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TALES OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV
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In the last edition of the Tales of the Baal Shem Tov,
Rabbi Eliezer (the Baal Shem Tov's father) had been
abducted
by Tartars and sold as a slave to a Moslem nobleman.
Like
Joseph in the Torah, Rabbi Eliezer soon became the
nobleman's personal attendant and in charge of his
palatial home.
Now, this nobleman was the advisor to the
king's lieutenant (the second-in-command to the
King) was frequently at the royal palace.
Whenever he returned, Reb Eliezer would greet him
with a large pitcher of water to wash his feet (since it
was the way of Moslems
to go barefoot).
One day, the
nobleman returned from the royal palace fuming with
anger. And when Reb Eliezer came out to wash his
feet as usual, he angrily waved him away.
By now, Reb Eliezer could fluently speak the
language of the Moslems. Softly and gently he asked
his master to tell him what was troubling him.
"It is hopeless," answered the nobleman. "The
king's lieutenant, asked my advice about a battle
strategy. The King is about to wage war against our
enemy across the border, and they need some
brilliant plan, some stroke of genius, to give them a
surprise victory. Whatever can I tell him? And he even
said that if I don't come up with a plan, there would be
some reprecussions."
"Well," said Reb Eliezer, still softly and
gently, "perhaps you could tell me the details of
whatever the king's lieutenant told you; and then
between the two of us we will think of
something."
Calmed by his servant's voice,
the nobleman told all he knew of the battle plans, the
enemy's forces, the nature of the battlefield, and so on
and so forth. Almost immediately, Reb Eliezer set out
the brilliant, detailed battle plan that was needed.
The plan was sound, simple, amazingly clever and
made victory virtually certain.
Yelling in delight, the nobleman rushed off to
the
royal palace to tell the plan to the king's lieutenant.
And when the king's lieutenant heard the
plan, he
too was thrilled and delighted. But then he grew
thoughtful and stroked his beard.
"Just one moment," he said to his advisor. "You have
been giving me your good counsel for years, and I
know how your mind thinks. There is no way that you
thought up this plan by yourself. By the beard of the
prophet, tell me who gave you this
plan!"
Left no choice, the nobleman admitted that the idea
came from his servant, known as Reb Eliezer.
"That man," said the
king's lieutenant "will no longer be your servant - not
with a brain like that. As soon as you return home,
send him to me!"
A few days later, when the the king's army went off to
battle, Reb Eliezer found himself as the
commanding general. Dressed in a striking uniform,
he rode to the battlefield side by side with the king's
lieutenant.
After a few days of travel, they approached a fortress
by the seashore that protected the enemy's main city.
The king' lieutenant was eager to attack at once,
directly against the fortress.
"Steady," said
Reb Eliezer, still softly and gently. "That approach
could easily result in defeat with heavy losses of our
troops. If it pleases your eminence, I have a
plan."
And he suggested sending a shipload of men to
attack the fortress by sea. "Of course," he added as
the king's lieutenant frowned, "they cannot hope to
win - and most will be killed. Therefore do not send
regular soldiers but only prisoners condemned to die.
When they attack they will divert the enemy forces to
their side of the fortress. Then we can attack by land
both at the front and the side of the fortress, catch
them by surprise and win a resounding victory."
The plan succeeded perfectly and the enemy
surrendered. To his surprise, Reb Eliezer found
himself hailed as a conquering hero when the troops
returned to the king's palace. For his reward, he was
given the daughter of the king's lieutenant for a wife.
Soon thereafter, the king's lieutenant died and Reb
Eliezer was appointed the king's lieutenant in his
place.
It soon became clear to his new wife that not only
would Reb Eliezer only eat bread and vegetables with
her, but he would not live with her as man and wife
usually live together. One day she demanded an
explanation from him. "Why," she cried, "are you
almost a stranger to me?"
"If you will swear an oath," he answered, "to keep my
secret, I will tell you." And she swore. "Very well," he
continued, "The truth is that I am not a Moslem but a
Jew, and I have a wife in my home town, to whom I
have been married many years. I will never desert her
and take another woman for my wife; for it is her I love."
The woman was deeply moved to see how faithful he
was to his true wife after a separation of years. "You
know," she said, "that there are no Jews living in our
land. We are devout Moslems, and we let no one of
any other faith live here." He nodded. But she was a
sensitive, noble spirit who could only admire him for
his loyalty to his wife. She had no thought of
endangering his life. "Here," she said, holding out a
box of jewels. "Take these to your wife as a gift from
me."
It soon became known at the royal palace that the new
king's lieutenant had to make a long trip around the
kingdom so that he could properly fulfill his duties. He
took leave of his (supposed)
wife, blessing her that she should find in his stead a
husband worthy of so fine a woman. Then bidding
farewell to the king, he set off, equipped with money
and the gift of the jewels.*
Once near the border, he managed to separate from
the royal servants who accompanied him, and made
certain that they lost sight of him. Then he changed
into ordinary clothing, leaving his elegant palace
robes buried in the ground.
So he crossed the border and headed for home, tn the
village of Okup. First, though, he would stop in Jassy,
to return to the tomb of the young bride and groom in
the synagogue courtyard. He had a vow to keep: to
offer up thanks to the bride and groom and to the
Almighty. For if he had been
sold into slavery like Joseph, he had risen like Joseph
to became a king's second-in-command. And now he
was safe and free.
There was an unexpected setback, however. On the
way to Jassy he encountered bandits, and for a short
while he was very uncertain if he would be alive much
longer. By a stroke of luck, though, the chief of the
bandits decided (purely by whim), to spare him. So he
left them all his money and the box of jewels, as
ransom for his life; and the man who had been a
king's
lieutenant now entered Jassy as penniless as the first
time he had come.
Still, he had a vow to keep. Impoverished though he
was, he was, he could yet thank the Almighty for being
alive, healthy and free. He made his way to the tomb
of the young couple by the synagogue, and there he
prayed: "0 L-rd, you have brought my spirit up
from
darkest doom; You have made me alive after I went
down into the pit. Sing praise to the L-rd, you
devout
servants of His."
Just then he heard a voice calling, "Welcome, Reb
Eliezer; blessings of peace. He looked around and
saw
a man standing at
the synagogue door, beckoning to him.
Reb
Eliezer
was puzzled: Who was this man? How did he know
his name? Trembling, he answered, "Blessings of
peace upon you."
And then he knew. He
was not
certain if he was awake or dreaming: but one thing he
knew: This was Eliyahu HaNavi (Elijah the prophet),
as he
always appeared on earth, like a poor man, with a
knapsack and walking-stick.
"I have come to tell you," said Eliyahu HaNavi, "that
Heaven has
heard your prayer. It was a great and holy thing that
you did, to give up so willingly your position as
second-in-command to a king, with all the wealth and
honor that you enjoyed; and you left the woman they
gave you for a wife - to be faithful to your own religion
and your own true wife. Together with all His holy
ones in heaven, the Almighty has decided to reward
you. A son will yet be born to you, and he will become
the head of the Jewish people of kindly religious piety
in - all the Chassidim. He will truly sing a
new song, a new melody in the world: a song of
praise to the Creator.
And so it was.
Th is true legend continues in the next edition of the
Baal Shem Tov times.
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir HaCohane
(Howard M. Cohn, Patent Attorney) from
a story in Legends and Stories of the Baal Shem Tov
by Rabbi Menachem Gutman z"l of Jerusaluem
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Sefer Baal Shem Tov
The Baal Shem Tov's Teachings on the Torah
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If he offers it for a thanksgiving. . .(Leviticus 7:11-12)
This is what the verse says: "A fool explains his sin"
(Proverbs 14:9). Rabbi Yuden said, "This fool has to
explicate his sins with his
mouth."1
The Baal Shem Tov taught that a person who
sins by night will inevitably tell people what he did the
next day. However, they may not understand what he
is saying, and he himself will be unaware as to what
his own words testify.
Once, the Baal Shem Tov was traveling
by wagon with several of his disciples. "You should
know," he
said, "that last night, the wagon driver slept with his
wife who is in nidah."2The disciples,
knowing that the Baal Shem Tov taught that a person
who
sins by night will inevitably tell people what he did the
next day,
were surprised. "We didn't hear even a suggestion of
this the entire day," they replied. Then for the rest of
the day, they started to pay closer attention to
everything the wagon
driver said.
It was almost sundown, and they stopped
at a roadside inn. The wagon driver jumped from the
wagon and rushed into the inn. The disciples followed
him
to hear what he would say.
"Sell me some
vodka," they heard him say to the innkeeper. The
innkeeper poured him a cup, and gave it to him. He
was about to drink it, when the innkeeper said, "Wait! I
will give you another cup, because that one wasn't
immersed in a mikvah."3
"So
what if it wasn't immersed?" the wagon driver
answered him.
When the disciples heard this, they
rejoiced and praised G-d, for they saw that He
shares His wisdom with His Tzaddikim and those
who fear Him. And they saw that the G-d's
words were indeed in the Baal Shem Tov's
mouth.
Sifsei Tzaddikim, Matos
1Vayikra Rabbah 9:2.
2Ritual impurity. The Torah forbids
marital relations during and slightly after a woman's
menstrual cycle. Furthermore, even after the
conclusion of her period, she must immerse in a
mikvah - a ritual pool or body of water - before she
can be with her husband. The Baal Shem Tov knew
this through his divine inspiration.
3All vessels that a Jew acquires from a
Gentile must also be immersed in a mikvah before
they may be used. See Numbers 31:23.
Translation and Commentary by Rabbi Dr.
Eliezer Shore
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THE HEART OF PRAYER
The Baal Shem Tov's Teachings on Prayer
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Section 3.1
The Baal Shem Tov
taught:
Every word you say in the morning
before prayer will influence your prayers.
Be careful with every word you say [in the morning], for
our Sages have prohibited even permissible words,
such as greeting someone before
prayer.1 For even
that can cause a blemish.
It is known that the world was created with thought,
speech and action. The first level is thought, from
which comes speech, and from there, action. When
you awake each morning, you are a new creation, as
the verse says: "They are new every morning"
(Lamentations 3:23). If your first words are about
mundane things (and all the more so, about
something forbidden2), everything you
say later will
be influenced, even your prayers and Torah study.
Because just as speech follows thought, so each
word follows the previous word.
This reflects the Zohar3 and
Arizal's4 teaching that
younger siblings must honor the
firstborn.5 For the
firstborn is like the main branch of a tree, whereas
later siblings are like offshoots from that main branch.
In our case, too, you must sanctify and purify your first
words and thoughts and attach them to holiness, so
that all subsequent words should follow them. Then,
when you start to pray, joyful in the mitzvah of having
sanctified your speech and thoughts, your words of
prayer will surely be answered.
Kesser Shem Tov,
20b
1Berachos 14a.
2Such as profanity, gossip or
slander.
3Zohar 3:83a.
4Acronym for Eloki Rabbi Yitzchak -
Rabbi Yitzchak
Luria (1534-1572)
5The Arizal writes that just as children
are obligated
to respect their parents, so must they respect their
firstborn sibling. For the firstborn represents the initial
creative act of the parents, from which all subsequent
births draw their vitality. Thus, Jacob said about
Reuben: "Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and
the beginning of my strength. . . ." (Genesis 49:3).
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 1.
A soul like that of the Baal Shem Tov
comes into
this world but once in a thousand
years.1
1 In name
of
Rabbi Yisrael of Koshnitz (1740-1814), a disciple of
the Maggid of Mezritch
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 262
The Baal Shem Tov taught:
A person should give rebuke with love, as the verse
says, "G-d rebukes the one He
loves."1
However, one who seeks to aggrandize himself by
rebuking, or who rebukes solely to make a living, and
tries to arouse the audience with a wailing voice, as
alluded to in the verse, "My tears were my
bread,"2
arouses dissent between the Jewish people and their
Father in Heaven.3
For there are three categories [of rebukers]: gold,
silver, and bronze. The Hebrew word for bronze is
nechosheth, which resembles nachash, which
means a snake. These are the rebukers who arouse
dissent, as said: they are "bronze," nechosheth -
snakes. Then there is a category of gold, which is
totally mercy.4
1Proverbs 3:12
2Psalms **:**. This means that the
rebuker uses his
tears to earn his bread.
3Toldoth Kedoshim 7
4Toldoth Kedoshim 5
Translation and Commentary by Rabbi
Yehoshua
Starrett
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