"שכן בגן עדן" בספר חסידים; סיפור עממי בהקשרו העיוני

The article discusses the correlation between the aesthetic elaboration of tales and the ideological context in which they appear. The text discussed is the folk-tale type No. 809*A "The Neighbour in Paradise" in the Book of the Pious, a central opus of the Ashkenazi Hassidic movement — a 13th century theological-moral movement. In consonance with the character of the movement, the folk-tale is recreated in a new ideological context. A comparison with versions of the same tale-type from earlier and later periods indicates a structural change in addition to a change in the ideological function, as well as intensified dramatization. The ideological message in this version is clearly defined in the new context, and the tale can only be understood with reference to it. The changes, specific to the version in the Book of the Pious, do not reappear in the later Jewish versions of the tale-type.