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Israel ben Eliezer[a] 1698[1] –1760[2]), known as the Baal Shem Tov (/ˌbɑːl ˈʃɛm ˌtʊv, ˌtʊf/;[3] Hebrew: בעל שם טוב) or BeShT (בעש"ט), was a Jewish mystic and healer who is regarded as the founder of Hasidic Judaism. A baal shem tov is a "Master of the Good Name," that is, one able to work miracles using the secret name of God.[4][5] Other sources explain his sobriquet as arising from a reputation of being a saintly, or superior, miracle-worker, hence he was given the nickname Baal Shem Tov, that is, the "good Baal Shem".[6][7]
Baal Shem Tov | |
|---|---|
| Personal life | |
| Born | Yisroel ben Eliezer 25 August 1698 Okopy Świętej Trójcy, Kingdom of Poland (now Ukraine) |
| Died | 22 May 1760 Międzybóż, Kingdom of Poland (now Ukraine) |
| Spouse | Chana (only named in legends) |
| Children |
|
| Parents |
|
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Judaism |
| Jewish leader | |
| Successor | Dov Ber of Mezeritch (1704–1772) |
Biographical information about the Baal Shem Tov comes from contemporary Polish documents and from the largely legendary traditions about his life and behavior collected in the Praise of the Besht (Hebrew: שבחי הבעש"ט, romanized: Shivḥei haBesht).[8]
A central tenet of the teachings associated with the Baal Shem Tov is the direct connection with the divine, "dvekut", which is infused in every human activity and every waking hour. Prayer is of supreme importance, along with the mystical significance of Hebrew letters and words.[9]
Birth
Israel was born about 1698 to a certain Eliezer.[1] According to Shivḥei haBesht,[10]
Eliezer lived at the edge of Wallachia. He and his wife were elderly. Once upon a time, they were captured and taken prisoner to a far-away land . . . Eliezer found his wife, who thankfully still lived, and the Besht was born when each was near 100 years old.
According to other early Hasidic legends, he was born in "Okop" (probably Okopy, Ternopil Oblast), although Shivḥei haBesht only mentions him residing there as an adolescent, and only in a parenthetical insertion by the 1815 printer.[11] Later legend names his mother Sarah.
Career
Solomon Isaac Halpern (1727[12] or 1729[13]-1791[14]) records two anecdotes about his father Jacob (1698-1738), the rabbi of Zhvanets, meeting "the renowned Israel Baal Shem, master of divine knowledge" which are apparently non-legendary, as Halpern was not a hasid, although he was only 9-11 when his father died. Israel performed a dream-quest and discovered that Jacob was the reincarnation of Isaac Alfasi. These meetings necessarily occurred before 1738.[13][12]
Polish census records show that a certain holy man lived in Medzhybizh from 1740 to 1760, which was presumably Israel.[5] In 1740 the census describes a "kabbalist," in 1742 and 1758 a "baal shem", and in 1760 a "baal shem doctor", perhaps a reference to the mystical healings Israel performs in legend.[5]
Meir Teomim (d. 1775) mentions in Meirat Einayim (printed 1782) that "I saw a letter from the Holy Land, written by the pious Rabbi Gershon to his brother-in-law, the renowned master of the Good Name, Rabbi Israel, may he live . . ." From the honorific "may he live", it seems that this book was composed in Israel's lifetime; this is the only time the Baal Shem Tov was mentioned by name before his death.[15]
Beyond these very scant sources, a few letters on theological subjects, attributed to Israel, were printed posthumously. Their authenticity is still debated by scholars. Nothing more can be gleaned of his biography from contemporary sources.[5]
Death
He is last seen in the census as a resident of Medzhybizh in 1760. By 1763 another resided in the house, and Hasidic legends give various dates around 1760.[5]
Several letters attributed to Israel or his associates have been printed since his death, and their authenticity is still debated by scholars. According to a letter supposedly from Besht's brother-in-law to the Besht himself—as interpreted by Rosman—the latter was a practitioner of prophecy, being able to see a messianic figure arrive in Jerusalem despite living far from the city; the brother-in-law claims to have inquired into the figure and discovered the Besht's vision to be true. This would support the belief that the Besht had the ability to see the souls of men, divining the messianic quality of the man despite only seeing him through a vision.
Rosman also describes another letter written by the brother-in-law which claims that the Besht could travel to heaven and commune with God. This view is derived from a series of titles given to the Besht, attributing various religious achievements to him such as understanding the mysteries of God.[16]
Israel ben Eliezer left no books; the Kabbalistic commentary on Psalm 107, ascribed to him (Zhitomir, 1804), Sefer miRabbi Yisrael Baal Shem-tov, is not genuine. Therefore, the only record of his teachings is in his utterances as recorded in the works of his disciples (Hasidim). Most are found in the works of Jacob Joseph of Polnoy. But since Hasidism, immediately after the death of its founder, was divided into various parties, each claiming for itself the authority of Besht, the utmost of caution is necessary for judging as to the authenticity of utterances ascribed to Besht.[4]
Jacob Joseph quotes over eight hundred teachings of Israel in his books. Jacob Joseph sometimes states that he's not sure if a quote is the "exact" words of the Baal Shem Tov, apparently implying that other quotes are verbatim.
The later developments of Hasidism are unintelligible without consideration of Besht's reputed opinions concerning man's proper relation with the universe. True worship of God consists of the cleaving to, and the unification with, God. He is supposed to have said, "the ideal of man is to be a revelation himself, clearly to recognize himself as a manifestation of God." Mysticism, then, is not the Kabbalah, which everyone may learn, but that sense of true oneness, which is usually as strange, unintelligible, and incomprehensible to mankind as dancing is to a dove. However, the man who is capable of this feeling is endowed with a genuine intuition, and it is the perception of such a man which is called prophecy, according to the degree of his insight. From this it results, in the first place, that the ideal man may lay claim to authority equal, in a certain sense, to the authority of the Prophets.[4] This focus on oneness and personal revelation help earn his mystical interpretation of Judaism the title of Panentheism.
A second and more important result of the doctrine is that through his oneness with God, man forms a connecting link between the Creator and creation. Thus, slightly modifying the Bible verse, Hab. 2:4, Israel is quoted, "The righteous can vivify by his faith." His followers enlarged upon this idea and consistently deduced from it the source of divine mercy, of blessings, of life; and that therefore, if one loves him, one may partake of God's mercy.[4]
On the opposite side of the coin, the Baal Shem Tov is said to have warned the Hasidim:
- Amalek is still alive today ... Every time you experience a worry or doubt about how God is running the world—that's Amalek launching an attack against your soul. We must wipe Amalek out of our hearts whenever—and wherever—he attacks so that we can serve God with complete joy.
It may be said of Hasidism that there is no other Jewish sect in which the founder is as important as his doctrines. Israel himself is still the real center for the Hasidim; his teachings have almost sunk into oblivion. As Schechter ("Studies in Judaism," p. 4) observes: "To the Hasidim, Baal-Shem ... was the incarnation of a theory, and his whole life the revelation of a system."[4]
Chapin and Weinstock contend that the Besht was essentially the right person, in the right place, at the right time. 18th century Podolia was an ideal place to foster a seachange in Jewish thinking. It had been depopulated one generation earlier due to the Khmelnitsky Massacres. A Turkish occupation of Podolia occurred within the Besht's lifetime and along with it the influence within this frontier territory of Sabbatai Zevi and his latter-day spiritual descendants such as Malach and Jacob Frank. Once the Polish Magnates regained control from the Turks, Podolia underwent an economic boom. The Magnates valued the economic benefits the Jews provided, and encouraged Jewish resettlement to help protect the frontier from future invasions. Thus, the Jewish community itself was essentially starting over.
The Baal Shem Tov directly imparted his teachings to his students, some of whom founded their own Hasidic dynasties.
- Yaakov Yosef of Polonoy (1710–1784)
- Ze'ev Wolf Kitzes of Medzhybizh (~1685–1788)
- Dov Ber of Mezeritch (1704–1772)
- Nachum Twerski of Chernobyl (1730–1797) founder of the Chernobyl Hasidic dynasty
- Abraham Gershon of Kitov (Kuty), brother-in-law of The Baal Shem Tov (1701–1761); descendant (possibly the grandson) of Shabbatai ha-Kohen ("the ShACh") (1625–1663)
- Moshe Chaim Ephraim of Sudilkov (1748–1800) (his grandson)
- Boruch of Medzhybizh (1753–1811) (his grandson)
- Meir Hagadol of Premishlan (1703–1773)
- Nachman of Horodenka (d. 1765)
Hasidim soon filled volumes with fantastical legends about his life. These volumes, especially Shivḥei haBesht (1815), are presumed to contain a small historical kernel, but scholars continue to debate which passages are credible.
- The opening legend of Shivḥei haBesht tells that his father, Eliezer, was seized during an attack, carried from his home in Wallachia, and sold as a slave to a prince. On account of his wisdom, he found favor with the prince, who gave him to the king to be his minister. During an expedition undertaken by the king, when other counsel failed, and all were disheartened, Eliezer's advice was accepted; and the result was a successful battle of decisive importance. Eliezer was made a general and afterward prime minister, and the king gave him the daughter of the viceroy in marriage. But being mindful of his duty as a Jew and as he was already married, he married the princess only in name. After being questioned for a long time as to his strange conduct, he confessed to the princess that he was a Jew, who loaded him with costly presents and helped him escape to his own country.[4] On the way, the prophet Elijah is said to have appeared to Eliezer and said: "On account of thy piety and steadfastness, thou wilt have a son who will lighten the eyes of all Israel; and Israel shall be his name because in him shall be fulfilled the verse (Isaiah 49:3): 'Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.'" Eliezer and his wife Sarah, however, reached old age childless and had given up all hope of ever having a child. But when they were nearly a hundred years old, the promised son (Besht) was born.[4]
- In 1703, Israel became an orphan, and was adopted by the Jewish community of Tluste. After the conclusion of his studies at the local cheder, he would often wander into the fields and forests that surrounded the village.
- In 1710, he finished cheder and became an assistant to a melamed (instructor in cheder).
- In 1711 at the age of 13/14 he entered the "Chaburas Machane Yisroel", a group of hidden tzaddikim led by Adam Baal Shem. Adam introduced him to Kabbalah.[19]
- Sometime in 1712 Israel became a shammash (sexton) of the local synagogue.
- He was hired as a teacher's assistant in the cheders of the small villages through which they passed. He later related that he took great pleasure in accompanying the children to and from school, using this opportunity to recite prayers with them and tell them Torah stories. The Mezritcher Maggid would later say, "If only we kissed a Torah scroll with the same love that my master [the Baal Shem Tov] kissed the children when he took them to cheder as a teacher's assistant!"[20]
- He had visions in which the prophet Achiya Hashiloni would appear to him.[21]
- In 1716 Israel married, but soon his wife died and he went on travelling throughout Eastern Galicia. After serving for a long time as a helper in various small communities of West Ukraine, he settled as a melamed at Tluste.
- Israel became the leader of this movement at the age of 18.[22] Caring for the Jewish poor, the group of Tzadikim encouraged Jews to move to agrarian lifestyles as alternatives to the chronic poverty of city Jews. In continuation of this policy, they decided that they needed to look after the educational needs of the children living in small farm communities. If a suitable teacher could not be sourced they themselves would provide one, and therefore Israel became a teacher's assistant. He later commented "The most joyous time in my life was teaching the small children how to say Modeh Ani, Shema Yisrael and Kametz Alef Ah".[23]
- He was chosen by people conducting suits against each other to act as their arbitrator and mediator. His services were brought into frequent requisition because the Jews had their own civil courts in Poland.
- He is said to have made such an impression on Ephraim of Brody that the latter promised Israel his daughter Channah in marriage. The man died, however, without telling his daughter of her betrothal; but when she heard of her father's wishes, she agreed to comply with them.[4] After their marriage, the couple moved to a village in the Carpathians between Kuty and Kassowa,[4] where their only income was from his work digging clay and lime, which his wife delivered to surrounding villages. The couple had two children: Udl (born in 1720) and Zvi Hersh. A maternal great-grandson of Israel and his wife was Nachman of Breslov whose paternal ancestry came from (according to Hasidic tradition), the Maharal's family descended patrilineally from the Babylonian Exilarchs (during the era of the geonim) and therefore also from the Davidic dynasty.[24]
- Israel later took a position as a shohet (ritual butcher) in Kshilowice, near Iaslowice, which he soon gave up in order to manage a village tavern that his brother-in-law bought for him. His first appearance in public was that of an ordinary Baal Shem, a faith-healer who wrote amulets and prescribed cures,[4][25][26] functioning as a type of shaman.[27][28]
- After many trips in Podolia and Volhynia as a Baal Shem, Israel, considering his following large enough and his authority established, decided about 1740 to expound his teachings in the shtetl (Jewish village) of Medzhybizh and people, mostly from the spiritual elite, came to listen to him. Medzhybizh became the seat of the movement and of the Medzybizh Hasidic dynasty. His following gradually increased and with it the hostility of the Talmudists. Israel was supported at the beginning of his career by two prominent Talmudists, the brothers Meïr (chief rabbi of Lemberg and later Ostroha, and author of Meir Netivim (a work of halachic responsa) and other works) and Isaac Dov Margalios. Later he won over recognized rabbinic authorities who became his disciples and attested to his scholarship. These include Yaakov Yosef Hakohen, rabbi of Polnoy; Dovid Halperin, rabbi of Ostroha; Israel of Satinov, author of Tiferet Yisrael; Yoseph Heilperin of Slosowitz; and Dov Ber of Mezrich. It is chiefly due to the latter that Israel's doctrines (though in an essentially altered form) were introduced into learned Jewish religious circles.[4]
- Israel undertook journeys in which he is recorded as effecting cures and expelling demons and evil spirits (shedim). Later Hasidic tradition, however, downplayed the importance of these healing and magical practices, concentrating on his teachings, his charm, magnetism, and ecstatic personality.[29]
- The "Agudas Ohalei Tzadikim"[30] organization (based in Israel) has restored many graves of Tzadikim (Ohelim) in Ukraine, including the Baal Shem Tov's. A guesthouse and synagogue are located next to the Ohel of Baal Shem Tov, and the Baal Shem Tov's synagogue in the village proper has been painstakingly restored. Both synagogues are used by the many visitors from all over the world.
- Israel took sides with the Talmudists in their disputes against the Frankists (Jacob Frank's cultist movement which regarded Frank as the Messiah, modelled after Sabbatai Zevi.) After the mass conversion of the Frankists, the Baal Shem Tov allegedly said that as long as a diseased limb is connected with the body, there is hope that it may be saved; but, once amputated, it is gone, and there is no hope.[31] It is alleged that he died out of grief that the Frankists left Judaism.[32]
- The Besht was a mystic who claimed to have achieved devekut ("adhesion"), meaning that his soul could ascend to heaven and speak with any soul there, and intervene between humans and God. His followers believed that had the ability to protect the Jewish community from plague and persecution.[33]
- According to legend, he ate farfel every Friday night because the word was similar to the world farfalen which means "wiped out, over and finished". He considered the noodles a symbol marking the beginning of a new week.[34]
- It was believed the Besht was a great medical practitioner with vast knowledge regarding salves, balms, and similar medicants. Some aspects of his medical practice are said to have been mystic in nature, though the degree to which this is the case is not agreed upon. Some claim[like whom?] that the Besht could only heal others through prayer, but others describe other mystical methods.[16]
- Besht did not combat rabbinical Judaism, but the spirit of its practice. His teachings being the result of a deep, religious temperament, he stressed the spirit. Though he considered the Law to be holy and inviolable, and he emphasized the importance of Torah-study, he held that one's entire life should be a service of God.[4] Hasidic legend tells of a woman whom her relatives sought to kill on account of her shameful life, but who was saved in body and soul by Besht. The story is said to be characteristic of Besht's activity in healing those in need of relief. More important to him than prayer was a friendly relationship with sinners. Unselfishness and high-minded benevolence are a motif in the legends about him.[4] Besht's methods of teaching differed from those of his opponents. He directed many satirical remarks at them, a characteristic one being his designation of the typical Talmudist of his day as "a man who through a sheer study of the Law has no time to think about God". Besht is reported to have illustrated his views of asceticism by the following parable:
- A thief once tried to break into a house, the owner of which, crying out, frightened the thief away. The same thief soon afterward broke into the house of a very strong man, who, on seeing him enter, kept quite still. When the thief had come near enough, the man caught him and put him in prison, thus depriving him of all opportunity to do further harm.[4] Besht held a firm conviction that God had entrusted him with a special mission to spread his doctrines. He believed that he had heavenly visions revealing this mission to him. For him, every intuition was a divine revelation, and divine messages were daily occurrences.[4] An example of the power of his spiritual vision is found at the beginning of his grandson's work, Degel, where he writes that his grandfather wrote to Gershon Kitover who lived in Israel, asking him why he was not in Israel that particular Shabbos.
A portrait by John Singleton Copley often mistaken for the Baal Shem Tov is really a portrait of Hayyim Samuel Jacob Falk, who was known as the Baal Shem of London.[35]
In 2019, the American funk quartet The Fearless Flyers released an instrumental single named "The Baal Shem Tov" in honor of the rabbi.[36][37]
Singer Matisyahu's song Baal Shem Tov on the album Spark Seeker is named after him.
He was portrayed by Luzer Twersky in the Ukrainian film Dovbush (2023).
A replica of the old synagogue of Medzhybizh, which was never used by Israel, attracts tourists (August 4, 2008).
Ohel of Baal Shem Tov; August 4, 2008
New guesthouse and synagogue next to Ohel of Baal Shem Tov (work in progress); August 4, 2008
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