Ysander, Torsten°
YSANDER, TORSTEN°
YSANDER, TORSTEN ° (1893–1960), Swedish theologian and scholar of *?asidism. Ysander, a bishop in the Church of Sweden (1936–59), was appointed chaplain to the king in 1939. In 1922 he traveled to the Ukraine and Poland to meet sectarians and ?asidim; under the guidance of Jewish friends, he visited the ?asidic communities in Warsaw and Cracow. The trip strengthened his theory on the dependence of early ?asidism on the Russian sectarians, especially the Khlysty, Skoptsy, Molokane, and Dukhabors. His views on the ?asidism of *Israel ben Eliezer Ba'al Shem Tov are summarized in his Studien zum b'eš?schen ?asidismus in seiner religionsgeschichtlichen Sonderart (1933). According to Ysander, such ?asidism, its customs, dances, songs, mannerisms during prayer, and the institution of the ?addik, were very similar to Russian sectarian practices. As ?asidism became established, it ceased to be a revolutionary sect, and its similarity to the sectarians diminished but never disappeared. Contemporary ?asidism only slightly resembles its origins.
bibliography:
Bonniers Lexikon, 15 (1966), 783; Y. Eliach, in: paajr, 36 (1968), 57–83 (an independent study corroborating Ysander).
[Yaffa Eliach]