11
posted ago by EarlBroadHill2 ago by EarlBroadHill2 +13 / -2

His birth name was Yisroel (Israel).

He seems to be born at Okopy, Ternopil Oblast. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Okopy,+Ternopil+Oblast,+Ukraine,+48767/@48.5416069,26.4127027,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4733eadb225b8b91:0x18927f585cdb01a2!8m2!3d48.540065!4d26.4272247

It is said that his importance is to have "divested Kabbalah of the rigid asceticism imposed on it by Isaac ben Solomon Luria in the 16th century. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Baal-Shem-Tov#ref261017

His "theories" are almost legend because nobody know exactly what he thought and very little has survived. Of what we know there are this 36 aphorisms. Some a quite revealing... https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3073/jewish/36-Aphorisms-of-the-Baal-Shem-Tov.htm

He understood "love God" and "love thy neighbor" as a racial Jew supremacism.

"Love your fellow as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18) is an interpretation of and commentary on "Love the L-rd, your G‑d" (Deuteronomy 6:5). He who loves a fellow Jew loves G‑d, because the Jew has within himself a "part of G‑d Above" (Job 31:2; see Tanya ch. 2). When one loves a fellow Jew, he loves the Jew's inner essence, and thereby loves G‑d.

To love a fellow Jew is to love G‑d. For it is written, "You are children of G‑d" (Deuteronomy 14:1); when one loves the father, one loves his children.

He also gave substance to the inner group favoritism of Jews.

One must have total self-sacrifice and dedication for love of one's fellow, even towards a Jew whom one has never seen.

"Torah that is unaccompanied by labor will ultimately cease" (Ethics of the Fathers 2:2). The "labor" of which the Mishnah speaks is the labor of loving one's fellow Jew.

The next one is very telling. Almost explain a lot of what happens today.

Love every single Jew, without exception, with the full depth of your heart and with the fire of your soul, no matter who he is or how he behaves.

The most salacious one comes from his main apprentice. It seems he used to kiss all children he used to take to school. Hum...

His successor, the Maggid of Mezeritch, said: If only we could kiss a Torah-scroll with the same love that my Master kissed the children when he took them to school as a teacher's assistant.