generations of Ashkenazi Hasidic leaders". This led him to formulate this phenomenon as a movement which existed for generations and had a distinct group of leaders. Ivan G. Marcus raised support for the community's historicity by pointing out references to Chassidei Ashkenaz practices in Arba'ah Turim and Sefer ha-Manhig. He further admitted that all of the points questioning its existence do raise questions, but the questions raised by Dan and Gruenwald "do not prove that the pietist world as described in SH [Sefer Hasidim] did not exist", and "the existence of the hasidim per se and the influence of their customs are attested in non-pietist rabbinic sources". Tishby also postulates that the fact that they considered all other Jews resha (iniquitous) and other anti-social tendencies (asceticism), is the reason they are not mentioned by anyone other than the Baal Tur and the Safer Haminhag, both of which only mention them but do not give them respect, rather than a reason they would be counted by their contemporaries, and the Jewish community, precisely opposing what Israeli scholar Joseph Dan holds. Prior to Dan no one questioned their existence over the centuries in which the book was studied. Outside sources Though there may be earlier printed mentions that still exist, the book Yuḥasin by Abraham Zacuto, of which two original texts exist from the early 16th century (1500–1503) at Jewish museums, on leaf 221 mentions 'Eleazar Ben Yehudah Ben Kalonymous of Worms', the son of Judah the Pious. It then takes a page to discuss his book Yera'i El (Fear of God) which is clearly a successor to the Pious of Ashkenaz book of this article. The book discusses many ideas including ideas of the three parts of God, etc. (not to be confused with Christianity; it makes clear, as all Judaism does, that God is not human and has no body). Secular philosopher Martin Buber twice stated that he was influenced by the books of the Hassidei Ashkenaz, once in a letter to Jewish Nietzschean story-teller Micha Josef Berdyczewski, and a second time in his 1906 book Die Geschichten des Rabbi Nachman, which connects these ancient Jews to the 18th century Hassidism of Nachman of pre-Holocaust Breslev in Eastern Europe. References Sources Joseph Dan, “Ashkenazi Hasidim 1941-1991” in Major Trends of Jewish Mysticism 50 Years Later 1992 T. Alexander “Rabbi Judah the Pious as a Legendary Figure” in Mysticism, Magic, Kabbala