Thoughts on the Seam between Hasidic Literature and Haskalah Literature: The Works of Joseph Perl

Abstract:In this article I wish to examine a specific historical and textual moment embodied in the works of Joseph Perl. The conventional view draws a line separating the Hasidic movement and Hasidic literature from Perl, a maskil who opposed the movement. Nevertheless, some scholars maintain that his works should not be addressed independently of his Hasidic sources of influence. Others have shown that the reciprocal influences of Haskalah and Hasidic literature continue into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this article, we will examine the relationship between Perl's works and Hasidic stories, focusing on Maʿasiyyot veʾiggerot as a liminal region in between Perl's works and Hasidic stories. Following examination of the work itself, we shall offer a few comments both on Hasidic stories and on Perl's later work (Megalleh temirin), in order to illuminate the continuity and contiguity between Perl and Hasidism, in contrast to the conflict and fault line that is conventionally emphasized.