דבקות · Cleaving, made continuous

Attachment to God — and in Hasidism, attachment during ordinary activity rather than only at the height of prayer. Scholem argued that Hasidism's decisive innovation was to put devekut at the beginning of the path rather than at its end: not the reward of a lifetime's ascent but the posture you adopt on Tuesday morning.

The doctrine that makes the movement popular rather than elite. ⚠ And it is a real demotion of messianic urgency, which is Scholem's point and his criticism at once: he read Hasidism as neutralising the explosive messianism of the Sabbatian aftermath by turning redemption into a private, interior, immediately available state. Whether that is a rescue or a retreat is a live argument.