IN his Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism G. Scholem wrote: ‘What has really become important in Hasidism [is] the mysticism of personal life … Hasidism is practical mysticism at its highest. Almost all the Kabbalistic ideas are now placed in relation to values peculiar to the individual life … Particular emphasis is laid on ideas and concepts concerning the relation of the Individual to God.’ In this context I shall here consider the hasidic conception of man and of divine service. I shall show that in both areas the ideas of R. Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezhirech, are clearly related to those expressed by the sixteenth-century Safed kabbalist Elijah de Vidas in his book Reshit ḥokhmah.

The relationship between hasidism and the ethical literature of the Safed kabbalists has attracted significant scholarly attention; I. Tishby, J. Dan, M. Pechter, and G. Nigal have all noted the popularity of Reshit ḥokhmah and its impact on hasidic thought. It seems clear that although kabbalistic ideas reached hasidism from a wide variety of literary sources, Reshit ḥokhmah was among the most important. Undoubtedly, both the anthropocentric tendency of hasidic teaching and its special concern with the individual soul can be traced back to Reshit ḥokhmah. Most strikingly, there is a particularly close affinity between Reshit ḥokhmah and the teachings of the Maggid of Mezhirech. I shall therefore attempt to demonstrate the influence of the book on the Maggid's principal teachings, specifically with regard to the inner purification of man and his service of God.

At the beginning of Maggid devarav le Ya ‘akov, the verse ‘the King is held captive in the tresses’ (S. of S. 7: 6) is interpreted as referring to the ‘tresses’ of the human mind. In doing so, the Maggid draws on the discussion in Tikunei zohar (tikun 6) concerning the mystical significance of the phylacteries of the head; the author of Tikunei zohar uses the verse to highlight the close relationship between God and Israel, a relationship which he holds to be symbolized by the phylacteries. The Maggid also draws on the classical rabbinic concept of tsimtsum, the contraction of Shekhinah (the divine presence) between the two staves of the Ark.