Written Torah and Oral Torah in the Study of Hasidism

Abstract

The traditional academic approach to the study of the Hasidic movement in Judaism has tended to be based primarily on texts. Although book learning is important to Hasidim, the heart of the movement is living experience, in particular oral teaching of the Hasidic understanding and application of Torah by the Rebbe, most often in the Yiddish vernacular. Failure adequately to take account of this “oral Torah” (borrowing the term commonly applied to the Talmud) has led to inadequate, even erroneous conclusions about Hasidism and its tenets and history.