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TALES OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV
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In the last edition of Parsha Devarim, the Baal Shem
Tov explained to his two young students that his
special relationship with Alexei
was partially due to how Alexei's father had given him
a book from Adam Baal Shem.
In the early years before the Baal Shem Tov
became known
far and wide, he earned his living as a "shochet,"
a ritual slaughterer, in the village of Koshlevitz. At that
time, he had but two faithful pupils, who were eager to
learn whatever he taught
them. Their names were Yitzchak Dov and Meir, the
young
sons of the Rabbi of Yozlovitz. They clearly recognized
the
greatness of their teacher even though he kept all of
his wondrous
qualities completely hidden. In fact, they left their
father's
home and chose him as their teacher - this man who
worshipped the Almighty in secret like no one else in
his generation.
The Baal Shem Tov loved youngsters and children. He
knew how to capture their hearts and gently persuade
them to grow into the way of the "chasid" like himself.
So these two were the very first of the many fine,
Jewish youngsters who had the good fortune
to learn Torah from this master teacher who at
that time kept
himself unnoticed and unknown.
Especially when the Baal Shem Tov prayed, when he
stood with all his thought wrapped in the words of
prayer that he whispered to the Almighty - the two
young pupils felt his holiness.
Once he said
the
afternoon prayers, "minchah," in that village of
Koshlevitz, and all the vessels in the house quivered
and shook. Indeed, it seemed to the two that even the
sacks of wheat in the field nearby were shaking and
dancing. They felt a fearful, awesome holiness, just
as if they were standing at Mount Sinai when the
Almighty came amid the fire to give His people the
Torah.
In the summer, when he went out for the afternoon
(minchah) prayer, the Baal Shem Tov would go to the
woods to pray among the trees, taking his two young
pupils with him. At that time, it seemed to them that
the trees in the woods were singing
along for joy. The sound of the moving, waving boughs
and leaves was so sweet to their ears, like a new
hymn ol praise in the minchah prayer, that the trees
were chanting - the trees which loved so much to be
alone here in the woods, far from the noise and tumult
of tov/n and city life. As the sun was setting, beginning
to disappear beyond the horizon, the green trees
bowed low in the sighing wind, to whisper their prayer
to the Creator in heaven. Just like Jews in the
synagogue, they swayed back and forth in their prayer.
How much Divine natural harmony there was in this
outpouring of pure, clear prayer by the trees in the
woods, which had never sinned, never done anything
evil, and never hurt anyone. They grew tall and
spread their leaves, so that wanderers and travelers
on foot could rest in their shade. Their branches
provided wood generously for the fires in the stoves of
the little synagogues and houses of study, where
good Jews sat learning Torah night and day.
It was wondrously pleasant to hear this prayer of the
trees, as they bid farewell, with their blessing, to the
sun that had given their thick branches light and
warmth so lovingly through the day. The youngsters
thought they could almost hear the holy call of the
trees to the great golden sun, "Goodbye, till we meet
again."
The two youngsters watched the face of their beloved
teacher, cast in shadow, as he stood completely
alone, apart from the whole world. His mind knew
nothing but the prayers he was saying. He was all by
himself, like the trees around him. He did not even
know now that he himself existed, a human being with
a body. He only heard the whispered prayers of the
trees, and he prayed with them.
When the prayer was over, they returned from their
walk in the woods; and the Baal Shem told his pupils
then a wondrous story about Rabbi Akiva. With the
freshness of their young minds, they listened when he
told them what Rabbi Akiva used
to say when he sat teaching Torah to his thousands of
pupils. That great sage would remember all the
foolish things he had done from his childhood on (he
had not started learning the Torah till he was forty).
Then Rabbi Akiva would say aloud, for all his pupils to
hear:
"I thank You, L-rd my G-d, that You
have made
it my lot
in life to be among this who sit in the house of Torah
study, and You have not made it my lot in life to be
among those who sit in corners (in idle
pursuits)."
The youngsters enjoyed hearing this prayer that Rabbi
Akiva used to say with his pupils, and they quickly
learned its words.
The next day, when the time came for the afternoon
prayer (minchah), the sky was covered by thick clouds,
and raindrops were falling. The youngsters wanted to
go with their teacher into the woods, as always; but he
made them stay behind, for fear that they might catch
cold.
Late that night the Baal Shem Tov came back, his face
all red, drops of sweat rolling down his forehead. As
stared at their teacher, from his head to his heels, they
saw that his shoes were torn and had holes in them,
as though someone or something had bitten into
them with sharp teeth.
Frightened and trembling, they pleaded with him to tell
them what happened. With all his love for the
youngsters and his wish to tell them, he still
found it hard to speak, because he always ran away
from any kind of honor or glory, and he feared
becoming known and famous. They become only
more curious, however, and they pleaded with him to
tell them what happened.
The Baal Shem Tov was certain his two
pupils knew how to keep a secret. They would
definitely remain
silent about something he ordered them not to tell
others.
Impressing on them now that they must never tell this
to anyone, he began:
When I finished "shemoneh esreh," the long silent
prayer of Minchah, a lion suddenly appeared. As I
continued the afternoon prayer, saying "aleynu," the
lion came closer and began tugging at my clothes;
and I began shivering with fear. Then I stopped and
asked myself, "Where is my fear of Heaven? Where is
my faith in the Almighty? In the Torah He said that the
fear and terror of man is to be upon every beast of the
field." This is what He told the good pious man Noah.
So why should I be afraid of this beast?
And then I began battling with the lion. It bit my
shoes and clothing, but I struck it powerful blows, and
I
won. It ran off into the woods, yowling.
The youngsters looked at their teacher with admiration
in their eyes. To think that he had won a battle with a
lion. The scene, as they imagined it, filled them with
happiness. Yet at the same time they felt a keen
disappointment. Why had he not taken them along,
so that they could have seen this?...
"Rabbi,"
they
exclaimed, this is just like the story in the Torah about
Samson and the lion. He also fought it and won."
"Well," said the Baal Shem Tov, "you just remember
well
all that I have told you. There will come a time when
people will tell about my actions - what I have done but
they won't tell about my fear of Heaven, my faith in the
Almighty. So you remember!!"
Just then, the door opened and a man entered.
When he saw the youngsters sitting at the table with
their teacher, he exclaimed for joy, "Thank Heaven I've
found you, alive and well. Your parents are sitting at
home filled with worry, almost in tears. They are afraid
you have become lost or have wandered off
somewhere on the road or in the forest, and perhaps
some wild beast has torn you to shreds. You must
return home at once."
"Go, dear pupils, go," said the Baal Shem Tov. "It is an
important mitzvah for you to respect and honor your
father and
mother."
With tears in their eyes they embraced him and took
their leave, giving one last shout, "Long live our rabbi."
And so it was.
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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"All the commandments which I command you this
day shall you observe to do." (Devarim 8:1)
There is one great principle - that a person must
attach himself to the inner dimension of the Torah and
the commandments. One must bind one's thoughts
and soul to the root of the Torah and the mitzvos that
one fulfills. If not, one cuts and separates
the "shoots."1
I received this from my Master, and I also found it in
the book Chesed l'Avraham, nahar 14.
Ben Poras Yosef, p. 21a
1A Talmudic term implying that one
posits a division between G-d and creation. In
this case, the Baal Shem Tov applies it to a
separation between the soul of the Torah and its outer
manifestation. The Talmud states that the Elisha ben
Abuya "uprooted the shoots" when he became an
apostate.
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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4.b4 Prayer can change a judgment from bad to good.
Nachmanides1 asks about the nature
of prayer: How
can it improve a Divine decree?2 Can
G-d's
Will be changed?3 If a person were was
praying for
himself, we could understand how His Will can be
changed. For just as he changed his own behavior
from bad to good, so G-d's decree can be
changed from bad to good. But this principle should
not apply to prayers offered on someone else's
behalf.
The Baal Shem Tov explained, in the
name of his Heavenly teacher,3 that
prayer sweetens
the judgment of Malchut, which is called
Din,4 in its
root in Binah. When you pray in this way for a friend,
you bind them to their Supernal root, and they become
a different person.
To explain this further, it is known that the
Divine decree is a drop of seed in the womb of
Malchut, and that it is composed of letters. As the
Talmud says: "Betzalel knew how to combine the
letters that went into the creation of heaven and
earth."5 Now, the King of Kings surely
does not carry
out His decrees Himself. He appoints an emissary,
who makes use of the word-combinations that convey
the decree. However, the emissary can rearrange the
first letters of the words so that they imply something
else.6
Now, the Tzaddik is the emissary of the
Shechinah,7 who knows how to sweeten
the
judgments and bind the drop that is in Malchut to
Binah, thus transforming it into something else.
Katones Passim, p. 47b
1Ramban, Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman
(1194ce.-
1270ce)
2See also the commentary "HaKosev"
on Ein Yaakov,
Berachos, chapter 5.
3Seeing that G-d's Will is part of
His
Essence, since
He is unchangeable, so His Will is unchangeable.
4 The prophet, Achiya HaShiloni.
5Judgement.
6 Berachos 55a.
7The Baal Shem Tov here specifies
recombining the
first letters of words to change the meaning of the
decree. However, in other lessons, he speaks about
different types of letter combinations that can alter the
decree that descends from above.
The Divine Presence; the Sefirah of Malchut of
Knesset Israel, the collectivity collective of the Jewish
souls. Literally, the "Matron," a phrase from the Zohar
for the Shechinah.
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 19.
When the Baal Shem Tov first
took up residence in Mezibush, several of the local
rabbis opposed his teachings and his way of
practicing Judaism. These same rabbis visited him
during the holiday of Succos and told him that his
succah was not built in accordance to Torah law. The
Baal Shem Tov argued that his succah was kosher.
Then, he rested his head in his hands for a few
moments. When he lifted his head and opened his
hands, he held a piece of parchment. On the
parchment was written, "The succah of Rabbi Yisrael
Baal Shem Tov is kosher. Thus says Matat, the Prince
of the Countenance."
That parchment was inherited by the Baal Shem Tov's
grandson, the holy Rabbi Moshe Chaim Ephraim of
Sudilkov. Whenever someone became ill, he would
tell the family to place the parchment under the sick
person's head. The person would immediately
recover.
This practice continued for two years. The parchment
was put under the pillow of every sick person and he
or she would immediately get better. During the entire
two-year period, not one person in the city of Sudilkov
passed away.
One day, they put the parchment under the head of a
sick person, and it disappeared. Reb Moshe Chaim
explained that it had been revealed to him that Heaven
was not pleased with what he was doing, for all those
born must eventually die. Therefore, he had prayed
that the parchment be taken back.
I heard from honest people who heard
directly from the Tzaddik Rabbi Yoskie, the grandson
of Rabbi Moshe Chaim Ephraim, that he personally
saw the parchment in his grandfather's possession.
From a Letter of the Rabbi of Mezibush
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 34.
"Sometimes, violation of Torah is its observance. We
learn this from G-d's telling Moses after his
breaking the Tablets, 'That you broke,'1
which implies approval for his having broken
them."2
The Baal Shem Tov taught:
How can violating the Torah possibly enhance its
observance? This can understood with the fact that all
things yearn to return to their source. Therefore, when
one eats, drinks, or is otherwise involved in mundane
affairs, he is "violating" the Torah by his not studying it
or explicitly serving G-d at that time. His soul
then has a chance to rest from its enthusiasm, and it
gathers new strength to return to an even higher level
of closeness to G-d. This spiritual
phenomenon is alluded to in the verse, "The
chayoth/angels run to and fro,"3
and this is why "violating" the Torah
sometimes is its observance.4
1Exodus 34:1.
2Tractate Menachoth 99b.
3Ezekiel 1:14.
4Toldot Yaakov Yoseph, Tazria 2;
Devarim 2. There are two reasons why this must be
so. Firstly, if one were not to periodically "cool down"
from intense spiritual experiences, one might reach a
stage whereat one's soul would become so united
with G-d that it would completely lose its
separateness, at which point it would not be able to
return to the physical body. Another reason is
because perpetual pleasure loses its glamour, and
becomes boredom. Thus, if one were constantly
experiencing peak spiritual pleasures, they would no
longer be pleasurable experiences. And regarding
why one then rises to even more intense experiences,
this is because the anguish of separation intensifies
the pleasure of return.
Translation and commentary by Rabbi
Yehoshua Starrett.
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