Israel Ba'al Shem Tov

The 18th-century Polish-Jewish mystic, Israel ben Eliezer (b. c. 1700–d. 1760)—known widely as the Ba’al Shem Tov (Master of the Good Name), or by his acronym the Besht, is definitely one of the key figures in modern Jewish history. His character and his teachings inspired Hasidism—a social-religious movement that developed amongst Jews in Eastern Europe during the last decades of the 18th century, and is still vital within Jewish ultra-orthodoxy. The main scene of his activity was the Carpathians and the southeastern areas of the kingdom of Poland, especially the province of Podolia (now Ukraine). After a period of “concealment,” he began to function publicly (c. 1733) as a ba’al shem (shamanic healer), proficient in the use of “holy names,” and as a mystic possessing magical powers and bearing a new religious message. He finally settled in Międzybóż, an important commercial and communal center in the 1740s, where he was a respected member of the community, held a post as a ba’al shem, enjoyed a degree of prestige, and was admitted into the local circle of mystics. The Besht and a group of his associates formed a small group of pneumatic individuals who followed the distinctive religious lifestyle and customs of similar groups of Jewish mystics in 18th-century Europe. The Besht revealed his spiritual achievement and his mystical experiences to the members of this group, while, as a ba’al shem, he continued wandering and regarded himself a leader of the Jewish people. Fable and fact about the Besht’s life are so interwoven that modern historians have found it difficult to paint a coherent biography of this most influential figure. Many of the earlier assessments of his life and teachings have been challenged recently, and there are yet many more lacunae to be treated in future studies. The Besht’s importance as a historical figure is embedded not only in the Hasidic movement, in which he is seen as its founder or predecessor, but also in the ideological shift that took place within Jewish traditional society alongside Hasidism. Different ideological trends in modern times, like Jewish enlightenment or non-Hasidic rabbinic culture, were self-fashioned against the values and mores introduced by the Hasidic phenomenon.