416 A History of Judaism
he discovered that he was a baal shem, ‘master of the Name [of God]’,
whose secret knowledge of the Tetragrammaton and other holy names
enabled him to work miracles and heal the sick.^54
Israel b. Eliezer was not the first to discover in himself such remark-
able powers. Already in the eleventh century Hai Gaon had recorded
‘that they saw a certain man, one of the well- known baalei shem, on the
eve of the Sabbath in one place, and that at the same time he was seen
in another place, several days’ journey distant’. The title was given to a
number of important talmudic scholars in Germany and Poland from
the sixteenth century onwards, but also increasingly to scholars who
devoted themselves to kabbalah and gained followers by healing
through prayers, amulets and incantations, particularly in the treatment
of mental disorders and in exorcisms. Books such as Mifalot Elohim
(‘Works of God’), associated with Yoel Baal Shem and published in
1727, containing formulas used by ba’alei shem in their magic and
medicine, circulated widely. A younger contemporary of Israel b. Eliezer,
Samuel Jacob Hayyim Falk, travelled from Galicia to Westphalia (where
he was nearly burned as a sorcerer) to England, where around 1742 he set
himself up as a kabbalist in premises on London Bridge, practising
alchemy and gaining a wide reputation among the general public, to
whom he was known as ‘Dr Falk’. Eventually reconciled to the London
Jewish community to which he left a large legacy, despite their initial hos-
tility to him on his arrival in the city, he was said to have saved the Great
Synagogue from fire through a magical inscription on its doorposts.^55
Israel b. Eliezer was thus in a long- established tradition as a miracu-
lous healer, but he was also to become a leader and teacher, and the
school he established in Medzibozh (in modern Ukraine) in c. 1740
attracted crowds seeking spiritual guidance as well as his intercession
for their welfare. About his teachings it is possible only to be certain
about the general outlines. He himself wrote down none of them, but
some of his letters are preserved in the writing of his disciple Yaakov
Yosef haCohen of Polonnoye, who also frequently quoted the Baal
Shem Tov as ‘my teacher’ in the first printed hasidic book, published in
1780: ‘I heard from my teacher that the primary occupation of Torah
and prayer is that one should attach oneself to the inner infinite spiritual
light within the letters of the Torah and prayer, and this is what is called
study for its own sake.’
The sayings of the Baal Shem Tov recorded by Yaakov Yosef and the
later tradition warn against excessive asceticism and fasting, and assert
the ability of all to serve God through joy. God is present in all things.