The Maggid of Mezeritch and the Hasidic–Mitnagdic Dispute

After the Baal Shem Tov's death in 1760, leadership passed to Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezeritch—a different kind of man: frail, rarely leaving his room, a deep Talmudist and kabbalist who spoke briefly and seldom. It was he who turned Hasidism into an organised movement.

His method was simple and brilliant: rather than travel himself, he trained men and sent them out. From Mezeritch came Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi and Rabbi Nachum of Chernobyl.

The growth alarmed others. The Mitnagdim—'opponents'—saw disorder: Hasidim changed the prayer rite, demanded specially honed slaughtering knives and rejected the established shochtim, prayed late and loudly, and above all placed the tzaddik at the centre as an intermediary, seemingly displacing Torah study. Everyone also remembered Shabbetai Zevi and feared another messianic frenzy.

In the spring of 1772 the sages of Vilna, led by the Gaon, proclaimed a ban: no praying with Hasidim, no eating their meat, no marriage with them. Hasidic books were burned. The quarrel lasted decades and at times reached denunciations to the government. What softened it was a common threat—the Haskalah—before which each side gradually recognised the other as its own.