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BAAL SHEM TOV STORY
Following the Weekly Torah Reading
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THE JEWISH
THIEF
"You shall not steal." (Yitro 20:13)
And then there was the time that a merchant returned
to his town of Whitfield from a buying trip, with a
wagon loaded with merchandise. He arrived late at
night and was too tired to open up his store and
unload the wagon. Instead, he un-harnessed the
horses and left the wagon outside by his store,
planning to unload it the next morning. After all, he
thought, "Who would steal such a large
wagon?"
Later that night, a thief came by, harnessed other
horses to the wagon and stole it together with all the
merchandise.
The next morning, the merchant got up early and
rushed to his store and found his wagon missing. He
was beside himself. A number of his friends joined
him in his frantic search through the town. But there
was no sign of the wagon.
The merchant sent a letter with a friend to the Baal
Shem Tov advising him of his loss and requesting a
blessing that the wagon and his merchandise be
returned. When the messenger arrived in Medzibush,
he found the Baal Shem Tov kissing the mezuzah of
his house, as he left to attend a Bris (ritual
circumcision) in the holy community of Derzane. The
Baal Shem Tov took the letter from the messenger
and quickly read through it. He then instructed the
messenger, "Please wait here until I return." The
messenger agreed and took lodging at the local inn.
The Baal Shem Tov left in his wagon for the long trip
to the city of Derzane accompanied by Reb Zev his
scribe and Alexei his wagon drive. As they were
entering the city, the Baal Shem Tov saw a wagon
loaded with merchandise in the distance. He
asked, "Reb Zev, Do you see that loaded wagon over
there pulled by two horses?"
"Yes," answered Reb Zev.
"Do you remember the man that spoke to me just
before we left?" inquired the Baal Shem Tov.
Reb Zev nodded yes.
"That man," continued the Baal Shem Tov, "was sent
by a merchant from Whitfield whose wagon full of
merchandise was stolen. They requested my
blessing that the wagon and the merchandise would
be found and returned because it represented all of
the Merchant's wealth. And that very wagon full of
merchandise is the one that was stolen. So when we
get to town, immediately ask around and find out at
what inn the "owner" of the wagon is staying. Then,
go
to that inn, find the wagon owner and tell him that you
know the wagon was stolen from Whitfield. Tell
the 'owner' to give it to you to return to the merchant.
Meanwhile, I'll go to the Bris."
Immediately upon arriving in town, Reb Zev inquired
and found that the man driving the wagon was staying
at a certain inn. He went to that inn and found the
man
praying in his Tallis (prayer shawl) and Tefillin
(Phylacteries). Reb Zev was reluctant to call the man
a thief since he appeared innocent as he prayed like
any honest Jewish man.
Reb Zev rushed to the Baal Shem Tov and told him
what he had seen.
The Baal Shem Tov got very excited. "Return
immediately and tell that thief as I instructed you.
Otherwise he will soon leave town and the wagon and
merchandise will be lost."
Reb Zev ran back to the inn where the thief was
staying. This time he found the man eating breakfast.
He questioned the man about the wagon and the
merchandise. The man responded with a good story.
When the man stepped out for a minute, Reb Zev
questioned the innkeeper. "Did that man drink a lot of
whiskey like some kind of thief?"
"Oh no," answered the inn keeper, "He just had one
drink like many of us after the morning
prayers."
Reb Zev left again without directly confronting the
man. He returned to the Baal Shem Tov and reported
all that had happened. He concluded with frustration
in his voice, "Rebbe, you must be mistaken. He is an
upstanding Jewish merchant and can't be a
thief."
This time the Baal Shem Tov stood up and pushed
Reb Zev to the door saying, "He is not an upstanding
Jewish merchant, he is a Jewish thief. Now go and
confront him and call him a thief. Then prove your
accusation with the following signs." After Reb Zev
heard the signs, he rushed back to the inn.
As soon as he entered the inn, he walked up to the
man and said that the Baal Shem Tov had sent him.
He then told him that the Baal Shem Tov knew he was
a thief and had stolen the wagon and the
merchandise. Further, he offered to prove it with the
signs the Baal Shem Tov told him. "After the wagon
was stolen, you hid for three nights in the forest until
the owner gave up looking. During that time, you slept
in an abandoned cabin near the river. Then you
stayed at two inns until you arrived here in the city of
Derazene." After Reb Zev told him the signs, he
warned the thief, "You had better return the wagon and
merchandise to the Baal Shem Tov. He'll take it back
to the merchant. Otherwise, I don't even want to think
about what might happen to you."
The thief was flabbergasted. "You're right," he said, "I
confess, I am the thief. Take the wagon with the
merchandise."
Reb Zev asked the innkeeper to guard the wagon and
merchandise because he was going to the Bris with
the Baal Shem Tov.
When the thief heard Reb Zev speak with the inn
keeper, he thought, "Now that I'm a poor man, I might
as well go to the Bris and eat with the other beggars."
During the meal after the Bris, the thief approached
the Baal Shem Tov and asked, "I have a question to
ask you Rabbi. Since you know how thieves steal and
where they sleep, you must be able to see better
things than this. Why do you bother to pay attention to
bad things? Why don't you look at good things
instead?"
The Baal Shem Tov answered: "That is a very
profound question." He began to expound words of
Torah on this topic until the time of Mincha (the
afternoon prayers) arrived, and still he had not
finished.
Without notice, the Baal Shem Tov looked at Reb Zev
and said, "We should be going. That messenger is
still waiting for us to return with the merchant's wagon
and merchandise."
And so it was.
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir HaCohane (Howard M.
Cohn, Patent Attorney) from a story in Shivchei
HaBesht and translated in In Praise of the Baal Shem
Tov by Ben-Amos and Mintz.
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TORAH BAAL SHEM TOV
Selection from Sefer Baal Shem Tov on the Torah
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"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."
(Yitro 20:8)
On the eve of Shabbos, during the Mincha and
Kabbalas Shabbos prayers, a person raises up all
the
words and mitzvos of the previous week, because that
is the time when the worlds ascend.
Tzivos HaRivash, part 2, p. 4b
Once, when the Baal Shem Tov recited the Kabbalas
Shabbos prayers in the field, all the flocks gathered
around him and bleated the entire time he was
praying.
It is said that with his prayers, he lifted up all of the
lower levels, until even the flocks and the herds
attained a realization of G d, and cried out with
him.1
Divrei Elimelech, Bechukosai
"And all the people saw the voices, and the fire and
the voice of the shofar, and the mountain smoking."
(Yitro 20:14)
When the Baal Shem Tov would teach Torah to his
holy students, they would be surrounded by fire. The
ministering angels would gather around them, and
they could hear the thunder and lightning, and the
words "I am the L rd your G d," from the mouth of G d
Himself.
This is well known to all.
Heichal HaBracha, Va'Eschanan, p.
28a
1See Toldos Adam, p. 58, who
says this happened
when the Baal Shem Tov recited the words: "He lifted
up the destitute from poverty, and makes his families
like a flock." (Psalms 107:41)
Translation and Commentary by Rabbi Dr.
Eliezer
Shore
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THE PILLAR OF PRAYER
The Baal Shem Tov's Teachings on Prayer
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Section 53
Even when you fall from your [spiritual] level, you
should cleave to G-d with small thoughts, for at times
there is also "smallness" above in Zeir
Anpin.1 By means of this "smallness,"
you can come to "largeness." Like coals, as long as
one spark remains, it can be fanned into a great
bonfire. But if not even a small spark remains, it
cannot be stoked into a flame. So too, if a person
does not constantly cleave to G d with small thoughts,
his soul can be completely extinguished, G d
forbid.
Likutey Ikarim, p. 15b
1Zeir Anpin is one of the central
configurations on the Sefirotic realm. Paralleling
human growth, it goes through stages of gestation,
birth, smallness and largeness. These represent
different steps in the process of revelation, as the light
of G dliness passes through the Sefiros to reach this
world. The point here is that constricted
consciousness is inherent in the very supernal
processes of creation. It should not be avoided, but
worked with and transformed.
Translation and Commentary by Rabbi Dr.
Eliezer Shore
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THE LIGHT OF THE EYES
On the Greatness of the Baal Shem Tov
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Section 43
Continued from last week — the story of the
Baal Shem Tov's cantor.
After Shabbat, Rebbe Elimelech invited the cantor to
tell him about the holy level of the Baal Shem Tov. The
cantor told him awesome things that no one has ever
heard before. The main themes were about the Baal
Shem Tov's fear and love [of G d], and how he would
perform soul-ascensions to all the worlds, while fully
conscious and without agitation, and gaze in all the
chambers of Torah and the Divine Chariot. The Baal
Shem Tov would recite the Great Hallel, and would not
say the verses until he saw the angel [that recites that
verse] and heard the exquisiteness of his song, and
recited the verse with him. He related the awesome
holiness and sanctity of the Baal Shem Tov, from the
day of his birth, and how he would speak to the souls
of Tzaddikim and with Elijah the Prophet, and
especially with the G dly Arizal, who was with him
constantly.
Once, the Baal Shem Tov asked the Arizal why he had
taught mystical secrets in an open manner, and not in
terms of worship. The Arizal answered that had he
lived another two years, everything would have been
rectified.
The cantor spoke about the Baal Shem Tov's soul-
ascensions while his body lay still. And how he would
speak with the Messiah, and with the Faithful
Shepherd (Moses), and what they would answer him.
He was an expert in the "Work of Creation," and
the "Work of the Chariot," and in the entire Torah, and
in the language of every creature, and the language of
the angels, and how he was filled with love and fear of
G d, and all possible virtues, piety, humility, and love
of Israel.
Rabbi Elimelech commented on this that all the
spiritual attainments attributed to the Arizal also
applied to the Baal Shem Tov, and even more. Only,
that which is written about the Arizal is a drop in the
ocean compared to who he really was.
From the Manuscripts of R. Yitzchok Isaac
of Komarna
Translation and Commentary by Rabbi Dr.
Eliezer
Shore
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KESER SHEM TOV
Anthology of the Teachings of the Baal Shem Tov
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Section 70
"G d saw that [Moses] went to look, and He called out
to him, 'Moses, Moses.'"1
The Baal Shem Tov taught:2
Moses was initially concerned that this vision before
him was not a holy vision, until G d called out to
him, "Moses, Moses." Only then did Moses
respond, "Here I am."
For Moses' soul, as alluded to by his name,
encompasses all worlds, which is why Moses could
not comprehend his own name, as we shall see. For
just as the Divine presence encompasses all worlds —
the inanimate, the vegetable, the good and the evil —
so does Moses' name: the first letter mem, which
alludes to the Divine Malkhuth/presence, also
encompasses all things, while the second letter shin
encompasses all spirits, and the last letter heh
encompasses all souls. Therefore, Moses' difficulty
in comprehending the Menorah, the shekel, and the
New Moon (HaChodesh), alludes to his difficulty in
comprehending his own name (Moses = Mosheh), his
own essence, since his name also encompassed
good and evil. Furthermore, his difficulty was also in
comprehending how the Divine presence Itself, the
Shekhinah, is the Ultimate Unity, since It
encompasses the antitheses of good and evil, yet
remains One Indivisible Unity. Thus, he was
confused how he, whose name was Moses, which
encompassed these antitheses, could bring about
such Unity. Indeed, tradition records that Moses had
the tendency to be a
kidnapper/gambler.3
However, the truth is that evil is a vehicle for good, as
we find in the teaching that Pharaoh brought the
Jewish people to repentance by pursuing
them,4 or by the fact that beholding the
ways of the wicked brings a righteous person
satisfaction and pleasure that he is not like that. This
arousal of pleasure from contrast to evil exists in all
worlds, and evil itself also has a virtual elevation from
this, only that when good rises in this way, all evil is
dissolved in the process.5 In the same
way, all evil thoughts can be vehicles of
elevation.6
Thus, Moses did not answer G d after the first call of
his name, since he did not comprehend how Unity
could be achieved, for when the lowest spiritual levels
were revealed, as symbolized by the bush, all their
higher spiritual sources were also revealed to him.
Therefore, Moses could not understand why evil — as
represented by the bush — was not "burnt" by those
sublime spiritual levels. Then G d called out to him
again, "Moses," alluding that the Ultimate Unity is
achieved specifically by the union of the lowest levels
with the highest. Only then did Moses say, "Here I
am."7
1Exodus 3:4
2Ben Porath Yoseph 126c
3Tractate Bekhoroth 5a. The two
alternatives are given by Rashi and Tosafoth,
respectively, and neither interpretation is very
complementary. Furthermore, there is a Midrash in
which a king versed in physiognomy requests to see a
portrait of Moses, and upon seeing it remarks that this
person possesses all the worst traits in the world.
The point is that Moses grew to become Moses not
only despite, but because he had to overcome the
existential human inner conflict between good and evil
tendencies. And the spiritual light that appeared with
him at birth, as according to oral tradition, was not a
manifestation of his inborn perfection, but of his
potential to unify these dichotomous elements within
his personality into and towards the singular goal of
serving G d, as in this teaching.
4Zohar I 81b
5Psalms 92:10
6This idea is alluded to in #69 and
expounded upon in #39.
7As mentioned in n. 2 in #69, there are
two ways of dealing with evil: subduing it or
transforming it. When Moses first saw the fire of the
burning bush, he understood the fire to symbolize that
the bush, representing evil, as said in the text, must
be "burnt," and subdued. But then he saw that the fire
was not consuming the bush — which he understood
to mean that all efforts to vanquish evil are doomed to
fail. If so, he thought, that evil is an existential reality,
does this not point to Duality, to an existence outside
of G d? But then G d called out to him a second
time, "Moses," thereby alluding to him that he, too,
was a seeming duality — a "lower" and an "upper."
Moses: a very human Moses with all human frailties
and weaknesses, but also a "G dly" Moses, and both
were parts of his unique singularity. Then Moses
realized that the fire in the bush was not symbolizing
destructive power of fire, but its "light" — the potential of
transformation. Then Moses realized that both evil
and good are really part of the One. Moses then
answered, "Here I am" — an integrated one.
Translation and Commentary by Rabbi
Yehoshua
Starrett
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