BESHT AS MAGICIAN

The Besht, Israel ben Eliezer (1729-1779) the purported founder of Hasidism is a huge figure in the imagination of Earth Based Jews because he was oriented towards the more than human world and presented a Judaism that was joyful and close to the divine, full of music and stories. Would that we could have some small part of his abilities and joy in the divine!

I’ve written a longer paper that I wrote for a class as I played at being an academic.  Those of you who are academics will be able to see why I could never have succeeded as one.  I have posted it in longer writings https://earthbasedjudaism.org/longer-writings/the-besht

Here I will write a few salient and much shorter posts.

THE BESHT AS BAAL SHEM

Baal Shem literally means the “master of names.”  The names referred to are the divine names through which Jewish magic was practiced. Magic is one of those ambiguous terms which we all too often use without specifying our meaning.  Let me first offer a definition.

Magic, in my view, is a kind of technology for maintaining the alignment of the sacred and profane in order to achieve this worldly goals such as health, protection from enemies, male children and the like.  It is first based on the belief that when bad things happen or might happen in the world, such as illness, it is because of a misalignment.  Thus one part of a cure for illness, or protection against enemies has to be to get the realm of the sacred to support the this worldly desires of the person seeking the aid of the magician.

Magic is often accompanied by and seen as complementary with other this worldly activities.  For instance, Malinowski’s Trobriander Islanders performed garden magic, but also did all the activities to grow their gardens that a secular person would. [1] Similarly, baalei shem in the Besht’s era were also natural healers and did things like herbal cures and blood letting. [2] When I was in Japan in the mid 1980’s amulets against traffic accidents were hung on almost every rear view mirror—but everyone still buckled their seat belts, used their turning signals and did everything the people who didn’t have amulets also did.

The implication of this view of magic as technology is that the most important criterion for judging magic being performed is effectiveness.  The question of whether magic is true or real, actually misses the point.  The question is “does it work?” I can’t see an electron any more than I can see a demon, but believers in electrons have produced wonders greater than believers in demons, and so I believe in electrons. 

Etkes says Jewish magic at the time of the Besht addressed a typical range of problems including exorcism, spells and reversing spells, locating people, banishing demons, health challenges, protecting from the dangers of childbirth, having male children, protection from enemies and divination about the future. [3] These are the same kinds of problems we see in more ancient Jewish magical texts adduced by Shaked, Bohak and Harari.[4]

The Besht was a proud magician all his life.  How do we know this? The Besht signed his letters as Baal Shem.  [5] There’s a famous letter from Gershon his brother in law asking for an amulet that doesn’t have to be renewed every year. [6] Shivehei HaBesht[7] has a number of stories that I have construed as being about the Besht as a baal shem.  For instance, in story 20 the Besht exorcises a demon from a madwoman.  He exorcises demons from a house in story #23 and places amulets to protect the house. There’s the case of a sick woman who is protecting the city from robbers so the Besht refuses to give her a remedy (story #117).  Story 204 is about a charm for easy delivery.    Lastly, the father in law of the compiler of these stories served as the Besht’s scribe and the Besht had two scribes “because the Besht’s affairs grew too big for one scribe to handle.” (story 17)

We should also note the general prevalence of Baalei Shem.  Baalei Shem were a generally accepted part of society. Etkes talks about a book of charms that existed around that time and provides us with a list of other famous baalei shem of the era.  [8] As the letter from R. Moses of Kutow and the evidence adduced by Etkes demonstrate, everyone used baalei shem.  They were a normal part of society.

It's tempting to say that we don’t much believe in magic these days. But I am here to say that science occurs to us in much the same way that magic did to our ancestors—as something we believe in because of its efficacy, even though it doesn’t always work. We don’t have Baalei Shem here in the United States in the liberal Jewish community.  I certainly would find it hard to believe, for instance, that some kind of amulet would heal my psoriasis. And yet, I am skeptical about my skepticism. 

FOOTNOTES

[1] Bronislaw Malinowski Magic, Science and Religion

[2] See Shivhei HaBesht In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov translated by Dan Ben-Amos and Jerome R. Mintz.  A fuller discussion of this text is below.

[3] See Immanuel Etkes The Besht, Magician, Mystic and Leader. p.46

[4] Shaul Shaked Dramatis Personae in the Jewish Magic Texts:  Some differences Detween Incantation Bowls and Geniza Magic.” Gideon Bohak, Ancient Jewish Magic

[5] For his Holy Epistle, see Rosman, p. 108.  There’s a letter from Shivhei Habesht also singed Israel Besht, Rosman p.115  There’s a Halachic inquiry to Rabbi Meir in 1857.  Interestingly, a letter he wrote to R. Moses of Kutow sometime before 1737 refers to the Besht’s medical knowledge and is signed as Israel the son of Eliezer from Tluste. 

[6] See Rosman, p. 129-30

[7] Shivhei HaBesht, In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov.  Trans. Ben-Amos and Mintz.  I’m using story numbers because I think they will be more consistent edition to edition. 

[8] See Etkes, pp14ff.