Baal Shem Tov, R. Israel

I was reading up about Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement. It seems there were other rabbis called “Baal Shem.” But he was the only one called “Baal Shem Tov.” What is the distinction, and what does it even mean? Reply Let’...

For millennia, these were secrets, only to be revealed to a select few. What changed that allowed the Baal Shem Tov to reveal them, and his student's disciple to open the floodgates?

Once exceptionally wealthy, Avigdor was now poverty-stricken. Mr. Tzaddok, once a pauper, had come into great wealth.

The Baal Shem Tov remains a unique personality in Jewish history. His teachings touched the entire Jewish nation, scholarly and unlearned alike.

The Arizal provided the spark, the Baal Shem Tov the fuel, and Rabbi Schneur Zalman the structure and form. The result was a new paradigm that turned the Jewish world-view on its head. Everything had to be reconsidered. Just as geophysicists eventually ca...

I think it’s telling that, in over forty years of leadership, the Lubavitcher Rebbe left New York City only three times: to visit the children at Camp Gan Israel and Camp Emunah, Chabad overnight camps in the Catskill Mountains . . .

Happiness at happy times shines bright and clear, but the joy wrestled from the abyss of despair can transform the world. For such joy says, “I too was there. I was born from the thick of night, wrought from its bitterness and suckled by its dark earth. A...

What are the roots of the Chassidic movement? What was the personage of its founder, Rabbi Yisroel Ba’al Shem Tov? Presented is a dialogue with noted scholars and historians as they trace the birth of Chassidism.

A brief biographical overview of the founder of the Chasidic movement, Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760).