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TALES OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV
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THE JEWISH THIEF
"You shall not steal." (Yitro 20:13)
And then there was the time that a merchant returned
to his town of Whitfield from a buying trip, with a
wagon loaded with merchandise. He arrived late at
night and was too tired to open up his store and
unload the wagon. Instead, he un-harnessed the
horses and left the wagon outside by his store,
planning to unload it the next morning. After all, he
thought, "Who would steal such a large wagon?"
Later that night, a thief came by, harnessed other
horses to the wagon and stole it together with all the
merchandise.
The next morning, the merchant got up early and
rushed to his store and found his wagon missing. He
was beside himself. A number of his friends joined
him in his frantic search through the town. But there
was no sign of the wagon.
The merchant sent a letter with a friend to the Baal
Shem Tov advising him of his loss and requesting a
blessing that the wagon and his merchandise be
returned. When the messenger arrived in Medzibush,
he found the Baal Shem Tov kissing the mezuzah of
his house, as he left to attend a Bris (ritual
circumcision) in the holy community of Derzane. The
Baal Shem Tov took the letter from the messenger
and quickly read through it. He then instructed the
messenger, "Please wait here until I return." The
messenger agreed and took lodging at the local inn.
The Baal Shem Tov left in his wagon for the long trip
to the city of Derzane accompanied by Reb Zev his
scribe and Alexei his wagon drive. As they were
entering the city, the Baal Shem Tov saw a wagon
loaded with merchandise in the distance. He
asked, "Reb Zev, Do you see that loaded wagon over
there pulled by two horses?"
"Yes," answered Reb Zev.
"Do you remember the man that spoke to me just
before we left?" inquired the Baal Shem Tov.
Reb Zev nodded yes.
"That man," continued the Baal Shem Tov, "was sent
by a merchant from Whitfield whose wagon full of
merchandise was stolen. They requested my
blessing that the wagon and the merchandise would
be found and returned because it represented all of
the Merchant's wealth. And that very wagon full of
merchandise is the one that was stolen. So when we
get to town, immediately ask around and find out at
what inn the "owner" of the wagon is staying. Then, go
to that inn, find the wagon owner and tell him that you
know the wagon was stolen from Whitfield. Tell
the 'owner' to give it to you to return to the merchant.
Meanwhile, I'll go to the Bris."
Immediately upon arriving in town, Reb Zev inquired
and found that the man driving the wagon was staying
at a certain inn. He went to that inn and found the man
praying in his Tallis (prayer shawl) and Tefillin
(Phylacteries). Reb Zev was reluctant to call the man
a thief since he appeared innocent as he prayed like
any honest Jewish man.
Reb Zev rushed to the Baal Shem Tov and told him
what he had seen.
The Baal Shem Tov got very excited. "Return
immediately and tell that thief as I instructed you.
Otherwise he will soon leave town and the wagon and
merchandise will be lost."
Reb Zev ran back to the inn where the thief was
staying. This time he found the man eating breakfast.
He questioned the man about the wagon and the
merchandise. The man responded with a good story.
When the man stepped out for a minute, Reb Zev
questioned the innkeeper. "Did that man drink a lot of
whiskey like some kind of thief?"
"Oh no," answered the inn keeper, "He just had one
drink like many of us after the morning prayers."
Reb Zev left again without directly confronting the
man. He returned to the Baal Shem Tov and reported
all that had happened. He concluded with frustration
in his voice, "Rebbe, you must be mistaken. He is an
upstanding Jewish merchant and can't be a thief."
This time the Baal Shem Tov stood up and pushed
Reb Zev to the door saying, "He is not an upstanding
Jewish merchant, he is a Jewish thief. Now go and
confront him and call him a thief. Then prove your
accusation with the following signs." After Reb Zev
heard the signs, he rushed back to the inn.
As soon as he entered the inn, he walked up to the
man and said that the Baal Shem Tov had sent him.
He then told him that the Baal Shem Tov knew he was
a thief and had stolen the wagon and the
merchandise. Further, he offered to prove it with the
signs the Baal Shem Tov told him. "After the wagon
was stolen, you hid for three nights in the forest until
the owner gave up looking. During that time, you slept
in an abandoned cabin near the river. Then you
stayed at two inns until you arrived here in the city of
Derazene." After Reb Zev told him the signs, he
warned the thief, "You had better return the wagon
and merchandise to the Baal Shem Tov. He'll take it
back to the merchant. Otherwise, I don't even want to
think about what might happen to you."
The thief was flabbergasted. "You're right," he said, "I
confess, I am the thief. Take the wagon with the
merchandise."
Reb Zev asked the innkeeper to guard the wagon and
merchandise because he was going to the Bris with
the Baal Shem Tov.
When the thief heard Reb Zev speak with the inn
keeper, he thought, "Now that I'm a poor man, I might
as well go to the Bris and eat with the other beggars."
During the meal after the Bris, the thief approached
the Baal Shem Tov and asked, "I have a question to
ask you Rabbi. Since you know how thieves steal and
where they sleep, you must be able to see better
things than this. Why do you bother to pay attention to
bad things? Why don't you look at good things
instead?"
The Baal Shem Tov answered: "That is a very
profound question." He began to expound words of
Torah on this topic until the time of Mincha (the
afternoon prayers) arrived, and still he had not
finished.
Without notice, the Baal Shem Tov looked at Reb Zev
and said, "We should be going. That messenger is
still waiting for us to return with the merchant's wagon
and merchandise."
And so it was.
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir HaCohane (Howard M.
Cohn, Patent Attorney) from a story in Shivchei
HaBesht and 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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And all the people saw the voices, and the fire and the
voice of the shofar, and the mountain smoking.
(Exodus 20:14)
When the Baal Shem Tov would teach Torah to his
holy students, they would be surrounded by fire. The
ministering angels would gather around them, and
they could hear the thunder and lightning, and the
words "I am the L-rd your G-d," from
the mouth of G-d Himself.
This is well known to all.
Heichal HaBracha, Va'Eschanan, p. 28a
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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6-9 Be fearful when you speak.
You should be fearful when you speak, for the World
of Speech is the World of Fear. But when you speak
about matters of love and fear, you should first feel
fear, then fiery enthusiasm.
Tzavaas HaRivash, p. 10b
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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39. On the verse, Then Gd said to
Moses: 'Look, I am going to rain down for you bread
from Heaven. Every day, the people will go out and
gather enough for each
day,1
The Baal Shem Tov
taught:
A poor person has the privilege of speaking to the
Holy One every day. A rich person, however, receives
all his sustenance from Gd at once, and
doesn't need to ask Him for his daily needs - unless
he is very righteous, and realizes that everything he
owns is worthless without Gd giving it life-
force.
A poor person with nothing to eat must beseech
Gd each day. Thus, he merits speaking to
Him every day. Furthermore, Gd must also
remember the poor person daily, to arrange his
livelihood. However, Gd does not need to
remember a rich person each day, for He already
gave him everything at one time.
Rav Yebi,
Tehilim
1 Shemos 16:4
Translation
and
Commentary by Rabbi Dr.
Eliezer Shore
From DIVINE LIGHT by Tzvi Meir
HaCohane (Howard M.
Cohn. Patent Attorney)
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KESER SHEM TOV
Anthology of the Teachings of the Baal Shem Tov
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Kst-72
The Baal Shem Tov taught:1
Regarding thoughts, there are many different types of
thoughts, some good, some evil. But even within
falsehood there is truth, for the numerical value of
falsehood SheKeR is 600, which is inclusive of
truth EmeT the numerical value of which is
441.2
1Ben Porath Yoseph 126c.
2This teaching is found in the quoted
source immediately after the teaching of #71, and
continues the same idea. All evil and falsehood
conceals within it the good and the true, as alluded to
by the numerical values the numerical value of evil
(280) is also greater than of good (17), the large
difference perhaps implying that good is frequently
extremely hidden within evil, whereas falsehood must
contain a large amount of truth in order for it to be
accepted.
Translation and commentary by Rabbi
Yehoshua Starrett.
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