Noah's firstborn

Usage examples of shem.

There is no doubt that, along with the Ari and the Baal Shem Tov, Abulafia is one of the great masters of Kabbalah.

But thinking he had nothing to lose, Shem Tov the Sephardi cleared his mind of extraneous thoughts, sat down with pen, paper, and ink, and started permutating the letters.

Praying with all his might, Shem Tov the Sephardi bravely continued permutating the letters of the highest Name of God, whereupon he was overcome by spiritual rapture of such intensity that he felt himself soaked from head to foot by a sudden rush of warm oil.

Eleazar, the Baal Shem Tov, or Master of the Holy Name, took the cosmology and practice of the Lurianic Kabbalah and made it accessible to the capacities of ordinary men.

Bal Shem Tov, is only acceptable to God if it flows from a joyous heart.

According to the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, only the individual himself can pierce the veil that hides God from man.

Baal Shem Tov hid his wisdom under a mantle of laziness and near idiocy.

May of 1734, the Baal Shem Tov descended from the mountains with his wife and announced to his brother-in-law that the time had come for him to reveal himself to the world.

In 1760 the Baal Shem Tov died, but not before he had brought the Kabbalah down from the angels and placed it securely in the physical hands of men.

Baal Shem Tov taught that to become one with prayer was to become one with God.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and a messenger informed him that the Baal Shem Tov had something still further to say.

The Maggid suddenly felt the room grow warm and saw it filled with radiant light which only faded when the Baal Shem Tov stopped talking.

The generation of Hasidic masters who followed after the death of the Baal Shem Tov exerted harsh disciplines against distraction in the study hall, even going so far as to extract confessions from their disciples about their most intimate thoughts and to intrude on their marital duties.

The dour and guilty vision that characterized much of early nineteenth-century Hasidism was a far cry from the free and life-asserting proclamations of the Baal Shem Tov and the blissful singing of Levi of Berdichev.

Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid, three men in particular deserve special attention.