Tsippi Kauffman

This book analyses models of avodah be-gashmiyut (i.e., worshiping God through corporeality) in nascent Hasidism in the thought of the Baal Shem Tov, along with R. Jacob Joseph of Polonnoye, R. Dov Baer, the Maggid of Mezhirech, R. Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl, and R. Ephraim of Sudylkow, in an attempt to determine whether and how avodah be-gashmiyut provides a response to the tension between the halakhic demand for a certain manner of religious conduct, on the one hand, and the immanentistic trends in the Hasidic masters' concept of God, on the other. Part I focuses on an examination of the idea of immanence and the immanent perception of the Godhead in general, in Jewish thought as a whole, and especially, in Hasidism. Part II concentrates on the various expressions of avodah be-gashmiyut. Attention is devoted primarily to the presentation in nascent Hasidism of different models of avodah be-gashmiyut, after introducing its sources within the context of the different interpretations of the verse ''In all your ways know Him'' (Prov. 3:6) in Jewish philosophical, Kabbalistic, and halakhic literature over the course of time. The third, and last, part combines the conclusions and results of the first two parts. It examines the connection between the conception of immanence and the directive in the teachings of the Hasidic masters discussed in this work to engage in avodah be-gashmiyut.