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Library Baal Shem Tov

Traditional attribution

Letters of the "Kherson genizah" (spurious)

גניזת חרסון

Portada de la primera edición de Shivhei ha-Besht (Kopys, 1814–1815)
byBaal Shem Tov

Hundreds of letters claiming to document the organisation of a clandestine movement of "hidden saints" before and during the Besht's life. Their anachronisms, their language and the absence of verifiable originals led critics to dismiss them, though for a time some writers accepted them. They are listed to warn the reader: accounts that rely on them have no historical value.

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Authorship note

Set of letters attributed to the Besht and his disciples that surfaced after the First World War and was partly published in Chabad circles in the 1930s. The great majority of historians consider them modern forgeries.

Editions and translations

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Sources

  • Biale, David; Assaf, David; Brown, Benjamin; Gellman, Uriel; Heilman, Samuel C.; Rosman, Moshe; Sagiv, Gadi; Wodziński, Marcin. Hasidism: A New History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.

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