Baal Shem Tov (Israel ben Eliezer)
1698 – 1760 Polish/Ukrainian (Ashkenazi Jewish) Mystic, healer, founder of Hasidism
Founder of Hasidism, whose message of joyful, heartfelt devotion reshaped Eastern European Jewry.
- Religion
- Judaism (Kabbalah/Hasidism)
- Affiliations
- Podolia; early Hasidic movement
Known as the Besht, Israel ben Eliezer taught that sincere prayer, joy and attachment to God mattered as much as scholarship, drawing a wide following among ordinary Jews. He founded Hasidism, a movement that spread rapidly across Poland, Ukraine and beyond. He left almost no writings, and knowledge of him comes largely from stories told by his disciples, so the historical figure is hard to separate from legend.
In the timeline
- 1740 Baal Shem Tov founds Hasidism central figure