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Part II tells the story of Chasidut during the conflagration of the Holocaust and the superhuman spiritual heroism displayed by the chasidic leaders who gave their lives al kiddush Hashem, for the sanctification of God's Name. Their immortal words of faith and courage quoted in the book live on to inspire future generations.

In this collection we have chosen thirteen of whom we consider to be the most important and influential masters of Hasidic literature. Avoiding rare or exotic texts, we have, for the most part, confined aurselves to to book that be purchased at any regular Hebrew book dealer. All the masters included in our collection should be well known to enyone with even a cursory knowledge of Hasidism. The only difference it that here we will be seeing them in a different light- not just as the subject of stories and anecdites, but as major thinkers and teacehrs in their own right.

Elie Wiesel, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, studies four different rebbes in eighteenth-century Eastern Europe, delving into their lives, their work, and their impact on the Hasidic movement and beyond. In Four Hasidic Masters and Their Struggle against Melancholy, Jewish author, philosopher, and humanist Elie Wiesel presents the stories of four Hasidic masters, framing their biographies in the context of his own life, with direct attention to their premonitions of the tragedy of the Holocaust. These four leaders—Rebbe Pinhas of Koretz, Rebbe Barukh of Medzebozh, the Holy Seer of Lublin, and Rebbe Naphtali of Ropshitz—are each charismatic and important figures in Eastern European Hasidism. Through careful study and consideration, Wiesel shows how each of these men were human, fallible, and susceptible to anger, melancholy, and despair. We are invited to truly understand their work both as religious figures studying and pursuing the divine and as humans trying their best to survive in a world rampant with pain and suffering. This new edition of Four Hasidic Masters, originally published in 1978, includes a new text design, cover, the original foreword by Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., and a new introduction by Rabbi Irving Greenberg, introducing Wiesel’s work to a new generation of readers.

Table of contents

The book talks of the Hasidic movement, what it stands for, and what it includes.