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BAAL SHEM TOV STORY
Following the Weekly Torah Reading
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THE SNORING
GUEST
"The master symbolists (sorcerers) tried to produce
lice with their hidden arts (incantations), but they
could not." (Vaeira 8:14)
And then there was the time that a guest came to
visit the Baal Shem Tov at his home. After dinner,
they discussed deep concepts in Torah until
very late in the night. The Baal Shem Tov invited
the guest to sleep in his house and everyone
adjourned to
their rooms.
Very early in the morning, the Baal Shem Tov's son
Tzvi Hirsh, who was still a small boy, awoke from the
loud noise of the guest snoring. He became
frightened and rushed to his father's room. "Father,
do you hear that noise from our guest's room? It is
really scary to me and I can't fall back to
sleep."
The Baal Shem Tov put his arm around his son and
said, "Hershele, just quietly tip-toe to his room, open
and close his door and he'll stop snoring."
Tzvi Hirsch reluctantly left the comfort of his father's
side and went to the guest's room. There he quietly
opened and closed the door to the room.
Immediately thereafter, the guest stopped
snoring.
The next night, the guest stayed again. As with the
night before, the guest started to snore loudly. Tzvi
Hirsh again awoke from the noise. This time, he
went and opened and closed the door as his father,
the Baal Shem Tov, had told him the night before.
However, the guest
did not stop snoring.
Tzvi Hirsh went to his father. "Father, can you hear
the guest snoring? I did the same thing you told me
last night. But this time, it didn't work."
The Baal Shem Tov explained, "Last night, the Angel
of Sleep was discharged and a new one was
appointed. Between the discharge of the first Angel
of Sleep and the installment of the new Angel of
sleep,
the ploy worked. But once the new Angel started his
job, the ploy no longer worked."
And so it was.
Adapted by Tzvi Meir HaCohane from a story in
SHVICHEI HABESHT and translated in IN PRAISE OF
THE BAAL SHEM TOV by Mintz and Ben Amos.
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TORAH BAAL SHEM TOV
Selection from Sefer Baal Shem Tov on the Torah
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"I revealed Myself to Abraham, to Isaac, and to
Jacob, as G d Almighty, but by My name Y-H-V-H, I
did not make Myself known to them. (Vaeira 6:3)
I heard from the holy Rabbi Yacov Yoseph HaKohen
(who certainly heard it directly from the Baal Shem
Tov),
that the letters of the word "to" — el1 —
refer to the Alupho shel Olam (the Master of the
World), with the lamed, which is composed of three
lines. This is as much as he said.
This can be compared to a flowing
fountain. If the pipes that carry the water are
clean, then the water will also be pure. But if the
pipes are not clean, then the water will be dirty. So
too, each person, depending upon his level, upon the
Torah he studies and the spiritual work he does,
draws a holy outflow from the Supernal Fountain
through the channel of his soul. If these conduits
are clean and free of damage, so that he draws
through them the Alupho shel Olam, then the water
and [spiritual] outflow they carry will be clean and
pure. But if, G d forbid, he damages the channels of
his soul, so that the Master of the World is not
revealed through them, then the outflow that
descends through them will not be clean.
This is the meaning of the verse: "I
revealed Myself to Abraham, to Isaac, and to
Jacob." The word 'el' is mentioned before each one,
for each one drew the aleph — the Alupho shel Olam —
through the lamed, which is the three clean conduits
of his soul.2 Thus, G d appeared to
each of them in that very same aspect of "el" —
as "E-l Shakai" (G d Almighty). This is the holy
emanation that flowed out to them from the Supernal
Fountain.
This principle applies to the entire Torah, to
laws of the permitted and forbidden, or Torah
legislation, as my grandfather said, that the three
forefathers are represented by the three judges
(that sit on a rabbinical
court).3
Degel Machane Ephraim, Vaeira
1Spelled aleph lamed.
2Referring to the three columns on the
chart of the Sefiros: the right hand column
embodying the Sefiros of expansiveness — Chochmah,
Chesed and Netzach; the left hand column
embodying the Sefiros of Limitation — Binah, Gevurah
and Hod; and the middle column with the Sefiros of
balance: Kesser, (Da'at), Tiferes, Yesod and
Malchus.
3Every rabbinical court — a beis din —
must be comprised of a minimum of three judges. The
Baal Shem Tov explained that they correspond to the
three columns of the Sefiros, embodied by the three
forefathers, Abraham (Chesed), Isaac (Gevurah) and
Jacob (Tiferes).
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 51
Sometimes a person prays with constricted
consciousness, until, in one minute, the light of his
soul shines and he rises to the supernal
world,1 like a person who climbs a
ladder. Thus it is written: "Send Your light and Your
truth, they will lead me" (Psalms 43:3) — that
is, the supernal light.
Likutey Ikarim, p.3d
1The Degel Machane Ephraim writes a
similar thought, in the name of the Baal Shem
Tov: "'A song of Ascents: I lift my eyes to the
mountains, from where will my help come?'
(Psalms 121:1) I lift my eyes to the mountains —
that is, to the [higher levels of] consciousness; for
the 'mountains' are the 'Forefathers' [the upper
Sefiros]. When I see that at times this
consciousness leaves me, G d forbid, then 'from
where (m'ayin) will my help come?' Because I see and
understand this, my heart is broken and I become
nothing (ayin). Therefore, my help will come from
the Infinite (the Ein Sof)." The meaning of this
passage is that when a person, having lost the
connection with G d, becomes humble and contrite,
making himself like nothing — ayin — then a new light
shines on him from the Source of All, which is the Ein
Sof, the One Without End.
Translation and Commentary by Rabbi Dr. Eliezer
Shore
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THE LIGHT OF THE EYES
On the Greatness of the Baal Shem Tov
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Section 41
Once, the Baal Shem Tov was outside the city with
his students, and the time for the afternoon prayer
arrived. His disciples said to him, "There is no water
to wash our hands for prayer." He took his walking
stick and struck the earth, and a spring of water
burst from the ground. It flows until today, near
Mezibush, and is called the Baal Shem Tov's well,
even by the
non-Jews who live in that area of Ukraine. The
water has the power to heal a
person of fever immediately.
The Baal Shem Tov did many miraculous
things, the likes of which were not seen since the
days of the Tannaim, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and
Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa. And all of it was due to his
constant attachment to G d.
Notzer Chesed, chap. 6
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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Section 68
The Baal Shem Tov taught:
"What is the difference between the disciples of our
forefather Abraham and the disciples of
Bilaam?"1
The question here is obvious. The
answer is that even the disciples of Abraham possess
the trait of a proud spirit, and the opposite is also
true, that the disciples of Bilaam possess the trait of
a humble spirit. The only difference is that Bilaam's
disciples use their traits in material matters, and
Abraham's disciples use their traits in spiritual issues.
That is, the disciples of Abraham elevate their hearts
in G d's service with their proud spirit and aspire to
perform great deeds, while the disciples of Bilaam
perceive themselves as unworthy with their humble
spirit and absolve themselves from fulfilling G d's
will.2
1Tractate Avoth 5:19.
2The notion that we do not deserve to
serve G d is a spiritual obstacle for anyone who lives
with awareness of G d's greatness and man's
comparative insignificance. The only way this notion
can be overcome is by realizing that even the most
awesome spiritual beings are insignificant before G d,
as is the awesomeness of the cosmos. Nevertheless,
beyond all human comprehension and above all
human rationale, the Infinite G d chose the
infinitesimal mortal man on this speck of dust Planet
Earth to serve Him and perfect His creation.
Experiencing this awareness is indeed simultaneously
the epitome of humility and paradoxically the peak of
pride, and is the point at which the human "I," ani,
dissolves into the Divine "I," Ani.
Translation and Commentary by Rabbi Yehoshua
Starrett
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