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BAAL SHEM TOV STORY
Following the Weekly Torah Reading
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THE BAAL SHEM TOV'S
ANGER
"Moshe became angry.." (Numbers 31:14)
And then there was the time the Lithuanians (called
Litvaks), sent a man to observe the Baal Shem Tov
and see if the stories about him were indeed true.
The Litvak was received as an honored guest, since
no one knew the real reason for his visit. He stayed
as a guest in the house of Rabbi Yechiel of Kovel and
ate his meals with the Baal Shem Tov.
Shabbos arrived and the Litvak felt a spiritual uplift
from being in the presence of the Baal Shem Tov
during the Maariv (evening) prayers. "My G d," he
thought, "everything they say about him is
true!"
Then, while still in this elated mood, he accompanied
the Baal Shem Tov home for the Shabbos evening
meal.
As soon as the Baal Shem Tov entered his house, he
became very angry at his servant and ordered him to
the barn to save a horse that was being strangled to
death.
The servant quickly responded, "Rabbi, I'm going right
now!"
Suddenly, the Baal Shem Tov yelled out in a fit of
anger. "Didn't you hear me? I said go now!" Then,
the Baal Shem Tov actually raised his hand as if to
strike the servant.
The servant went running from the house to the barn
and arrived just in time to save the horse.
The Litvak was shocked to see the Baal Shem Tov
display so much anger. "After such a meaningful
davening (prayer)," he wondered, "how can he come
home and get so angry over a horse, especially on
Shabbos?"
The next morning, during the Shabbos prayers, again
the Litvak was spiritually uplifted by the Baal Shem
Tov's prayers. But this time, the display of fierce
anger by the Baal Shem Tov clouded his mind. "I
really can't ever remember seeing anyone being so
angry as to raise his hand to strike someone, even a
servant. And especially on Shabbos."
Before the Litvak left for home, he couldn't stop
himself from telling Rabbi Yechiel what
happened. "Rabbi Yechiel, I must tell you, on
Shabbos night when the Baal Shem Tov came home,
he was so angry that he.." and he told him what had
occurred. When he completed the story, he
said, "The community in Lithuania will be very
surprised about this behavior." As soon as
he left, Rabbi Yechiel passed his comments onto the
Baal Shem Tov.
The Baal Shem Tov responded with great annoyance
in his voice. "Who are they to come here and judge
me?"
"Let me tell you what happened," he said. "A Jewish
merchant was traveling by wagon right before
Shabbos. He was rushing in the hope of finding a
village or inn for Shabbos. But before he could reach
one, night fell and Shabbos arrived. He was forced
to turn off the road and spend Shabbos in a field.
Later that night, a band of thieves came upon the
merchant and began to beat him. The thieves
planned on killing him, taking his money and the
wagon filled with his merchandise. This Jewish
merchant was so coarse that I could only make
contact with him through an animal. So I arranged
for the horse to get caught up in a halter. Then, I
frightened my servant, and the more I frightened
him, the more the thieves were frightened. Finally,
when I screamed at him and raised my hand to strike
him, the thieves fled. This Jewish merchant will soon
come here to see me and you will hear from him the
same events."
And so it was.
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir Cohane (Howard M.
Cohn, Patent Attorney) from a story found in
SHIVCHEI HABESHT and translated in In Praise of the
BAAL SHEM TOV by Ben-Mos and Mintz.
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TORAH BAAL SHEM TOV
Selection from Sefer Baal Shem Tov on the Torah
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"And Moses spoke to the tribal heads of the
Israelites, saying: This is what G d has
commanded. (Concerning the principle that) when a
person makes a vow to G d, or makes
an oath to prohibit himself (something the Torah
permits), he must not break his
word and must do all that he expressed verbally."
(Numbers 30:2-3)
This is what is written: "Better not to make a vow,
than to make a vow and not complete it."
(Ecclesiastes 5:4). The Holy One says, be
careful
making vows, and do not break them, for all who
breaks vows will eventually transgress
oath.1 And
one who transgresses oaths is considered to have
denied G d. There is no forgiveness for him, as it
says: "You shall not take the name of the L rd your
G d in vain; for G d will not hold him guiltless that
takes His name in vain." (Exodus 20:6). And it
is
written: "If you will return to me, O Israel..and
will swear, 'As the L rd lives'.." (Jeremiah 4:1-3)
. The
Holy One said to Israel, "Do not think that it is
permissible for you to swear, even in truth. You are
not permitted to swear by My
Name.."2
Our Sages enjoined us to say before each
mitzvah: "For the sake of the union of the Holy One
and His Shechinah.." This is alluded to in the
verse: "This is the thing that G d has commanded."
The matter is as follows.
King Solomon said: "Better not to make a
vow." But what type of individual is he addressing?
If it is a person who does not plan on fulfilling his
vow, it is obvious that he is forbidden to make it, for
he transgresses a negative commandment and a
positive one, as the Talmud says.3 And
if it is a
person who wants to fulfill his vow, why is it better
for him not to make it? The Sages said: "How do we
know that a person can vow to fulfill a mitzvah? From
the verse: "I have sworn and I have fulfilled it, to
observe Your righteous ordinances." (Psalms
119:106). King David also said: "My vows to G d
I
will fulfill." (Psalms 116:14). And would David
transgress this, G d forbid?
Rather, with every mitzvah that a person
performs, he fixes all the aspects of nefesh, ruach,
and neshama, up until the highest point — the tip of
the yud,4 which is hidden and
concealed. If the
commandment requires action, making that the
lowest level of the commandment, a person must still
fix speech and thought.
If it involves speech, then that is the lowest aspect
of the mitzvah, and he still must fix voice and
thought.5
Now, when a person thinks about
performing a mitzvah, he still has no fear of the
accusation of the "shells,"6 for they
have no
attachment to thought. However, when he verbalizes
[his intention] to do a mitzvah, then there are
Accusing Forces to hinder the mitzvah, for
the "shells" draw sustenance from the place of
speech.7
Therefore, when a person wants to perform
a mitzvah and must speak about doing it, making him
concerned about the Accusers, our Sages enjoined
him to say: "For the sake of the union of the Holy
One and His Shechinah, in fear and in love, in love
and in fear, to unite the Name Y-H and V-H by
means of He who is hidden and concealed in the
name of all Israel." Then, he has created the
Unification of the mitzvah on [the level of] speech,
voice and thought, up above, to He who is hidden
and concealed.8 Then he will not be
afraid of the
Accusers or obstacles to the mitzvah, nor from any
selfish motivations [on his part], since he has uplifted
all the vitality of the mitzvah, and lacks only the
mitzvah's performance, which is the last level.
Consequently, the Accusers will lack all ability to
stop him.
This is what the verse says: "When shall make a vow
to the L rd your G d, you shall not be late in fulfilling
it.." (Deuteronomy 23:22). This verse
guarantees
that when a person makes a Unification before
performing a mitzvah (that is, "to the L rd your
G d"9) he can be absolutely sure that
he will not
delay in fulfilling it since he did the Unification
completely. This is why the verse says: "This is the
thing.." alluding to the Unification. For "this" is
Yesod and "the thing" (hadavar) is Malchus. "That
G d has commanded" means that G d commands
each person to say the Unification completely before
performing a mitzvah. Therefore, "If a man makes a
vow to G d," to do a mitzvah, he shouldn't just say
that he will do it, he should make the complete
unification.
This explains what the Midrash said: "Better
not to make a vow than to make a vow and not
complete it." That is, not to complete the
Unification, but merely to state that one will do the
mitzvah. Because then concern exists about the
Accuser, and it would be better not to have vowed,
not to say anything, only to think about doing the
mitzvah, so that there is no worry about the
Accusers. However, if a person can complete the
Unification perfectly, it is certainly better. He will not
have any fear of Accusers, and in fact, will receive
help and support to complete the mitzvah.
This is what David said: "My vows to G d I
will fulfill." This means that the vow will be with a
complete Unification. For when the Unification is
incomplete, it is called "breaking the vow," which will
lead him to transgress an oath. This in turn is an
impediment to the mitzvah, which is a rectification of
the seven attributes called "oaths." Therefore, one
must be careful to complete the Unification.
Devorim Nechmadim, Ginzei Yosef
1 Taking an oath involves swearing on
G d's Name.
Thus, transgressing it is a more serious offense than
breaking a vow.
2 Yalkut Shimoni, Matos
#284.
3 Nedarim 3b.
4 Although the Baal Shem Tov explicitly
names the
three lowest levels of the soul — nefesh, ruach, and
neshama — he alludes here to still higher levels — the
chaya and yechida. These five levels are alluded to
in the four letters of the Tetragrammaton. The
nefesh corresponds to the final hey, the ruach to the
vav, the neshama to the first hey, the chaya to the
yud, and the yechida to the small point at the top
left of the yud.
5 The Baal Shem Tov divides each
mitzvah into three
components. When the mitzvah is performed with
speech, such as prayer or Torah study, then that is
the lowest level. The two higher levels would then be
voice (kol — undifferentiated sound) and thought.
6 Kelipot — forces of impurity and evil
that oppose
the performance of a mitzvah, by claiming that a
person is not worthy to do it.
7 See Likutey Moharan I:38,2, on the
verse: "Sin
couches at the door" (Genesis 4:7), alluding
to
the "door" of the mouth.
8 Apparently, by reciting this prayer,
one unifies
even a physical mitzvah on three upper levels. The
actual performance of the mitzvah that follows is
almost secondary, and can proceed with
obstruction.
9 The conjunction of the Divine
Names "L-rd your
G d" — Y-H-V-H Elo-hecha — corresponds to the
union of G d and the Shechinah, described
above.
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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Section 16
A person must pray with complete concentration
(single-minded absorption), passing from one letter
to the next, until he forgets his physicality. He
should imagine that the letters are uniting together,
which is a great pleasure. For if this unification is a
physical pleasure, it is certainly an even greater
spiritual one. This is the world Yetzirah. Next, he
should proceed to the letters of thought. When he
no longer hears what he is saying, he has come to
the
world of Beriyah. Finally, he comes to the level of
Nothing, in which his physicality is completely
annulled. This is the world of Atzilut, the level of
Wisdom (Chochmah).
Kesser Shem Tov, part 2, p.
17b
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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Rabbi Yaakov Tzemach wrote that the revelation of
the soul of the Arizal was absolutely necessary for
his generation. The Arizal's task was to reveal the
wisdom of Kabbalah, and provide his spiritually low
generation with a shield and a shelter to serve our
G d.
Similarly, it was truly heaven sent that the great soul
of the Baal Shem Tov descended from the highest
world to become revealed in our time (the generation
before the arrival of the Moshiach). The Baal Shem
Tov provided illumination to the world and its
inhabitants with the light of the holy Torah.
In previous generations, there were some
individuals who served G d with all their hearts and
souls, toiling at the Torah day and night. However,
there were only two venues for accomplishing this.
Some had the blessing of vast wealth that afforded
them the opportunity to spend time on Torah study
and prayer. Others turned their backs on the cares
of this world and accepted poverty with love,
rejecting this World's material comforts to toil at the
Torah. Everyone else, however, could taste nothing
of the light of G d in Torah study and prayer. The
majority of Jews were very poor, and could only
scrape together a living with great effort, whether at
home, in the fields, in the markets or in the
streets.
Furthermore, even among those people who
could set time aside for Torah study, most were not
wise enough to find protection in the Torah from the
great enemy that lurks in the heart of man from
birth. For the Torah study and prayer they do is
negated by their evil desires and bad character
traits, such as gossip, falsehood, jealousy, hatred,
insincerity, bad temper, cruelness, and especially
ego, which is the root of evil, and that ruins all good
deeds and positive traits.
G d recognized the state of our this lowly
generation, when everyone is pressed to make a
living, when no one has money and everything is
expensive, when there are fewer and fewer diligent
students of Torah each day, and fewer searching for
G d. He sent us an angel from heaven to enliven us —
our holy rabbi, the light of Israel, the Baal Shem
Tov. He enlightened our eyes so that even in the
most laborious times we can still remember G d and
His Torah. Then, we will always be careful to
separate the evil from the good in everything we do,
in our paths and our words.
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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Another explanation by the Baal Shem Tov of the
teaching:"One who learns one chapter of Torah from
his companion, or one law, one verse, one phrase, or
even just one letter, is obligated to treat him with
honor, as we find that David learned only two things
from Achitophel, and he called him, 'My teacher, my
mentor who enlightens me.' Thus, if David gave
Achitophel this honor for just teaching him two
things, all the more so is the one who learns a
chapter, a law, a verse, a phrase, or even just a
letter from his companion is obligated to treat him
with honor."
The Ten Commandments embody the entire Torah, as
taught by Rav Saadiah Gaon. Furthermore, just as
the entire Torah is embodied in the Ten
Commandments, it is embodied in its every single
letter. However, one can only realize this if the
source of the soul of the teacher from whom one is
learning is from the World of Unification. If the
teacher's soul is from the World of Separate, then
the student learning from him also can only receive
separate teachings.
This, then, is what it means, "David learned only two
things from Achitophel" — the two things were
separate teachings.
Translation and Commentary by Rabbi Yehoshua
Starrett
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