new certainties and new mysticism 425
devotion of the hasid to his rebbe sufficed as a religious aim, so long as
the rebbe continued to lead his devotees. Only when the tsaddik of an
established group died without succession, as when Nahman of Brat-
slav died in 1811, did hope for his return take on an eschatological
character among his followers. Nahman was the first such expected
messianic figure within Hasidism but, as we shall see, he was not to be
the last.^67