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TALES OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV
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"L'Chayim" -- "To Life!"
Reb Feivel was a
simple Jew. He had a little farm
in the Polish countryside and lived a meager life with
his wife and four children. But he had a
dream.
From the minute he heard about the
Baal Shem Tov he longed to see him. For years he
saved and scrimped until finally this year he had
enough for the journey and to hold his family till he
returned.
The weather smelled of winter. It was the Jewish
month of Elul the month of 'tshuva' (spiritual return).
Then there would be the month of Tishrei: Rosh
Hashanah! Yom Kippur! Succot! Simchat Torah!
Hundreds, even thousands of Chassidim would be
there together; learning, praying, hearing the words of
the Holy Baal Shem, and seeing his holy face. He
couldn't wait!
After a five-day journey cramped in a wagon with ten
other Chassidim he finally arrived in the town of
Mezibush.
What he had heard was right. Even the sky and the air
were different here; every molecule seemed to be
shouting, 'Rosh HaShanah is coming! The King of the
Universe is near!'
He was so excited! Everyone was heading into the
shul and he followed, suitcase in hand. In another
minute he would see him. He would see the Baal
Shem Tov in person!
But he was to be in for a big surprise.
The
room was packed with hundreds of Chassidim when
suddenly everyone became silent; the Rebbe was
entering!
The Baal Shem appeared from a side door, gave a
quick penetrating look around the room and suddenly
his eyes fixed on . . . Reb Feivel!
Feivel was in awe. This was the moment he had been
waiting for. But why was the Rebbe staring at him?
Everything was dreamlike; he vaguely felt that he was
the center of attention, but all he saw was the master's
eyes gazing deeply at him. Suddenly the Baal Shem
Tov lowered his head in deep thought, or perhaps
prayer, then looked up once again and called out "Reb
Feivel. Reb Feivel! Fool! Dolt! What are you doing
here?"
The silence was deafening, the Chassidim were
afraid to breathe. Something very strange was going
on; something was clearly wrong.
"Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" exclaimed the Baal
Shem Tov, "How dare you come into a holy place like
this!"
Feivel was confused, his head was spinning, he tried
to move but there was nowhere to go.
"Leave!" shouted the Baal Shem Tovt. "Leave here
immediately!"
He started moving backwards, afraid to turn his back
on the holy man but afraid to stay even another
second, his heart was thumping and a cold sweat
clung to his forehead.
He felt the door at his back, turned the knob and
stumbled outside, back first, into the street. He was
crying, disorientated, he stood up, brushed himself off
and walked zombie-like over to the carriage stand,
paid for the five day journey home, climbed in and was
on his way back in a dizzy stupor.
After a few hours the wagon stopped. "What's this?"
he asked, "Why are we stopping?"
"What? Never rode in a wagon before, Jew?"
answered the driver, "It's night-time, and we can't
travel at night! Here, look outside. See? It's night and
here's the inn. We'll stay here."
Poor Feivel was so bewildered by his encounter with
the Baal Shem Tov he didn't notice anything. He got
out of the carriage still clutching his old suitcase and
dragged himself into the inn.
To sleep was
out of the question, he was trying to digest what had
happened. He sat at table in a corner, ordered a beer
and tried to remember. Maybe he did do some sort of
sin. . . maybe it was a punishment. It's true he didn't
learn much Torah. But that couldn't be what the Baal
Shem Tov expelled him for; the Baal Shem Tov loved
every Jew, even unlearned ones.
He vaguely heard the sound of another carriage
stopping, and then joyous singing from outside. It got
louder and louder until the inn door burst open and a
group of Chassidim came pouring in. They were just
hours away from the Baal Shem Tov, boisterous and
happy.
"Give us vodka!" sang one of the group, "Tomorrow
we'll be with the Rebbe!"
"Oy!" groaned poor Feivel bitterly, "Oy, oy! 'The Rebbe'!"
And he began to weep quietly to himself.
Feivel was sure that the Chassidim didn't notice him
sitting in the shadows. He watched as they pushed a
few tables together, sat down, and began pouring
small cups of Vodka for one another, toasting
l'chayim, saying words of Torah and singing.
But all this joy only made poor Feivel more depressed.
Head drooping, he was looking down at the table
when suddenly he felt two Chassidim grab him under
the arms, lift him to his feet and pull him over to their
table.
He tried to resist, to protest, to beg them to leave him
alone, but to no avail. They had decided that he must
be one of the Misnagdim (opposers of the Baal Shem
Tov) -- how else to explain the long face? -- and that
they had an obligation to transform him.
It wasn't long before they forced him to take a drink
and say l'chayim with them, then another and in
another few minutes he too was singing and dancing
and the hours passed like minutes.
"Aha! What was that? A rooster crowed--it is already
dawn!'
The Chassidim paid for the drinks, piled back into the
wagon (accompanied by a very drunk Feivel still
clutching his old suitcase), shouted, "We're going to
the Rebbe!" and began another song.
Five hours later they were in Mezibush, out of the
wagon and on their way to the Baal Shem's shul. Two
of them had their arms under Feivel's and
were 'carrying' him with them.
"Ah yes!" mumbled Feivel, not realizing that he was
back in the exact same room that the Baal Shem Tov
evicted him from less than 24 hours ago.
Suddenly the room fell silent, the side door opened,
the Baal Shem entered the room and his eye again
caught Feivel. Feivel looked up, his eyes met the Baal
Shem's, and at that instant it was like someone threw
a bucket of freezing water on him.
He
snapped to rigid attention, and then began changing
colors; red from shame, white from fear, green from
dizziness, he wanted to run, to back out the door, but
he was too confused.
"Welcome, Reb Feivel" shouted the tzadik (holy
man). "My beloved Reb Feivel! Where have you been?
How I've worried about you."
Now Feivel was really mixed up. His mind was
spinning like a merry-go-round "What's going on
here?" he thought to himself. "Maybe yesterday never
happened, or maybe now I'm dreaming!" Then the
Baal Shem Tov beckoned him to come and the
Chassidim moved aside making a path for him.
He took Feivel's hand and explained. "My dear Reb
Feivel , you didn't know it but yesterday when you
entered, the Angel of Death entered with you. I
instantly realized that you wouldn't live to see Rosh
Hashanah.
"I tried praying for mercy but to no avail; it had been
decreed in heaven that your time had come. I had to
act fast. It is known that embarrassing someone is
public is like killing him, so I spoke harsh words to
that Dark Messenger that I knew you and everyone
else would think were directed to you. I thought that
maybe shaming you would fulfill the heavenly decree,
but it didn't; the angel was now dancing over your
head.
"So," I thought to myself, "maybe with the Angel of
Death it will help to be smart. I figured that if I told you
to leave you'd probably catch the first carriage back
home and your home is a five day journey so you
would have to stop at an inn at night. When you got to
that inn I reasoned that you probably wouldn't want to
sleep, so you'd probably sit awake at one of the tables
all night.
"Now, the Chassidim on their way here also aren't
able to travel at night and would have to stop at that
inn as well, and they also won't be able to sleep
because they'll be too happy. For sure they wouldn't be
able to bear seeing someone sad like you, so
probably they would try to cheer you up by making you
sit with them and have a little vodka. Now when the
Chassidim drink vodka they don't just make a
blessing, they say 'L'Chayim' which means 'To Life!'
Right?
"Maybe you don't know it, Reb Feivel, but according to
the Torah when three observant Jews sit together they
have the power of a Judicial Court. In other words,
when they all raised their cups to you and
declared: 'To Life!' this was like a legal decision for life
that overrode the power of the previous Heavenly
decree (because the Torah was given primarily to
humans, not angels)."
"And I see that it worked: the Angel of Death has
departed. Welcome to Mezibush!
And so it was.
[Adapted by Yrachmiel Tilles from the rendition of his
friend and colleague Rabbi Tuvia Bolton, the popular
teacher, musician, recording artist and storyteller, in
his weekly email for the yeshiva which he heads, Ohr
Tmimim (www.ohrtmimim.org/torah )].
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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 taught:
Is not Rosh
Hashanah a holiday?
It says in the Mishnah: "The holiday of Rosh
Hashanah." It is a day of joy, and so we make the
blessing "Shechiyanu."
As for the Arizal's statement that a person should cry
on Rosh Hashanah, that is for the exile of the
Shechinah, and in order to be judged favorably by
G-d.
For it is written: "Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the
sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing
prepared; for this day is holy unto our L-rd. Be
not grieved, for the joy of the L-rd is your
strength."
(Nehemiah 8:10).
We cry out of joy,
because "He has
enlivened us and sustained us." Therefore, since it is
a day of joy, it is appropriate to remember Jerusalem,
as it is written: "If I do not set Jerusalem above my
greatest joy" (Psalms 137:6). For we accepted this
upon ourselves by oath and by curse, as it is
written: "If I forget you Jerusalem, let my right hand
forget" (ibid. 137:5).
Kesser Shem Tov, part 2, p. 22b
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.b2 Pray over the lack in the whole or of the
Shechinah
The Baal Shem Tov taught:
One should not
rise to pray except with koved rosh. That is, do not
pray for something that you lack personally for your
prayer may not be accepted. Rather, pray over the
heaviness in the "head" (A reference to the
Shechinah) for whatever you lack is also missing in
the Shechinah. A person is a part of G-d. What
is missing in the part is also lacking in the whole, and
the whole feels the deficiency of the part. Therefore,
you should pray over the lack in the whole.
Tzava'as HaRivash 73
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 24.
The Admor,1 Reb Yitzchak of Skver,
related that one Simchas Torah evening, the Baal
Shem Tov was dancing among his Chassidim with a
Sefer Torah in his arms. He gave the scroll to one of
his disciples to hold as he danced alone.
Another disciple, Reb Isaac, saw this and re-
marked, "Our holy Rebbe gave the tangible scroll
away while he himself kept the spiritual scroll."
The Baal Shem Tov heard this and
exclaimed, "I am surprised that Reb Isaac was able to
observe and understand this!"
Sipurei Baal
Shem Tov
1Acronym for "Adonainu, Morainu,
VeRabbeinu," a phrase meaning "Our Master, Our
Teacher, and Our Rebbe.
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 44
The Baal Shem Tov taught:
The letters of Torah study and prayer are the vehicles
for dveikut/Oneness with G-d. One must
concentrate
one's thoughts and one's deepest being on the
deepest spirituality that lies within the
letters.1 This is the deeper meaning of
the verse, "May He kiss me with the kisses of His
mouth,"2 which refers to the
dveikuth/union of souls,3 as alluded to in
the verse, "If you lie down between the
lips."4
Thus, when one extends the pronunciation of a word,
this is a sign that one has become one with it, since
he does not want to leave that word.5
1The Hebrew letters are actually
symbols of the deepest spiritual secrets in Creation,
and serve as conduits to transmit those spiritual
energies into the world. All these different energies
symbolized by the different letters ultimately all come
from G-d, and are thus different expressions
of the
One. If one is able to enter deeply into a meditative
state whereat the letters and the words that one is
uttering are experienced as different expressions of
the Divine wisdom and love that they indeed are, one
then "unites" with G-d, as if with a kiss, since
his
human mouth uttering those words is then one with
G-d's, so to speak.
2Song of Songs 1:2.
3Zohar II 124b. This refers to both the
uniting of two human souls in this manner, and to the
uniting of man's soul with G-d. The intense
experience of union on the human level is a metaphor
for the union of the human soul with G-d.
4Psalm 68:14. This verse is interpreted
this way in the Tikkunei Zohar, quoted by Rabbi Moshe
Cordevero, in his Pardes Rimonim 8:13.
5Rebbe Nachman of Breslov expounds
on this idea and says that while one must continue
from one word of prayer to the next, each word begs
the one who expresses it to remain with it in dveikut.
The solution, says Rebbe Nachman, is to make the
entire prayer into "one," which means that the dveikut
state achieved with each word be maintained
throughout the prayers, so that even when has
reached the last word, one is still with the first
(Likkutei Moharan I 65:2). This state of consciousness
can only be achieved when one has indeed reached a
certain level of "Oneness," whereat one's mind and
entire being are "at one" with G-d, and the
individual
letters and words are experienced as different
manifestations of the One.
Translation and commentary by Rabbi
Yehoshua Starrett.
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