new certainties and new mysticism 417
Through concentrated intention (kavvanah ), prayer can permit the soul
to cleave to God, but all human acts relate to the divine if performed in a
state of devekut, ‘attachment’. The same is true of the study of the Torah.
All, no matter how unlearned, can open up the divine world by studying
the letters of the Torah, even if one does not understand it directly. Such
teachings drew upon the ideas and vocabulary of the Lurianic kab-
balah, but gave them a new significance. They opened up the possibility
of mystical experience to any pious individual prepared to approach
the everyday life of Judaism with appropriate devotion and joy. A new
mass movement rapidly emerged on the margins of the Jewish commu-
nity. Podolia and other centres of Hasidism were far away from the
great centres of rabbinic learning. Many of the new pietists came from
those who felt religiously disenfranchised by the lack of a rabbinic
education.^56
Such democratization of piety was clearly part of its appeal, but the
basis of the Baal Shem Tov’s fame was undoubtedly the stories about his
miracles. Collections of shevahim (‘praises’) of him duly circulated dur-
ing his lifetime and were published in many different editions in Hebrew
and Yiddish in the decades after his death. There were many different
stories:
There was a time when there was no rain. The gentiles took out their idols
and carried them around the village according to their custom, but it still
did not rain. Once the Besht said to the arrendator [municipal revenue
farmer]: ‘Send for the Jews in the surrounding area to come here for a
minyan [a quorum of ten men for prayer].’ And he proclaimed a fast. The
Besht himself prayed before the ark, and the Jews prolonged the prayer.
One gentile asked: ‘Why did you remain at prayer so long today? And why
was there a great cry among you?’ The arrendator told him the truth – that
they prayed for rain – and the gentile mocked him sharply, saying, ‘We went
around with our idols and it did not help. What help will you bring with
your prayers?’ The arrendator told the words of the gentile to the Besht,
who said to him: ‘Tell the gentile that it will rain today.’ And so it did.The legendary elements are patent, but, like Dr Falk, the Baal Shem of
London, Israel b. Eliezer was widely known in non- Jewish circles. In the
Polish tax registers a house near the synagogue in Medzibozh is
described in 1742 as ‘The Baal Shem in the kahal house’, in 1758 as
‘The Baal Shem’ and in 1760 as ‘The Baal Shem, the doctor, exempt’.
And like Dr Falk, Israel b. Eliezer made no secret of his work as a healer,
signing himself proudly as ‘Israel Baal Shem of Tłuste’.^57