Hasids are called Jews, followers of Israel's Besht, the creator of religious mystical teachings in Judaism - Hasidism. A lot of different rumors and rumors usually go around them.
Where did the Hasidim come from?
Hasidism originated in the towns of Podillia, on the territory of modern Ukraine. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Jewish community of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was recovering from the so-called Khmelnitsky region - the Cossack liberation war, which was accompanied by numerous pogroms of the Jewish population, when a quarter of the entire community died at the hands of the Cossacks and the famines following the pogroms. At the same time, representatives of the Messianic Jewish Sabbatian movement, named for the Kabbalist Shabtai Zvi, who declared himself the Messiah, but then was captured by Istanbul Pasha and converted to Islam, fled to Podillia. This was the impetus for the emergence of a new doctrine. Rabbi Yisrael bin Eliezer, better known as Baal Shem Tov, aka Besht, is considered the founder of Hasidism. The teacher emphasized the personal experience of the deity and personal righteousness, hence the name - "Hasid", which means the righteous. A new trend quickly spread among the Jews of the Commonwealth, but was met with hostility by representatives of Orthodox Judaism. The teaching of the Hasidim was almost secret, which served as the basis for various rumors, however today all information about the teaching can be easily found even on Wikipedia.
The chief rabbi of Russia today is the Hasidic Rebbe. This is US citizen Berl Lazar, who represents the interests of the Jewish community in our country.
Hasidism has broken up into many currents and has progressively developed. Today it is by far the richest Jewish community in the world. Its leader is the so-called Lubavitcher Rebbe, whose court is usually inherited.
