
Founder of Hasidism
A Quest for the Historical Ba'al Shem Tov
Moshe Rosman(Author)
University of California Press
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 25. June 1996
Book
Hardback
316 pages
978-0-520-20191-0 (ISBN)
Description
This book goes farther than any previous work in uncovering the historical Israel ben Eliezer - known as the Ba'al Shem Tov, or the Besht - the eighteenth-century Polish-Jewish mystic who profoundly influenced the shape of modern Judaism. As the progenitor of Hasidism, the Ba'al Shem Tov is one of the key figures in Jewish history; to understand him is to understand an essential element of modern Jewish life and religion. Because evidence about his life is scanty and equivocal, the Besht has long eluded historians and biographers. Much of what is believed about him is based on stories compiled more than a generation after his death, many of which serve to mythologize rather than describe their subject. Rosman's study casts a bright new light on the traditional stories about the Besht, confirming and augmenting some, challenging others. By concentrating on accounts attributable directly to the Besht or to contemporary eyewitnesses, Rosman provides a portrait drawn from life rather than myth.
In addition, documents in Polish and Hebrew discovered by Rosman during the research for this book enable him to give the first detailed description of the cultural, social, economic, and political context of the Ba'al Shem Tov's life.
In addition, documents in Polish and Hebrew discovered by Rosman during the research for this book enable him to give the first detailed description of the cultural, social, economic, and political context of the Ba'al Shem Tov's life.
More details
Series
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
635 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-20191-0 (9780520201910)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2023
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
€67.49
Available for download
Person
Moshe Rosman teaches Jewish History at Bar Ilan University and is the author of The Lords' Jews: Magnate-Jewish Relations in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1990), among other works.