Penitential Practice in Later Ashkenaz Reconsidered
Athough Judah he-hasid’s sectarian vision did not take hold in medieval German towns, Sefer Hasidim’s model of confession to another Jew continued in Ashkenaz for centuries after the death of Judah he-hasid in 1217. Several Ashkenazic Jews either confessed sins in person to another Jew or wrote to a rabbi to request penances, and this practice continued well into early modern times. Although R. Eleazar of Worms justified writing his several private penitential manuals on the grounds that some Jews were too embarrassed to confess their sins to another Jew and receive penances, confession to a sage or to a rabbi continued in medieval Ashkenaz side by side with the use of R. Eleazar of Worms’s private penitential manuals. Thus, German pietist modes of atonement were influential not only through Eleazar’s penitential handbooks, but also from the inspiration of confession to a sage as described originally in Sefer Hasidim.47
The idea of confession to a sage (hakham) is found in a fourteenth-century text written by R. Moses b. Eleazar ha-Kohen, who refers to “a story about a man who committed many sins his whole life … and went to a sage” (ma‘aseh be-adam ehad she-‘asah ‘aveirot harbeh kol yamav … ba ezel hakham ehad).48 This story pictures a Jew confessing his sins to a “sage” and receiving a penance from him to atone for all of his sins, just as we find scores of times in Sefer Hasidim itself.49
Encouraging confession to an important Jew is a theme in a penitential sermon that has been recently published. The unknown German pietist author places great emphasis on the value of the sinner embarrassing himself by confessing his sins to an important person, the very issue that R. Eleazar of Worms mentions as a problem for some.50 In addition to the anonymously composed sermon that advocates sage-like confession, R. Eleazar of Worms himself composed a series of rhymed Hebrew penances that complement the prose private penitentials that he wrote.51 Apparently there was a lively disagreement about confession of sins to another Jew since we find new works encouraging it as well as Eleazar’s penitentials that are written to replace it.
There are several indications that the pro-confession camp won some followers. For example, in a collection of German Jewish traditions written down in Italy, we find a description of a penance administered for a violation of the Sabbath.52 In an oft-cited case, a Jewish father writes to R. Meir b. Barukh (Maharam) of Rothenburg (d. 1293). He was afraid that “the enemies” (ha-oyevim) would kill his family and so he killed his family himself. But before he could take his own life, he was rescued, and he asks R. Meir of Rothenburg if he sinned and requires a penance or if he did the right thing.53 R. Meir’s response is that no penance is needed since administering one now would imply that Jews who had acted the same way in the past had sinned.54
The same R. Meir of Rothenburg tells a Jew who publically insulted a respected member of the Jewish community to do penance by fasting, self-flagellation, and giving charity.55 Two rabbis, R. Jonah and R. Shemaryah, ask one R. Isaac b. Mordecai, a contemporary of R. Meir of Rothenburg, about revealing crimes that Jews had confessed to him. The questioner mentions Christian confession to monks and their vows of secrecy.56
The late thirteenth-century, anonymously written French Hebrew work, Sefer ha-Neyar, refers to a woman’s confession to a R. Haim Barukh. She angered her husband and the rabbi imposed on her a fast of three days.57 In the fifteenth century, R. Joseph b. Moses Hahn, a student of R. Israel Isserlein, lists cases of confession and penances in his “Laws of Atonement” (Hilekhot Teshuvah).58 From around the same time, the niece of R. Jacob b. Moses ha-Levi Mölln (Maharil) forgot to light Friday candles and she is given a penance.59
Given the cases of Jewish confession to another Jew, Eleazar’s introductions to his written handbooks should no longer be interpreted as a sign that confession to a sage or rabbi disappeared and was replaced by written penitentials. Rather, Eleazar added them for those Jews who resisted such confession, while others were doing this very thing.60 It is also important to realize that hagiographical stories in Hebrew and Yiddish that portray Jews’ and Christians’ confessions to Judah he-hasid and asking him for penances show that he was remembered for his role as dispensing penances. None of the hagiographical stories in Hebrew or Yiddish about Samuel or Judah picture a Jew using a written penitential. Some Jews continued to follow Judah he-hasid’s form of penitence long after he was gone.61
Sefer Hasidim, Sefer ha-Hasidut, and the Historical Impact of German Pietism
We should note that Ashkenazic book culture was strong enough to withstand Maimonides’ presence there from the thirteenth century on. Although Sefer ha-Hasidut and then Sefer Mizvot Gadol and Sefer Mizvot Qatan took on Maimonidean content, Ashkenazic book culture did not emulate the Sephardic book form that Maimonides’ works embodied. Ashkenazic authors who incorporated Maimonides into their works continued to write segmented, Lego-like compositions. They did not imitate the form of Maimonides’ Sefer ha-Madda‘.62
Although the harsh and restrictive social utopia Judah envisioned in Sefer Hasidim was not enacted, the penitential system and many pietistic customs and practices did persist into modern times. The three manuscripts of Sefer ha-Hasidut did nothing to prevent the success of the penitential regime that outlasted the harsh social criticism of Judah’s utopian program. The substitution of Maimonides’ view of repentance in Sefer ha-Hasidut instead of penances of atonement failed to change anything. Even confession to another Jew, as portrayed in Sefer Hasidim, persisted here and there, as we have seen. Sefer Hasidim was printed and quoted robustly dozens of times, so much so that the impact of the book could be the subject of a separate study.63
Far from being a radical rewriting of Sefer Hasidim, Sefer ha-Hasidut was so similar to the rest of German Hasidism that scholars as well as readers of the printed editions could not tell them apart. In 1976, one scholar did not distinguish between SHB 1–152 and the rest of SHB or SHP and referred to the first twenty paragraphs of SHB—that is, Sefer ha-Hasidut—as “something that is akin to a presentation of the principles of the movement [1–20].”64 How could one expect earlier readers to have thought otherwise?
The German Ashkenazic editions of Sefer Hasidim, especially the topical arrangements that we find in several long manuscripts and three times in SHB, go back to R. Judah he-hasid himself. Although the social context of his work has been debated over the years, a historical investigation of sources about his life offers a new way to settle the question about the historical setting of the German pietists.
Chapter 3
Judah he-Hasid’s Life and Legends
And I heard from the mouth of R. J[udah] he-hasid zz”l …
—R. Isaac b. Moses of Vienna
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