Really glad I found this channel. It's fascinating to learn about these beliefs from a respectful and secular perspective.

Epic to collab with you again brother. Well done on this video, it came out superb. Looking forward to more. Much love, Zevi

🎵 simply the Besht, better than all the resht 🎵

Can you do a basic primer on the topic of mysticism in general and show how it manifests in different religions? It could even be a series that goes through some of the basic terminology that often comes up in these topics.

I live in NYC. I have seen the Hasidic community for years everywhere in NYC (mainly Brooklyn and Manhattan). It’s nice to finally learn about what they believe in. Thank you for this highly educational video. By learning about each other’s religious beliefs, hopefully we can better learn to respect and co-exist in peace.

I found this channel 2 days ago. I come from a background of academic comparative religious studies and I'm very impressed with your research, and with the approach of your presentations. I've been learning quite a lot! thanks for your hard work :)

I love the way you treated this subject, even complicated for us orthodox Jews to summery. Commendation for the excellent pronunciations!

One of the clearest and most concise explorations of chasidic mystical theology can be found in the ‘The Thirteen Petalled Rose’, a masterwork by recently departed Adin Steinsaltz.

Thanks for posting this, I’m in middle of listening while I draw. He is my 15th great grandfather. So I just wanted to hear about him through an unbiased perspective.

All your videos are made with a great respect for each religion you researched carefully and what you present during your very clear and transparant expositions. Keep going. That's the spirit we need so much nowadays.

Remarkable and uncommon amount of tact, respect and consideration around some very difficult explanations that I have never heard much about but have always been curious about. It’s a huge influence in our culture that no one understands much about. Good to broaden that public understanding a little.

I by chance found this channel 4 days ago. Since I have learned tremendously with easy understanding with this young man, academically knowledgeable explaining things with pedagogy .

Glad I found this channel! It’s a great balance of precise information, yet being detailed enough.

Thanks for this fascinating and insightful over view of Hasidic history and practice Philip, always a good day when I learn something, and I always learn something on your channel.

Yes. I have been waiting for this one. Excellent work.

Thank you very much!!!... Finally I understand why this kind of Jewish approach is more open to show their teachings to non Jews (of course, they put us in a status of Noah followers, so we don't need to follow all the commands/misbot); Nowadays their knowledge can make our lives more meaningful. Blessings to you my friend.

I really love your keen insights and even handedness while explaining various religious practices. I also very much appreciate your educated pronunciations of important words. Thanks you so much!

I've been trying to figure out what Kabbalah really is, but haven't had time to deep dive on the subject myself. Thank you so much for making this video. Love this channel.

Brilliant as usual. Thanks for all the research you do to put such wonderful videos out to the public.

Your video and research are golden nuggets for my Phd research on the topic of “spiritual intertwine in monolithic religions”. Thank you very much

I am going to share this channel with all my friends thank you for all your hard work

Great docu for introducing one on this topic - made my evening. So, thanks a lot!

Thank you for your work. I love how you talk from a objective perspective.

Your channel is so unbelievable powerful. Do you realize how much people all over the world you're helping out with this work you're putting out? Notorious Big voice: "if you don't know, now you know". Thank you very much. Afz Shahier Moenna from the Netherlands.

Wonderful video Filip! It's amazing how far you've come both in the depth of your videos and the quality. Love the pairing with Zevi 💙

As a Chabadnik I love this explanation of Hasidism. Much love!

Thank you for sharing. This was really interesting! Heading off now to view the recommendation you made in your video. Thanks for putting the link in your description. :-)

Love your effort in making the correct pronounciation! My grandfather was born in the city where the Baal Shem Tov was born

Thank you very much for this video, 🌻🍀 ( I am from Lublin, Poland (Ha Baal Shem Tov had traveled, spreading his knowledge in these regions , very animated with hassidic movements. (Olga Tokarczuk( Nobel Price 2018) in her novel "Jacob's books" ("Księgi Jakubowe") gave very interesting narrative portrait of people and different events, which took place in XVII century in these places :'Rzeczposloplita Polska))

Hey, hope you're having an excellent day! Have you thought of ever covering the afro-latino religions such as macumba, palo, candomblé or santeria? It'd be pretty interesting to have a respected voice from the community such as you cover these topics in an informative and non-biased way.

Thank you for this in depth information. Very helpful for my study in Hasidism this summer ❤️

You should record audiobooks. Your voice relaxed me so much, I feel asleep. I do love your video subjects and find your research quite compelling and thorough.

Brilliant channel very informative , researched and well presented .

Incredible work to come out with two videos so fast with such great research and quality. Keep up the great work!

It was very nice to watch the video.Explained in an extraordinary way.thanks for new video

The early Hasidic outlook on “god” is eerily similar to the Daoist (Zhuangzi’s) interpretation of Dao. Shneur then takes it further especially. The contraction reminds me of the demarcation of the elements and bagua. The delimitation described by Nadler and others is nearly identical to the YiJing in many respects. Absolutely excellent content. I’ve been trying to reconcile and compare/contrast Qaballah and the heavenly palaces of Daoism and the yijing. Devokut is also nearly identical to the Daoist concept of “embracing the Dao until one becomes the Dao”; yichudim imho correlates to the daoist realisations of Wu/kung or more specifically realisation of wu wei and paradoxically weiwuwei in one’s life. It becomes a regular part of your life. Your life literally becomes your practice and or devotion. Excellent content, Brilliantly done. Subscribed

I love your channel, I have learned so much and you present it in a true scholarly way

Fascinating how similar some of their ideas are to African Spirituality (isiNtu / Ifa / Vodoun). Åşė, Shalom, Ndauwe, Camagwini.

Amazing video once again! U are so objective and insightful, well done

Thanks for another great video and the link to the sister video. I’ll have to definitely check it out such a complex subject to learn. I attended Jesuit schools and college just now delving into Kabbalah and have a long way to go.

Wow! Brilliant! Knowing sooo little about Judaism full stop, the amount I learned & was surprised about was incredible! Particularly how recent Hasidism is, & how much mysticism Judaism involves. Only knowing about Christianity, some aspects reminded me of Protestantism- a more personal relationship with God, & a more egalitarian approach to knowledge, like being allowed to read the bible yourself in your native language.

I haven't seen any of your videos, until now. I have learned something new.👍

I saw my Lord with the eye of the heart I asked, 'Who are You?' He replied, 'You Mansur Al Hallaj Eyn Sof(Hebrew)Ain Sof(Arabic)Infinate God is in Pure Eye.

Another great video, thank you for your work 👍

Thank you for sharing I find your videos very interesting and helpful in many ways,Blessings to you and your family always ❤

Great channel. Loved it!

I enjoy these videos and I appreciate the host’s fair mindedness. I wonder if you’ve considered doing a video on Christian Eastern Orthodoxy?

That was really well-done. Thank you!

Thank you! So incredibly interesting. Glad I found your channel. 😊👍

Wonderful video. Thank you Filip.

For those looking for more info on the fascinating life of Shabtai Tzvi, Sam Aronow has a great video about his life. Sam’s channel is great for those who want to learn more about Jewish history.

Fascinating how all mystics strive for the unification of mind,the hasidic spiral reminds me of the concept of Wahdat al wujud

Triple A content. Keep up the great job. Thank you.

Great Video as always.

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD God almighty; the whole earth is filled with His glory!” I know no better expression of the paradox of the LORD’s simultaneous transcendance and immanence.

Thank you. This was an excellent, albeit general, introduction to the Hasidic movement. It might be interesting to touch upon the present day manifestations of the movement and it's impact on contemporary Israeli politics. Habad for example. Also, the current day tensions, at times leading to violence between Hassidim and Mitnagdim (often called "Litaim", ultra orthodox who reject the Hasidic approaches).

Another great teaching brother. Enjoyed it!

Wonderful video, as usual! 😁

I was laughing at your characterization of "mysticism" as expected to be associated with "hippies" (in our recent history). Then you added that "mystics" were "actually" following a strict model of practice (as opposed to the "stoned, frisbee-throwing hippies"?)... hah hah... Being an OLD hippie myself, I am compelled to comment. The hippies I knew were often the most focused, hard-working people, whenever it made sense. If there was a "system" or "practice" that was useful, then yeah, the hippies woke up at the crack of dawn and then dove in headfirst. The "shabby style" (that described their hair and dress) wasn't to express their commitment to a lazy unstructured lifestyle, but it was an embracing of "nature" which had been defiled and stomped out of American culture due to militarism, consumerism, and worship of technology (during the 50s). Their choice was to identify themselves as "part of nature" as opposed to identifying with merely their national flag, or race, or religious affiliation (that they were born into), which of course made them open-minded enough to examine their own religion and be open to spirituality from Eastern sources that made the most sense. But I'm not criticizing your comment at all, because there was certainly an abundance of lazy, stoned-out hippies throwing frisbees in the park, to reinforce that enduring stereotype. But never forget that the disciples of those Indian gurus and Zen masters, that arrived in the 60s, were MOSTLY hippies. But, after they shaved their heads and traded in their faded denim for monk's robes, it became easy to forget that link. 😀

This is a valiant attempt to discuss a very complex topic. For me the Baal Shem Tov was trying to convey that the Divine is found in the very essence of all things: in the Torah, in the starry sky, in the trees, in other people, even in the ordinary objects of life. Thus the Light of the Divine is found in the deepest nature of all things, if you look from the perspective of profound piety.

Glad to see you covering Hasidism on its own. Here in Brooklyn, NY, the men in black hats and clothing are what come to mind for a reason. They're everywhere! Jewish mysticism is absolutely fascinating. I could spend a long time studying more, and still wouldn't break the surface.

Very well presented. Thanks!

Very interesting! Even thought I've been interested in judaism almost all of my life (not only being almost jewish by heritage), but the point that made me comment about something is the idea of being 40+ years old and having children compared to the idea of being able to understand godliness without having these 'things', which leads me to think about the situations where a christian holy man decides to deny all of these things to become a holy, and as we all know, christianity evolved from a judaism, so keeping in mind the all variations this is very fascinating.

whenevr i wanna make my mind up about a channel, a magazine, whatever - i look to see how it covers a sensitive topic i'm relatively familiar with the complexities of. this was a good surprise. thoguhful, knowledgable and respectful. 🙂 (even the use of Hebrew terms was well done. surely not an easy task if you didn't know any before! and the pronounciation - all of it either accurate or very close to accurate. very impressive.)

Oh, this video appeared right on time for my afternoon coffee

wow! loved learning from this. 😊

What a great surprise. Friday with let's talk religion!!!

Some of the things Vilna Gaon criticized the Hasidim for remind me of how certain Muslims accuse Sufis of not strictly adhering to Shariah.

Never heard of Sabbatai Zevi. Story sounds fascinating.

I love this channel 💖

thank you, absolutely enriching, all the best wishes

23:00 BOMBSHELL, whoa... never knew this. will need to research further

Thank you so much for a sane explanation of this movement. Sounds logical to me. You give me hope ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Reach nothingness, possibly reincarnation and "meditation" to get in contact with the divine within. My association was to buddhism, several times, when listening to this excellent presentation.

Love studying Chassidut. Good stuff man.

Thanks for great videos you make man. Very entertaining and informative indeed. Just wanted to make a tiny suggestion: I guess I've seen you using dark matter analogy elsewhere too. I think the analogy most likely bothers people who actually know about the dark matter issue in physics. It's probably wiser not to use this kinds of science analogies to explain theological concepts. Wish you the best of luck!

All great religions, philosophies and mythologies emanated from one source: God. Thanks for your hard work. Thumbs upped and subscribed.

I'd love to see a video about mythical beasts especially all of the ancient Hebrews beliefs on dragons as I understand the Early Hebs even described God Himself as to be in a dragons form. And I've also heard the seraph angels could be likened to a dragon as well.And I'm curious to know if any this could be tied into Hermeticism where the dragon played a big part as well.Ive done alot of independent study on alchemy,hermeticism and I'd like to see filepes take on this.

Thanks for the scholarship.

It is amazing how Hasidim and Sanatana Dharma are teaching the same thing. It is just using a different vocabulary, but the major ideas and practices are all there.

interesting word derivations. always have a need for knowing where and how expressions come about. seek first to understand then be understood.

Beautiful description

Piety and institutionalization are tense bedfellows. Institutionalization ends in hierarchy which end piety at every level of the 'social ladder'; hence ends the 'inner values' espoused.

What you said about Shabbatai Zevi converting to Islam to the dismay of his followers brought to my mind the idea of people converting to a religion en masse. I've heard that in India sometimes there are conversion events where hundreds of Dalits convert to Christianity or Islam together, but I don't know anything about it really, and would love it if you would touch on this, or even just conversion in general, in a future video. Thanks for your amazing work.

If almost every culture on earth develops a type of mysticism, there has to be a profound truth to it. If you can evoke divinity through scripture, and fully believe it, that wholehearted belief is divine in sheer confidence itself. Therefore there has to be a connection to quantum physics, since studies show that events in life are ‘pre-determined’ nodes and free will is actually an illusion. Through ritualistic practice and sheer belief you can essentially ‘edit’ your path

Very interesting. Thanks 🖖🏼

Nicely done. Hasidism was essentially a movement created to counteract the increasing elitism that evolved from the Yeshiva World that valued Jews who were gifted intellectually and could study 24/7 in one of the top Yeshivas. Leading to situations where sons were valued as "good catches" for marriage based on their ranking in the Yeshiva. Hasisdism was born and flourished as a way to be accepted as Jewish for those who couldn't get a seat in the Yeshiva (either by not being smart enough, or needing to work for a living). Unfortunately, most Hasidic movement devolved into cults worshiping the leader personality with all the negatives issues related to cults.

What I appreciate is boiling down religions it always comes back to god is here within and without us. God is all encompassing

Really appreciate your work, brother. Wondering if I can donate to you in anyway. Peace

Clarity of exposition! 🖖

Very interesting !

I do associate Hasidism with mysticism, I find it amazing❤️

Hi I really enjoyed your lectures about religons is it potentially possible you have one pogrom or some information about TANTRIC religion or is it religion or just the culet. Thank you for efforts and information. Best wishes

You did a great short intro.

There's the 'inner aspects. Then there's the 'outer' "Mr Dress-Up" aspects. Who, what, why, when came up with the hats, the grades of hats etc? Same goes for other 'churches....

Thank you!💙

He was simply the Besht! 😁

Great content. The besht content.

I just found out they translated the Zohar into English, I can't wait to get it.

Do you think that mystical movements sometimes end up adhering to conservative traditions in order to be seen as more legitimate ad more accepting to others within the broader tradition?