OPPapers.com Essay Index >> Religion >> Hasidic Prayer Life
We have many free term papers and essays on Hasidic Prayer Life. We also have a wide variety of research papers and book reports available to you for free. You can browse our collection of term papers or use our search engine.
Hasidic Prayer Life. By the early 19th century, Hasidism became “the first
religious trend in Judaism since the days of the Second ...
... practices, there are many degrees of Hasidic beliefs encompassing ... Women may worship
and perform prayer rituals with ... provided that a Jewish family life is lived ...
... Moshe the Beadle, who works at a Hasidic synagogue, and ... asking himself why should
he recite a prayer that blesses ... of his religion, who led a life devoted to ...
... The Hasidic sects keep themselves segregated as much as ... with God on the eighth day
of life; ceremonies in ... are performed only by women’s prayer groups, also ...
... to maintain strong Jewish identity; and Hasidic Jews follow ... He lived a sinless life
and willingly died on ... showed the signs of Allah, taught prayer, and brought ...
Submitted by lslugbugl on March 12, 2007
Category: Religion
Words: 1619 | Pages: 7
Views: 420
Popularity Rank: 20,710
Average Member Grade: N/A (Add a Comment / Grade this Paper)
By the early 19th century, Hasidism became “the first religious trend in Judaism since the days of the Second Temple which had a self-defined way of life and recognizable rite of worship, but yet was acknowledged by those who differed from it as a legitimate Jewish phenomenon” (“Hasidism,” Encyclopedia Judaica). The Hasidism I am referring to is not to be confused with the group of people, probably Sabbatians, organized by Rabbi Jehuda Hasid on a crusade to the Holy Land in 1699 and 1700 (Scholem 331). The Hasidism I am referring to was formed by Israel Baal Shem (“Master of the Holy Name”) and replaced Sabbatianism in Volhynia and Podolia after its fall.
There are several reasons why Hasidism has become a successful movement. One of the biggest reasons is its appeal to the unsophisticated and uneducated; it attempted to spread mysticism to the masses (Blumenthal 136). Its founder was not even a scholar in Jewish law. Hasidism comes from direct religious experience, not a theory or vision. An obvious way to attain a religious experience is through prayer.
Because of Hasidism’s spiritualistic focus, prayer is its central activity (Blumenthal 111). There are several types of prayer: Zoharic-Lurianic-Habad type, unifying-the-letters type, devekut type (meditative ecstasy and tumultuous ecstasy), and the intimate presence type. There is no single main or central type of prayer practiced within Hasidism, but they all incorporate Kavvana. Kavvana is the act of spiritual consciousness-raising. The goal is to completely focus one’s senses and one’s soul on God during prayer.
There are two types of the devekut prayer: the meditative and tumultuous. They both grew from the same structure of thought and lead to a true mystical ecstasy (Blumenthal 127). The meditative presents a more serene external behavior while a sense of burning or steady ecstasy is internal. The tumultuous is an uncontrollable, wild external behavior from the...
You must Login to view the entire paper.
If you are not a member yet, Sign Up for free!