הרב ישראל בן אליעזר

Rav Yisrael ben Eliezer (c. 5460/1700–6 Sivan 5520/1760), the Baal Shem Tov — the Besht — was a mekubal and leader of the Jews of Eastern Europe, and the father of the chassidic movement. He was born to Eliezer and Sarah in their old age, in a small place near the frontier of Podolia; tradition names the town of Okop, where he later served as shamash of the beit midrash. His first wife passed away childless, and for years he supported himself as a helper to melamdim in the villages and for a time as a shochet in Koshilovitz.

Near Brody he married Chana, sister of Rav Avraham Gershon of Kitov, and the couple settled in the Carpathian hills between Kitov and Kosov, where he lived years of hitbodedut and earned bread as a digger of clay; two children were born to them, Adel and Tzvi. At thirty-six he revealed himself, and chassidic tradition teaches that Achiyah HaShiloni was his teacher in torat hanistar. In his lifetime he was called Rav Yisrael Baal Shem, a healer of the people through holy names and kameyot, and he wandered among the Jewish towns. In 5500/1740 he settled in Medzhibuzh, then the chief town of Podolia, and lived there until his petirah; the town registers list him as “baal shem, doctor,” exempt from taxes, until 5520/1760.

In Medzhibuzh a circle of talmidim formed around his Torah: proper kavanah in tefillah and in the mitzvot; the kedushah of the letters that make up every word; the raising of foreign thoughts to their root; distance from sigufim — tevilah in the mikveh in their place — and simchah as the way to devekut; and avodah begashmiyut — serving Hashem with the body and in the affairs of weekday life, as he taught his talmid Rav Yaakov Yosef from the pasuk “u’mibesarcha lo titalam.” Before the general geulah, he taught, a man must first redeem himself from his own straits. In the famous iggeret to his brother-in-law Rav Gershon of Kitov, who had gone up to Eretz Yisrael, he told of an aliyat neshamah on Rosh Hashanah 5507/1746 in which he entered the heichal of Mashiach and asked, “When is the master coming?” — and was answered: when your wellsprings spread outward.

The Besht wrote no sefarim; three of his letters remain, with the siddur he davened from, notes in his own hand in its margins. His talmidim carried his Torah: Rav Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch, his successor in the hanhagah; Rav Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye, whose Toldot Yaakov Yosef and Tzafnat Panei’ach bring many hundreds of his teachings; Rav Pinchas of Koritz; Rav Meir HaGadol of Premishlan; the Maggid of Zlotchov; Rav Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl; and Rav Gershon of Kitov himself, who came to Medzhibuzh and taught the Besht’s son Tzvi. His grandsons Rav Moshe Chaim Ephraim of Sudilkov and Rav Baruch of Medzhibuzh learned by him, and his great-grandson was Rav Nachman of Breslov. He was niftar on Shavuot 5520/1760 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery of Medzhibuzh; his recorded teachings were later gathered in Keter Shem Tov (first printed 5554/1794) and, in our era, in the collection Baal Shem Tov al HaTorah.