Mystical systems
Devekut
Direct answer
Devekut: Devekut, Hebrew for cleaving, is the term in Jewish mysticism for holding one's thought and heart to God, which the Hasidic masters taught could be kept up in prayer and in the acts of everyday life.
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At a glance
- Also called
- devekus, dvekut, cleaving to God, deveikut
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Hasidic Mysticism, Tzaddik, Kabbalah, Mystical Union
Devekut, Hebrew for cleaving, is the term in Jewish mysticism for holding one's thought and heart to God, which the Hasidic masters taught could be kept up in prayer and in the acts of everyday life.
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What does devekut mean?
Devekut comes from the Hebrew verb to cling, used in the Torah's command to hold fast to God. The medieval kabbalists made it a goal of contemplation: keeping the mind attached to God during prayer and the commandments. They generally described a closeness and not a merging, in which the worshipper remains a creature before the Creator.
The Hasidic movement of the eighteenth century put it at the centre and widened it. Its teachers held that a simple person could cleave to God through sincere prayer, song and joy, and that eating, work and conversation could be done in that state. Some also taught that followers attach themselves to God by attaching themselves to a tzaddik.
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What sets Devekut apart
Devekut, as most Jewish sources and Gershom Scholem describe it, holds on to the distance, though Moshe Idel finds full union in some texts. The term means clinging, and what clings is not what it clings to. Kabbalists spoke of attaching thought to the divine names and lights; the Hasidim spoke of attaching the whole person, in joy, and worried over how to keep it during business and talk. They taught that the state rises and falls, and gave advice for the low times, when a person must serve without feeling anything.
- Hebrew root: d-v-k, to cling or adhere
- Biblical source: Deuteronomy, the command to cleave to God
- Medieval teacher: Nachmanides, on keeping it amid daily affairs
- Hasidic turn: an aim for every Jew, not only for scholars
- Modern study: Gershom Scholem's essay on devekut, 1950
Often mistaken for something else: Kavanah is the intention directed into a particular prayer or commandment; devekut is the standing attachment to God that the Hasidim sought to keep at all times.
The story behind Devekut
The command to cleave to God stands in Deuteronomy, and the rabbis of the Talmud asked how anyone can cling to a consuming fire, answering that one clings to the wise. Nachmanides in the thirteenth century described it as an awareness kept even while speaking with other people. The Baal Shem Tov, who died in 1760, and his circle made it the aim of religious life for everyone. Gershom Scholem argued in 1950 that this was the real novelty of the movement, a claim later scholars have qualified.
Why Devekut matters
Devekut names what the Hasidim were seeking, and so explains their stress on joy, melody and intention over learning alone.
How to read Devekut
Teachers speak of it as something entered in prayer and returned to through the day. Scholars use the term to compare Jewish mysticism with ideas of union elsewhere.
Devekut in practice: an example
A Hasidic tale tells of a shepherd boy who could not read the prayers and whistled in the synagogue with a whole heart, and of the rebbe who said the whistle had opened the gates.
Where readings of Devekut go wrong
Devekut is a term of Jewish religious life, sought within the commandments and a community, and is described here, not offered as a method.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- devekus, dvekut, cleaving to God, devekut meaning, deveikut
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What does devekut mean?
It is Hebrew for cleaving or attachment. In Jewish mysticism it means holding the mind and heart to God, during prayer and, in Hasidic teaching, during ordinary acts as well.
Is devekut union with God?
Most Jewish sources describe closeness and communion, with the person remaining distinct from God. Some Hasidic books use stronger language, and scholars disagree on how far they go.
How did the Hasidim seek devekut?
Through prayer said with full intention, melody, joy, and keeping God in mind during daily tasks. Many also taught attachment to a tzaddik as a way to it.
