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TALES OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV
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THE HOLY SABBATH BEANS
And then there was the time that the Baal Shem Tov
called his closest disciples, "Friends, I'm going to
show you something that you've never seen before.
Just be sure to stay close to me next Sabbath."
The disciples were so excited that they could hardly
wait for the next Sabbath to arrive.
Shabbos finally came and they stayed close to the
Baal Shem Tov during the prayers, as instructed.
When the prayers were coming to a close, they
noticed that the Baal Shem Tov was staring at the
furthermost corner of the Synagogue. Intrigued, they
looked over, but didn't see anything unusual. Just a
very poor, simple looking Jewish man praying. But,
upon closer inspection, they realized he was praying
with great intensity and joy.
The prayers ended and the Baal Shem Tov motioned
his disciples to follow him as he left the synagogue.
They went outside into the cool night air and began
walking down a nondescript dirt road, their path
illuminated by the moonlight. After a few minutes they
stopped at a house. It was not so much a house as it
was a hovel. They realized that this must be the
home of the poor Jew they had seen at the
Synagogue.
The Baal Shem Tov motioned his disciples to come
closer. They stood in silence at the front door, and
heard the following conversation that took place
between the poor Jew and his wife.
"Good Shabbos, my dear wife," he greeted her joyfully,
his face breaking into a wide smile.
"And a good Shabbos to you, my scholarly husband,"
she replied with a soft laugh.
Soon they could hear the husband singing Shalom
Aleichem (Peace to you), and Ashet Chayil to his
wife. When he was finished singing, he turned to his
wife and asked her to bring in wine for Kiddush. But
the couple was so poor that there was no money for
wine. So instead, she placed two small Challos on
the Sabbath table and said, "My dear, we don't have
wine so please make Kiddush over the
Challah."
"Okay then, we'll make Kiddush over the Challah. I'm
sure it will taste as delicious as the most special,
fragrant wine.
After Kiddush in Jewish households on
Friday night, it is customary for there to be four
courses served. So the husband proceeded to ask
his wife to begin the meal. "My dear, please serve the
fish course."
His wife stood up and crossed to the other side of
their one room house, and returned bearing a platter
of cooked beans. She placed a spoonful of beans on
each of their plates and said, "May it be G-d's
Will that
these beans taste like a delicious fish."
As they ate the beans, their faces shone with delight.
After singing a few Shabbos melodies, the husband
said, "Thank G-d we have everything we need
to
celebrate the holy Sabbath. So let's have the soup
course."
They both took another spoonful of
beans. "Umm,
what a wonderful Sabbath soup," they remarked to
each other.
Then they had a third spoonful of beans for
the meat
dish and a fourth spoonful as dessert.
"Come, sweet wife, let us dance to celebrate
the Holy
Shabbos." So they got up, danced around their
Shabbos table and laughed and laughed."
"Now, it is quite obvious that the fish wasn't
fish. And
the meat wasn't meat. They were eating beans. Were
these people crazy, deluded? Had lack of food driven
away their common sense?
It would have been easy to doubt what happened if
you hadn't witnessed the aforementioned scene. But
the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov were there. And,
as they stood outside the little house that was
illuminated with Shabbos candlelight, they began to
feel a warm glow well up within themselves. An
inescapable joy that made them want to sing and
dance, and praise G-d.
The Baal Shem Tov whispered, "You are each
experiencing Shabbos joy like the joy this holy couple
have been feeling. You should know that it is not the
simple food that they tasted, but the Shabbos
itself."
And so it was.
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir Cohn (Howard M. Cohn,
Patent Attrorney) from a Story translated in STORIES
OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV by Y.Y. Klapholtz.
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SEFER BAAL SHEM TOV
The Baal Shem Tov's Teachings on the Torah
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In the beginning, G-d created the heaven and
the earth."
It was impossible to create the world, for it would have
expanded infinitely. Therefore, G-d looked at
the deeds of the wicked,1 and greatly
contracted His
light.2 Then he looked at the deeds of
the righteous
and drew down a line of life, in the mystery of "below
and not below."
All of this is known from the writings of our Master, the
Arizal, and the Light of Israel, the Baal Shem Tov.
Heichal HaBracha, Bereishis
1The Midrash states that before the
creation, G-d foresaw the deeds of the
righteous, and
created the world on their account. However, the world
that G-d desired to create on their account
was overflowing with love for them. As such, it was
unable to exist in the Divine Effulgence. G-d
therefore looked at the deeds of the wicked, which
resulted in a withholding of His light. But it was
precisely this withholding that allows the world to
exist. There is a constant pendular movement,
between the desire to create and the desire to
restrain. This is known as "below and not below."
2According to the teachings of the Arizal,
the first
stage in creation was the tzimzum; the contraction of
G-d's light to make room for the existence of a
finite universe.
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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5.b6 Asking the letters of prayer to help you speak the
words with true and selfless intent.
You must actually ask the letters of prayer - the secret
Divinity that exists within them - to help you speak the
words with true and selfless intent. This sweetens the
Gevurah (Divine judgement) at its root.
Degel Machane Ephraim,
Beshalach
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 23.
The Baal Shem Tov taught:
Joyous prayer is certainly more pleasing to
G-d than depressed and tearful
prayers.
For example, a poor man who
entreats the king with great sobs and cries will still
only receive a little. However, when a minister joyfully
praises the king before him and then makes his
request, the king will bestow upon him bountifully, as
befits the minister's stature. Tzava'as HaRivash,
107
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 43
"It was said that whenever Rabbi Yonathan son of
Uziel sat down to delve into the Torah, any bird
straying over his head was burnt by his
words."1
"No fly passed over the table of the prophet
Elisha."2
The Baal Shem Tov taught:
Wherever a person's thoughts are, so is he
surrounded by spiritual worlds that mirror his
thoughts. If his thoughts are holy, so is he
surrounded by holy worlds, but if his thoughts are
impure, so is he surrounded by impure worlds.
By the same token, wherever a person's thoughts are,
and whichever worlds surround him, so is he
surrounded in this earthly world, be it with kosher
birds and animals, or non-kosher birds and
animals.3
And there are three categories of worlds: the pure, the
impure, and the in-between. Above these categories
is the world of pure thought, which cannot be
fathomed.
This, then, is why any bird straying above Rabbi
Yonathan son of Uziel was burnt,4 and
why no fly passed over Elisha's table, by way of which
his host knew that he was a holy man, because his
thoughts were holy.
1Tractate Sukkah 28a.
2Tractate Brakhoth 10b.
3In the source text (Ben Porath Yoseph
56d-57a), the Baal Shem Tov adds that whatever
happens to a person is also a mirror of his inner
world. Thus, G-d is constantly talking to each
and everyone of us, trying to make us aware of what is
going on inside us. And hence, when we see some
human act "out there" that is "non-kosher," we should
look inside ourselves for similar failings, rather than
judge the other person.
4"Straying birds" is an allusion to
straying thoughts, which were "burnt" by Rabbi
Yonathan's Torah study. Similarly, no fly, being a non-
kosher creature, flew over Elisha's table, because his
thoughts were always holy.
Translation and commentary by Rabbi
Yehoshua Starrett.
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