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By the early 19th century, Hasidism became "the first religious trend in Judaism since the days of the Second Temple which had a self-defined way of life and recognizable rite of worship, but yet was acknowledged by those who differed from it as a legitimate Jewish phenomenon" ("Hasidism," Encyclopedia Judaica). The Hasidism I am referring to is not to be confused with the group of people, probably Sabbatians, organized by Rabbi Jehuda Hasid on a crusade to the Holy Land in 1699 and 1700 (Scholem 331). The Hasidism I am referring to was formed by Israel Baal Shem ("Master of the Holy Name") and replaced Sabbatianism in Volhynia and Podolia after its fall.
There are several reasons why Hasidism has become a successful movement. One of the biggest reasons is its appeal to the unsophisticated and uneducated; it attempted to spread mysticism to the masses (Blumenthal 136). Its founder was not even a scholar in Jewish law. Hasidism comes from direct religious experience, not a......

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