BAAL-SHEM-TOV

Sometimes, when religious or political movements are insensitive to the needs of man, a great desire for simplicity, take possession of the rebellious spirit of the people, and they are looking for change. At the beginning of XVIII century. majority of Eastern European Jews lived in small towns without much hope for material well-being. The Jewish community then valued literate and skilled workers. In small towns dominated family of rich merchants, rabbis and lawyers. The poor had no rights to small-town councils.

The community, numbering half the Jews of the world and suffers from the oligarchy and oppression, was born on the Baal Shem Tov, or "Teacher of the divine name. " Israel ben Eliezer was a pauper, a tramp, an orphan, an assistant teacher, archeologists lime, innkeeper, of all trades, the manufacturer of amulets, sorcerer. Much of the history of his life was retold by his followers and overgrown wonderful legends. He left no writings. On his wondrous works, we know from the memoirs of students. And yet great was his influence on the development of modern Judaism. Along with the development of orthodox rabbinic Jewish thought, the apex of which was the Vilna Gaon, liberalization, led by the Enlightenment philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Bescht (this was the nickname of Baal Shem Tov) brings warmth and ecstasy in prayer, and passion into the dry words of a religious rite.

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For some contemporaries Bescht was the leader of the heretics, like the followers of the false Messiah Shabtai Tzvi and Jacob Frank′s mad, who preached free love and again later in his entire group of Catholicism. Simple same people adored Beshta. He preached that every person can communicate with God. Scientists are not as important as piety. Only through complete self-abandonment through spiritual elevation achieve righteous mercy of heaven. Anyone can pray, even when he was very literate. Whistle simpleton directly reaches the sky, carrying with them the prayers of the entire community.

According Beshta, because God is omnipresent, present everywhere - in the prosaic, slime, and in a magnificent forest all around gives pleasure, happiness surrounds every living creature. God has commanded us to be happy, to sing and dance and feel every cell of his wonderful generosity. Bescht taught that Paradise is hidden behind the sacred words, accessible to anyone who allows the ecstasy of prayer lead.

One of his major works - "tzadik (righteous man) was used by followers to create a great dynasties of rabbis, some of which have survived to this day (for example, the Lubavitcher Hasidic movement has its origins in the late eighteenth century by disciples Beshta).

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Tzadik was an exceptional personality, a unique righteousness which makes it especially close to God. Tzadik could even apply to the will of God. The successors of Baal Shem Tov - Rabbi Dov Baer, and Nachman of Bratislava, made a notable contribution to the expansion of the political significance of tzaddik, also called "rabbi" whose moral values have served as a model for his community, and the bearer of the Holy Sacrament.

After the death of Baal Shem Tov, the Eastern European Jews split into many years of his ecstatic supporters of the ideals and his more traditional opponents, led by the Vilna Gaon. Hasidim called his followers mitnagdim - opponents of their own happiness. The Jewish Middle Ages ended with the conflict between the Hasidim and mitnagdim, who later became relatively meaningless against the backdrop of a secular Jewish Enlightenment, or Gaskaly. Hasidim more focused on the study of the Talmud. It brought them together with the main usage and distanced from the raptures Beshta. In addition to his physical presence with a pipe in his mouth and needed a more defined structure.