Reading room

Tsava'at ha-Rivash (The Testament of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem)

Baal Shem Tov

Some hundred and forty short paragraphs on the inner life: equanimity before praise and contempt (*hishtavut*), constant cleaving to God (*devekut*), prayer in joy rather than in tears, the raising of stray thoughts, distrust of sadness and scruples, and moderate asceticism. It was one of the books the *mitnagdim* cited as proof of Hasidic heterodoxy, and at the same time one of the movement's most read manuals of piety. Jacob Immanuel Schochet's annotated edition (Kehot) traces the sources of each paragraph.