A Note on Transcription and Place Names The transcription of Hebrew in this book reflects the pronunciation of modern Hebrew rather than Ashkenazi pronunciation used by the Hasidim themselves. No attempt is made to indicate the distinctions between alef and ‘ayin (both rep- resented by apostrophe), tet and taf, kaf and kuf, and sin and samekh. However, the distinction between ḥet and khaf has been retained, using ḥ for the former and kh for the latter. Thedagesh is not indicated except where it affects pronun- ciation. However, transcriptions that are well established have been retained even when they are not consistent with the system adopted. On similar grounds, the tsadi (usually represented by ts) is rendered by tz in such familiar words as bar mitzvah or when it could create a confusion before h or ḥ; hence, Yitzḥak instead of Yitsḥak. The final heh is indicated too, though numerous exceptions appear. Prefixes, prepositions, and conjunctions are followed by hyphens: be- toledot ha- ’am. Sheva na’ is represented by e. The transcription of Yiddish follows the YIVO system. In both Yiddish and Hebrew, capital letters are used only in cases of proper names and for words that are capitalized in Eng lish, for example, r. Yisra’el mi- Ruzhin u- mekomo be- toledot ha-ḥ asidut. For names of p eople in both Yiddish and Hebrew, the spellings that they used or that became common in popu lar use— for example, Assaf (not Asaf), Peretz (not Perets)— have been retained. With regard to place names, I have used the Polish form for all localities in territories of the former Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth; Hungarian for the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary; and Romanian for Moldavia, Wallachia, Bessarabia, and Bukovina, excepting cities that have well- known En glish names (e.g., Warsaw, not Warszawa) and post- Holocaust contexts, for which I use con temporary forms. Where the Yiddish form is markedly diff er ent from its Polish/Hungarian/Romanian/Ukrainian/Belarus sian/Lithuanian equiva- lent, I add a transcription of the Yiddish name in the standard northeast dialect vii viii A Note on Transcription and Place Names in parentheses: Mstów (Amstov). The rule is reversed in the case of Hasidic courts and several personalities (e.g., the Maiden of Ludmir), for which transcription of the Yiddish name typically associated with the court, tsadik, or other personality residing there is followed by its Polish/Hungarian/Romanian equivalent: Amshi- nov (Mszczonów), Ger (Góra Kalwaria). However, when the Yiddish form differs from the Polish/Hungarian/Romanian one only by omission of diacriticals or very minor alteration, I use the latter only: Słonim, not Slonim; Radomsko, not Radomsk. Studying Hasidism v .