Editing Chassid (section)

{{Chabad}}
A '''Chasid''' (plural: '''Chassidim''') is a title given to the students and followers of the Baal Shem Tov and his students' students who belong to the Chassidic movement. A Chasid is one who engages in avodas Hashem in a pnimiyus way, meaning with their inner soul powers and not just through physical action, combining both their intellectual and emotional capabilities in the fulfillment of Torah and mitzvos. After the spread of Chassidic teachings under the leadership of the Baal Shem Tov, this title became attached to all believers in Chassidic teachings and those who follow its ways.

According to Chabad tradition, published by the Frierdiker Rebbe, in the early years of the Chassidic movement, the Baal Shem Tov called his students by names like 'beloved ones,' 'friends,' or 'chevra of beloved ones' and 'chevra of friends,' rather than Chassidim. The name 'Chassidim' first appears in print in the bans of the misnagdim against the Chassidim - which were printed toward the end of the Maggid of Mezritch's life in 1772: "And they are called by the name of Chassidim and holy ones of the Most High"; "And they call themselves Chassidim." This title was interpreted negatively by the misnagdim: "Those who call themselves chassudim or the chassudim group" when they made use of the interchange of the letters shin and samech among Lithuanian Jews. This detail was explained in the teachings of the Frierdiker Rebbe when he elaborates that it would have been more appropriate for the misnagdim to call the Chassidim 'misnagdim,' for one cannot oppose something before it exists, and they apparently preceded them in time, but Divine Providence granted the misnagdim the merit to call the Chassidim by their proper name.

The Rebbe says in a sicha: "The name 'Chassidim' - a name used in Shas and Midrashei Chazal for a special category of Jewish people - was established among all Jews regardless of faction specifically for the students of the Baal Shem Tov, the Maggid, the Alter Rebbe, etc. The Frierdiker Rebbe once said that seemingly, the Chassidim should have been called by the name of their opponents, and the misnagdim should have been called Chassidim, since the Chassidim were the ones who came with new things (to which there was opposition), yet in practice, the opponents themselves called the Chassidim 'Chassidim' and themselves 'misnagdim'! Rather, everything is by Divine Providence, such that with the revelation of Chassidic teachings, everyone acknowledged and called it 'Chassidus' and its followers 'Chassidim,' and 'once stated, it cannot be retracted.'"

The Alter Rebbe writes (in his testimony during his first imprisonment in 1799): "And all the masses call them by the name Chassidim in all the countries of White Russia and Poland and most of Lithuania, almost entirely, namely after the name of the first Chassidim who would pray with kavana as mentioned above, even though those of now are not as great Chassidim as the first ones."
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