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ORIGINS OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV
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OBST 20
In the last installment, Reb Shlomo Moshe who was opposed to to bringing Reb Yoel, the Baal Shem to Posen to excorcise the demons, was silent about after his son had an encounter with one of the demons. It happened thus:
When Reb Yoel came to Posen he chose to stay precisely in the haunted house. He entered the Beis Medrash in the Goldsmidt house and held an extensive investigation concerning the spirits.
On Wednesday the Baal Shem summoned the Beu Din of Posen to him and told the judges to fast as a preparation for a judgment. At first they were completely surprised. What kind of a Din Torah would be held here?
The Baal Shem informed them that the Din Torah was to be between him and the spirits and it would take place precisely in the Beis Medrash.
The judges wondered about his request but did as they had been told.
They began fasting that same day and continued until the next day. Thursday. After the prayers, the judges sat at the bench ready to hear both sides of the case.
The Baal Shem called upon the band of spirits to come to the Din Torah. He first made them swear not to harm a soul when they entered or when they left. Everyone stood petrified, breathing quickly, hearts beating. After a short while, the demons appeared before the Beis Din.
The Baal Shem got up to speak.
"Evil spirits, I have summoned you to the court for having gone beyond the boundaries that G-d has designated for you. You have come to a civilized place which has been forbidden to you!"
A babel of voices was heard but no words were distinguishable. Reb Yoel turned to the chief judge and said: "In the name of the holy Torah and in the name of this court you must demand one of the spirits to represent
all the others and to speak clearly that all may understand."
The judge so decreed and a clear voice spoke out, "If the spirits have indeed gone beyond their limits it was done according to a law in the Torah and with the permission of Ashmedai, King of all the Spirits and Demons."
"Ashmedai has no right to send you among people. Your place is in deserts and forests, places where there is no civilization," answered the Baal Shem.
'The demon's voice was again heard.
"Indeed we do have the right. We acquired this heritage, we are the sons of Avigdor Tuvia and Sara Gitel. We were brought to earth by their evil deeds and curses and this house lawfully belongs to us and to none other," replied the spirit answering Reb Yoel.
To be continued. . . . . .
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir HaCohane (Howard M. Cohn, Patent Attorney) from a story in Sefer Hazichronos by Reb Yosef Yitzchok of Lubavitch, Zal
as translated in Tales of the Baal Shem Tov by Y.Y. Klapholtz.
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The Wisdom of the Martyrs
In 1753, there was a terrible blood libel leveled against the Jewish community of Pavlysh in Eastern Europe. Twenty-four Jews were falsely accused of murdering a four-year-old boy and draining his blood to use in baking Passover matzohs.
How utterly ignorant was this horrible lie! Jews never eat blood of any kind, and matzohs are made from nothing but flour and water. Anybody can come to a matzoh bakery at any time, and see for himself that this is the absolute truth. Yet throughout European history, Jews suffered horrible deaths at the hands of Christians who believed such hateful propaganda.
In this particular case, a Jew named Rabbi David escaped and fled to the town of Medzibush in the Ukraine, where the Baal Shem Tov was living at the time. The Baal Shem Tov re-assured Rabbi David that the false charges would soon be dropped, and the innocent Jews of Pavlysh would be set free again.
But that's not what happened. Somehow, the great Hasidic master's inner sight had failed him in this particular case. Twelve of the Jews were horribly tortured and executed; the other twelve saved their lives by converting to Christianity.
Rabbi David, who was still in Medzibush, received a letter describing the horrible tortures which the innocent Jews of Pavlysh had endured. He immediately brought it the Baal Shem Tov. As soon as he read the graphic description of this tragic news, the master was stricken with inconsolable grief.
It was already Friday afternoon, and time to begin preparations for the Sabbath. When the Baal Shem Tov went to the mikveh to immerse himself as usual, he wept bitterly. Then he returned to the synagogue and prayed the afternoon prayer with such a heavy heart that his followers could scarcely lift up their heads.
"Surely he will pray with joy again when the Sabbath begins," the Hasidim said to each other. "He knows it is forbidden to mourn this way on the Sabbath."
But the master could not be consoled. He sang Lecha Dodi -- the beautiful hymn to greet the Sabbath Queen -- with a joyless voice and a heavy heart. When he made the kiddush blessing over the cup of wine, he broke down in tears. He washed his hands in the ritual way and sat down at the table, but he was too broken-hearted to break the bread and begin the Sabbath meal. Without saying a word, he got up from the table and went to his room, where he stretched himself out on the floor and remained there in terrible silence.
The members of his household and the guests waited patiently for their teacher to return to the table and recite the blessing on the bread, so they could begin the meal. But the master did not come back. It was getting so late, that the candles were beginning die out. So his wife, Channah, went to his room and said, "The Sabbath candles are almost out. The guests are still waiting for you to come back to the table and conduct the meal."
Without even looking up from the floor, the Baal Shem Tov replied, "Go ahead and eat without me, then tell them to go home."
After the meal was over, Channah also went to the bedroom and lay down on her bed. Rabbi David did not go home, but remained in the house and stood outside the door to their room, to see what would happen next. He soon became weary of standing, so he got a bench and sat down by the door to continue his vigil. During all this time, the master lay motionless on the floor, with his arms and legs outstretched.
Around midnight, Rabbi David heard the master say to his wife, "Channah, cover your eyes." At the same moment, the room suddenly became very bright, and the light shone through the cracks around the door and the walls to where Rabbi David was sitting. He heard the Baal Shem Tov say, "Welcome, Rabbi Akiva, noblest of martyrs." He also welcomed other martyrs whose names Rabbi David did not recognize.
Then the Baal Shem Tov said to the martyrs, "I decree that you shall go and take revenge on the enemy who persecuted you!"
But the martyrs replied, "Don't let such words pass from your lips again -- and may the words of revenge that you already uttered be nullified!"
"But why?" asked the Baal Shem Tov.
"Holy rabbi," they replied, "You don't know your own power. When you upset the Sabbath by grieving so deeply over our deaths, there was a great tumult in Paradise. Because on the Sabbath, the upper and lower worlds are perfectly united, so whatever happens below affects those of us who are in heaven much more that it does on a weekday. Your sorrow caused such an uproar, that we fled from the Heavenly Halls as if we were being chased by the sword.
"When we reached the next higher palace, we saw that everyone there had to flee, too, even though they had no idea what they were running from. Finally we came to an even higher palace, where the angels understood the cause of this great disturbance. 'Hurry!' the angels said to us, 'Go down and quiet the Baal Shem Tov's tears, to restore the Sabbath peace!' And so we have come to you now."
"But you suffered so much!" the Baal Shem Tov lamented.
"Indeed it is true," one of the martyr continued. "All the ordinary suffering which human beings must endure is no more than the skin of a garlic clove compared to what martyrs must endure in order to sanctify the Holy Name of G-d. Yet we were glad to suffer kiddush HaShem -- martyrdom for the sake of God's Name!"
"Nevertheless, the Evil Urge confused us just a hair and caused us to weaken for a moment -- and for this lapse, we had to spend a half hour in purgatory before we could go on to paradise. Which we did -- and believe me, all the suffering of a lifetime is nothing compared to a half hour in Gehenna!
"Later, after we entered paradise, we began to argue that we wanted to take revenge upon our persecutors. But the angels answered, 'Since your enemies are still alive, if you want to take revenge on them, you must return to earth again.'
"Upon hearing that, we changed our minds and replied, 'Thank Heavens we sanctified ourselves and became martyrs for His Name! And thank Heaven also, that we had to suffer that terrible half hour in purgatory. Because that half hour makes all of our suffering during the martyrdom pale to nothing in comparison! We are now purified of our sins and have inherited paradise. But what would happen to us if were to seek revenge by being reincarnated again in the world? We might, Heaven forbid, commit more sins, which might cause us to lose paradise and return to Gehenna! Surely it is better for us to renounce revenge and not be reincarnated.'
"So you can see," continued the martyrs, "how your actions here on earth have serious consequences in the worlds above. Believe us, your words are heard and your prayers are answered! For this very reason, we now ask you again: please take back your words of revenge, or we may be forced to reincarnate against our wills, in order to fulfill your prayers."
"Very well," said the Baal Shem Tov, "I hereby retract those words. But tell me: why did those who are in heaven mislead me into believing that you would be set free?"
Because, "the martyrs replied, "if you had known the true outcome in advance, you would have prayed a great deal to prevent it, and that might have canceled the heavenly decree. In the end, that could have caused even more trouble than our martyrdom. Therefore, the outcome was hidden from your inner sight."
The vision was ended, and the Baal Shem Tov stood up from the floor. The bitterness was entirely gone from his heart, and the joy of the Sabbath returned once more.
And so it was.
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir Cohn (Howard M. Cohn, Patent Attorney) from a story in Shivchei HaBesht as translated in In Praise Of The Baal Shem Tov by Ben-Amos and Mintz
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SEFER BAAL SHEM TOV
The Teachings Of The Baal Shem Tov On Prayer
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"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." (Yitro 20:8)
On the eve of Shabbos, during the Mincha and Kabbalas Shabbos prayers, a person raises up all the words and mitzvos of the previous week, because that is the time when the worlds ascend.
Tzivos HaRivash, part 2, p. 4b
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DIVINE LIGHT
The Mystical Light Of The Baal Shem Tov
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17. IT is known that the Mezritcher Maggid thought that the Baal Shem Tov ate as an angel until one time he actually saw him eat as ordinary people do. Or
Hachochmo, Parshas Beshalach
From DIVINE LIGHT by Tzvi Meir Cohn
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HEART OF PRAYER
Anthology Of The Teachhings Of The Baal Shem Tov
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9-b6 Ulterior motives in serving G-d will create an actual person.
ULTERIOR motives in serving G-d are a complete structure (Implying that ulterior motives have all the elements of a body - head, body, and limbs.) and will create an actual person who will torment you.
Tzafnah Paneach p. 18a
From
HEART OF PRAYER by Tzvi Meir
Cohn
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KESER SHEM TOV
An anthology of Teachings on the Torah by the Baal Shem Tov
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Kst 46
"The Jewish people were not exiled until they denied G-d and the dynasty of David."1
"The only difference between the world at the present and the world at the time of the Messiah is the subjugation to the [gentile] kingdoms."2
The Baal Shem Tov taught:
The Talmud teaches, "Whoever has not suffered for forty days has received thereby his future reward. And what is considered suffering? Even if one puts his hand into his pocket to take out a golden coin and instead takes out one of lesser value."3
However, since suffering is only in atonement for liability, how can such minor inconvenience constitute atonement?
The explanation is that since the righteous person lives with G-d, he believes in Divine providence and knows that G-d is guiding all events in his life down to the smallest minutiae, and that all his suffering is an expression of Divine justice - DINA, which is represented by the Divine Name of ADoNaI - on account of his sins.
Hence, as soon as the righteous person suffers however slightly, he immediately [searches his soul and] regrets [any misdoing], and becomes filled with anxiety and fear of G-d. He is thus immediately forgiven, since he believes [that his suffering is from G-d], and he repents and binds his mind to G-d.
Therefore, even when one is only slightly inconvenienced by having not taken out the coin he intended, since this only happened because of his sin, and he [is aware of this and] repents, this constitutes atonement.
This concept is referred to as "David" [made from the letters daleth, vav, daleth], for the Infinite One, Who is referred to as Ayin/Nothingness, is represented by the [first] daleth. "Nothingness" is then conveyed via the vav to the [second] dalet, which represents the nadir of nothingness, which is expressed by a belief that everything that happens is Divine providence from G-d.
However, when a person does not believe that everything that happens is Divine providence from G-d, but rather attributes things to his own actions, this is considered having denied G-d and the aforementioned concept of "David," for he is denying the justice [providence] of the Kingdom of G-d/ADoNaI.
But G-d's Kingdom is hidden and subservient to the kelipoth/shells that cover and conceal G-d's providence from mankind.4 In the future, though, with the coming of the Messiah, who will banish the spirit of impurity from the earth, G-d's providence will be revealed even in the minutest of events.
With this we can understand, "The Jewish people were not exiled until they denied G-d and the dynasty of David," and, "The only difference between the world at present and the world at the time of the Messiah is the subjugation to the [gentile] kingdoms."
Understand this well,5 for everything that a person is able to comprehend about G-d is only regarding His Malkhut/Kingdom, but above that cannot be comprehended.
1Yalkut Shimoni, I Samuel #106.
2Tractate Pesachim 68a.
3Tractate Erkhin 16b.
4These "shells" are the "laws" of nature, the apparent cause-and-effect, and in this case, the statistical but "chance probabilities" that seem to govern whether one picks the gold coin or the copper one from one's pocket.
5Until here is quoted from the Toldot Yaakov Yoseph, VaYishlach #8. The conclusion is that of the compiler of the Keser Shem Tov, and its relevance to the rest of the piece is not clear.
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