Day 43
Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (1698–1760)
Dedicated to a remarkable woman who triumphed over the Holocaust with spirit and dignity. Esther Bat Reb Dovid Petachya, an 8th generation descendant of the Baal Shem Tov.
Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Chassidism, lived in Miedzyborz in the Ukraine in the 18th century. Baal Shem means “Master of the Name,” referring to the Divine Name, since a Baal Shem would use kabbalistic amulets, which included names of the Divine, to heal the sick. But the Baal Shem Tov did much more than this. He changed the way people think about Judaism.
The Baal Shem Tov came from a poor family and was orphaned as a child. There are stories of him, as a young boy, going alone into the forest, meditating on the closeness of God. In his youth, he worked for a time as an assistant teacher, inspiring the children in his care, and his unique spiritual qualities were recognised by the learned scholar Rabbi Ephraim of Brody, who betrothed his daughter Chana to him. Her brother Rabbi Gershon of Kuty was a well-known kabbalist, who initially was disrespectful to Rabbi Israel, but later became his ardent follower.
When the Baal Shem Tov was still a young man, he led a circle of spiritual scholars in a study house in Miedzyborz. Unlike many great scholars of the time, he was determined to be accessible to ordinary people. He used his mystical knowledge to help the many people who would come to him for advice and blessing, both in material terms and spiritually. In addition, his help often had a practical basis: people would give him money when helped by him, which he used for the benefit of others, such as paying the ransom for Jews who had been imprisoned by the lawless Polish noblemen of the time.
