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Eliezer The Father of The Baal Shem Tov

Rabbi Eliezer (c. 5358–5463 / c. 1598–1703) was a hidden tzaddik (tzaddik nistar — a righteous person who conceals his spiritual standing from the public) and the father of the Baal Shem Tov.

Biography[edit | edit source]

Rabbi Eliezer was born around the year 5358 (c. 1598).[1] He married a woman named Sarah and settled in the Walchia district near the town of Tłuste (in present-day Ukraine), which was located near a border region.[2]

Captivity[edit | edit source]

For many years, Rabbi Eliezer and his wife had no children. It is related that on one occasion, bandits raided the town and took Rabbi Eliezer captive, while his wife escaped. The bandits brought him to a distant land, where he was sold to a local lord who put him to work. The lord treated Rabbi Eliezer kindly, even allowing him to rest on Shabbos. At one point Rabbi Eliezer planned to escape, but was then visited in a dream with a heavenly command to remain with that lord.[3]

On one occasion, the lord brought Rabbi Eliezer to the royal palace. When the king's viceroy saw Rabbi Eliezer, he was impressed and took him into his own household. When a great war broke out and defeat seemed imminent, Rabbi Eliezer performed a dream inquiry (she'elas chalom — a Kabbalistic practice of seeking divine guidance through dreams) and received heavenly guidance on how to achieve victory. The king was greatly impressed and took Rabbi Eliezer into his own service.[4]

According to a variant account, during the war the king and his army arrived at a certain body of water, and Rabbi Eliezer — who was present as a sailor — received a heavenly message that if they crossed that water they would drown, along with an alternate route. He immediately informed the king, who sent advance groups of soldiers to test the crossing — and they indeed drowned. The king followed Rabbi Eliezer's counsel and won the war.[5]

As a result, the king appointed Rabbi Eliezer as commander of the army. When the viceroy later died, the king appointed him as viceroy in his place and offered him the viceroy's daughter in marriage. Rabbi Eliezer, being a Jew, refused and kept his distance from her. When the viceroy's daughter noticed this and pressed him for an explanation, Rabbi Eliezer revealed to her in confidence that he was Jewish. She thereupon sent him away from the palace with a large sum of money. On the road, he was robbed and left with nothing.

Along the way, the prophet Elijah appeared to him and promised him that in the merit of all he had endured, a son would be born to him who would illuminate the world.[6]

When Rabbi Eliezer returned to his hometown of Tłuste, he found his wife had also returned. Near the age of one hundred, in the year 5458 (1698), their son — the Baal Shem Tov — was born to them.[7]

The Trial of the Pauper[edit | edit source]

For many years, Rabbi Eliezer and his righteous wife Sarah had remained childless. They prayed fervently, and it was decreed in Heaven that their prayers would be answered if they passed a spiritual test.

The prophet Elijah came to Rabbi Eliezer in the middle of Shabbos day, disguised as a pauper with a walking stick and knapsack — the appearance of someone who had, Heaven forbid, violated the Shabbos. Despite appearances, Rabbi Eliezer demonstrated the profound ahavas Yisroel (love of a fellow Jew) that dwelt within him: not only did he refrain from rebuking the pauper, he received him with a warm and gracious welcome.

In the merit of this act, it was decreed in Heaven that he would be rewarded with a son who would illuminate all of Israel through his unique path — one that illuminates the soul of every Jew. On Chai Elul (the 18th of Elul) in the year 5458 (1698), a son named Yisroel was born to him and his wife — who later became known as the holy Baal Shem Tov.

His Final Charge[edit | edit source]

When the Baal Shem Tov was five years old, his father Rabbi Eliezer passed away. Before his death, he charged his son with two things:

  1. To fear no creature — only the Holy One, blessed be He, alone.
  2. To love every Jew, in whatever situation he may be found.

These two principles became foundational pillars of the Chassidic movement that the Baal Shem Tov later established. A short time after Rabbi Eliezer's passing, his righteous wife Sarah also passed away.

Family[edit | edit source]

For Further Reading[edit | edit source]

Notes[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ According to this account, the Baal Shem Tov was born to him when he was close to one hundred years old.
  2. ↑ According to one account, he lived in the town of Okup, based on the Baal Shem Tov's practice of signing his name "Yisroel of Okup." The Frierdiker Rebbe (the Previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn) once explained that the reason the Baal Shem Tov signed this way was that Tłuste, where his parents had lived, was close to the border and had been destroyed; the Baal Shem Tov's parents lived on the ruins of the town, which in Russian was called "Okup" (Sefer HaSichos 5696 [1936], p. 130).
  3. ↑ Shivchei HaBesht, 5777 (2017) ed., p. 29.
  4. ↑ Shivchei HaBesht, p. 30.
  5. ↑ Shivchei HaBesht, p. 31.
  6. ↑ Shivchei HaBesht, p. 32.
  7. ↑ Shivchei HaBesht, pp. 32–33.
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