|
ORIGINS OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV
|
|
OBST 26
In the last weeks selection, the boy followed Reb Yoel's advice and was able to retreive the signed letter given by his father to a demon.
Many days passed until finally Reb Yoel permitted the boy to return to his parents in Eretz Yisroel. He blessed him and the boy sailed homeward.
On the trip, the ship stopped off at an island and the boy got off to walk around for a few minutes. When he returned to the dock, he saw the ship had already sailed without him. Disappointed and frightened, the boy was at a loss. He looked around for some kind of a road but he found none. He went and wandered on a narrow winding path until at length he came to a hut in the midst of a forest. He knocked at the door and an old woman opened it. He was ushered in and the boy told her his whole life story and begged her to let him rest a while and eat something.
The woman guessed from his narrative that this was her grandson and that his father was her son. She was the mother whom the rabbi had sent away together with her drunken husband because he couldn't stand the shame they were causing him. In the meantime, her husband had become a drunken thief who robbed and murdered anyone who came within his clutches. She fell upon her grandson's neck, kissing him and she too told her story how her husband had become such a wicked sinner that he turned against his own son. She said that if he saw his grandchild, he was even liable to kill him.
The boy begged his grandmother to hide him and when the old man came, to try to arouse kindly feelings toward his son, their only son, until he agreed to forgive him. Then she should reveal the boy's hiding place.
The woman followed the boy's suggestion and hid him in the attic. When her husband came home and had dined and was sated, she began talking to him with gentle words. She cried for her only son who was gone now. She tried to arouse his sympathy and emotions, and then to her surprise, she succeeded!
The old man heaved a sigh, his heart softened within him and longings for his only son welled up in his heart. When she saw how grieved he was, she trusted in these newly aroused emotions and revealed that their grandson was in their very house.
When the old man saw his grandson, he embraced and kissed him lovingly. He listened to his grandson tell of his father's story and of his own experience as well. The boy also related what had occurred when he had been by Reb Yoel the Baal Shem. He told of the demons and spirits he had seen and how they had finally returned his father's signed agreement. There was just one thing that he withheld from his grandfather, that was the story of the stick from Gehennom.
To be continued. . . . . .
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir HaCohane (Howard M. Cohn, Patent Attorney) from a story in Moroim Gdolim as translated in Tales of the Baal Shem Tov by Y.Y. Klapholtz.
|
|
THE BAD WIFE
The following story appears in the preface to Chacham Tzvi, a famous book of Halachic responsa:
And then there was the time, that the Baal Shem Tov, wishing to fulfill the mitzvah of serving .scholars, asked that he be shown from Above which particular sages of his generation would qualify. In response, he was given a choice between three geonim: the author of Pnei Yehoshua, the author of Tevuos Shor, and Rabbi Efraim Ashkenazi. The Baal Shem Tov chose Rabbi Efraim Ashkenazi and traveled to Brod.
By nature, Rabbi Efraim was extremely sensitive to cold; he was usually found wrapped up in several layers of down comforters and blankets in a fruitless attempt to warm himself.
He also made regular visits to the steam bath. In the steam room he would always climb up to the highest and hottest level; at such times, only the "Sar Hashalom" of Belz (who was then a little boy) was allowed to accompany him.
It was a known fact that it was dangerous for women to encounter Rabbi Efraim Ashkenazi on his way to the bathhouse; a woman who was unaware of this was once inadvertently injured.
After the steam bath the gaon would return home and drink hot water.
When the Baal Shem Tov met Rabbi Efraim for the first time, the latter was shivering, as usual, beneath his covers. "What do you want?" the gaon asked.
"I would like to assist you," the Baal Shem Tov replied, "to fulfill the precept of serving Torah scholars."
"In that case, go out to the yard and fetch some wood," Rabbi Efraim instructed. "You can stoke the furnace to warm the house."
The Baal Shem Tov did as instructed. In fact, he fanned the flames so high that the sage tossed off his comforters and blankets and even removed the thick outer garment he always wore. In fact, the house became so overheated that the Rebbetzin came running to investigate and began screaming at her husband.
The Baal Shem Tov was aghast. What had he done? Instead of doing a favor for a talmid chacham, he had unintentionally caused him suffering!
Rabbi Efraim took one look at the Baal Shem Tov's face and understood his distress. "Don't feel bad," he told him. "It sometimes happens that an evil woman can bring about much good. Let me tell you what happened to me. . .
"One time, when my soul ascended to the higher realms, I saw a man being brought before the Heavenly Court. Confronted by all his misdeeds, he was forced to listen as each one of his many transgressions was enumerated: such and such a milzvah he had neglected, that commandment he had ignored, another time he had shirked his responsibility, etc. To each charge, the man insisted he was innocent. 'It wasn't my fault!' he protested. 'I had a bad wife. She never let me do what I was supposed to and she was the one that forced me to sin."
"'What are you talking about?' one of the angels standing nearby interrupted. 'Don't tell me that because of a woman you sinned and didn't observe mitzvos. That's no excuse; you're still guilty under the law.' The angel refused to accept the man's alibi.
"When I heard the angel speak like that," Rabbi Efraim continued, "I was furious. How dare he! What did he know about wives, and about bad wives in particular? I burst out and declared that in my opinion, the angel's words should be totally disregarded.
"The Heavenly Court agreed with me. It was decided that the angel should descend into this world to experience the phenomenon for himself.
As a flesh and blood person, he was wed to a very bad woman as soon as he turned thirteen; she made him so miserable that he became physically ill. In the end, the couple came to me for a divorce.
'"You see?' I told the husband-angel, 'This will teach you to refrain from making judgments hastily!' Two years later he passed away."
The Baal Shem Tov was consoled by Rabbi Efraim's story.
And so it was.
.
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir Cohn (Howard M. Cohn, Patent Attorney) from a story in Extradordinary Chassidic Tales by Rabbi Rafael Nachman Kahn
|
|
SEFER BAAL SHEM TOV
The Teachings Of The Baal Shem Tov On Prayer
|
|
These are the accounts of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of the Testimony. . . (Exodus 38:21)
We need to understand why, when the parasha list all the details that went into [the construction of] the Tabernacle and the vessels, it concludes each case by stating that it was done "as G-d commanded Moses." Why does it mention this each time, rather than making a general conclusion at the end, that everything was done "as G-d commanded Moses"?
The Torah is teaching a fundamental lesson in the service of G-d and the fulfillment of the commandments, be it shofar, succah, Pesach, tefillin, etc. Each one consists of action, words and intention, i.e., thought. The underlying intentions of the commandments and prayers are great and awesome, and few people, even those on a high spiritual level, grasp more than a minute portion of the intentions that the Men of the Great Assembly put into the prayers.1 The same holds true in the performance of the commandments. And yet, every Jew must partake of these three aspects. Because the physical act of the commandment creates a garment for the soul in the lower Gan Eden,2 and the intention put in the commandment creates a garment for the soul in the higher Gan Eden.
The answer, then, is to include oneself and ones intentions - be it in prayer or in the performance of commandments, in one's weekday meals, and all the more so, in the three meals of Shabbat - with the "perfectly faithful of Israel,"3 who know the inner meaning of the prayers and the commandments, according to the Men of the Great Assembly.
This is the meaning of the Arizal's statement that one should precede each prayer with the words: "I hereby accept upon myself the positive commandment to shall love your fellow as yourself,'" for then one includes one's own prayers with those who know how to unite the supernal attributes. Let these words be sufficient.
Now, in building the Tabernacle [in the desert], the builders' thoughts were focused on building the Supernal Tabernacle, as the verse says: "And the Tabernacle was erected" (Exodus 40:17) - that is, when the Tabernacle below was erected, so was the Tabernacle above.4 And while their thoughts and intentions were carried out in the physical world below, they had in mind the spiritual world, to build the Tabernacle above, which is the secret of the creation of heaven and earth and all the worlds. However, not every mind can grasp this. Therefore, after the construction of each vessel of the Tabernacle, the people clearly stated that they were doing it according to the inner intention that G-d commanded Moses.
This is also as we say [before the performance of each mitzvah]: "May the pleasantness of the L-rd our G-d be upon us, and establish the work of our hands, and establish the work of our hands" (Psalms 90:17).
Ben Poras Yosef, Introduction, p.8-9
1The Men of the Great Assembly (c. 4th century B.C.E.), formalized the prayer service that has been used until today.
2Gan Eden literally means "the Garden of Eden," but refers here to the spiritual dimension that the soul ascends to after death. According to Kabbalah, when the soul leaves the physical body, it enters a spiritual body, called the "Garment of the Rabbis," that is formed of all the good deeds and mitzvos that the individual performed during life. And just as a living person has a physical and a spiritual side, an outer and inner dimension, so the soul after death has an outer dimension, the "Garment of the Rabbis," and an inner dimension, that was formed by the intention one put into the performance of the mitzvos in this world. Furthermore, as the soul continues to ascend after death, the inner dimensions become externalized to become outer garments, and new inner dimensions become revealed. See R. Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin, Tzidkas HaTzaddik 155.
3I.e., the Tzaddikim.
4Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Sisa 18; Zohar 2:240a.
|
|
DIVINE LIGHT
The Mystical Light Of The Baal Shem Tov
|
|
23. After Shabbos, Reb Elimelech asked the cantor to tell him about the holiness of the Baal Shem Tov. The cantor told him about awesome things that no one had heard before.
Primarily, he spoke of the Baal Shem Tov's love and awe of G-d, and how he would perform soul ascensions to the spiritual worlds while fully conscious in this world. He would gaze into all the chambers of Torah and see the Divine Chariot. When the Baal Shem Tov would recite Hallel, he would not say a verse until he saw the angels who recited that particular verse and heard the exquisiteness of their song, and could recite the verse with them.
He related the awe-inspiring holiness of the Baal Shem Tov from the day of his birth. He described how he would speak to the souls of Tzaddikim, with Elijah the Prophet, and most often with the Arizal, who was constantly with him.
Once, the cantor related, the Baal Shem Tov asked the Arizal (who was already in the next world) why he had openly taught mystical secrets of the Torah outside of the context of worship. The Arizal answered that if he had lived another two years, he would have taught the mystical secrets of the Torah in the context of prayer so that the lost G-dly sparks in everything in the world would have been rectified.
The cantor spoke about how the Baal Shem Tov's soul ascensions occurred while his body lay still, and how the Baal Shem Tov would speak to Moshiach and with our teacher Moses.
He talked about how the Baal Shem Tov was an expert in the "Work of Creation," the "Work of the Chariot," and in the entire Torah. He described how the Baal Shem Tov spoke the language of every creature and the language of the angels, and how he was filled with love and awe of G-d and all possible virtues of character, including piety, humility, and love of Israel.
Reb Elimelech commented that all the spiritual attainments attributed to the Arizal also applied to the Baal Shem Tov - perhaps even more so. He further said that that which is written about the Arizal is a drop in the ocean compared with the totality of who the Arizal really was.
The cantor also told Reb Elimelech that every Friday afternoon, during the Mincha prayer, tens of thousands of souls would gather around the Baal Shem Tov, and he would spiritually heal their soul and help them return back to their source.
From the Manuscripts of Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac of
Komarno
From DIVINE LIGHT by Tzvi Meir Cohn
|
|
HEART OF PRAYER
Anthology of the Teachings of the Baal Shem Tov on Prayer
|
|
9-d2 You must fix the sparks that belong to you.
Whoever says "Shema, Shema . . ." (That is, if he recites the prayer Keriyat Shema twice in a row) - Foreign thoughts that come to you during prayer or learning Torah contain those very sparks of holiness that you yourself caused to fall, whether in your present incarnation, a previous one or from the sin of Adam who contained all the souls of Israel. Thus, each Jew must fix the sparks that belong to him, for when you pray and long to attach yourself to holiness, those sparks also come to be repaired. One must be very insightful about foreign thoughts during prayer for they are one's own strengths that come to be repaired.
Divrei Moshe, Lech Lecha
HEART OF PRAYER by Tzvi Meir
Cohn
|
|
KESER SHEM TOV
An anthology of Teachings on the Torah by the Baal Shem Tov
|
|
Kst 64
The Baal Shem Tov said in the name of Rav Saadiah Gaon:
A person should learn a lesson from his desires for physical pleasures how he should desire to serve G-d and love Him.
1
1This teaching is mentioned in Ben Porath Yoseph 88b in connection with the teaching of the previous section. In this context, the prince in that parable sublimated and transformed his desire for the young lady into a desire for wisdom, and ultimately for G-d. Doing this, though, requires getting in touch with and experiencing that baser desire, for only then can one experience it as concealing a desire for G-d, and only then can one learn any lessons from it.
|
|
