These impracticable and wild extravagances pro duced, in the course of time, their natural effect, and resulted in the splitting up of the association (-64r17). Those who insisted upon the rigid ob servances formed themselves into separate denomi nations, such as the Essenes, etc., whilst the mo derate party retained the name Chasidinz.
The standard of a Chasid in the Talmudic period (2oo-500 A.D.) was more what it had originally been, and almost approached the demands of the O. T. Not to be over-righteous, and not to press the observance or non-observance of certain things to its utmost extreme (rrntno pin) but to be temperate, mild, forbearing, bene volent, pious, etc., were now the qualifications of a Chasid (nri+Dri riin), comp. Baba Mezia, 30, b; 52, b; Sabbath 120, a, He who wants to be a Chasid,' says R. Jehuda ben Jecheskiel, 'must observe the laws of equity, leave to every one that which belongs to him, and give every man that which is due to him' (Baba Kama, 30, a; Kethu both, 82, a ; Baba Bathra, 46, a ; Chulim, 127, a). But even among these more sober-minded Chasid im there were some who would never give a letter to a non-Hebrew servant on the Sabbath day to be carried anywhere (Jerusal. Sabbath, 1, 8, b ; 19, a), nor repair a hedge because the resolution to do it had been formed on the Sabbath day (i b a' , b), nor extinguish a fire which broke out on the Sabbath (ibid., 16, 7 ; Nidda, 38, a). This, how ever, was not the rule but the exception.
In the post-Talmudic period and in the middle ages, the old and venerable Scripture name Chasid was claimed by parties belonging to different schools, and was made to describe characters com patible with the respective notions entertained by these several parties. The philosophic school un derstood by it simple piety (milDn nin) in con tradistinction to scientific knowledge Thus, R. Tobiah ben Eliezer of Worms (loSo A. D. ) in his comment upon the words, My doctrine shall drop as the rain' (Dent. xxxii. 2), says, 'just as the rain waters every tree according to its nature, so are the operations of the Thorn [The word of God], to one it imparts knowledge, and the other it makes a Chasid' (Letach Tob, in loco). Maimonides takes Chasid to denote one religiously moral as dis tinguished from philosophically moral (Deoth. i. 4, 2, 3 ; Introd. to Aboth. iv.) The Karaites claim the title Chasidim for those who earnestly strive to know God as he is. The perfect Chasidim,
(n'neni trilDro), says Aaron b. Eliah (flo. 1346 A. D ) , `long for the days of the Messiah, in order to know God without any hindrance and without any external medium, as it is written of that day, in Jeremiah xxxi. 34, they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them even unto the greatest of them' Etz Chaim, 203). Hence they only give this distinguished title of Chasidim to their spiritual heads. The French and German schools also fixed so high a standard for the quali fications of a Chasid that few, except the Rabbins, could attain to it. In thge schools, however, it approaches more the asceticism of olden times, and even the nun men of practice, make their appearance again (Thur Or. Ch. 113, Gig). In the Kabalistic school representing the Sohar, the Chasidim approximated still more closely the old sect. Here we not only find a vigorous observance of externals and mortifications insisted upon, actually based upon the authority of the old Chasi dim. (Sohar iii. 9, a; M. Abr.), but also retirement from the world for meditation upon the divine mysteries. Here, too, a knowledge of the mysteries of God is claimed, as well as intercourse with the angelic worlds, and the power of perform ing miracles, healing the sick, driving out devils, etc.
The tendency in the human heart to that which is mystical, the inclination to believe that the de parted spirits of those we have loved may still hold converse with us, the readiness with which those who have been afflicted long, and who have in vain sought relief from natural means, will resort to per sons who believe themselves endowed with the power of performing supernatural cures, and the assurance that God manifests himself unt•his own as he does not unto the world, so remarkably exem plified in the rapid spread of the doctrines of the Christian schoolmen, in the credence given to the supernatural pretensions of the Romish Church, to Swedenborg, Irving, etc., secured a ready welcome to the marvellous teachings of the Kabala for cen tunes, and gradually prepared the way for the re organization of the different Chasidim into one sect, whenever a qualified leader should arise. The harvest did not wait long ; the reaper soon made his appearance.