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Baal Shem Tov
(1698-1760, Eastern Europe)
Biography Excerpt:
Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, the founder of
Hasidism, went by the name of the Baal Shem, meaning “The Master of God’s
Name” or “Master of the Good Name,” depending on the translation. Born
in southern Poland in 1698, the Baal Shem’s earliest years are shrouded
in mystery. What is known is that he sought out seclusion in the Carpathian
Mountains, immersing himself in contemplation, prayer, and the study of
the Torah and Kabbalah.
This kindly rabbi gained a reputation
as a friend of the sick and downtrodden as well as a miracle worker. Rather
than fasting and asceticism, the Baal Shem encouraged joyous prayer, singing
and dancing, and the sharing of community, , as the means to attain deveikut
(communion with God).
Enlightenment Story Excerpt:
For on the day of the New Year of the year
5507 (=September 1746) I engaged in an ascent of the soul, as you know
I do, and I saw wondrous things in that vision that had never before seen
since the day I had attained maturity. That which I saw and learned in
my ascent it impossible to describe or to relate even from mouth to mouth.
But as I returned to the lower Garden of Eden I saw many souls, both of
the living and the dead, those known to me and those unknown. They were
more than could be counted and they ran to and fro from world to world
through the path provided by that column known to the adepts in the hidden
science. They were all in such a state of great rapture that the mouth
would be wom out if it attempted to describe it and the physical ear too
indelicate to hear it.