Anyway the rationalists, lead by the Vilna Gaon (a title, like Ba'al Shem Tov) thought that the Jewish man's religious life should be devoted to study and explication of Talmud, essentially sort of law school forever, and the Ba'al Shem Tov believed in achieving transcendent states by chanting, swaying (davening, it is called), the usual.
The black hats, peyes (for men), wigs (for married women), long dresses, etc., are the traditional dress of pre-Holocaust European Jewry; they would not have marked someone as Chassid in Poland in in 1930. They are not a religious requirement, I mean the old-style Polish dress. The peyes, some head covering, female modest dress, are religious requirements. But there's no divine basis for telling Chassidim to dress like Polish Jewish from 1930 or 1880. It's just tradition.
The division in Judaism you discern between your modern progressive secular friends and the ultra-orthodox and Chassidim (not the same thing) goes back over 100 years. If you watch Fiddler on the Roof (warning, high treacle content), one of Tevye's daughters runs off with a young Communist Jew. Better, read Sholem Alechem's stories (basis for Fiddler), he was a socialist and secular, though with a very deep understanding of the religious life of the faithful. I was was told by a Russian Jewish emigre I helped to get get out of the old USSR that I reminded her of the Communist faithful generation of her parents. She didn't mean it that way but I took it as a compliment. The original Zionists were also modern secular Jews.
Btw I have a distant cousin in Skokie who is ultra-orthodox (not Chassidic) and extremely progressive, car covered with left wing bumper stickers -- but he's English. His wife, an American, is much more conventional from an American point of view, that is, conservative, Zionist, etc.
I don't know much about the modern Chassidim, here's a link with some reading:
http://www.jewishgen.org/rabbinic/infofiles/biblio3.htm
except that they are organized around charismatic rebbes like the Lubavitcher Rebbe (the Lubavtichers have a mission to convert other Jews to Chassidism), Rebbe Menachem Schneerson. Some of them are anti-Zionist because they think the Jews should not go back to the Holy Land until the Messhiac returns and the Temple is rebuilt.
Personally I find the Chassidim and the ultra-orthodox as a group extremely annoying. My wife, who grew up in an ultra-orthodox neighborhood in Queens being treated like a Shabbas goy (very insulting), finds them even more so. I don't dislike them any more than I dislike any religious fundamentalist wing nuts, but that's not saying much.
Recently I took a plane trip surrounded by some Chassidim who were speaking Yiddish, which was kind of cool.
--- On Tue, 6/10/08, shag <shag at cleandraws.com> wrote:
> From: shag <shag at cleandraws.com>
> Subject: [lbo-talk] hassidic community
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2008, 8:18 AM
> back when i was looking for a place to live, i'd see
> folks walking to
> temple on saturday. one man lived in the old city district
> where we rented
> the condo, and walked every saturday to temple. turns out
> that the
> neighborhood to which i moved, the east side of the first
> 'burb to be built
> a mile from city center (back then, people traveled to and
> from work by
> streetcar), is home to an hassidic community. this
> particular development
> is about two blocks from the temple, a small island of
> affordable single
> family homes, that makes a perfect place for these
> families.
>
> i confessed on the blog that i'm kinda weirded out by
> the conservative
> "modesty" clothes worn by women -- in a way i
> wouldn't be weirded out if
> they were muslim, amish, mormon, etc. in part, this is
> because most of my
> experience with jewish folks is with folks who are liberal
> to very
> progressive.
>
> this morning, home with a nasty cold, i watched two men in
> their 30s and
> 40s, one wearing a round fur hat, accompany a teen boy who
> was sporting
> peyes (is that how you'd say it?) -- probably to
> private school. most of
> the girls wear long black skirts with white blouses, the
> school uniform.
> but when not attending, they wear long skirts. what kind of
> throws me is
> that the skirts are long but worn with other fashions
> considered stylish: a
> cute blouse, i think i've observed sleeveless tunics,
> and those croc shoes.
> sometimes, keds. sometimes, the look is a little
> goth-inspired.
>
> anyway, aside from a book i skimmed earlier this year,
> about the history of
> a large jewish community in the area, what might be some
> recommendations
> about hassidism? orthodox jewish sects more generally.
>
> and why the HELL don't we have a good jewish deli
> around here? :)
>
> http://cleandraws.com
> Wear Clean Draws
> ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk