Sacred Emotions: Fear of Sin in Early Hasidism (Stanford Studies in Jewish Mysticism)

Scholars have long argued that early Hasidic teachings introduced a psychological dimension to kabbalistic traditions and revitalized modern Judaism.Focused on the inner soul, Hasidism encouraged worshippers to experience joy and delight through their enthusiastic practices.In this new work grounded in the historical study of emotions, Leore Sachs-Shmueli shows that Hasidic teachers and preachers also nurtured and even promoted the negative emotions of yirah, an emotional cluster that encompasses fear, apprehension, anxiety, and awe. Exploring their roots in classical texts of Kabbalah, including the Zohar and works of Safed Kabbalah, Sachs-Shmueli demonstrates how early Hasidic masters like the Baal Shem Tov, the circle of the Maggid of Mezhrich, Shneur Zalman of Liadi, and R.Nachman of Bratslav deliberately cultivated a tense emotional culture through the mental guidelines in their texts.Through an emphasis on God-fearing and the fear of sin, they motivated followers of the new movem