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.

Elements of Besht's doctrines

The foundation-stone of Hasidism as laid by Besht is a strongly marked panentheistic conception of God. He declared the whole universe, mind and matter, to be a manifestation of the Divine Being; that this manifestation is not an emanation from God, as is the conception of the Kabbalah, for nothing can be separated from God: all things are rather forms in which God reveals Himself. When man speaks, said Besht, he should remember that his speech is an element of life, and that life itself is a manifestation of God. Even evil exists in God. This seeming contradiction is explained on the ground that evil is not bad in itself, but only in its relation to man. It is wrong to look with desire upon a woman; but it is divine to admire her beauty: it is wrong only in so far as man does not regard beauty as a manifestation of God, but misconceives it, and thinks of it in reference to himself. Nevertheless, sin is nothing positive, but is identical with the imperfections of human deeds and thought. Whoever does not believe that God resides in all things, but separates God and them in his thoughts, has not the right conception of God. It is equally fallacious to think of a creation in time: creation, that is, God's activity, has no end. God is ever active in the changes of nature: in fact, it is in these changes that God's continuous creativeness consists.

Related Topics:
Panentheistic - Sin

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This pantheism, or panentheism (depending on how one interprets the early writings, of the consequences of which he was not at all conscious), would have shared the fate of many other speculative systems which have passed over the masses without affecting them, had it not been for the fact that Besht was a man of the people, who knew how to give his metaphysical conception of God an eminently practical significance.

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The first result of his principles was a remarkable optimism. Since God is immanent in all things, all things must possess something good in which God manifests Himself as the source of good. For this reason, Besht taught, every man must be considered good, and his sins must be explained, not condemned. One of his favorite sayings was that no man has sunk too low to be able to raise himself to God. Naturally, then, it was his chief endeavor to convince sinners that God stood as near to them as to the righteous, and that their misdeeds were chiefly the consequences of their folly.

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Another important result of his doctrines, which was of great practical importance, was his denial that asceticism is pleasing to God. "Whoever maintains that this life is worthless is in error: it is worth a great deal; only one must know how to use it properly." From the very beginning Besht fought against that contempt for the world which, through the influence of Isaac Luria's Kabbalah, had almost become a dogma among the Jews. He considered care of the body as necessary as care of the soul; since matter is also a manifestation of God, and must not be considered as hostile or opposed to Him.

Related Topics:
Asceticism - Isaac Luria

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In connection with his struggle against asceticism, it is natural that he should have fought also against the strictness and the sanctimoniousness that had gradually developed from the strict Talmudic standpoint. Not that Besht required the abrogation of any religious ceremonies or of a single observance. His target was the great importance which the Talmudic view attaches to the fulfillment of a law, while almost entirely disregarding sentiment or the growth of man's inner life. While the rabbis of his day considered the study of the Talmud as the most important religious activity, Besht laid all the stress on prayer. "All that I have achieved," he once remarked, "I have achieved not through study, but through prayer". Prayer, however, is not petitioning God to grant a request, though that is one end of prayer, but ("cleaving", dvekut)—the feeling of oneness with God, the state of the soul when man gives up the consciousness of his separate existence, and joins himself to the eternal being of God. Such a state produces a species of indescribable joy, which is a necessary ingredient of the true worship of God.

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