existing order of things could on
occasions assert itself in the environment of Rabbinism, where the mind,
though forced into the mould of scholasticism, was yet working at high
speed. But such "heretical" thinking was utterly inconceivable in the
dominant circles of Hasidism, where the intellect was rocked to sleep by
mystical lullabies and fascinating stories of the miraculous exploits of
the Tzsaddiks. The era of political and civil disfranchisement was a
time of luxuriant growth for Hasidism, not in its creative, but rather
in its stationary, not to say stagnant, phase.

The old struggle between Hasidism and Rabbinism had long been fought
out, and the Tzaddiks rested on their laurels as teachers and
miracle-workers. The Tzaddik dynasties were now firmly entrenched. In
White Russia the sceptre lay in the hands of the Shneorsohn dynasty, the
successors of the "Old Rabbi," Shneor Zalman, the progenitor of the
Northern Hasidim. [1] The son of the "Old Rabbi," Baer, nicknamed "the
Middle Rabbi" (1813-1828), and the latter's son-in-law Mendel Lubavicher
[2] (1828-1866) succeeded one another on the hasidic "throne" during
this period, with a change in their place of residence. Under Rabbi
Zalman the townlets of Lozno and Ladi served as "capitals"; under his
successors, they were Ladi and Lubavichi. The three localities are all
situated on the border-line of the governments of Vitebsk and Moghilev,
in which the Hasidim of the _Habad_ persuasion [3] formed either a
majority, as was the case in the former government, or a substantial
minority, as was the case in the latter.

[Footnote 1: See Vol. I, p. 372.]

[Footnote 2: From the townlet Lubavichi. See later in the text.]

[Footnote 3: Compare Vol. I, p. 234, n. 2.]

Rabbi Baer, the son and successor of the "Old Rabbi," did not inherit
the creative genius of his father. He published many books, made up
mostly of his Sabbath discourses, but they lack originality. His method
is that of the talmudic _pilpul_, [1] transplanted upon the soil of
Cabala and Hasidism, or it consists in expatiating upon the ideas
contained in the _Tanyo_. [2] The last years of Rabbi Baer were darkened
by the White Russian catastrophes, the expulsion from the villages in
1823, and the ominous turn in the ritual murder trial of Velizh. On his
death-bed he spoke to those around him about the burning topic of the
day, the conscription ukase of 1827.

[Footnote 1: i.e., Dialectics. Comp. Vol. I, p.