Tales of the Hasidim

Chassidic tales - the stories of Chassidic rabbis - is the subject of scholarly study. Papers, books, and dissertations are written on the subject. Scholars identify all kinds of issues and debate them with fervor. Why, they ask, were these stories told and why were they written down? Does the story teller's intent for the tales of the early days of the Chassidic movement differ with the intent of those that were written later? Are there stages of development in intent, in style, in how the rabbi is perceived? Do some tales, such as those of Nachman of Braslav, stand outside of any characterization of any other group of stories? How does mysticism play in these stories? Martin Buber (1878-1965), who gathered and published this collection, was a brilliant scholar, philosopher, Bible translator, the author of the famous "I Thou" philosophy. He was the first and arguably the best of the people who collected the Chassidic stories. Buber began to publish Chassidic tales as early as 1906. The stories in this edition were published in English for the first time in 1947. The book is a classic. It is a book of very well told tales that any scholar concerned about the history of Chassidic stories must deal with. And, what is more, much more, the book offers its readers truly pleasing, easy to read, and instructive stories, small vignettes that will surprise and delight and entertain them, Jew and non-Jew, believer and non-believer.

As someone who has taught Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) classes, I had to choose carefully what texts to recommend to my students. "Tales of the Hasidim" was always one of the first books that I suggested that they read. Filled with stories of the holy people of the 18th century Hasidic movement of Eastern Europe, it is a painless introduction to Jewish mysticism, ritual, prayer, and meditation. Each short tale -- most less than a page long -- contains a profound spiritual insight, under the appearance of a simple incident. The book is not just for introductory students of Jewish mysticism. I count it as one of the most valuable books in my Jewish bookshelf. I have re-read it many times. I have never opened the book without soon encountering an inspiring spiritual anecdote that lifted my spirits and drew me closer to Judaism. If I could give it six stars, I would.

This work has great historical importance. Buber more than any other person conveyed to the general Western even Christian culture something of the feeling and taste of 'Hasidism'. This movement which has its origins with the teachings of Israel Baal- Shem Tov ( 1700- 1760) came at a critical time in the history of the Jewish people and infused in it new spirit and hope. Buber who came from a scholarly Galician background and the discovery of the world of Hasidism opened up to him personally a whole new way of thinking and feeling about Judaism. He is such a great writer and storyteller that he makes these tales which in themselves are moving come alive doubly. A historic, classic collection which is also a literary treasure.

Martin Buber was one of the great humanists of the modern era and his extraction and retelling of a small part of the Hasidic corpus is a great poetic and ethical achievement. Readers should keep in mind, though, that in this book Buber was using traditional Ashkenazic pietism to represent a more cosmopolitan and higher reality. When he composed this book, there was every reason to believe that the Hasidim who survived the genocide perpetrated by National Socialism would fall prey to Communism or, more slowly, to secular education and one or another form of democracy. Hence sentimentality led Buber to transfigure Khasiduth into something as etherialized as Platonism or his ally Paul Tillich's Protestantism.History has astonished us. Hasidic courts of one kind or another are common in America and Israel and may even be encountered in Europe. It is a reality, not just a historical memory. This reality in its folkloric aspect may be found, at least for the Hebrewless reader, in Jerome Mintz' "Legends of the Hasidim : an introduction to Hasidic culture and oral tradition in the New World", published by the University of Chicago Press. Unlike Buber, Mintz is a professional folklorist and not only presents the tales in their veritable form but fully contextualizes them by informant, court, place and time, with other cultural information supplied as appropriate.Readers of Mintz' book will experience Hasidic folklore in its present variety and become acquainted with the bigotry, ignorance, viciousness and pomposity found among the Hasidim just as they are in most living religions. Folklore, like religion, is not just a vehicle for a particular individual's view of the universe but an intimate part of some real sociology, lived by some real people in some real context. Mintz gives us a picture of Khasiduth which the great Buber in his goodness and humanity could not.

This classic source book has gone through numerous editions and reprints since it first came out back in the 1940's. The current Schocken edition, with both volumes together in one binding, is a very good deal -- I paid a whole lot more for my two-volume set three decades ago. Although Buber himself was not a Hasid (he was an existentialist philosopher who developed an interest in Hasidism later in life), he does a good job of conveying the spirit of these stories. In my opinion, this collection is a must-have for anybody telling Hasidic stories. The book is not so much a collection of "tales" in the sense of literary stories or fairy tales, as it is a collection of personal anecdotes about the lives of various Hasidic masters. Some of the tales are fully-developed narratives, but others are terse fragments that remind the reader of Zen koans, those "sound of one hand clapping" riddles which one can meditate upon for years before the great "Aha!" hits and you suddenly "get it." My only complaint is that the English translation leaves much to be desired in many places, so that, if one is not already familiar with Hasidism, the point of some of the stories can easily be misunderstood. Part of this is due to Buber's original renditions into German, where his search for the right literary German word sometimes confused the Jewish meanings because there simply are no exact equivalents. (As, for example, rendering the verb "to mikveh" -- immerse oneself in a pool of water for ritual purification -- as "tauchen" (baptism). Unfortunately, some of these types of linguistic errors got carried over into the English translation. I would really like to see a new translation done by a Hasid who knows modern English. But until then, this version remains an excellent sourcebook for traditional Hasidic tales.