The Baal Shem Tov

Hasidism traces its origins to the Baal Shem Tov, a uniquely gifted teacher and healer who was sought out by the masses for his paranormal powers of blessing and by the scholarly elite for his electrifying, transformative mystical reading of Judaism’s canonical texts. The Baal Shem Tov breathed new life into the ancient words and traditions of Judaism, foregrounding love of God, Torah, and Israel, emphasizing ecstatic fervor in prayer and study, and promoting a theology of divine immanence, the teaching that all the universe is permeated with God’s Glory – the indwelling Presence of the Divine – so that no place is void of God.