IT is not my purpose here to present a comprehensive and exhaustive survey of research into hasidism from its beginnings to the present. Rather, I propose to review the present state of the art in the field. I shall attempt to identify the major trends in the scholarly historiography of hasidism over the past few decades, to assess the impact that recent developments in the field have had on these established trends, and to map out some new research directions for the future.

Before embarking on any of these tasks, however, I would like to draw attention to an important and often overlooked point: we who have made it our business to study the history of the Jewish people as an academic discipline, who regard ourselves as critical scholars, guided by the rigours of our methodology and common sense, do not always realize that our scholarly endeavours are restricted by the bonds of tradition. I refer to the research tradition imparted to us by our teachers, a tradition which guided our first steps as independent scholars and in which we continue to follow, whether consciously or not, even when we venture into previously unexplored territories. This tradition serves us as the giant's shoulders on which we pygmies stand-a natural and essential condition of scholarly research. At the same time, however, it poses the danger that our intellectual and emotional fetters to the scholarly legacy of the past may inhibit our capacity to generate new insights. My intention, therefore, is to look more soberly and somewhat more critically at the tradition upon whose achievements we are trying to build our new edifices.

In the following pages I shall concentrate on a number of issues which are, to my mind, of central importance. The exclusion of other issues, and of the many scholarly studies which address them, is unavoidable within the limited scope of the present discussion, and does not aim to belittle their significance for the modern historiography of hasidism.

One question which has dominated the study of early hasidism is what factor or factors may account for the emergence and rapid spread of the movement.