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TALES OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV
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"The tenth of this seventh month (Tishrei) will be a
Day of Atonement (but it will only atone for those who
return to G-d). It is a holy celebration (Yom
Kippur) for
you when you must fast . . . It is a Day of Atonement,
for
you to be atoned before G-d your L-rd."
(Leviticus
23:27)
REB MOTL
In the holy community of Polonnoye, there lived a
devoted chassid of the Baal Shem Tov known as Reb
Motl. He owned a modest grocery store and was
known for being generous in extending credit to the
poor and providing them with their needs.
As a businessman, Rabbi
Motl had his ups and downs, but even during difficult
times, he never desisted from providing groceries on
credit to needy Jews. Finally, Reb Motl overextended
himself with his wholesalers, and had to sell all his
property to repay his debts. Only his modest house
remained his. He went to the Baal Shem Tov for
advice and a blessing.
After hearing of his plight, The
Baal Shem Tov told him: "The arrendeh of the city (a
lease to produce and sell whiskey) is available.
Submit a letter asking to be granted the arrendeh, and
ensure you write it with great praise for the Poritz and
his generosity. When the Poritz (the local duke and
landowner) has a hearing regarding the matter, do
not go. Even if he sends for you several times still do
not go, but wait until they send a carriage for you
before you consent to go. You should turn your house
into an inn to rent to weary travelers."
There were several applications for the
arrendeh but the Poritz could not come to an
agreement with any of them. The Poritz was so
aggravated, that he gave over the matter to his wife to
handle. She finally came across Reb Motl's letter and
was taken by Reb Motl's flattering words for the
Poritz. She sent a message to Rabbi Motl to appear
before a hearing on the matter, but he refused to go,
saying that he did not feel well and he could not walk.
The Poritz's wife sent a second messenger urging
Reb Motl to please attend, but he still refused. Finally,
the Poritz's wife sent her personal carriage for Reb
Motl. He then agreed to go, as the Baal Shem Tov
had instructed him.
When the Poritz's wife offered
him the
arrendah, he refused explaining that he did not have
the means to distill whiskey.
The Poritz's wife pleaded with
him to take
the arrendeh and she finally said: "I will give you
several hundred sacks of grain at no cost so you can
distill whiskey, if you will agree to rent the arrendeh."
Reb Motl finally agreed to the delight of the Poritz's
wife.
In the end, Reb Motl made a handsome
profit on his new venture and continued to be
successful in his small inn, and even more charitable
then before.
On another occasion Reb Motl had a
business opportunity that involved cattle. He
consulted with his Rebbe, The Baal Shem Tov, on the
matter. The Baal Shem Tov advised him: "Do not
trade in oxen." But the deal seemed such a great
opportunity to make a great deal of money that Reb
Motl forgot The Baal Shem Tov's advice. He invested
in the business of trading oxen and ended up losing
all of the money.
On several other occasions, he sought
the Baal Shem Tov's advice and blessings in various
other business ventures. Each time he didn't listen to
The Baal Shem Tov's advice and lost money in every
situation.
In one deal, not only did he loose all the
money he invested but ended up owing a large
amount to a local Poritz.
The Poritz was enraged by the
Reb Motl's
debt. "If that Reb Motl doesn't pay me, I'll shoot him!"
Reb Motl heard about the Poritz's threat and didn't
doubt he would carry it out. So Reb Motl went to the
Baal Shem Tov and stayed there for all of the High
Holidays. The Poritz summoned Rabbi Motl to court,
but he replied with a message that he couldn't repay
debt because he simply had no money.
The day after Yom Kippur, early in
the
morning, the Baal Shem Tov asked Reb Motl to
accompany him to the mikveh." He went with him.
After the morning davening, the Baal Shem Tov told
Reb Motl to return home. Reb Motl was deathly
afraid. "But Rebbe, what will happen when I go
home?"
The Baal Hem Tov replied: "Do not fear and do not
loose resolve." (Deuteronomy 1:21)
Reb Motl returned home and
celebrated the holiday of Succos with his family, but
he could not stop worrying about what would happen.
Once, while staring
out of the
window, he saw a group of about 50 herdsmen called
Haidamaks returning home from a trip. They had
searched for lodging throughout the town without
success. When they came to Reb Motl's Inn, he
graciously welcomed them and found room to
accommodate them all. He also provided them with
ample food and whisky. When his guests drank all
the whiskey, he ran his next-door neighbor and
bought two barrels of brandy to serve his guests.
With the money he earned, he purchased more
brandy from another neighbor. He made so much
money was able to purchase a cask of brandy. The
herdsmen were able to eat and drink to their fill. For
the next several days, they stayed at his inn, drinking
copious amounts of brandy and eating day and night.
Even before they departed, he had earned enough
money to pay his debt.
As the last of the herdsman
left, The Poritz, his hunting rifle in hand, arrived on his
horse. Banging on the door he screamed: "Reb Motl,
give me my money or else!"
Reb Motl hesitantly opened
the door. "Master, I have the money I owe you. Please
come in and I'll pay you in full and offer you a drink of
brandy as well."
The Poritz sat down as Reb
Motl placed sack of gold coins on the table. "Here is
the full amount of my debt."
The Poritz was
placated by the
sight of a large sack of gold coins and a glass of
brandy in his hand. "Reb Motl -let there be no hard
feelings between us. I was told that you were not able
to pay your debt, and I became upset. But now I see it
is a lie. Please keep the money as a loan at no
interest, to continue to run your Inn. But Reb Motl
refused to keep the money - he knew that the Talmud
teaches that one should not rely on miracles.
When Reb Motl
recounted the
story to his Rebbe, The Baal Shem Tov said: "This
nobleman was very fortunate, because, if you had not
obtained the money, he would have had to die."
And so it was.
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir HaCohane (Howard M.
Cohn, Patent Attorney) from a story in Shivchei HaBest
as translated in In Praise of the BAAL SHEM TOV by
Ben-Amos and Mintz
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SEFER BAAL SHEM TOV
The Baal Shem Tov's Teachings on the Torah
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The Baal Shem Tov's Teachings on the Torah
And the L-rd said to Moses: Speak to the priests. . . .
(Leviticus 21:1)
This is what the verse says: "Day to day utters
speech" (Psalms 19:3)1
I heard from my Master [a commentary on the
verse]: "Day to day utters speech, and night to night
expresses knowledge." The Sages have said, "A
person is judged first2 for the time he
wasted from Torah study, as it says: 'The beginning of
strife is [like] the release of water' (Proverbs
17:14)."3 Does a person really believe
that he can escape judgment due to the burden of
making a living by day, and the [need to] rest from his
work at night? The days of winter contradict this, and
the nights of summer destroy [his
argument].4
Ben Poras Yosef, p. 127c
1From the Midrash on this verse
(Vayikra Rabbah 26:4).
2In the World to Come.
3Sanhedrin 7a. The simple meaning of
this verse is that strife and contentiousness break
forth like a gush of water. Water is a classic metaphor
for Torah, as in the verse: "Ho, every one that thirsts,
come you for water. . . " (Isaiah 55:1). However, the
Talmud interprets this verse different: "The beginning
of strife" - that is, the beginning of a person's
judgment is over "the release of water" - the time he
wasted from studying Torah.
4In the past, most people would work
only until nightfall. The short winter days prove that a
person can finish work early and still make a living,
thus contradicting the argument that a person must
work long hours, leaving himself no time for Torah
study. Likewise, the short nights of summer
demonstrate that a person can make do with less
sleep and still function. Why, then, should he need so
much sleep the rest of the year, rather than study
Torah?
The connection of this teaching to the verse from
Psalm 19 may be that day and night express words
that negate a person's arguments. Alternatively, the
Midrash that cites this verse (Vayikra Rabbah 26:4),
speaks of the day and night as "borrowing" from each
other throughout the year. The long summer days
borrow hours from the night, and the long summer
nights borrow hours from the day. Only on the spring
and autumn equinoxes are day and night equal. This
is in order to prove to people that there is always time
to study Torah.
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HEART OF PRAYER
The Baal Shem Tov's Teachings on Prayer
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7.b8 Pray in a low voice and say the words with all of
your strength.
Train yourself to pray in a low voice, even Pesukei
D'Zimrah.1 Though you scream out
inside of yourself, speak the words of prayer in a
whisper. In fact, say the words with all of your strength
whether during your prayers or your Torah study. As it
is written, "All my bones will say, G-d, who is
like
You!"2 That is, this crying out, born out
of attachment to G-d, should be in a whisper.
Tzava'as HaRivash 33
1(lit. verses of praise); The selection of
passages which appear early in the morning prayer
service and lead into the declaration of faith.
2 Psalms 35:10
From
HEART OF PRAYER by Tzvi Meir
HaCohane
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DIVINE LIGHT
The Mystical Light of the Baal Shem Tov
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50. The Baal Shem Tov gave the following parable.
"Once, the king of beasts, the lion, became enraged
with his subjects. They gathered together to decide
how to appease him. The fox said that he would lead
them to the lion, since he knew three hundred
parables with which to appease him. As they
journeyed to see the lion, the fox kept saying that he
had just forgotten a few more of the parables. By the
time they reached the lion, he said that he had
forgotten everything. Therefore, he said, each one
should approach the king and appease him to the
best of his abilities."
The fox's intention from the beginning, though, was
only that they all follow him and surrender to the king.
Similarly, the Baal Shem Tov urged people not to rely
on the prayers of the cantor on the Days of Awe, but
that each individual should pray for themself. Ma'or
Va'Shemesh: Shemini
From DIVINE LIGHT by Tzvi Meir
HaCohane
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KESER SHEM TOV
Anthology of the Teachings of the Baal Shem Tov
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Kst 87
The Baal Shem Tov taught:
"Sweetening the harsh judgments at their source,"
spoken about in the writings of the Ari z'l, is
accomplished by a transmutation of letters, for any
decree is only letters. This is the deeper meaning of
Noah being instructed to make a window - a tzohar -
in the ark: he was supposed to mitigate the harsh
judgments into mercy by transmuting the letters of
misfortune - tzarah - to tzohar.1
This is also alluded to in the verse, "When you go out
to war against an enemy [in Hebrew, ha'tzar] . . . .
sound
a stacatto on the trumpets."2 For the
sound of a
stacatto arouses joy, the opposite of the sound of the
shofar, which arouses fear. This means that by
accepting the pangs of battles with joy, the suffering -
tzarah - is transformed into Divine grace - ratzah.
This is accomplished by binding the harsh judgments
connected with Malkhuth to Binah,3 or
by finding within
the harsh judgments some element of kindness to
which the judgment can be attributed. Then, the harsh
judgment is mitigated at its source in kindness, and
is revealed to be indeed kindness. 4
Furthermore, the Hebrew word for ark can also
mean a word, thus the verse would be explicitly
saying, Make the word into tzohar!
1 Furthermore, the Hebrew word for ark
can also mean a word, thus the verse would be
explicitly saying, Make the word into tzohar!
1 Numbers 10:9.
2 Furthermore, the Hebrew word for ark
can also mean a word, thus the verse would be
explicitly saying, Make the word into tzohar!
3 Malkhut is connected with a state
of "not knowing,"
as the Malkhut is referred to as "having no eyes,"
while Binah is connected with a state of
understanding. Hence, when one is able to transcend
one's not knowing, to submit one's human
understanding to that of G-d, one is able to
mitigate
the harsh judgments by accepting them as being
G-d's "better judgment," even if one does not
understand it.
4 Toldoth Yaakov Yoseph, Noah #3.
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