Sachs-Shmueli, Leore
Senior Fellow: August 2024
Research Project: Doubt and Fear: The Emotional Elements in Hasidic Responses to Scepticism
In the nineteenth century, Hasidic leaders express various defensive responses to doubt and scepticism arousing in their followers, as part of their exposure to the enlightenment’s criticism on various principle traditional belief. In my proposed project I ask to reveal the “emotional” element in their response, and prominent role of fear. In my study I aim at analysing a variety of Hasidic sermons dealing with the concept of doubt (safek). From initial research I conducted of the material, I propose to differentiate between four categories of doubt, and the threat and fear related to them: a) theological doubt b) social doubt c) legal doubt d) self-doubt. I will apply methods and viewpoints developed in the field of “emotions in history,” to reveal the emotional components in the Hasidic responses to doubt and scepticism in its cultural context.
Leore Sachs-Shmueli is a Lecturer in the Department of Jewish Thought at Bar Ilan University.