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BAAL SHEM TOV STORY
Following the Weekly Torah Reading
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CHUKAS
A HOLY
LETTER
"He will not come to the land that I am giving
the Israelites" Numbers 20:24
And then there was the time, that Reb
Refoel of Bershid, a learned Talmud chochom and
devoted follower of the Baal Shem Tov, had a
burning desire to settle in Eretz Yisrael (The Land of
Israel). As customary among Chassidim, he sought
the blessing of his Rebbe, the Baal Shem Tov, to do
so.
"Eretz Yisrael is Eretz HaKodesh (The Holy
Land) only because the Torah makes it so.
The holiness of Eretz Yisrael descends from Above to
below: Poland needs you and the holy Torah you can
teach: You can create holiness from below to
Above," the Baal Shem counseled Reb
Refoel.
Reb Refoel understood his Rebbe's words: That he
was not yet destined to settle in Eretz Yisrael. He
was disappointed but as a devoted chassid, he
accepted the Baal Shem Tov's advice without
question. "Perhaps, sometime in the future I will be
able to fulfill my desire," he thought.
Many years passed and Reb Refoel, who
had served his community as a rabbi, was now
growing old. Again the desire to move to the Holy
Land awakened in him.
"I am too old to serve as a Rabbi," he
thought, "and would like very much to live out my
last days in the Holy Land." But he refrained from
asking his Rebbe for his blessing to go. Somehow he
knew that the Baal Shem Tov would not agree.
Soon thereafter, he received a letter from
the Baal Shem Tov again discouraging him from the
move. There was no doubt in Reb Refoel's mind that
the Baal Shem Tov knew of his renewed plan through
his holy vision.
Disappointed again, Reb Refoel decided to
put the whole idea out of his mind.
He dearly treasured the letter written with the holy
hand of the Baal Shem Tov, and placed it in a locked
box that he put in a safe place.
Years later, after the Baal Shem Tov had
already left this world, Reb Refoel, who was now very
old and weak, again had thoughts of moving to the
Holy Land.
"This is my last chance to move to the Holy
Land before my time comes to leave this world." So
he packed his possessions and put them on a
wagon. When all his preparations were complete, he
invited his friends and relatives for a
farewell meal.
In the midst of the
celebration, he stepped outside the house to get a
breath of air. It was not windy outdoors, yet
suddenly from out of nowhere, a piece of paper
fluttered down landing at Reb Refoel's feet. He bent
down and picked it up. Looking at the paper in his
hands, he turned white with shock! It was the Baal
Shem Tov's letter that he had kept locked away for
safekeeping all these years! How is it possible? He
could not begin to guess, but he understood what
had just occurred.
Reb Refoel returned to his guests, and
placed the letter under the tablecloth. He then
began to recount to his friends and relatives the
entire history of his attempts to immigrate to the
Holy Land. As he explained how the Baal Shem Tov
had sent him a letter, he reached under the
tablecloth, but to his amazement the letter had
disappeared! Reb Refoel couldn't believe it!
He quickly retrieved the locked box where
he kept the holy letter. Everyone gathered around
with baited breath as he unlocked the box and lifted
the lid. Sure enough, the letter was still there just
as he had left it many years before.
"The bond between a chassid and his
Rebbe transcends all worlds" he exclaimed. "It is
clear that my holy Rebbe, the Baal Shem Tov knew
from the very first time I asked for his blessing, that
it was not my destiny to dwell in the Holy Land, but
to remain here."
Reb Refoel lived to a ripe old age, and
continued to enlighten his community with his wisdom
and teachings of Torah, as he was destined to
do.
And so it was.
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir HaCohane (Howard M.
Cohn, Patent Attorney) from a story in Pe'er
Layeshorim as translated in Stories of the BAAL SHEM
TOV by Y.Y. Klapholtz
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TORAH BAAL SHEM TOV
Selection from Sefer Baal Shem Tov on the Torah
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How goodly are your tents, Jacob, your dwellings,
Israel! (Numbers 24:5)
From the blessings of that wicked man, you can learn
what he wanted to curse. Sanhedrin
98b
That is, from the blessing: "How goodly are your
tents, Jacob, your dwellings, Israel. " For the Gemara
says: "Not like Abraham, who called [the place of the
Temple] a mountain, nor like Isaac, who called it a
field, but like Jacob, who called it a house."
1 That is, not like Abraham who called
it a mountain, as it says: "the mountain of Zion,
which is desolate" (Lamentations 5:18), nor
like Isaac, who called it a field: "Zion is a plowed
field" (Micah 3:12), for in the future, the
Temple will be rebuild in the merit of Jacob, who
called it a house.
But then, why wasn't the Temple originally built in
the merit of Jacob, so that it would not be
destroyed? The answer is found in the Midrash: "He
poured out his wrath on wood and
stone."2 Had the Temple been built in
the merit of Jacob, nothing would have remained of
the Jewish people,3 as the Midrash
says: "Why was [the Tabernacle] called Mishkan?
Because it was twice used as collateral
('mashkan')."4 That is, the Mishkan
was taken as collateral for the sake of
Israel.
Now we can understand the curse in Balaam's
blessing: "How goodly are your tents, Jacob." He
wanted the Tabernacle, called "your
tents,"5 to [already] be built in the
merit of Jacob. Then, "your mishkenosecha" — Your
collateral — would be "Israel" itself.6
Ohr Ha'Emes, and Imrei Tzaddikim
1Pesachim 88a: "Not like Abraham, of
whom it is written 'mountain.' As it says: 'As it is
said today, in the mount where G d is seen' (Genesis
22:14). Nor like Isaac, of whom it is written 'field.'
As it says: 'And Isaac went out to meditate in the
field' (ibid. 24:63). But like Jacob, who called
it 'house.' As it says: 'And he called that place "the
house of G d"
(Beit E-l).'" However, the Baal Shem Tov assigned
two alternative verses from Scripture to Abraham
and Isaac, both of which speak of the Temple's
destruction. Only the Third Temple, built in the merit
of Jacob, will last forever. As the verse says: "For
My house will be called a house of prayer for all
peoples" (Isaiah 56:7).
2 Eicha Rabbosai 4:14. That is, rather
than G d directing his anger toward the Jewish
People, He poured it on the Holy Temple. Instead of
destruction, we were sentenced to exile.
3 Because the Temple would have been
perfect and indestructible, G d would have taken out
His anger on the nation itself.
4 Shemos Rabbah 51:3. The
Mishkan, like the First and Second Temples, was also
destroyed or captured due to the nation's sins. It
was a type of collateral; for when the people sinned,
it was taken instead of them.
5 The Mishkan was also called the Ohel
Mo'ed, the Tent of Meeting.
6 i.e., they would be
destroyed.
Translation and Commentary by Rabbi Dr. Eliezer
Shore
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THE PILLAR OF PRAYER
The Baal Shem Tov's Teachings on Prayer
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The Kiss
One may cleave to Him, may His Name be blessed,
through the letters of Torah and prayer. It is by
connecting your thoughts and your inner experiential
dimension to the inner spiritual realm of the letters,
according to the secret meaning of the verse
[Cant. 1:2] 'Let Him kiss me with the kisses of
His mouth' - let your breath1 cleave to
the
Divine Breath - as I heard from my teacher [the
Besht] regarding the verse [Psalms
68:14] 'When you lay yourself down among the
sheepfolds2 you will shine '.
1 Zohar Hadash Shir haShirim, 60c,
63d.
2 The word in Hebrew is Shefatayim
which
means 'the folds of woolcloth'. But the word
Sefatayim, which is comprised of the same letters,
also means 'lips' [and thus, the verse is
rendered: 'when you place yourself within the
issuance of your lips '], which is the connotation
here.
Translation and Commentary by Rabbi Dr. Menachem
Kallus
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THE LIGHT OF THE EYES
On the Greatness of the Baal Shem Tov
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The great sages from the time of the Baal Shem Tov
until the complete revelation of the Messiah are an
illumination of the Messiah, as is known.
She'eris Yisroel, Sha'ar Hiskashrus 4:43
Translation and Commentary by Rabbi Dr. Eliezer
Shore
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KESER SHEM TOV
Anthology of the Teachings of the Baal Shem Tov
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"I see G d from my flesh" 1
The Baal Shem Tov taught:
Just as with physical relations, one cannot father a
child without a "live" organ, which requires passion
and joy, so with spiritual "relations," that is, the
words of Torah and prayer,2 one can
only be spiritually productive if one has a "live"
organ, that is, if one experiences joy and
pleasure.3
1Job 19:26.
2 Which is how one relates to G d.
3The point here is that it is not enough
to study and pray with serious devotion, but that
one must truly enjoy doing these things. The vivid
metaphor implies that one's entire body must be
enthusiastically involved in the practice, and not just
the mind.
Translation and Commentary by Rabbi Yehoshua
Starrett
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