בין צבא ניקולאי לצבאות ה': לשאלת הזיהוי של שירי הקנטוניסטים ברפרטואר החסידי

According to the Hasidic oral tradition, some of its multi-language songs based on the Slavic languages originated in the Cantonist milieu. Taking into account disruptions in the Hasidic tradition, the scarcity of existing research, and the paucity of written testimonies, we propose to examine the whole complex of linguistic, thematic, poetic and musical parameters in order to identify Cantonist songs in the Hasidic repertoire. The research allows us to determine the corpus of Cantonist songs and to outline the main features of the typical Cantonist song. The article explores Hasidic doctrinal concepts and ideological motives, explaining their interest in these songs despite the foreignness of their language and their social-cultural distance from the Cantonists: the “uplifting of holy sparks” in language and melody, as well as the Cantonists’ image as martyrs in the eyes of Hasidic leaders.