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Mitnagdim or misnagdim is a Hebrew word (מתנגדים) meaning "opponents"; this term was used to refer to European religious Jews who opposed Hasidic Judaism.

Today the term mitnagdim is loosely used to refer to European religious Orthodox Jews who are not Hasidic, although they are not necessarily opposed to Hasidic Judaism.

There are many non-Hasidic Orthodox Jews, such as Lithuanian Jews ("Litvaks"), Modern Orthodox Jews, Sephardic Orthodox Jews, and Yemenite Orthodox Jews.

Origins

The rapid spread of Hasidism in the second half of the eighteenth century greatly troubled many traditional Jewish rabbis; many saw it as a potentially dangerous enemy. They feared that it was another manifestation of the recent dreaded false-messiah movement of Sabbatai Zevi that had led many Jews astray from mainstream Judaism.

Hasidism's founder was Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov, or simply "the Besht"; he taught that man's relationship with God depended on immediate religious experience, in addition to knowledge and observance of the details of the Torah and Talmud.

Much of Judaism was still fearful of the pseudo-messianic movements of the Sabbateans and the Frankists. Many rabbis, incorrectly as it turned out, suspected Hasidism of an intimate connection with these movements.

Opposition of the Vilna Gaon

The first attacks on Hasidic Judaism came during the times of the founder of Hasidic thought. Two bans of excommunication against Hasidic Jews first appeared in 1772, accompanied by the public burning of several early Hasidic pamphlets. Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, the Vilna Gaon galvinized opposition to Hasidic Judaism. He believed that the claims of miracles and vision made by Hasidic Jews were lies and delusions. Opponents of Hasidim held that Hasidim viewed their rebbes in an idolatrous fashion.

Hasidism's changes and challenges

The stress of prayer over study, and the Hasidic disparagement of Torah study for its own sake, was seen as a rejection of the traditional Jewish views. Yet, Hasidic Jews added some stringencies to traditional Jewish halakha on kashrut, the laws of keeping kosher. They made certain changes in how livestock were slaughtered and in who was considered a reliable mashgiach (supervisor of kashrut). The end result was that they essentially considered other kosher food un-kosher. This was seen as an attack on non-Hasidic Judaism, and a violation of halakha (Jewish law.)

Hasidism's rejection of the traditional Ashkenazi prayer rite, and instead created their own rite which was a combination of Ashkenazi and Sephardi rites, along with the ideas of Isaac Luria, a mystic from Safed. This was seen as a rejection of the traditional Jewish liturgy.

Hasidism was criticised because some Hasidic rebbes lived a life of affluence, based on contributions from their followers. Hasidic Jews believed that by financially supporting their rebbe with worldly goods, their rebbe would better be able to intervene on their behalf with God.

Hasidic Jews developed innovative ideas in Jewish theology, such as the idea that all of the world is actually completely nullified to God. Depending on how this idea was preached and interpreted, it could give rise to either pantheism or mistaken for panentheism. These beliefs were attacked as blasphemy. Pantheism today is still generally considered false by Orthodox Judaism; however panentheistic theology is now considered acceptable.

The Hasidic doctrine of bittul ha-yesh, which is the belief that ones entire existence is only to do what God wants, was held to be dangerous, as it could lead to immoral behaviour.

Struggles and persecutions

A bitter struggle soon arose between traditional observant Jews and the newer Hasidim. At the head of the Orthodox party stood Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon. In 1772, when the first secret circles of Hasidim appeared in Lithuania, the rabbinic kahal ("council") of Vilna, with the approval of Rabbi ben Solomon, arrested the local leaders of the sect, and excommunicated its adherents. Letters were sent from Vilna to the rabbis of other communities calling upon them to make war upon the "godless sect."

In many places persecutions were instituted against the Hasidim. The appearance in 1780 of the first works of Hasidic literature created alarm among the Orthodox. At the council of rabbis held in the village of Zelva, government of Grodno, in 1781, it was resolved to uproot Hasidism. In the official letters issued by the council, the faithful were ordered to expel the Hasidim from every Jewish community, to regard them as members of another faith, to hold no social intercourse with them, not to intermarry with them, and not to bury their dead.

Hasidism in the south of eastern Europe had established itself so firmly in the various communities that it had no fear of persecution. The main sufferers were the northern Hasidim. Their leader, Rabbi Zalman, attempted to allay the anger of the Mitnagdim and of Elijah Gaon.

On the death of the latter in 1797 the exasperation of the Mitnagdim became so great that they resolved to denounce the leaders of the Hasidim to the Russian government as dangerous agitators and teachers of heresy. In consequence twenty-two Hasidic Jews were arrested in Vilna and other places. Hasidic Rabbi Zalman was arrested at his court in Liozna and brought to St. Petersburg (1798).

The struggle of rabbinism with Hasidism in Lithuania and White Russia led to the formation of the latter sect in those regions into separate religious organizations; these existing in many towns alongside of those of the Mitnagdim. In the south-western region the Hasidim almost completely crowded out the Mitnagdim.Lithuania remained strongly Mistagdic until the Holocaust-another group of non-Hasidic jews were the Oberlander Jews of Hungary and Slovakia.

Winding down the battles

By the mid-1800s most of non-Hasidic Judaism had discontinued its struggle with Hasidism and had reconciled itself to the establishment of the latter as an accomplished fact. Gradually the Mitnagdim and the Hasidim began to intermarry, which practise had formerly been strictly forbidden. Today, Hasidic Judaism is seen as a mainstream part of Haredi Judaism.

See also

• Agudath Israel of America
• Degel HaTorah
• Haredi Judaism
• Hasidic Judaism
• Hasidim and Mitnagdim
• Lithuanian Jews
• United Torah Judaism
• Vilna Gaon
• Yosef Shalom Eliashiv
• World Agudath Israel

External links and references

• Hasidim And Mitnagdim (jewishvirtuallibrary.org)
• The Vilna Gaon and Leader of the Mitnagdim (jewishgates.com)
• Misnagdim: The Opposition to Hasidism (E. Segal, Univ. Calgary)
• Misnagdim Website

• Orthodox Judaism
• Ashkenazi Jews topics