It discusses ethics and how they relate to everyday Jewish life, dealing with a variety of topics including piety (heading, Shemuel; so-called Sefer HaYir'ah); (§§ 14–26), reward and punishment, penitence, the hereafter, etc.

(heading, Zeh Sefer ha-Ḥasidim); (§§ 490–638), the Sabbath; (§§ 639–746), tefillin, ẓiẓit, mezuzot, books; (§§ 747–856), the study of the Law; (§§ 857–929), charity; (§§ 930–970), reverence for parents; (§§ 971–1386), piety, worship of God, prayer, visiting the sick, etc.

This text takes into consideration the specific circumstances of these ethical situations including the individual character qualities of the subject, historical and economic context, and the subjects relationship to other people, making it an extremely important text when it comes to everyday Jewish life in medieval Germany.

There is no other ethical Hebrew text that covers as many topics while retaining close attention to realistic detail as Sefer Hasidim.

It influenced the distinctive religious practices and Hebrew literary style of Jews in Ashkenaz and also shaped the discourse about Jewish ethics in medieval Europe and beyond.

An edition by Jehuda Wistinetzki based on the most complete source, the Parma manuscript, was published by the Mekitzei Nirdamim Society in 1891 and reprinted in 1955.

[16][17] Entertainment and socializing especially among young people has been denigrated by some significant works of Jewish scholarship and law (including Sefer Hasidim and Shulkhan Arukh) as frivolity and a distraction from the Torah.