"Why, the Baal Shem by much penance has found out the Name of God," said he; "and by it he works his will on earth and in heaven, so that there is at times confusion in the other world." "And is his name Rabbi Baer?" "No; Rabbi Baer is a very learned man who has joined him, and whom, with the other superiors of the Order, he has initiated, so that they, too, work wonders. I chanced with this young man on the road, and he told me that his sect therefore explains the verse in the Psalms, 'Sing unto God a new song; His praise is in the congregation of Saints,' in the following wise: Since God surpasses every finite being, His praise must surpass the praise of every such being. Hitherto the praise of Him consisted in ascribing miracles to Him, and the knowledge of the hidden and the future. But since all this is now within the capacity of the saints of the Order, the Almighty has no longer any pre-eminence over them in respect of the supernatural--'His praise is in the congregation of the saints,'--and therefore it is necessary to find for Him some new praise--'Sing unto God a new song'--suitable to Him alone." The almost blasphemous boldness of this conception, which went in a manner further even than the Cabalah or the Sabbatians, startled me, as much as the novelty of the exegesis fascinated me. "And this young man here--can he rule the upper and lower worlds?" I asked eagerly, mindful of my own miserable failures. "Assuredly he can rule the lower worlds," replied Eliphaz, with a smile. "For to that I can bear witness, seeing that I have stayed with him in a town where there is a congregation of Chassidim, which was in his hands as putty in the glazier's. For, you see, he travels from place to place to instruct his inferiors in the society. The elders of the congregations, venerable and learned men, trembled like spaniels before him. A great scholar who would not accept his infallibility, was thrown into such terror by his menacing look that he fell into a violent fever and died. And this I witnessed myself." "But there are no Chassidim in our place," said I, trembling myself, half with excitement, half with sympathetic terror. "What comes he to do here?" "Why, but there _are_ Chassidim, and there will be more--" He stopped suddenly. "Nay, I spoke at random." "You spoke truly," said I sternly. "But speak on--do not fear me." "You are a Rabbi designate," he said, shaking his head. "What of it?" "Know you not that everywhere the Rabbis fight desperately against the new Order, that they curse and excommunicate its members." "Wherefore?" "I do not know. These things are too high for me. Unless it be that this Rabbi Baer has cut out of the liturgy the _Piutim_ (Penitential Poems), and likewise prays after the fashion of the Portuguese Jews." "Nay," I said, laughing. "If you were not such a man-of-the-earth, you would know that to cut out one line of one prayer is enough to set all the Rabbis excommunicating."