Sepher HaChassidim [pietism]

Many of the passages in Sepher HaChassidim are homiletic and exegetic, explaining the philosophical or mystical meanings of Biblical verses and Talmudic sayings - nonetheless, it is primarily a masterwork of ethical instruction: Enjoining how to resist temptation and avoid sin; how to dress, speak, pray and work; how to choose a wife and select companions; how to harmonize the necessities of existence with the requirements of religious life’ along with many other subjects. No other Hebrew work of ethics devotes such close attention to detail, rendering it an important historical source for the study of everyday Jewish life in medieval Germany. This first edition contains material not included in later editions. For an extensive treatment of Ashkenazic Pietism see I. Marcus, Piety and Society: The Jewish Pietists of Medieval Germany (1981). See also H. Soloveitchik, Three Themes in the Sefer Hasidim in: AJS Review I (1976) pp. 311-57.