He taught that even the deeds of the simplest Jew, if performed correctly and sincerely, were equal to those of the greatest scholars. His teachings (he left no writings) brought about a whole movement which emphasized the idea of bringing God into all aspects of one’s life, particularly through intense prayer and joyous singing. And this is what the Ba’al Shem Tov sought to change. As a result of the decrease in scholarship, Jewish religious life suffered-with the average Jew not connecting either intellectually or spiritually with God. One of the victims of this situation was Jewish scholarship, with only an elite few studying in yeshivas while the rest eked out a meager living. In addition to the tremendous physical destruction wrought by the Chmielnicki massacres, the tremendous disappointment caused by the false Messiah Shabbetai Tzvi (see Part 51) left much of the Jewish population of Eastern Europe in a collective state of deep depression. See Part 49), large parts of Eastern European Jewry had slipped into dire poverty. His teachings revolutionized the demoralized, persecuted Jews of Eastern Europe. He traveled from community to community, developing a reputation wherever he went as a spiritual holy man and mystical healer, attracting a huge following. During this time he studied with a secret society of Jewish mystics, the Nestarim, and he eventually became a revered rabbi. The Ba’al Shem Tov (who was also known as the Besht) was a poor orphan child who worked in the Carpathian Mountains as a laborer. He was born in 1698 in Okup, in Podolia province (of what is now Ukraine) near the Dniester River. The Hassidic movement-the movement of the “pious ones” or Chassidut, in Hebrew-was founded in the 18th century in Eastern Europe by Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, who became known as the Ba’al Shem Tov, which means “Master of the Good Name.” Initially a movement largely of the poor and uneducated, Hassidism introduced Kabbalah and spirituality into everyday life.
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