Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies

ABSTRACT:

The letters of Rabbi Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk and Rabbi Avraham of Kalisk provide a robust portrait of the spiritual orientation of the Tiberian Hasidic community, capturing a critical moment—or series of moments—in the evolution of Hasidic thought as articulated by former disciples of Rabbi Dov Ber Friedman, the Maggid of Mezritsh. The present essay argues that these epistles yield valuable insights into the complex, often stormy relationship between these two Tiberian masters and their younger student and colleague Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady. Furthermore, I suggest that both these Tiberian masters and Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady sought to enumerate mystical systems that led to an immediate and intimate experience of the divine. Although a vast chasm separates their methods for attaining this goal as well as the distinctive vocabularies they use to describe it, both of these fundamentally disparate spiritual paths emerged from the teachings of the Maggid.