Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/203

165 (Hag.

Tosef,

p. lib;

ib.

ii.

who was modern

3) allegorically

gaon Samuel

ratively, as early as the

b.

or figu-

Hophni,

followed, mutatis mutandis, by Gr&tz in

times, the expression

paradise")

DTlB^ DJ3J

(" to

enter

— exactly corresponding to the phrase DJ3J

h C" t0 enter the garden of Eden ") (compare Ab. R. N. xxv., ed. Schechter, p. 40) means nothing else than that these four men, Elisha b. Abuyah, Akiba, Ben 'Azzai, and Ben Zoma, actually entered into the heavenly paradise. Later Midrashim mention the Ascension of Ishmael b. Elisha, said to have been one of the martyrs during the Hadrianic persecutions. These men, together with Akiba and his The teacher Nehunyah b. ha-Kaneh, were Later Midrashim. known in the mysticism of the time

pV

—

of the Geonim as the triumvirate of H331D TVP (" the riders in the heavenly chariot"). Hai Gaon narrates that during this period a certain class of mystics were able, by various manipthe

ulations, to enter into

a state of autohypnosis, in

which they declared they saw heaven open before them and beheld its mysteries. It was believed that he only could undertake

this "

Merkabah-ride

"

who

was

in possession of all religious knowledge, observed all the commandments and precepts, and

was almost superhumanly pure

in his life (" Hekalot This, however, was re-

Babbati," xiii., xiv., xx.). garded usually as a matter of theory and less perfect men also attempted by fasting and prayer to free their senses from the impressions of the outer world, and succeeded in entering into a state of ecstasy in which they recounted their heavenly visions. A more modern form of this kind of Ascension is the nDCJ rivV (Ascension of the Soul) of the Hasidim. The founder of Hasidism, Israel Hasidism. Baal Shem-Tob, speaks of his Ascension a belief that appears still more pronounced among later representatives of that sect, who, in their state of ecstasy, either believed or pretended to believe that they had been caught up into heaven. Compare Cabala, Enoch, Hasidism, Mbk-

Greek conveyed only the notion of a place reserved for physical exercise while the monks were sical



the "ascetikoi," the ascetics, under discipline attaining unto the perfect practise. It is thus seen that both the term and the idea which the term expresses are of non- Jewish origin and implications. Judaism can not Nonbe said to encourage Asceticism, even Jewish. in the restricted sense of discipline. Rationalists have indeed affected to construe the ritual legalism of both the Pentateuch and the later rabbinical codes as a disciplinary scheme, devised by God or man with the view of bringing men under rigid restriction of freedom of action, in the satisfaction of the appetites and the control of the passions, to a higher degree of moral perfection. But even before comparative studies had shown that most, if not all, of the so-called disciplinary contrivances of the Mosaic scheme rest on notions altogether other than those assumed, the rigorous constructionists among Jewish theologians put themselves on record as utterly inimical to the ascription of utility, either moral or material, to the divine laws. They were simply divine commandments, and to inquire into their origin or their pur-

pose was forbidden

—

KABAH-RIDEES, MOSES. Bibliography note 7 k.



Charles, Apocalypse of Baruch, 1896, p. 73 Bloch, in Monatmchrift, xxxvii. 20-25.

L. G.

ASCENSION OF ISAIAH.

See Isaiah, As-

cension op.

ASCETICISM A term derived

from the Greek meaning "to practise strenuously," "to exercise. " Athletes were therefore said to go through In this usage ascetic training, and to be ascetics. the twofold application to the mode of living and the results attained which marks the later theolog:

dff/cfu,

—

—

implication of the term is clearly discernible. the arena of physical contests the word easily passed over to that of spiritual struggles and preChristian writers speak of the " askesis " of the soul or of virtue— the discipline of the soul, or the exercise in virtue. But the physical idea, no less than the moral, underlies the meaning of the term in medieval Christian parlance. The monastery, as the place where the required life of abstemiousness is lived under rigorous regulation and discipline, becomes the " asketcrion, " a word which to the clasical

From



—

"

Hukkah hakkakti we'en

at-

tem reshuyim leharher ahareha " (I have decreed the statute but you are not permitted to inquire into its

Yoma67J; Sifra, Ahare, xiii.). At all events, Judaism is of a temper which

reasons;



verb

Ascari Asceticism

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

165

is fatal

and the history of both Judaism and the Jews is, on the whole, free from ascetic aberraFundamental to the teachings of Judaism is tions. the thought that the world is good. Pessimism has no standing-ground. Life is not under the curse. The doctrine of original sin, the depravity of man, has never had foothold within the theology of the synagogue. It never held sway over the mind and the

to asceticism



religious imagination of the Jews.

In consequence

of this the body and the flesh were never regarded by them as contaminated, and the appetites and passions were not suspected of being rooted in evil. The appeal to mortify the flesh for the sake of pleasing Heaven could not find voice in the synagogue. Asceticism is indigenous to the religions which posit as fundamental the wickedness of this life and

the corruption under sin of the flesh. Buddhism, therefore, as well as Christianity, leads to ascetic Monasteries are institutions of Buddhism practises. no less than of Catholic Christianity. The assumption, found in the views of the Montanists and others, that concessions made to the natural appetites may be pardoned in those that are of a lower degree of holiness, while the perfectly holy will refuse to yield in the least to carnal needs and desires, is easily detected also in some of the teachings The ideal of holiness of both of Gautama Buddha. the Buddhist and the Christian saint culminates in

poverty and chastity;

i.e.,

celibacy.

Fasting and

other disciplinary methods are resorted to to curb the flesh. Under a strict construction of the meaning of Asceticism, it is an error to assume that its history in

may be

extended to embrace also certain rites to fetishism and nature-

vogue among devotees

Mutilations, the sacrifice of the hair, worship. dietary observances and prohibitions, which abound