Yea, even the followers of Abraham possess
evil propensities, and noble qualities frequently belong to the
disciples of Balaam himself.[11]

These democratic principles put the most ignorant Jew in Russia on an
equality with the erudite Lithuanian. No wonder that they obtained such
strong hold on the people of the Ukraine, the province shorn of all its
glory. Hasidism invaded Podolia and Volhynia, swept over Galicia and
Hungary, and found adherents even in many a large community in Western
Russia and Prussia. It brought cheer and happiness in its wake, and
rendered the unfortunate Jew forgetful of his misery. Gottlober
maintains that the inspiring melodies of the Hasidic hymns were largely
responsible for the spread of the movement, even as Moody attributed the
success of his revivals to the singing of Sankey. For, as Doctor
Schechter has it, "the Besht was a religious revivalist in the best
sense, full of burning faith in his God and his cause; convinced of the
value of his teaching and his truth."[12]

One province there was to which the Besht could not penetrate, at least
not without a long siege and great losses. In Lithuania the inroads of
Hasidism were strenuously opposed, and its advance disputed step by
step. The Lithuanian Jews, to whom the Talmud was as dear as ever, could
not countenance a movement sprung, as they believed, from the seed sown
by Shabbatai Zebi, an opponent of the Talmud, and by Jacob Frank, at
whose instigation the Bishop of Kamenetz ordered the Talmud to be
publicly burnt.[13]

The opponents (Mitnaggedim) of Hasidism were headed by a leader who was
as typical an exponent of the cause he espoused as the Besht was of his.
Among the students of Jewish literature since the close of the Talmud,
few have surpassed, or even equalled, Elijah of Vilna (1720-1797). Not
inappropriately he was called Gaon and Hasid, for in mental and moral
attainments he was unique in his generation. As the Besht was noted in
his early life for dulness and indifference, so Elijah was remarkable
for diligence and versatility. His life, like the Besht's, became the
nucleus of many wonderful tales, which his biographer narrates with
painstaking exactness. They present the picture of a man diametrically
different from Israel Baal Shem Tob. Every year, we are told, added to
the marvellous development of the young intellectual giant. When he was
six years old, none but Rabbi Moses Margolioth, the renowned Talmudist
and au