of mongrel beliefs.  “In no land,” says Tobias Cohn, “is the practice of summoning up devils and spirits by means of the Cabbalistic abracadabra so prevalent, and the belief in dreams and visions so strong, as in Poland."[8] All this, though it strengthened religious fervor in some, undermined it in others.  Sects came into being, struggled, and, having brought added misery upon their followers, disappeared.  Jewish criminals escaped justice by invoking the power of the Catholic priesthood and promising to become converted to Christianity.[9] And now and then even Talmudists left the fold, as, for instance, Carl Anton, the Courland pupil of Eybeschuetz, who became professor of Hebrew at Hamsted, and wrote numerous works on Judaism.  Others hoped to win the favor of the Gentiles by preaching a mixture of Judaism and Catholicism.  In many places, especially in the Ukraine, the seat of learning that had suffered most from the ravages of the Cossacks, the state of morals sank very low, owing to the teaching of Jacob Querido, the self-proclaimed son of the pseudo-Messiah Shabbatai Zebi, “that the sinfulness of the world can be overcome only by a super-abundance of sin.”  This paved the way for the last of the long list of Messiahs, Jacob (Yankev Leibovich) Frank of Podolia.  His experiences, adventures, and hairbreadth escapes, his entire career, beginning with his return from his travels in Turkey, through his conversion to Catholicism (1759), to the day of his death as “Baron von Offenbach,” would furnish material for a stirring drama.  As if to counteract this demoralizing tendency, a new sect, known as Hasidim, originating in Lithuania and headed by Judah Hasid of Dubno and Hayyim Malak, taught its devotees to hasten the advent of the Messiah by doing penance for the sins of Israel.  They were so firmly convinced of the efficacy of fasts and prayers that they went to Jerusalem by hundreds to witness the impending redemption (ab. 1706).  But the ascetic Hasidim and the epicurean Frankists were alike doomed to disappear or to be swallowed up by a new Hasidism, combining the teachings and aspirations of both, the sect founded by Israel Baal Shem, or Besht (ab. 1698-1759), and fully developed by Bar of Meseritz and Jacob Joseph of Polonnoy.

[Illustration:  ISAAC BAeR LEVINSOHN, 1788-1860]

Time was when all writers on the subject, usually Maskilim, thought it their duty to cast a stone at Hasidism.  They described it as a Chinese wall shutting the Jews in and shutting the world out.  It is becoming more and more plainly recognized and admitted, that it was, in reality, an attempt at reform rendered imperative by the tyranny of the kahal, the rigorism of the rabbis, the superciliousness of the learned classes, and the superstition of the masses.  Its aim was to bring about a deep psychologic improvement, to change not so much the belief as the believer.  It insisted on purity rather than profundity of thought.  Unable to remove the galling yoke, it gave strength to its wearers by prohibiting sadness and asceticism, and emphasizing joy and fellowship as important elements in the fabric of its theology.