Israel ben Eliezer

Rabbi Israel (Yisroel) ben Eliezer (about 1698 Okopy Świętej Trójcy – May 22, 1760 Międzyborz) was a Jewish Orthodox mystical rabbi who is better known to most religious Jews as the Holy Baal Shem ("der Heiliger Baal Shem" in Yiddish), or most commonly, the Baal Shem Tov. The name "Baal Shem Tov" is usually translated into English as "Master of the Good Name", with "Tov" ("Good") modifying "Shem" (" Name"), although it is more correctly understood as a combination of Baal Shem ("Master of the Name") and Tov (an honorific epithet to the man). The name Besht?the acronym of the first letters of his name, bet shin tet?is typically used in print rather than speech. The appellation "Baal Shem" was not unique to Rabbi Yisrael ben Eliezer; however, it is Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer who has achieved near synonymity with "Baal Shem", being as he was the founder of the spiritual movement of Hasidic Judaism.

Bibliography

The chief source for Besht's biography is Baer (Dob) b. Samuel's Shibchei ha-Besht, Kopys, 1814, and frequently republished.

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For Besht's methods of teaching, the following works are especially valuable:

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• Jacob Joseph ha-Kohen, Toledot Ya'akob Yosef
• Likutim (Likut)... a collection of Hasidic doctrines
• The works of Baer of Meseritz

Critical works on the subject are:

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• Dubnow, Yevreiskaya Istoria, ii. 426–431
• idem, in Voskhod, viii. Nos. 5–10
• Grätz, Gesch. der Juden, 2d ed., xi. 94–98, 546–554
• Jost, Gesch. des Judenthums und Seiner Sekten, iii. 185 et seq.
• A. Kahana, Rabbi Yisrael Ba'al Shem, Jitomir, 1900
• D. Kohan, in Ha-Sh. ;ar, v. 500–504, 553–554
• Rodkinson, Toledot Ba'ale Shem-Tov;ob, Königsberg, 1876
• Schechter, Studies in Judaism, 1896, pp. 1–45
• Zweifel, Shalom 'al-Yisrael, i.–iii.
• Zederbaum, Keter Kehunah, pp. 80–103
• Frumkin, 'Adat ...;..Hasidim, Lemberg, 1860, 1865 (?)
• Zangwill, Dreamers of the Ghetto, pp. 221–288 (fiction).K. L. G.