Academic study
Founder of Hasidism (Moshe Rosman)
Founder of Hasidism: A Quest for the Historical Ba'al Shem Tov
Research based on the archives of the Czartoryskis, lords of Międzybóż, reconstructing the town, its Jewish community and the Besht's position in it, and subjecting the Hasidic sources to criticism. Its conclusion (a respected religious specialist, integrated in the community, not a populist rebel) changed the image of the founder of Hasidism.
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Authorship note
Moshe Rosman's study of the historical Besht, not a work by the Besht.
Editions and translations
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English
Founder of Hasidism: A Quest for the Historical Ba'al Shem Tov (2.ª ed.)
Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2013
ISBN 9781906764449
Founder of Hasidism: A Quest for the Historical Ba'al Shem Tov
University of California Press, 1996
ISBN 9780520201910
Hebreo
Ha-Besht: mehadesh ha-Hasidut
Merkaz Zalman Shazar, 1999
Translation: David Louvish
ISBN 9789652271426
Other works by Baal Shem Tov
- Igeret ha-Kodesh (Letter to Abraham Gershon of Kuty) · 1750
- Tsava'at ha-Rivash (The Testament of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem) · 1793
- Keter Shem Tov (Crown of the Good Name) · 1794
- Shivhei ha-Besht (In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov) · 1815
- Toledot Ya'akov Yosef · 1780
- Ben Porat Yosef · 1781
- Tsafnat Pa'neah · 1782
- Ketonet Passim · 1866
- Likkutim Yekarim (Precious Gleanings) · 1792
- Degel Mahaneh Efrayim · 1810
- Sefer Baal Shem Tov (The Book of the Baal Shem Tov) · 1938
- Kabbalistic commentary on Psalm 107 (attributed) · 1804
- Letters of the "Kherson genizah" (spurious) · 1918
- The Besht: Magician, Mystic, and Leader (Immanuel Etkes) · 2000
- The Circle of the Baal Shem Tov (Abraham J. Heschel) · 1985
Sources
- Rosman, Moshe. Founder of Hasidism: A Quest for the Historical Ba'al Shem Tov. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996; 2.ª ed. Oxford/Portland: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2013.
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