The Visual Culture of Chabad

摘要

Visual culture is an appropriate research approach for a religion like Judaism, which focuses upon the practical carrying out of commands (there are 613 positive and negative commandments in the Five Books of Moses in the Bible). One of the most "visual" branches of the ultra-orthodox Haredi Jews is Chabad. In contrast to the Lithuanian school of Haredim that emphasizes study of the Talmud, Hassidic sects like Chabad give equal weight to the heart in the Jew's ties to God. In the case of Chabad, which began in the early 19th century in Eastern Europe, the role of meditation (Kabbalah) and song is central, even if it is also characterized by Torah scholarship.