By the early 19th century, Hasidism became "the first religious trend in Judaism since the days of the Second Temple which had a self-defined way of life and recognizable rite of worship, but yet was acknowledged by those who differed from it as a legitimate Jewish phenomenon" ("Hasidism," Encyclopedia Judaica). The Hasidism I am referring to is not to be confused with the group of people, probably Sabbatians, organized by Rabbi Jehuda Hasid on a crusade to the Holy Land in 1699 and 1700 (Scholem 331). The Hasidism I am referring to was formed by Israel Baal Shem ("Master of the Holy Name") and replaced Sabbatianism in Volhynia and Podolia after its fall.
There are several reasons why Hasidism has become a successful movement. One of the biggest reasons is its appeal to the unsophisticated and uneducated; it attempted to spread mysticism to the masses (Blumenthal 136). Its founder was not even a scholar in Jewish law. Hasidism comes from direct religious experience, not a theory or vision. An obvious way to attain a religious experience is through prayer.
Because of Hasidism's spiritualistic focus, prayer is its central activity (Blumenthal 111). There are several types of prayer: Zoharic-Lurianic-Habad type, unifying-the-letters type, devekut type (meditative ecstasy and tumultuous ecstasy), and the intimate presence type. There is no single main or central type of prayer practiced within Hasidism, but they all incorporate Kavvana. Kavvana is the act of spiritual consciousness-raising. The goal is to completely focus one's senses and one's soul on God during prayer.
There are two types of the devekut prayer: the meditative and tumultuous. They both grew from the same structure of thought and lead to a true mystical ecstasy (Blumenthal 127). ...