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TALES OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV
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Cont'd. from Shabbos Naso
In the last installment, our still young Yisraelic worked
as the
shamash (custodian) in a little synagogue in the
holy
community of Okup, where he had been born. Time
passed Yisrael spent his time learning Torah in
private, without anyone knowing. Suddenly, a surprise
visitor, the son of Rabbi Adam Baal Shem came and
gave him a book of Torah from his father.
Before that time, Yisrael worked as a teacher's
assistant in a small village. When he moved to Okup,
he got his job as the shamash (custodian) of the little
local synagogue in Okup.
Once he started working in the synagogue of Okup, he
found that when the prayers were finished and
everyone left, he found there was no one to study
Torah with. In fact, really didn't know what he should
study.
The little synagogue
had a huge bookcase filled with large volumes of
Talmud and other holy books. But how could he learn
anything from
them? All the years of his childhood, when he had
been the teacher's assistant, it had always been his
task to teach the slow learners to read the
Hebrew words of the prayerbook and the Bible.
As he patiently worked with them, they could begin
understanding the Hebrew
Bible. But the teacher never had time to help him
learn how to study Torah.
So now that he worked in the synagogue, there wasn't
anyone to
teach him and all he could do was to clean and
straighten the books in the
synagogue. But what should he do after that?
Then, on the 18th of
Elul, young Israelic's 13th birthday, everthing started to
change.
Early in the morning of that day, the
door of the synagogue opened and two poor men
came in to daven.
They each carried a pack on their backs and a walking
stick. They seemed to be like the other strangers
passing through Okup who stopped off to
rest.
But then again, it seemed to Yisrael that
he recognized one of them. The man looked like the
old stranger who used to study with him when he was
a small child and was saying kaddish for his father,
Rabbi Eliezer. He remembered how each day, when
the
prayers were over and all the congregants were gone,
the old man would
sit and teach him Torah in
the greatest secrecy. In fact, Yisraelic had promised
that no
one else was ever to know
about them studying togehter, even his mother.
By this time, Yisrael was now quite certain
that one of these strangers was that very man. The
other stranger
he did not know at all.
As he thought about this strange occurrence, Yisrael
grew excited. Could it be
that Heaven heard his prayer? Perhaps this stranger
had come back to teach him
Torah again in the greatest secrecy. How good that
could be. With great respect he went over to them,
bowed his head, and bid them welcome with a friendly
greeting. The two strangers returned his greeting.
Then the old man he knew took him by the
hand and
led him to a table. On it were spread out many holy
books that the stranger had taken from his bundle. He
searched among them till he found an old, well worn
book. He picked it up and kissed it reverently, and
then told Yisrael, "This is a most holy book indeed." As
he opened it to the title-page Yisrael saw the name in
large sparkling letters: Zohar (the Book of Splendor).
At the bottom of the title page, again in large letters, he
saw the
Hebrew name of Jerusalem - for it had been printed
in the holy city.
Israelic could not take his eyes off it, as a great
happiness filled his heart. He had never heard of this
book. What was it about? Who had written it? While he
wondered, the stranger kept turning the
pages till he found a certain page.
He began
reading
a paragraph, and it was in Aramaic, the same
language as the prayer of kaddish that Yisraelic used
to
say as a very small child because his father had
passed away. Yisrael didn't understand it, but the
stranger translated it all into Yiddish, the language
that everyone spoke in those days.
The paragraph that the old man read was about
Dovid HaMelech, who became a great king of Israel
in ancient
times. "0n the very day that Dovid was a bar-mitzvah,
G-d
said to him: You are My son; today I have given birth to
you."
Yisrael was fascinated. Imagine he thought:
G-d told
Dovid, "You are my son!" From his thirteenth birthday,
when he became a bar-mitzvah, he was reckoned as
G-d's own son. If so, it would be even more
true for
him since both his mother and father had gone to the
next world and left him an orphan. From the
day of his bar mitzvah he wouldn't be an orphan any
more. There was a Father in heaven for all the
orphans. What were those beautiful words;. "You are
My son; today I have given birth to you." On his bar-
mitzvah birthday he would be like a new person, just
born.
The old man looked at Yisraelic's shining, enraptured
face
and kissed him on the forehead. "Did you understand
what you learned just now?" he asked.
"Oh yes, dear teacher, I understood."
Now the second stranger asked his companion in
Hebrew, "He understands?" The old stranger replied
in Hebrew, "Yes, my master and teacher, he
understands
completely." And so Yisraelic knew that the second old
man must be from the land of Israel. There everyone
spoke Hebrew the language of the holy Torah.
The first stranger was turning the pages of the book
again, and now he stopped at a page with the word
vayikra at the top. Yisrael almost shouted for joy: he
knew that word. It was the name of the first part (the
first few chapters) of the Book of Leviticus in the
Hebrew Bible. And that first part he knew by heart.
When he was the teacher's assistant, that was the
part of the Bible which he had to teach the little boys
who could not learn well. He had taught this part of the
Bible so often
that he knew it all clearly in his mind, word by word.
The old stranger pointed to the word atop the
page. "That's vayikra," said Yisrael happily. "I know
that portion of the Torah by heart."
"Very good," said the old stranger; and he began
teaching Yisrael the entire page, translating every
sentence into Yiddish.
To be continued next week. . . . .
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir Cohn (Howard Cohn
Patent Attrorney) from Legends and Stories of
the Baal Shem Tov by Rabbi Menachem Gutman
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Sefer Baal Shem Tov
The Baal Shem Tov's Teachings on the Torah
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And the name of that place was called Kivrot-
Hata'avah, because there they buried the people that
lusted. (Numbers 11:34)
I heard from my grandfather (the Baal Shem Tov) in
the name of the sefer Bris Menucha, that Kivrot-
Hata'avah is the aspect of Wisdom (Chochma),
because there they buried the people that lusted -
meaning, when a person attains the attribute of
Wisdom, all of his desires are annulled due to his
great attachment to
G-d.1
Degel Machane
Ephraim, Masai
1The Degel Machane Ephraim, loc. cit.,
explains that the location Kivrot-Hata'avah had the
power to annul the physical desires of the Israelites,
had they camped there with the proper intentions.
However, when they behaved improperly, failing to
attach themselves to its inner nature of that place, its
spiritual potential turned against them, and they died
in a plague, as the verses relate.
See also Sichos HaRan, chap. 51, by
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov: "Even a single point of
intelligence can stand up to the entire world and its
desires. And in every place it is possible to be close to
G-d."
Translation and commentary by Rabbi Dr.
Eliezer
Shore.
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HEART OF PRAYER
The Baal Shem Tov's Teachings on Prayer
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Section 3.12
Your intent should always to be draw close to
G-d.
In all your ways know Him. . . . (Proverbs 3:)
Even
when you simply relate events to your friends, you
should intent to draw close to G-d. Then, if
someone asks you to do some mitzvah or pious act,
you can fulfill their request, since you are already
close to
G-d in the mundane talk. This is the mystery
of the letter vav, which bends down to the letter hey to
uplift it. Understand this well, for it is a great unification.
Toldos Yaakov Yosef, Terumah, p. 70d
Translation
and
Commentary by Rabbi Dr.
Eliezer Shore
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DIVINE LIGHT
The Mystical Light of the Baal Shem Tov
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Section 12.
"I heard that a certain
reincarnated soul came to the Baal Shem Tov for a
tikkun.1
The soul had belonged to a
great man who
had lived in the time of the Arizal.2
The soul had not
been permitted by Heaven to go to the Tzaddikim of
previous generations and had been waiting centuries
for the Baal Shem Tov, so that it could be repaired."
Rabbi Shlomo HaKohen of Radamsk author of
Tiferes Shlomo, Shabbos Chanukah
1Spiritual repair
2Arizal - acronym for Eloki
Rabbi Yitzchak - the
Divinely inspired Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (1535 -
1572) - whose teachings became central for virtually
all Kabbalistic thought thereafter.
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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KST. 22
"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."
1
The Baal Shem Tov taught:
This Mishnah is difficult to understand.
Firstly, what does it mean by, "only two things"?
Secondly, whatever it means, the teaching derived
from that instance cannot be more extreme that that
instance itself,
[and how can we learn from here even "one law, or
one letter?]
The answer is that whatever one learns from
a fitting Torah teacher, that teaching will bear further
fruit within the student, but if one learns from a wicked
person, that teaching will not bear fruit, but will remain
within the student the same as when he learned it.
2
Thus, if David learned from the wicked Achitophel only
two things - because they bore no fruit and remained
only two things, as he had learned them from him -
yet David called him his teacher, one who learns from
his companion, that is, that they are both righteous
people, in which case the Torah transmitted will bear
fruit, is certainly obligated to treat him with honor.
This also explains why the sages taught Torah "in the
company" of Torah,3 [so that the Torah
being transmitted would multiply within the students].
1Tractate Avoth 6:3
2Toldoth Yaakov Yoseph, addendum
#19-20
3Tractate Berakhoth 63b
Translation and commentary by Rabbi
Yehoshua Starrett.
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