Article
The Phase of Dialogue and Reconciliation (1975)
The end of the phase of hostility between the Hasidim and the Mitnaggedim, and the beginning of genuine dialogue between them, was occasioned by a multiplicity of causes, ranging from the political and economic to the historical and psychological. However, in order to isolate, insofar as it is possible to do so, the basic mechanism of reconciliation that made possible the existence of vigorous dissent within a pattern of “tolerance,” I shall restrict myself to the realm of ideas and the interplay of religious values and theological concepts. By thus limiting the scope of this inquiry, we can perhaps sharpen the focus on what I think marks the beginning of the reconciliation which ultimately assured that Hasidism would remain within the fold of Traditional Judaism, and whereby the Mitnaggedim, although they continued to reject the foundations of Hasidism, accepted the Hasidim as authentically traditional Jews, thereby implying, indirectly, their acceptance of Hasidism as a legitimate variant of Judaism.We shall concentrate on one individual on the Mitnaggedic side, R. Hayyim of Volozhin (1749-1821), and, as a foil to his work, Nefesh ha-Hayyim, the works of R. Shneur Zalman of Ladi (1745-1813). R. Shneur Zalman, one of the youngest of the disciples of R. Dov Ber (the Maggid of Mezeritch) who was successor to the Besht, was the founder of the HaBaD school, the most cogent and profound intellectual formulation of Hasidism. R. Hayyim was the most distinguished student of R. Elijah, the Gaon of Vilna, spiritual leader of the Mitnaggedim, and he was the founder of the well-known Talmudic academy, the Yeshivah of Volozhin in Lithuania.The period on which we shall concentrate is, approximately, the first two decades of the nineteenth century. The Gaon died in the Fall of 1797, and that is the approximate date of the publication of Likkutei Amarim by R. Shneur Zalman. In 1800, R. Shneur Zalman was released from his imprisonment in St. Petersburg, determined to effect a reco…
