I visited the grave of the Ba'al Shem Tov, the progenitor of Hasidism, and the shrine of Rabbi Nachman, in Uman.
Heidegger, the Magnificus, "assumes the Rectorship" of Freiburg; in our own day, Leo Strauss is the "sage" of Chicago, while in 18th-century Poland, the founder of the Hasidic school, the Baal Shem Tov, is the master of masters.
The Baal Shem Tov, the great mystic and the founder of the Chassidic movement, was orphaned at the age of 5. His father on his deathbed called his young son to him and with his last breath told the boy to fear nothing but God.
These are the fervent, allegorical tales of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism; Rabbi Nachman of Breslov; Baruch of Mezbizh; Levi Yitzkhak of Berditchev; and many others.
The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement, taught that a soul may come into this world for an entire lifetime only to do a favor for another.
The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement, taught that a person can come into this world for an entire lifetime just to do a kindness for another.
An innkeeper pounds a man's face "as if it were a tambourine, holding him up with her other hand"; her cook, who procures prostitutes for male guests, rocks a baby in a cradle while reading about the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic sect of Judaism.
He married Bluma Halperin, the daughter of a Hasidic leader and a direct descendant of the Baal Shem Tov, the 18th-century founder of Hasidism.
