Messages 2010
Life Is Simple - the Baal Shem Tov.
October 28th, 2010
Berkeley, California
Received by FAB
I am here, the Baal Shem Tov.
Yes, I wish to convey a message, and that is that life is simple, much simpler than many imagine. It is the distractions of the Earth life that turn people away from this simplicity and from their true selves, which is their soul.
Every person without exception is capable of that childlike dependence on, and love for, the Creator, that is preferred by our All-Loving God. This God is not indifferent to Earth’s troubles and difficulties, and Is always Trying to Lift mortals above their limited nature so that they will come into union with Him.
I have found this union in the Divine Love. This was the essence of my teaching on Earth, and it is the essence of my teaching of the New Birth in this Love, which I possess.
Rabbi Yisroel (Israel) ben Eliezer (August 27, 1698 – May 22, 1760), often called Baal Shem Tov or Besht, was a Jewish mystical rabbi. He is considered to be the founder of Hasidic Judaism (see also Mezhbizh Hasidic dynasty).
The Besht was born to Eliezer and Sara in Okopy a small village that over the centuries has been part of Poland, Russia, and is now part of Ukraine, (located in the Borschiv Raion (district) of the Ternopil Oblast). He died in Medzhybizh, which had once been part Poland and Russia, and is also now in Ukraine, in the Khmelnytskyi Oblast (not to be confused with other cities of the same name).
The Besht is better known to many religious Jews as “the holy Baal Shem” (der heyliger baal shem in Yiddish), or most commonly, the Baal Shem Tov. The title Baal Shem Tov is usually translated into English as “Master of the Good Name”, with Tov (“Good”) modifying Shem (“[Divine] Name”), although it is more correctly understood as a combination of Baal Shem (“Master of the [Divine] Name”) and Tov (an honorific epithet to the man). The name Besht — the acronym from the words comprising that name, bet ayin shin tes—is typically used in print rather than speech. The appellation “Baal Shem” was not unique to Rabbi Yisroel ben Eliezer; however, it is Rabbi Yisroel ben Eliezer who is most closely identified as a “Baal Shem”, as he was the founder of the spiritual movement of Hasidic Judaism. (Source: Wikipedia)