Customer Reviews

The Light and Fire of the Baal Shem Tov

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The Light And Fire of the Baal Shem Tov by Yitzhak Buxbaum is a book of holy stories of the Baal Shem Tov. The stories are organized through the life of the founder of Chassidus, Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, starting with stories of his parents and birth, early years, starting on his path, leading the path, and coming to and beyond life's end. In a way, it traces the life of the Baal Shem Tov through the miraculous stories associated with each period.

The book is well written and targeted at a general audience, making a point of avoiding the use of any special Jewish religious terminology that is often found in such books. The stories are warm, engaging, and faith inspiring.

This book has two special distinctions. First, it's by far the largest collection of stories of the Baal Shem Tov in English that I've ever seen. As opposed to most similiar stories-of-the-righteous books, it's so long and complete it easily lasted through several weeks of reading! Second, it's the priciest book of stories of the Baal Shem Tov that I've ever seen (though given the number of stories included, it's easily equivalent to 4-5 similar books). That said, it can be had at a substantial discount at Amazon.com.

One small formatting gripe, the printing is a bit small and also a bit wide on the page. The result gives you more content per page than similar books, but makes it a less physically comfortable reading experience.

Regardless, my wife and teenage children thorough enjoyed the book, as did I when I finally was able to get it from them.

To fully enjoy this book, begin by reading aloud. The "story-teller" sets the mood so that the soul may enter into another realm -- the realm of the mystical within the most simple aspects of life. Gradually the reader steps into the rhythm of the anthology of tales of the Baal Shem Tov, who is widely held to be the progenitor of the Chassidic movement.

If the reader resists total immersion into this vision, perhaps a review of the crises of the era from which the Baal Shem Tov arises would help. Pograms have physically devastated the Jews. The false messiahs Shabtai ben Zvi and Jacob Frank have dashed the hopes and damaged the faith of the people. Jewish leaders attempt to protect the flock from further ravages by focusing upon the intellectual pursuit of Torah, which tends to leave the poor and under-educated masses in the dark and cold.

Onto the stage steps a charismatic figure. Like fire, charisma can be a danger or it can be a blessing. In the Baal Shem Tov, this charismatic energy is the light and fire of Torah, which both illuminates and warms all Jewish souls.

As I read this book, I found myself slowly warming up, then enjoying the light and fire found within the tales of the Baal Shem Tov. Toward the end, the fire cools as the story follows through to the death of the Besht. It behooves the reader to review the middle parts to regain the light and warmth.

Dear Reb Yitzhak: I am grateful to you for your book "The Light and Fire of the Baal Shem Tov". It has the positive, earth-loving, spirit-transcending feeling that I always intuitively connected with the Baal Shem Tov. Your book made me HAPPY and lifts my spirit up. Thank you for the richness you are giving the Jewish people through your work.

This is an excellent compilation of the life and stories of the Baal Shem Tov. The stories and teachings of the Baal Shem Tov are at the foundation of Jewish mystical and Chassidic thought. This book beautifully brings together all these stories in one place. Every Jewish library should have this book.

"The Light and Fire of the Baal Shem Tov" is an unforgettable portrait, but what it portrays is not so much a flesh-and-blood man as a human ideal. The Besht who emerges from Buxbaum's beautifully written labor of love is pious, humble, warm, passionate, compassionate, magical and learned. As Buxbaum recognizes, he's the type of figure you'd expect to find after the Messiah comes, not before, and yet he cannot help but come alive to any reader with a pulse and an ounce of spirituality.

As a devotee of Spinoza, I frequently noted the Besht's pre-modern devotion to an omnipotent, omnibenevolent diety whose providence is responsible for even the smallest earthly event. Still, I was struck even more by how the Besht channeled that devotion to embrace a cosmic unity that transforms his world, no less than Spinoza's, into a joyful wonderland. How amazing it must have been to know either of those two gentlemen.

Frankly, whether I'm reading Light and Fire or Buxbaum's wonderful text about Hillel, I'm not thinking about Spinoza so much as Jesus. If I had a hundred wishes, one of them would surely be that every Christian I know would read those two books -- one being about a pre-Jesus Jew (Hillel) and the other about a post-Jesus Jew. Then, my Christian friends would see for themselves that the hero of the Gospels is but one of a number of Jewish thinkers who decided that the letter of the law may be important, but the spirit of the law is divine.

What a gift! This book has depth and character. It shines with a special light which is palpable from the moment one reads the opening narratives. The stories have us become acquainted with a master rabbi from the 1700's who lit the way for a heart-felt spiritual path to G-d. These accounts are told with beauty and a sweetness which serves to create a yearning within the reader.

Not only is the book readable, its scholarship is top-notch. When our story teller departs from an exact translation or adds a detail, he clearly explains how and why he has done so. This book is recommended for one who enjoys sitting by the fire of a master story-teller.

Rabbi Elisheva Beyer, Nevada

I absolutely love this book! I try to read about the Besht every day and this has become my very favorite reference. The stories are all inspiring and some even bring tears to my eyes and I think, "I want to be someone the Besht would be proud of," and try to live accordingly. I wish, I wish, I wish I could get a print of the painting on the cover! It's beautiful and I would love to have it over my fireplace.

Thank you for giving us this wonderful book

A profound and moving book on many levels. Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov or 'Besht' was the founder of the Hassidic movement among Eastern European Jews in the 1700's, which survives to this day in Israel, the United States and elsewhere.

The author says: "...I want it to be a book in which the Besht is alive", and: "the main goal is spiritual understanding." He succeeds in both, through the care in which he presents and orders stories about the Besht's life. One can also see how the spiritual approach of the Baal Shem Tov resonates back through two millennia to Hillel, and beyond, and forward two centuries, and beyond, to include the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlson, Yitzhak Buxbaum's own Rebbe.

There is another side to this work, perhaps not intended. One can also read it as a lesson in how the spiritual, cultural and traditional intellectual resources of an oppressed people can be drawn upon for their emancipation and liberation -- here spiritual -- or can be turned in many directions, not all for liberation. Looked at from this side, this is a very contemporary book, and could interest readers from many different traditions including from the Caribbean, Africa, Latin America and perhaps Tibet, or others, who struggle with parallel issues.

For Jews, and others, far from the world in this book, or who imagine ourselves to be so, there is nothing wrong with discovering how to turn a bowl of kasha or borscht into a holy meditation; or smoking a pipe (of tobacco) into an ascent; and perhaps being able to use these in turn to develop compassion or love of people.

The Baal Shem Tov's natural successor, it would appear from the book, would have been his daughter Edel. I wonder how things would have changed if she had been accepted as such.

[Written in honor of the memory of Aimee Cesaire: poet, philosopher, politician of Martinique and elsewhere; died April 17, 2008]

I highly recommend this book. An intimate portrayal of the Baal Shem Tov's life. You will finish the book and want to start all over again. This book will inspire the reader to examine his/her own life and how he/she can make improvements. Words cannot fully describe the impact this book will have.

This is truly a special book. What comes through these pages are not just words and stories, but a real taste of the light and fire of the Baal Shem Tov. As I read it I had the sense that the book was a true vehicle for transmission. I was also touched by the effort of the author as I read the book. It is obvious that putting the book together was for him an act of service, and the author's feeling for the stories and teachings comes through clearly.