A Popular Dictionary of Judaism
(Hebrew. ‘Opponents’) Opponents of *hasidism.
The Vilna Gaon, *Elijah b. Solomon Zalman, led the opposition to hasidism and insisted that *Judaism rested on disciplined study and *Orthodox practice. Later in the 19th century however, the mitnagdim joined forces with the hasidim to resist secularism, assimilation and the *Haskalah. Nonetheless the mitnagdim follow a different rite from the hasidim—they use the *Ashkenazi Polish liturgy, while the hasidim use the *Sephardi *prayer book of Isaac *Luria.
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