The Baal Shem Tov: Difference between revisions

The Baal Shem Tov (edit)

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 As a result of the horrible pogroms, the spiritual and material situation of the Jews was in great decline. Chassidic teachings refer to this period as “the fainting,” similar to a man who lost consciousness and fell into a deep sleep. Rabbi Pinchas Koritzer, a Chassidic scholar, said that the Baal Shem Tov’s soul descended into the world to awaken the souls of Israel from their state of unconsciousness.
-The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that just as when a person faints, his first name is called to awaken him, because a name comes from the essence of the soul, so too, when the essence is awakened, the man himself awakens. Before the Baal Shem Tov was revealed as a leader, the Jewish people were sunk into unconsciousness and the Almighty sent down the soul of the Besht (with the powerful name Israel) to awaken the essence of the soul of the people and rouse them from their sleep.
+The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that in the same way that a person's first name is called to awaken him when he faints because the name comes from the essence of the soul, so too, when the soul's essence awakens, he himself comes to life. Before the Baal Shem Tov was revealed as a leader, the Jewish people were sunk into unconsciousness and the Almighty sent down the soul of the Besht (with the powerful name Israel) to awaken the essence of the soul of the people and rouse them from their sleep.
 === Background ===