new certainties and new mysticism 419
joy. Shneur Zalman’s teachings were less concerned with kabbalist
theosophy or theological speculation than a guide to hasidic behaviour.
His collected sayings – originally published in 1796, and nowadays best
known, from the title page of later editions, as the Tanya, which means
‘it was taught in a baraita ’ (that is, by a tannaitic rabbi) – became just
such a guide, justified within a complete and coherent exposition of the
system as a whole.^59
The pre- eminent role of the tsaddik as the source of spiritual illumin-
ation for his individual followers engendered a distinctive structure to
hasidic communities. The tsaddik or rebbe presided over a court to
which his individual hasidim came on pilgrimage to seek blessing and
spiritual revitalization. The court was maintained by the rebbe ’s follow-
ers in some considerable affluence, since the tsaddik was seen as the link
between the hasid and heaven. Hasidim expected to contribute to these
expenses with a suitable payment as pidyon, ‘redemption’ (of the soul).
Proximity to the rebbe, and participating in the food from the communal
table (der tish ) when he expounded his teachings, generally on Sabbath
afternoons, brought the hasid as close as he could get to the divine. Any
problem could be brought to the rebbe for a solution. The process was
often formalized, so that the hasid would submit his request in writing
in a kvitl, a small note carefully folded for privacy for the rebbe ’s
perusal. As in any court, the rebbe ’s closest assistants became from an
early stage the most important intermediaries for access to him.^60
Inevitably, the complete authority of local hasidic leaders, combined
with the wide dispersion of Hasidism across eastern Europe and within
Hungary by the end of the eighteenth century, led to tension between
the courts of hasidim. Such tensions were to increase considerably
from the 1830s, once the original surge of hasidic enthusiasm was over
and the different groups settled into established patterns. Insularization
was encouraged by the assumption, already found by the end of the
eighteenth century, that the role of rebbe was generally to be inherited
by a member of the family of the previous rebbe. In theological terms,
this was explicable by the notion, espoused (as we have seen) by Shneur
Zalman of Lyady, that the capacity to be a tsaddik is both rare and
inherited from birth. A large number of hasidic dynasties, in many cases
established in small villages from which their followers took their name,
over the course of the nineteenth century evolved fiercely distinctive
customs of male dress (especially headwear) and hairstyle, so that they
were easily identifiable at least by appearance, even if in theological
terms there was little to divide them.