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I was privileged to visit Lublin with my late father when I was a boy of nine, and I saw his [the Seer’s] face illuminated like torches. And when he opened the door to recite Ke-gavnah [An Aramaic…
When Rabbi Zusya went to suffer the exile in Germany, he came to a city of Reform Jews. When they saw his ways, they mocked him and thought he was crazy. When he came into the synagogue, some of them…
“Good morning, Master of the universe!
I, Levi-Yitzchok of Berdytschev, have come to hold
Judgment with You concerning Your people Israel.
What have You against Israel?
Why have you imposed…
Besides these, there are students of outstanding ability in their Torah study seated constantly in his presence—they are swifter than eagles and mightier than lions, each…
Once there was a rabbi who had no children. Finally, he had an only son. He raised him and married him off. The son used to sit in an attic room and study in the manner of rich men and he always…
You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea: You will show faithfulness to Jacob. . . .
—Micah 7:19–20
In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, while I was walking along the…
When I was still young, nineteen years of age, it entered my mind to fool the world (as was the practice of the “holy ones” in those days), and this was the scheme I adopted: I used to travel on…
Upon you, great ones, the rebbes of the Hasidim, who follow the path of the Ba‘al Shem Tov, and of whose glorious name they boast and by…
In some Hasidic communities, it became a common practice for the Hasidic leader or rebbe to give specially sanctified coins as amulets that could confer blessings on the holder. These coins-turned…
The Birth of the Ba‘al Shem Tov
One of the greatest phenomena, running like a thread throughout the spiritual history of the Jewish people, is mysticism, a remnant of ancient mythology, which could…