Editing The Baal Shem Tov (section)

==== Leader of the Hidden Tzaddikim ====
At age 14 (1712), he joined the group of hidden tzaddikim, which was then under the leadership of the "Baal Shem" Rabbi Adam of Ropczyce.

Before the passing of Rabbi Adam Baal Shem, leader of the hidden tzaddikim, he was told in a dream to give his writings to Yisrael ben Eliezer of Okop. He sent his son to search for Rabbi Yisrael and asked him to deliver the writings, as they belonged to his soul root, and if he agreed to study with him, all the better. After a long search, he found the 'shul keeper' named Yisrael who was then fourteen years old. Rabbi Adam's son asked to study with him, and Rabbi Yisrael agreed on the condition that it would appear as if Rabbi Yisrael was the student. As a result of their learning, they arranged a marriage for him with a woman from Okop, but she passed away shortly after the wedding.

At age eighteen, he was officially appointed as leader of the hidden tzaddikim.

On his twenty-sixth birthday, Achiya HaShiloni was revealed to him and taught him Torah for ten years. During this time, he revealed to him the illumination within both the revealed Torah and Kabbalah as learned in Gan Eden. Until his thirty-sixth birthday, when his teacher urged him to reveal himself.