was much respected, but it was a cold, unappeal-
ing learning, a learning that had little relation
to reality, that emphasized mental subtlety beyond
reason. Every academy specialized in pilpul, hair-
splitting. There was profound contempt for the
artisan, the labourer, and the peasant who had no
Talmudic ingenuity. These were regarded as Am
Aratzim, the crude, uncultured masses who served
no useful purpose in life (Sachar 264).
As we read in Dimont, the Hasidic answer to the stale, smug scholasticism of the Judaism of the 18th century was preceded by the Sabbatean movement, and coincided with the Frankist movement.
The relationship of these two movements to the Hasidic movement is important, for if the Sabbatean or Frankist movements had proved more successful than they did, perhaps some of Bal Shem's steam would have been robbed, and Hasidism would not have enjoyed the powerful role in Judaic history which it still enjoys today. Additionally, the presence of two other major "anti-establishment" movements in Judaism of the 17th and 18th cen
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