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| Volume 7 Number 1 | Noach | 27 October 2011 - 29 Tishrei 5772 |
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BAAL SHEM TOV
DEUTERONOMY
Mystical Stories on the Weekly Torah Portion
Volume V
Two Baal Shem Tov stories for each week's Torah portion by Tzvi Meir Cohn, Founder and Executive Director of the Baal Shem Tov Foundation.
Order your copy.
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This week's edition of the Baal Shem Tov Times relates to Parsha Noach. There is the continuing selection for the Origins of the Baal Shem Tov, a Baal Shem Tov story and other teachings relating to Parsha Noach and other topics.
PLEASE help spread the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov by forwarding this edition of the Baal Shem Tov Times to a friend or relative, and making a copy for your home and synagogue.
Blessings that you should have an easy fast and holy Yom Kippur.
Tzvi Meir Cohn (Howard M. Cohn, Patent & Trademark Attorney)
Founder and Executive Director
Baal Shem Tov Foundation |
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ORIGINS OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV No. 59 |
In the last installment, the more details about the unnamed genius were explained to Reb Boruch Wiesner.
After a while he met other wanderers, among them many great men and mekubolim who had. taken upon themselves suffering and exile. Others were simple, unlearned men. He heard many stories told about the nistorim but he had never met one, or maybe they had not revealed themselves. He told how he used to stay in the Botei Medrosh of the gravediggers which were usually on the outskirts of the cities and near the cemetery. These made excellent lodgings, for they were empty, rarely having enough people for a minyan. There he could study to his heart's content without being disturbed.
To be continued. . . . . .
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir Cohn from Eretz Chaim as translated in Stories of the Baal Shem Tov by Y.Y. klapholtz |
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LEGENDS AND STORIES OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV by Rabbi Menachem Gutman z"l
In the little village of Okup, on the border of Wallachia (a province of Galicia), lived the Tzaddik Reb Eliezer and his holy wife, Rebbetzyn Sarah, They lived by their own honest work and labor, and shared a simple home blessed by peace. Yet when was there ever a Jew without a bundle of worry of his own? And so with them, a shadow of sorrow and concern darkened their lives, as they had no children. They were getting on in years; and the older they grew, the sadder they became. They grieved to think they might, some day, have to leave this world without leaving a son to say Kaddish (the mourner's prayer) for them, to ease and light their way in the Hereafter.
But then, beginning one Friday afternoon, in the cold of winter, everything changed. As usual, Reb Eliezer sat reading over the portion of the Chumash (the Hebrew Bible) that he would read aloud the next day on Shabbos in the synagogue. He chanted the familiar verses that told the story of how Joseph was sold as a slave and ultimately became the ruler of Egypt. But little did he suspect what this might lead to. That night after the Sabbath candles were out and he was already sleeping, he dreamed that he was taken captive, bound in irons, and sold into slavery. In his sleep, Reb Eliezer cried out and whim- pered bitterly.
Rebbetzyn Sarah shook him. "Wake up Eliezer! What's the matter?"
"I had a terrible dream," he answered. "I saw myself taken away as a captive, bound in irons and then sold into slavery."
"Oh, it is nothing to be afraid of," she comforted him. "You always tell me how the Talmud teaches that one sees in their dream only what their heart has been musing over during the day. Yesterday afternoon you were reading the portion of Chumash about Joseph and how he was sold into slavery. So you had a similar dream about yourself."
Reb Eliezer thought to himself, "I'm in my own bed, in my own house, I'm a free man." Yet he felt a great shudder of fear. He decided to fast that day, so that Heaven might have mercy and turn his dream into a good omen. But then he remembered it was Shabbos and that one is not allowed to fast on the Shabbos because of a bad dream.
Saturday night came, and Reb Eliezer sat down for melaveh malkah, the meal to mark the departure of the Sabbath Queen. Suddenly there was a furious pounding on the door, a frenzied sound that broke the stillness of the night. In the kitchen, Rebbetzyn Sarah was terrified. She knew only too well how hostile, drunken peasants might come at any time to rob and wreck Jewish homes, and sometimes even to wound or kill the family. With a prayer on her lips, she ran out the back door and far from the house to hide.
Reb Eliezer, however, sat as if paralyzed. He felt it was Heaven's decree: his dream was coming true.... The drunken thugs broke open the door and rushed in to steal anything of value they could find. As an afterthought, seeing Reb Eliezer sitting there, they tied him up and took him along as their prisoner. He looked valuable being a handsome man in the prime of life and still dressed in his fine Shabbos clothes.
As he travelled with them, he realized these were not simply a gang of drunken peasants, but an armed band of Tartars (perhaps from the Russian czar's army) and he knew without a doubt that his frightening dream was really coming true.
Through towns and villages, the Tartars rode with Rabbi Eliezer as their hostage, robbing and looting wherever they went. Finally they arrived in Jassy, where many other Tartars were stationed.
Rabbi Eliezer noticed as they passed through the Jewish quarter that all the houses were shut and locked. No one was walking in the Jewish section. Even the synagogue, a beautiful building over 200 years old, was sealed tight. The only Jewish person that Reb Eliezer saw was an old Jewish woman tearfully praying by a tomb near the synagogue.
"Please," Reb Eliezer begged the head of the Tartar band, "Let me go over there and say a few words of prayer." With a grunt the Tartar consented, and Reb Eliezer went to stand beside the woman. "Who lies buried here?" he asked her.
Quietly she told him how others, like those Tartars that had taken him hostage, had come a generation before, in 1648. And how they had killed a young bride and groom right under the bridal canopy, just as they were being married. Because they died a martyr's death, they were buried there, at the very place of the tragedy. Ever since then, the old woman continued explaining, whenever trouble of any kind came, the Jews of the town came to this holy tomb to pray.
Reb Eliezer waited to hear no more. Bowing his head he burst into tears. "0 holy bride and groom," he cried, "pray for Heaven to have mercy on me, When Joseph was taken to Egypt to be sold as a slave, he stopped at his mother Rachel's tomb to implore Heaven's pity, and his mother, in heaven, prayed for him. So may you pray now for me ...... When our people were exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon, bound in chains, they too came to Rachel our Mother's tomb on the way, and bowed to the ground in prayer. Rachel wept and lamented so strongly to Heaven that the prophet Yirmiyahu heard her. And he heard the Almighty answer her: "Your children will return yet to their borders; they will return from the enemy's land; there is good hope for the future..."
Was he dreaming? For a moment he had a vision of the young couple coming out from the tomb and praying over him with tears running down their cheeks. He yearned to stay and pray longer. But then he heard the Tartars calling to him. As he left the tomb, he felt comforted. Much of his fear and terror were gone. He knew it was a good omen indeed that he had been able to stop and pray at a holy tomb, just as Joseph had stopped at his mother Rachel's tomb.
As he was leaving, he turned his eyes toward heaven and whispered a vow: "If the Almighty will help me and I am freed, I will come back to the tomb of this bride and groom and say prayers of thanks to them."
Because their fellow Tartars were encamped in Jassy, this armed band of marauders would do no harm to any Jew there. They took their captive to a distant land of Moslems, and there they sold him as a slave to a great, distinguished nobleman. To Reb Eliezer's amazement he found that he was having the same fortune as Joseph in the Torah. Like Joseph, he pleased his master greatly; and soon the Moslem nobleman made him his attendant in his palatial home.
To be continued . . . . . . .
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir HaCohane (Howard M. Cohn, Patent Attorney) from a story in Legends and Stories of the Baal Shem Tov by Rabbi Menachem Gutman z"l of Jerusaluem
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SEFER BAAL SHEM TOV
The Teachings Of The Baal Shem Tov On The Torah |
These are the chronicles of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, faultless in his generation; Noah walked with G*d." (Bereishis 6:9)
But of Abraham it is written: "G*d, before whom I walked" (ibid. 24:40). Noah needed G*d's help and support, but Abraham strengthened himself and walked in his own righteousness.1
One of the Baal Shem Tov's disciples once asked him, "Why is it that there are times when a person clings to G*d, and knows in his soul that he is close to Him, that he suddenly loses his devekus and becomes distant from the Creator?"
The Baal Shem Tov answered with a parable. When a father wants to teach his infant son to walk, what does he do? He stands his son between his outstretched arms so that the boy does not fall, and the child walks between his father's arms. When he comes close to his father, his father backs up slightly so that the child can approach him again. This way, the child learns to walk. If his father didn't keep moving back, the child would only walk that short distance from where his father had first put him to where his father now stands. However, because the father moves back, the child walks further.
This is how G*d relates to His creatures. When a person is aflame with spiritual attachment, G-d must distance Himself from him, for if not, his devekus would be neither strong nor consistent. However, because G*d keeps moving away, the person must continually renew and strengthen his devekus. This is what King David alluded to when he said: "He will lead us eternally," (Psalms 48:15), as Rashi explains: "Like a man leads his small son slowly."
Turei Zahav, Rosh Hashanah
For this reason, G*d is called "the hidden G*d." For a Tzaddik never feels that he has reached perfection in serving G*d, and always feels far from Him. This is designed so that he comes even closer. It is the meaning of "He will lead us eternally." G*d is called "He" when He is hidden.2 This is in order that "He lead us eternally (al'mus,) - like a child (al'miah,)3 so that we keep coming closer. Kedushas Levi, Shemos
1 Rashi, loc. cit.
2 See below.
3 In Aramaic. In Hebrew, as well, the word elem means a "youth." |
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DIVINE LIGHT
The Mystical Light Of The Baal Shem Tov |
57. THROUGHOUT the generations, the main work of Tzaddikim such as Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the Arizal, and the Baal Shem Tov and his disciples, was to bind the souls of the Jewish people to their spiritual roots, and to remove the partitions and physical desires that separated them from G*d. In this way, their souls would become bound to their spiritual roots to such an extent that they would not become detached. If this were accomplished, the Jewish people would fear G*d, even in private, and not transgress His will, even to the slightest degree.
The Tzaddikim bind their souls to G*d by stripping themselves of their physicality and completely transcending their corporeality. They bind their souls to the light of the Infinite. By such means, they lift up the souls of the Jewish people with them, and bind them to their roots.
However, as the Baal Shem Tov said, when the Tzaddikim attached their own souls to their supernal root, they had to be careful not to nullify their own existence. Otherwise, they would not be able to return to their physicality. They had to remain attached to G*d in such a way, that even when they were busy with physical and mundane activities, their thoughts were not separate from the Creator. Thus, even when they were involved in the material world, their intention was to serve G*d. This is known as serving G*d in the aspect of smallness. Ma'or VaShemesh, Pinchas |
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HEART OF PRAYER
Anthology of the Teachings of the Baal Shem Tov on Prayer |
13-6 Words of Torah spoken with fear of G*d makes its mark.
EACH word of Torah or wisdom spoken with fear of G*d makes its mark. The everyday speech of some Torah scholars also makes its mark, and thus, they do great things for G*d.
Degel Machane Ephraim, Chayeh Sarah |
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KESER SHEM TOV
An anthology of Teachings on the Torah by the Baal Shem Tov |
KST No. 109
The Baal Shem Tov taught:[1]
Someone who tries to run away from pain and distress, but they follow him wherever he goes, is like a birthing woman who tries to escape from her labor pains by going somewhere else, but the pains follow her. The only way is to pray to G*d, and only that will get rid of the pain.
This is the meaning of the verse, "I called G*d in distress; G*d answered me with relief."[2]
This is also the meaning of the verse, "Egypt was pursuing them," upon which the Israelites realized their situation and, "The Israelites called out to G*d."[3] Indeed, right afterwards the verse says, "As you have seen the Egyptians today, you will never see them again."[4]
[1]1Toldoth Yaakov Yoseph, Beshalach #4.
[4] 4Ibid. v. 13. The Sefer Baal Shem Tov on that verse quotes a teaching of the Baal Shem Tov that renders the verse to be saying, "Because you saw the Egyptians today, you will never see them again." That teaching is obviously based on the one here.
But the question is, how can we say that the escape from distress - from Egypt - was in response to the Israelites' prayer, when the intermediary verses there relay their complaining to Moses?
The answer is, that on a deeper level, this teaching is based upon another one, that as soon as one realizes that one's distress comes from G*d, all suffering disappears (#51?), although not necessarily the painful situation itself. Thus, the Israelites were still confronted with what seemed like a dead-end, about which they only humanly complained, despite their having accepted their fate as coming from G*d. But because they had acknowledged their "Egypt" - their distress (the Hebrew letters are identical) - as coming from G*d, there was no longer any need for them to be confronted with it, and they therefore never had to see it again. |
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The Baal Shem Tov Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, uses emails, teleclasses and other material to spread and publicize the Torah of the Baal Shem Tov throughout the world. Please visit us at www.baalshemtov.com to learn more about the Baal Shem Tov and the work of the Foundation.
The goal of the Foundation is to hasten the imminent coming of the Moshiach (Messiah) by acting on the answer of the Moshiach to the Baal Shem Tov's question: 'When are you coming Master?' (The Moshiach answered) "When your teachings have become well-known and revealed throughout the world, and when your well springs have spread outwards, imparting to others what I have taught you, so that they too will be able to perform contemplative unifications and ascents of the soul..." [quoted from a letter from the Baal Shem Tov to his brother-in-law Rabbi Gershon Kitover.]
One of the major projects of the Baal Shem Tov Foundation is the World Wide Mezuzah Campaign whose goal is to insure that every Jewish person in the world has a kosher Mezuzah attached to the doorpost of their home. Please visit www.mezuzah.net for more information.
Tzvi Meir is always available for questions and to support your work in this area.
Tzvi Meir Cohn (Howard M. Cohn, Patent Attorney)
Suite 300, Pepper Pike Place
30195 Chagrin Boulevard
Cleveland, OH 44124
800-613-0955
bst_times@baalshemtov.com
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