New Light on the Hasidic Tale and its Sources

Abstract

This chapter evaluates the hasidic tale. Hasidic literature can be classified in two main categories: homiletic-speculative, usually originating in the sermons delivered by the hasidic teachers to the gatherings of the hasidim at the courts and containing ethical, kabbalistic, and hasidic teachings; and narrative, comprising numerous collections of tales. Although research has addressed itself to both categories, it seems that the tales, the more popular of the two genres, have not been given the scholarly attention they deserve. The figure of the Baal Shem Tov (the Besht), the founder of hasidism, is crucial to the discussion of the hasidic tale. His personality is inseparably connected with the emergence of the hasidic tale and its subsequent development. One important fact that must be borne in mind is that the printed hasidic tale was preceded by an earlier stage of oral dissemination. This is attested to by allusions to and even the appearance of complete tales in other genres long before the emergence of the narrative literature of hasidism in print.