Salle de lecture

Shivhei ha-Besht (In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov)

Baal Shem Tov

Some two hundred and fifty narratives that follow the Besht's life from the legend of his father, captive in a distant land, to his death on Shavuot 1760: the orphaned childhood, the years as a hidden saint, the revelation, the healings and exorcisms, the ascents of the soul, the encounters with disciples and opponents, the thwarted journey to the Land of Israel. Each tale usually states from whom the compiler heard it, which allows historians to reconstruct chains of transmission. The annotated English translation by Dan Ben-Amos and Jerome R. Mintz (1970) is the reference in that language.