The Ba’al Shem Tov’s Ascent of the Soul
Yisra’el ben Eliezer (c. 1700–1760), more commonly known as the Ba’al Shem Tov (“Master of the Good Name”) or Besht[1], was a Jewish mystical teacher and founder of the Hasidic movement, the most prominent sect of Jewish mysticism that began in Eastern Europe and remains operative today. Having spent long periods of his life in solitude dedicated to Kabbalistic study, the Ba’al Shem Tov settled in Mezhbizh (modern-day Ukraine), where he became an influential miracle worker, healer, and religious leader. His innovative and accessible approach to mystical practice, which centralized the primacy of joy in prayer and God’s radical immanence, paved the way for the rapid development and expansion of Hasidism throughout Eastern Europe.
Little was written by the Ba’al Shem Tov himself, and while his disciples documented and expanded upon his teachings, much of the Besht’s life and legacy are preserved in a series of legends which emphasize his miracle workings. Many of those legends highlight the healing power of the Besht, wherein the invocation of divine names served as the vehicle for the efficacy of his remedies. Indeed, techniques surrounding the contemplation and incantation of God’s holy names have been utilized in Jewish mystical traditions as early as the Hekhalot literature, and one of the few extant documents attributed directly to the Ba’al Shem Tov corroborates his adherence to this ancient teaching. In this document––a letter written to his brother-in-law, Rabbi Abraham Gershon of Kutow, sometime between 1746 and 1749––the Besht tells of his “ascent of the soul,” a spiritual journey commonly attested throughout Jewish mystical literature, and of which he claims to have frequently experienced.
The readily apparent messianic and redemptive features of the ascent experience are representative of the unique form of Beshtian mysticism that continues to find expression throughout the Hasidic world today. Here, the visionary ascent is for the sake of worldly redemption. By ascending to divine realms, the Besht was granted an opportunity to learn from the Messiah about the secrets of the divine names that would bring about the messianic era. Although some of these secrets the Besht was instructed to keep concealed, he was nevertheless granted the ability to teach of a modality of prayer that would foster the redemptive project. In this technique, one cleaves to the divine light concealed within the sacred letters of the Torah in order for the soul to ascend, be unified in the divine realm, and occasion the descent of the divine influx into the corporeal realm.
The direct impact of this experience upon the Ba’al Shem Tov is not disclosed. That said, the ascent revelation produced a model for mystical prayer which, alongside the teachings preserved by his students, has served as the blueprint for Hasidic mystical practice. Furthermore, the Besht’s intertwining of the mystical secrets of the divine names with a notion of God’s radical immanence was not only indebted to his ecstatic gnosis, but was meant to enable his students to experience ascents of their own.
Source
The earliest version of this letter was published in 1781 by Jacob Joseph of Polonnoye in the appendices of the text Ben Porat Yosef.[2] A disciple of the Ba’al Shem Tov, Joseph was the individual instructed to deliver the letter to the Besht’s brother-in-law in Palestine, a delivery which never occurred. The translation is from Louis Jacobs, Jewish Mystical Testimonies (Schocken Books, 1977).[3]
For on the day of the New Year of the year 5507 I engaged in an ascent of the soul, as you know I do, and saw wondrous things in that vision that I had never before seen since the day I had attained to maturity. That which I saw and learned in my ascent it is impossible to describe or to relate even from mouth to mouth. But as I returned to the lower Garden of Eden I saw many souls, both of the living and the dead, those known to me and those unknown. They were more than could be counted and they ran to and fro from world to world through the path provided by that column known to the adepts in the hidden science. They were all in such a state of great rapture that the mouth would be worn out if it attempted to describe it and the physical ear too indelicate to hear it. Many of the wicked repented of their sins and were pardoned, for it was a time of much grace. In my eyes, too, it was a great marvel that the repentance was accepted of so many whom you know. They also enjoyed great rapture and ascended, as mentioned above. All of them entreated me to my embarrassment, saying: “The Lord has given your honor great understanding to grasp these matters. Ascend together with us, therefore, so as to help us and assist us.” Their rapture was so great that I resolved to ascend together with them.
Then I saw in the vision that Samael went up to act the part of the accuser because of the unprecedented rapture. He achieved what he had set out to do, namely, a decree of apostasy for many people who would be tortured to death. Then dread seized me and I took my life in my hands. I requested my teacher to come with me since there is great danger in the ascent to the higher worlds and since from the day I attained maturity I had never undertaken such high ascents. I went higher step by step until I entered the palace of the Messiah where the Messiah studies the Torah together with all the tannaim and the saints and also with the Seven Shepherds. There I witnessed great rejoicing and could not fathom the reason for it so I thought that, God forbid, the rejoicing was over my own departure from this world. But I was afterwards informed that I was not yet to die since they took great delight on high when, through their Torah, I perform unifications here below. To this day I am unaware of the reason for that rejoicing. I asked the Messiah: “When will the Master come?” And he replied: “You will know of it in this way; it will be when your teaching becomes famous and revealed to the world, and when that which I have taught you and you have comprehended will spread abroad so that others, too, will be capable of performing unifications and having soul ascents as you do. Then will all the kelippot be consumed and it will be a time of grace and salvation.” I was astonished to hear this and greatly distressed that it would take such a long time, for when will such a thing be possible? Yet my mind was set at rest in that I learned there three special charms and three holy names and these are easy to grasp and to expound so that I thought to myself, it is possible by this means for all my colleagues to attain to the stages and categories to which I have attained… they, too, will be able to engage in ascents of the soul and learn to comprehend as I have done. But no permission was given to me to reveal this secret for the rest of my life. I did request that I be allowed to teach it to you but no permission at all was given to me and I am duty bound on oath to keep the secret.
However, this I can tell you and may God be your help. Let your ways be set before the Lord and never be moved, especially in the holy land. Whenever you offer your prayers and whenever you study, have the intention of unifying a divine name in every word and with every utterance of your lips. For there are worlds, souls and divinity in every letter. These ascend to become united with the other and then the letters are combined in order to form a word so that there is complete unification with the divine. Allow your soul to be embraced by them at each of the above stages. Thus all worlds become united and they ascend so that the immeasurable rapture and the greatest delight is experienced.
Notes
[1]The name appears in several transliterations, including Yisra’el ben Eliezer, Israel ben Eliezer, Ba‘al Shem Tov, Baal Shem Tov, and the acronym Besht or BeShT. The forms Ba‘al Shem Tov and Besht are used here, while the bibliography preserves the spelling used in the cited sources.
[2]Yisra’el ben Eliezer, Iggeret ha-Kodesh, in Ben Porat Yosef, ed.Ya‘akov Yosef Katz, (Korets, 1781), 100a–100b.
[3]Louis Jacobs, Jewish Mystical Testimonies (1977; repr., New York: Schocken Books, 1997), 184–87.
Bibliography
Dauber, Jonathan. “The Baal Shem Tov and the Messiah: A Reappraisal of the Baal Shem Tov’s Letter to R. Gershon of Kutov.” Jewish Studies Quarterly 16, no. 2 (2009): 210–41.
Idel, Moshe. Hasidism: Between Ecstasy and Magic. State University of New York Press, 1995.
———. Ascensions on High in Jewish Mysticism: Pillars, Lines. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2005.
Yisra’el ben Eliezer, Ba‘al Shem Tov. Iggeret ha-Kodesh. In Ben Porat Yosef, edited by Ya‘akov Yosef Katz, 100a–100b. Korets, 1781.
Jacobs, Louis. Jewish Mystical Testimonies. 1977. Reprint, New York: Schocken Books, 1997.
Mayse, Ariel Evan, and Sam Berrin Shonkoff, eds. Hasidism: Writings on Devotion, Community, and Life in the Modern World. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2020.
Scholem, Gershom. "The Historical Image of Rabbi Israel Ba'al Shem Tov." In The Latest Phase: Essays on Hasidism by Gershom Scholem, edited by David Assaf and Esther Liebes, 106–45. Tel Aviv: 'Am 'Oved, 2008.
Maximillian Wetter
Maximillian Wetter is a PhD student in the Department of Religion at Rice University. He earned his Master of Theological Studies, with a concentration in Jewish studies, from Harvard Divinity School in 2025. His research explores motifs of suffering and joy in the mystical and philosophical writings of post-Holocaust Jewish thinkers.
