	228
VI.	Musicians and Singers, Carriages and Horses	233
VII.	Wealth and Honor as a Religious Test	238
11.	"The True Zaddik of the Generation": Rabbi Israel as Zaddik	244
I.	The Question of Uniqueness and Superiority	244
II.	On Messianism and Redemption	255
III.	Objection to Wonder-Working	261
Part IV	Rabbi Israel's Court
12.	"Like a Small State within a Large One": The Royal Court and Its Members	267
I.	The Sources and Their Nature	267
II.	The Physical Framework	269
III.	Social Aspects	278
13.	"Money for Household Expenses": Economic Aspects of the Hasidic Royal Courts	285
I.	Zaddikism as a Profession	285
II.	The Meaning of the Pidyon	288
III.	The Cost of the Pidyon and Methods of Amassing a Fortune	292
IV.	The Zaddik's Travels	296
V.	The Ma'amadot Taxes	299
VI.	Concessions and Privileges	303
VII.	The Decline of the Hasidic Royal Court	307
14.	"Under One Tent": The Hasidim and Their Zaddik	310
I.	The Pilgrimage to the Zaddik	310
II.	Access to the Zaddik	315
III.	Around the Zaddik's Grave	321
	Afterword: Dynamic Adaptation to a Changing World	325
I.	Rabbi Israel of Ruzhin as an Object of Biographical Research	325
II.	Stagnation versus Innovation in Ruzhin Hasidism	327
III.	Decline of the Generations or the Power of Inferiority?	330
IV.	The Hasidic Court in an Era of Upheaval	334
	Notes	341
	Glossary	409
	Works Cited	413
	Indexes of Names, Places, and Subjects	445
	Alternate Forms of Place Names	455

Editorial Reviews

"Assaf is a scholar who knows how to manage vast bits of detail but also how to fit them together in a coherent and plausible whole. . . . [He] has used the only possible method for sifting among sources, that of common sense. He has done so with great success and produced a first-rate biography."–AJS Review

"This is a path-breaking and thorough study of an important and neglected chapter of modern Jewish history."American Historical Review

"It is a very important addition to the history of Hasidism and the study of East European Jewish history."—Religious Studies Review

From the Publisher

"It is a very important addition to the history of Hasidism and the study of East European Jewish history."

Religious Studies Review

Assaf (Jewish history, Tel Aviv U.) tells the story of the zaddik Rabbi Israel Friedman of Ruzhin (1797-1850), with its elements of human tragedy and dark mystery, as a lens through which to explore the hasidic movement's encounter with modernism in eastern Europe of the 19th century. The study began as a 1993 doctoral dissertation for the University of Jerusalem and was published in Hebrew as by Merkaz Shazar in 1997; two chapters have been dropped in the English translation. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews