Hasidim soon filled volumes with fantastical legends about his life. These volumes, especially
Shivḥei haBesht (1815), are presumed to contain a small historical kernel, but scholars debate which passages are credible. • The opening legend of
Shivḥei haBesht tells that his father, Eliezer, was seized during an attack, carried from his home in
Wallachia, and sold as a slave to a prince. On account of his wisdom, he found favor with the prince, who gave him to the king to be his minister. During an expedition undertaken by the king, when other counsel failed, and all were disheartened, Eliezer's advice was accepted; and the result was a successful battle of decisive importance. Eliezer was made a
general and afterward prime minister, and the king gave him the viceroy's daughter in marriage. But mindful of his duty as a Jew, as he was already married, he married the princess only in name. After being questioned for a long time as to his strange conduct, he confessed he was a Jew to the princess, who loaded him with costly presents and helped him escape to his country. • Sometime in 1712 Israel became the
shammash (
sexton) of the local synagogue. • He was hired as a teacher's assistant in the heders of the small villages they passed through. He later related that he took great pleasure in accompanying the children to and from school, using this opportunity to recite prayers with them and tell them Torah stories.
Dov Ber of Mezeritch would later say, "If only we kissed a
Torah scroll with the same love that my master [the Baal Shem Tov] kissed the children when he took them to heder as a teacher's assistant!" • He had visions in which the prophet
Ahijah the Shilonite would appear to him. • In 1716, Israel married, but soon after, his wife died, and he traveled throughout
Eastern Galicia. After serving for a long time as a helper in various small communities of
West Ukraine, he settled as a melamed in Tluste. • Israel became the leader of this movement at the age of 18. Caring for the Jewish poor, the group of tzadikim encouraged Jews to move to agrarian lifestyles as alternatives to the chronic poverty of city Jews. Continuing this policy, they decided they needed to look after the educational needs of the children living in small farm communities. If a suitable teacher could not be sourced, they would provide one, so Israel became a teacher's assistant. He later commented "The most joyous time in my life was teaching the small children how to say
Modeh Ani,
Shema Yisrael and
Kamatz alef, Ah". • He was chosen by people conducting suits against each other to act as their
arbitrator and
mediator. His services were brought into frequent requisition because the Jews had their own
civil courts in Poland. • He is said to have made such an impression on
Ephraim of
Brody that the latter promised Israel his daughter Channah in marriage. The man died, however, without telling his daughter of her betrothal; but when she heard of her father's wishes, she agreed to comply with them. • Israel later took a position as a
shohet (ritual butcher) in
Kshilowice, near
Iaslowice, which he soon gave up to manage a village tavern that his brother-in-law bought for him. His first appearance in public was that of an ordinary
Baal Shem, a
faith healer who wrote
amulets and prescribed cures, • After many trips in
Podolia and
Volhynia as a Baal Shem, Israel, considering his following large enough and his authority established, decided about 1740 to expound his teachings in the
shtetl of
Medzhybizh and people, mainly from the spiritual elite, came to listen to him. Medzhybizh became the seat of the movement and of the
Mezhbizh. His following gradually increased and with it the hostility of the Talmudists. Israel was supported at the beginning of his career by two prominent Talmudists, the brothers Meïr, who were
Chief Rabbis of
Lemberg and later
Ostroh, and author of
Meir Netivim and other works, and Isaac Dov Margalios. Later, he won over recognized rabbinic authorities who became his disciples and attested to his scholarship. These include
Jacob Joseph of Polonne; Dovid Halperin, rabbi of Ostroha; Israel of
Sataniv, author of
Tiferet Yisrael; Yoseph Heilperin of Slosowitz; and
Dov Ber of Mezeritch. It is chiefly due to the latter that Israel's doctrines (though in an essentially altered form) were introduced into learned Jewish religious circles. • The "Agudas Ohalei Tzadikim" organization (based in Israel) has restored many graves of
Tzadikim (
Ohelim) in Ukraine, including the Baal Shem Tov's. A guesthouse and synagogue are located next to the
Ohel of Baal Shem Tov, and the Baal Shem Tov's synagogue in the village proper has been painstakingly restored. Both synagogues are used by the many visitors from all over the world. • Israel took sides with the Talmudists in their disputes against
Frankism, a
Sabbataeanist movement. After the mass conversion of the Frankists to Christianity, the Baal Shem Tov allegedly said that as long as a diseased limb is connected with the body, there is hope that it may be saved; but, once amputated, it is gone, and there is no hope. It is alleged that he died out of grief that the Frankists left Judaism. • The Besht was a mystic who claimed to have achieved devekut, meaning that his soul could ascend to heaven, speak with any soul there, and intervene between humans and God. His followers believed that could protect the Jewish community from plague and persecution. • According to legend, he ate
farfel every
Shabbat evening, because the word is similar to the Yiddish word
farfaln "wiped out, over, finished". He considered the noodles a symbol marking the beginning of a new week. • It was believed the Besht was a great medical practitioner with vast knowledge regarding salves, balms, and similar medicaments. Some aspects of his medical practice are said to have been mystic, though the degree to which this is the case is not agreed upon. Some claim that the Besht could only heal others through prayer, but others describe other mystical methods. • Israel did not oppose traditional Jewish practices, but the spirit behind them. His teachings resulted from a deep, religious temperament; he stressed the spirit. Though he considered
halakha to be holy and inviolable, and he emphasized the importance of Torah-study, he held that one's entire life should be service to God. Hasidic legend tells of a woman whom her relatives sought to kill on account of her shameful life, but who was saved in body and soul by Besht. The story is characteristic of Besht's activity in healing those needing relief. More important to him than prayer was a friendly relationship with sinners. Unselfishness and high-minded benevolence are a motif in the legends about him. Besht's methods of teaching differed from those of his opponents. He directed many satirical remarks at them, a characteristic one being his designation of the typical Talmudist of his day as "a man who through a sheer study of the Law has no time to think about God". Besht is reported to have illustrated his views of asceticism by the following parable: Israel held a firm conviction that God had entrusted him with a special mission to spread his doctrines. He believed that he had heavenly visions revealing this mission to him. For him, every intuition was a
revelation, and divine messages were daily occurrences. An example of the power of his spiritual vision is found at the beginning of his grandson's work,
Degel, where he writes that his grandfather wrote to
Abraham Gershon of Kitov, who lived in
Ottoman Palestine, asking him why he was not there that particular Shabbat. == Misattributed images ==