DEVEQUT

also spelled Devekut (Hebrew: attachment), in Jewish religious thought, an adherence to or communion with God that stops short of mystical union. The notion of devequt apparently derived from the biblical reference to loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him (Deuteronomy 11:22). As a fundamental concept of the Jewish mystical system called the Kabbala, devequt was considered one of the three highest values of a mystic and, for some, was equated with ecstasy. The Kabbalistic view of devequt as a privilege of the spiritual aristocracy was modified in the religious and social movement called Hasidism, for, in its lower, or minor, stage, devequt found expression in the social sphere and was, in principle, open to every Hasid. Maimonides, the great 12th-century codifier of Jewish law, classified devequt as a commandment.