Hillel Zeitlin (1871–1942) was an Ashkenazi

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

writer and poet. A leading pre-Holocaust Jewish journalist, he was a regular contributor to the Yiddish newspaper ''Moment'', among other literary activities. He was the leading thinker in the movement of pre-

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

"philosophical

Neo-Hasidism Neo-Hasidism, also Neochassidut or Neo-Chassidus, is an approach to Judaism in which aspects of Hasidic Judaism are incorporated into non-Hasidic religious Jewish practice. Over the 20th century, neo-Hasidism was popularized by the works of write ...

".Green, Arthur; Mayse, Ariel Evan (March 8, 2016).
'The Great Call of the Hour': Hillel Zeitlin's Yiddish Writings on ''Yavneh''
. ''In Geveb''. Retrieved 2019-11-10.

Biography

He was born in Korma, in the

Mogilev Governorate Mogilev Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Northwestern Krai of the Russian Empire. The governorate bordered the Vitebsk Governorate to the north, the Smolensk Governorate to the east, the Chernigov Gover ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(present-day Gomel Region of

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

), to a

Hasidic Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those aff ...

Chabad Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (; ; ), is a dynasty in Hasidic Judaism. Belonging to the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) branch of Orthodox Judaism, it is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, as well as one of ...

family.Krutikov, Mikhail; Pinsker, Shachar (27 June 2011).
Zeitlin Family
" '' The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe''. Retrieved 2023-07-30. In childhood, studying at first under his father, Aaron-Eliezer, he garnered recognition for his remarkable memory and grasp of the rabbinic material before his eleventh birthday. Waldoks, Moshe (1984). "Hillel Zeitlin: The Early Years." Ph.D. dissertation. Brandeis University. p. 5. He subsequently studied with the local Hasidic teacher and, for the last year before his

bar mitzvah A ''bar mitzvah'' () or ''bat mitzvah'' () is a coming of age ritual in Judaism. According to Halakha, Jewish law, before children reach a certain age, the parents are responsible for their child's actions. Once Jewish children reach that age ...

, at the court of the Hasidic rebbe in the town of Rechitsa (in the adjacent

Minsk Governorate Minsk Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Minsk. It was created from the land acquired in the partitions of Poland and existed from 1793 until 1921. Its territory covered th ...

). After his father died in 1887, Hillel Zeitlin, at the age of 16, embarked on travels through the Jewish villages of the

Pale of Settlement The Pale of Settlement was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 1917 (''de facto'' until 1915) in which permanent settlement by Jews was allowed and beyond which the creation of new Jewish settlem ...

, earning his living as a Hebrew teacher. His exit from the world of the

Yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

exposed him to the works of the scholars of the Enlightenment. He began studying in earnest the works of both

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

philosophers (

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

Gersonides Levi ben Gershon (1288 – 20 April 1344), better known by his Graecized name as Gersonides, or by his Latinized name Magister Leo Hebraeus, or in Hebrew by the abbreviation of first letters as ''RaLBaG'', was a medieval French Jewish philosoph ...

Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...

etc.) and non-

ones such as

Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( ; ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is known for his 1818 work '' The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the manife ...

Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche became the youngest pro ...

and others. During this period in his life, he began questioning his

religious beliefs A belief is a subjective attitude that something is true or a state of affairs is the case. A subjective attitude is a mental state of having some stance, take, or opinion about something. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to ...

and eventually drifted toward

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened ...

. After World War I, Zeitlin gradually returned to

tradition A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common e ...

and began leading an Orthodox lifestyle. The reason(s) for this drastic change in his life is not completely clear but may have had something to do with the suffering of Jews during the war. In any case, he shifted from a tragic philosophical outlook to a mystical and spiritual viewpoint. One of Zeitlin's mystical essays prompted a booklet in opposition by Rabbi

Yiḥyah Qafiḥ Yiḥyah Qafiḥ (; also known as Yiḥyah ibn Shalomo el Qafiḥ and as Yahya Kapach (his Hebrew name)) (1850–1931), known also as ''"Ha-Yashish"'' (English: "the Elder"), served as the Chief Rabbi of Sana'a, Yemenite Jews, Yemen in the late n ...

. Zeitlin's shift notwithstanding, he remained independent and unconventional in his beliefs and actions. He did not, for instance, hesitate to eulogize his former friend the great writer and thinker Yosef Haim Brenner, who was an ardent secularist. Zeitlin quoted a wide variety of Hasidic sources, but did not live in a Hasidic community or identify with a particular Hasidic group (although he did visit several prominent Hasidic Rebbes). Zeitlin endeavored to preserve what he called the "treasure" at the core of Hasidic teaching (which he considered to be obscured in his day by pseudo-intellectual trivialities and excessive concern for outward appearance), and to make it accessible not only to Jews of his era but to non-Jews. He considered the core of Hasidim to consist of three "loves": love of God, of Torah, and of Israel. Just as his intended audience consisted of assimilated Jews and non-Jews, he adopted novel formulations of these loves: "love of Torah" would come to encompass inspiring works of "secular" art and literature, while "love of Israel" would be transformed into "love of humanity" (despite which Israel would still be recognized as the "firstborn child of God"). Zeitlin's religious ideal also contained a socialist element: the Hasidim he pictured would refuse to take advantage of workers.Mayse, Ariel Evan (December 19, 2018).
The Development of Neo-Hasidism: Echoes and Repercussions – Part I: Introduction, Hillel Zeitlin, and Martin Buber
. ''Lehrhaus''. thelehrhaus.com. Retrieved 2019-11-10. Zeitlin also grew close to the territorialist movement and lent his support to the " Uganda proposal". Zeitlin was of the opinion that it would be impossible to settle in

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

without removing the half a million Palestinian Arabs and so the

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

proposals would fail.Shapira, Anita (1999). ''Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881-1948''. Stanford University Press. . p 46. He was a practical territorialist and his writings took on more urgency after the notorious

pogroms A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century attacks on Jews i ...

in Kishinev and Homel. When the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

began the

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

of Jewish People in Poland in 1942, Zeitlin was 71 years old. He was murdered by Nazis in the

Warsaw ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (, officially , ; ) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the Nazi Germany, German authorities within the new General Government territory of Occupat ...

while holding a book of the

Zohar The ''Zohar'' (, ''Zōhar'', lit. "Splendor" or "Radiance") is a foundational work of Kabbalistic literature. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material o ...

and wrapped in a

Tallit A tallit, taleth, or tallis is a fringed garment worn as a prayer shawl by religious Jews. The tallit has special twined and knotted fringe (trim), fringes known as ''tzitzit'' attached to its four corners. The cloth part is known as the ''beged ...

and

Tefillin Tefillin (Modern Hebrew language, Israeli Hebrew: / ; Ashkenazim, Ashkenazic pronunciation: ; Modern Israeli Hebrew, Modern Hebrew pronunciation: ), or phylacteries, are a set of small black leather boxes with leather straps containing scrolls o ...

. Most of his family was also murdered; the only survivor was his elder son Aaron, who had settled in New York in 1939. His sons, Aaron Zeitlin (1898-1973) and Elchanan Zeitlin (1902-1942), were also Yiddish writers.

Footnotes

Bibliography

* Bar-On, Shraga,
Hillel Zeitlin in Search of God: An Analysis of Zeitlin's Meditation ‘The Thirst’
, in: D. Schwartz and A. Sagi (eds.), ''Faith: Jewish Perspectives'' (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2013), pp. 478-499. * Green, Arthur (2012). ''Hasidic Spirituality for a New Era: The Religious Writings of Hillel Zeitlin''. The Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press. * Meir, Jonatan, "Hillel Zeitlin's Zohar: The History of a Translation and Commentary Project", ''Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts'' 10 (2004): pp. 119–157. In Hebrew. * Shapira, Anita (1999). ''Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881-1948''. Stanford University Press. . *Zeitlin, Hillel; Meir, Jonatan (2006). ''Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav: World Weariness and Longing for the Messiah''. Two essays by Hillel Zeitlin; introduction and critical notes by Jonatan Meir. Yeriot: Essays and Papers in the Jewish Studies Bearing on the Humanities and the Social Sciences, no. 5. Jerusalem: Ornah Hes. In Hebrew.

External links

“The Great Call of the Hour”: Hillel Zeitlin’s Yiddish Writings on Yavneh by Arthur Green and Ariel Evan Mayse
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zeitlin, Hillel 1871 births 1942 deaths People from Karma district People from Rogachyovsky Uyezd Belarusian Jews Jewish philosophers Yiddish-language journalists

Inmates A prisoner, also known as an inmate or detainee, is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement or captivity in a prison or physical restraint. The term usually applies to one serving a Sentence (law), se ...

Nazi-era ghetto inmates People who died in the Warsaw Ghetto Polish civilians killed in World War II Neo-Hasidism

Biography

See also

Footnotes

Bibliography

External links