Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Preface to the Paperback Edition
- Preface to the First Edition
- Contents
- Note to the Reader
- Introduction to the Paperback Edition
- Introduction
- PART I CONTEXT
- PART II TEXTS
- 6 The Holy Epistle
- 7 More Besht Correspondence
- 8 Testimonies
- 9 Life Stories
- 10 Light from the Archives
- PART III IMAGES
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - More Besht Correspondence
from PART II - TEXTS
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Preface to the Paperback Edition
- Preface to the First Edition
- Contents
- Note to the Reader
- Introduction to the Paperback Edition
- Introduction
- PART I CONTEXT
- PART II TEXTS
- 6 The Holy Epistle
- 7 More Besht Correspondence
- 8 Testimonies
- 9 Life Stories
- 10 Light from the Archives
- PART III IMAGES
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
THE LETTERS PUBLISHED IN SHIVHEI HA-BESHT
In the collection of hagiographie stories about the Besht and his associates, Shivhei Ha-Besht, the compiler, Dov Ber of Ilintsy, included five citations from letters the Ba'al Shem Tov wrote. As noted in chapter 6, four of these citations are short excerpts that are actually Dov Ber's reports of hearsay quotations of what was in the letters: someone who had read the letter told Dov Ber what was in it; Dov Ber did not see a written text. As such, these “citations” should properly be classified with traditions about the Besht. The fifth quotation, however, is introduced as follows: “There is in my possession a letter which the Besht sent to the Rabbi [Jacob Joseph], and this is the language of the copy.” Unlike the other four cases, here Dov Ber indicated that he was copying, not what someone had told him, but what he saw in a manuscript copy of the letter. The letter is translated as follows:
(On the back of the letter is written:) From the community of Miȩdzybóż to the great community of Niemirow, these words in a letter going about looking like a flash, the look of the Kohen, the rabbi of the aforementioned holy community [Niemirow], a stronghold and tower, the wonderful rabbi who works wonders, the great sage, our teacher, Joseph the Kohen of the aforesaid holy community, the head of the court. This is the content of the letter to the hand of my beloved, the beloved of my soul, the rabbi, the great light, the righthand pillar, the powerful hammer, famous in hasidism, the complete sage, the wondrous one who does wonders, who is attached to the walls of my heart closer than a brother, our teacher Joseph the Kohen; behold the form of his holy hand I received and I saw a sight in the two upper lines and there it said that his highness says that it is supposedly mandatory to fast. My stomach was agitated by this declaration, and I hereby react: by the decrees of the angels and together with the Holy One, Blessed be He, and His Presence, you should not put yourself in danger like this.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Founder of HasidismA Quest for the Historical Ba'al Shem Tov, pp. 114 - 126Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2013