The Hasidic Tradition In 'Fifty-Year-Old Honey'

“Hasidism: [a] pietistic and mystical movement in Judaism that originated in 18th century Poland” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). 165,000 Hasidics live in courts in three neighborhoods in Brooklyn: Crown Heights, Boro Park, and Williamsburg. Their separate world is just that to any outsider that enters one of these Hasidic neighborhoods. Stories, dances, and music are the way into the Hasidic ideology as these primeval forms of worship are key to understanding the Hasidic religion. Separatism and traditionalism are a great help with enforcing this extremist way of life. Men follow the historic dress code of beards, sidelocks, black hats, and long coats. “Every woman under forty-five appeared to be pregnant” (A Life Apart). There is no

Similar to Greek myths and Christian creation stories, Hasidic tales are a way of dictating a Hasid’s religious life. In the story “Fifty-Year-Old Honey”, the Tzaddik Rabbi Levi Yitzchak comes to the conclusion that what appears to be true is not always fair nor what the Master of the Universe has decided will happen. This tale teaches Hasids to trust that divine providence will ensure that justice happens. Other stories deal with religious practices rather than communal principles. Rabbi Leib tells a squire that “there is nothing that can stand in the way of repentance” in a story about the eve of Yom Kippur (Tilles). “The Tenth Jew” tells than even those who have abandoned their religion can earn a spot in the afterlife. Communal dances are a part of Hasidic tradition. The dances lift a Hasid “toward divinity” as a result of the communal nature of Hasidism. Unintelligible sounds convey the deep emotion behind Hasidic songs. Writing, music, and dance are all morale boosters and teaching tools used to guide Jews in their daily life. These methods of worship have been the traditions of primitive cultures, and have been passed on and spread around the

The Hasidic religion sets its followers apart from others just by their apparel and behavior. Unlike other divisions of Judaism, such as Frankism, Hasidism does “require asceticism or sorrow…but rather happiness and piety, fraternity and love” (Haumann 55-56). The Hasidism form a supporting community in which all people feel connected to their neighbor. Their traditional dress binds them to the way their religion was first practiced. Towns were tight-knit in early America, but as the population grew communal operations changed. As America underwent these changes, paralyzed Jews turned to Hasidism as their safe haven. They refused to change neither their dress nor their