Abstract
This article proposes a reassessment of the development of Ḥaredism, that is, the application of strict, maximalist, commandment-oriented Judaism to increasingly large lay publics, in light of confessionalization processes in Europe. Whereas historiographical and sociological convention locates the sources of Ḥaredism within the development of 19th century orthodox Jewish responses to the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), Reform, and secular Zionism, this article argues that Ḥaredi structures and practices preceded these movements, and, in some cases, influenced their development. The basis for the priority of Ḥaredi identities to Jewish secular identities is rooted in the social disciplining and religious engineering of Jewish societies in the early modern era, until just before the Haskalah, and beyond. This disciplining was predicated on the imposition of religious, social, and ascetic education systems on growing segments of the population. Ḥaredism as a concept and as a phenomenon emerged in 16th century Safed (Ottoman Palestine); there, previous Jewish ascetic patterns were reworked, reorganized and structured under the aegis of the print era, and became a basis for mass, super-regional education. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Ḥaredi religiosity steadily percolated through European Jewish societies by means of works of personal ethic and conduct that were written, printed, and reprinted many times, in Hebrew and Yiddish, through works that enumerate the commandments, and through popular works that make the Jewish halakhic code, Shulḥan Arukh, accessible to the masses by abridging or reworking it. Starting in the early 19th century, with the mediation of the Ḥasidic and Lithuanian religious movements, this process massively penetrated broad strata of society.
Highlights
This article proposes a reassessment of the development of Haredism, that is, the applicationof strict, maximalist, commandment-oriented Judaism to increasingly large lay publics, in light of confessionalization processes in Europe
I will focus on the relationship between Haredism and the disciplining and religious engineeringof Jewish societies in the early modern era until just before the Haskalah, and beyond
I periodize the developments included within this article to the era between 1601 and 1933, from the moment that Haredism was first defined until it became a mass religious movement that unified differentreligious groups
Summary
Over the past half century, numerous studies and monographs on Haredism have appeared (for example: Liebman 1965; Friedman 1991; Waxman 1991; ̇Heilman 1992; Soloveitchik 1994). I will focus on the relationship between Haredism and the disciplining and religious engineeringof Jewish societies in the early modern era until just before the Haskalah, and beyond. I periodize the developments included within this article to the era between 1601 and 1933, from the moment that Haredism was first defined until it became a mass religious movement that unified differentreligious groups. On this timeline I indicate the moments of historic significance and major figures on which the article will focus. The article concludes with an attempt to show how the web of processes described drain into the forces affecting European Jewry in the 19th century and how modern Jewish ideological movements share a common disciplinary platform, even when they oppose one another vehemently
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