The Besht: Magician, Mystic, and Leader

by Immanuel Etkes

Founded in Eastern Europe in the eighteenth century, the Hasidic movement and its religious thinking have dramatically transformed modern Judaism. The figure of the Ba’al Shem Tov (known in acronym form as the BeSHT)―the purported founder of the Hasidic movement―has fascinated scholars, Jewish philosophers, and laypeople interested in popular Jewish mysticism in general and the contemporary Hasidic movement in all its variety. In this volume, Etkes enters a rich and heated debate over the origins of the movement, as well as the historicity of its mythic founder, Rabbi Israel Ba’al Shem Tov, who lived much of his life as a miracle worker. The eighteenth century, as Etkes vividly portrays, was the heyday of the kabbalists, who dabbled in the magical power of letters and words to solve personal and communal problems―and to earn a living. Etkes sheds light on the personality of the Besht, on his mysticism, and on his close circle of followers. But equally important, he challenges the popular myth of the Besht as a childlike mystic, wandering the fields in prayer, seeing visions and engaging in acts of godliness and piety. Although Etkes shows great empathy for his subject, the Besht who emerges in these pages is much more down to earth, much more a man of his times. Indeed, according to Etkes, it was never the intention of the Besht to found a religious movement. Etkes looks at the Besht’s mystical roots, examining him not only from the vantage point of a social historian, but as a religious figure. Moshe Rosman, author of Founder of Hasidism, a biography of the Besht, claims that In Praise of the Besht―a volume published about the Besht in 1814, many years after his death, which portrayed his character by means of stories told by his close followers―could not be a reliable source. Etkes, disputing this claim, shows definitively that this well-known text (translated and interpreted by, among others, Martin Buber) may indeed offer trustworthy accounts of the Besht’s life and thinking.

Genres: Jewish, Judaica

350 pages, Hardcover

First published December 21, 2004

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hasidism is often shrouded in mystery. I don’t mean its customs or even its attitudes; those are readily available and fascinating to learn about. But the ideas belonging to the origins of the movement, in particular when it comes to its founder (although whether or not he was its founder is something this book addresses), the Baal Shem Tov, are not something I’ve ever completely understood. Maybe that’s my fault, but I’ve often lumped them in a vague “mysticism” category, never to be explored much further.
The Besht: Magician, Mystic, and Leader does a terrific job exploring the ideas and beliefs integral to the foundation of the Hasidic movement. In a clear, objective way, it represents the Besht and the principles he and the early Hasidic movement stood for. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning more about early Hasidism, whether they know little about the movement or are just looking to get back to the beginning of something already familiar. Great read.

[Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, a joke. What do you call a comprehensive study of every aspect of the Baal Shem Tov's life and works? The Besht of the Besht!

Thank you, I've been waiting to tell that joke the entire time I was reading this book.

But seriously folks, Etkes' formidable scholarly analysis of the Besht (circa 1700-1760), the founder of Hasidism, is a comprehensive review of nearly every imaginable aspect of a life and its social, political, and religious context. The traditional primary source document, Shivhei HaBesht (Prasies of the Besht) was only first recorded some 55 years after his death, from reports of reports of people who knew him or who had heard of his miracles and teachings. It forms the kernel of the popular conception of him, but is of dubious historical value.

The author therefore devotes this study to the analysis of other source material, primarily letters and reports from his time period. He does an extraordinary job of trying to report and imagine religious practices which were little recorded and inherently difficult to reconstruct. From the fragmentary letters, the reports of communal practices and disputes, Etkes attempts to discern the real historical human being.

What I learned or was reminded of is that the Baal Shem Tov (B'SH'T') was first of all a baal shem, aka a "Master of the Name" or a "Name Master." Which baal shem? The baal shem know as Tov.

A baal shem was a magician, a writer of amulets (with the holy name), a healer, a man who could battle and cast out demons, and a person who was said to predict the future. Initial modern scholarly work dismissed this aspect of his life as unimportant, or embarrassing, but Etkes takes it seriously and reports it extensively. He concludes plausibly that there is no coherent separation between the Besht's ecstatic worship, his turn from elite Kabbalah toward a more accessible kind of religious enthusiasm, his focus on the common person, and his role as a magician and warrior against demons.
Significantly, he initiated a new style of worship, ecstatic instead of contemplative, and de-emphasized the scholarship that was associated with the Safad Kabbalists and those diaspora followers of kabbalah, with their focus on the contemplation of higher realms. He hated fasting and mortification, and he rejected those who sought to train their minds and actions to always think of God.

Etkes concludes that through the mists of history, the fragments of letters, and the oral legends, it is possible to assert that the Besht really existed, and that he was genuinely the practical and spiritual founder of the Hassidic movement that began to emerge in the late 18th century CE.

If YOU want to experience Hassidut, your best bet in the US is Chabad. Or perhaps you should check out neo-Hassidic Jewish Renewal group. Both of these, and others, are in some sense the spiritual descendants of the Besht. But the Besht’s world was very different from anything you’ll find today. His practice was as much medicine as prayer, in a world in which the distinction between science and religion was simply inconceivable. Demons, holy names, amulets, prayer, ecstatic worship all worked together. Etkes helps us see that world and its legendary leader for what it was.

I can't say this is an easy book to read, and I might have skipped a few pages here and there, but it is a masterful work of scholarship and a fascinating grounding of the legend of the Besht in historical reality.

(And yes, "Magician, Mystic, Leader" does an excellent job of summing the whole story up, in the correct priority and historical order!)

[Yossi · Rating 4 out of 5]

From what I've read and heard, this is probably the best book on the Baal Shem Tov available in English today.

I read this after finishing Moshe Rossman's Founder of Hasidism. Incidentally, the interaction between the two historians (Etkes quotes Rossman extensively, disagrees often, and explains why in detail), while not at all the main point of Etkes' book, was fascinating to follow.

If you read just one book about the Besht, read this one. Reading Rossman and then Etkes together is even more rewarding though, and with the extensive discussion in both books of most of the earlier scholarship, both provide a wonderful and full introduction to the Baal Shem Tov. Etkes' book also makes Rubinsteins's Shivchei HaBesht much more accessible to a layman such as myself.