Baal Shem Tov
Polish founder of Hasidic Judaism (1698–1760)
Israel ben Eliezer (c. 1700 −1760), known as the Baal Shem Tov (; Hebrew: בעל שם טוב) or BeShT (בעש״ט), was a Jewish mystic and healer regarded as the founder of Hasidic Judaism. A baal shem tov is a "Master of the Good Name". The term has also been used to refer to one able to work miracles using a secret name of God. Other sources explain his sobriquet as arising from a reputation of being a saintly, or superior, Baal Shem ('miracle-worker'); hence, he was given the nickname Baal Shem Tov (the "good Baal Shem").
Biographical information about the Baal Shem Tov comes from contemporary documents from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the legends about his life and behavior collected in the Praise of the Besht (שבחי הבעש״ט, Shivḥei haBesht).
A central tenet of the teachings associated with the Baal Shem Tov is devekut, a direct connection with the divine, which is infused in every human activity and every waking hour. Prayer is of supreme importance, along with the mystical significance of Hebrew letters and words.
Biography
Birth
Israel was born about 1700 to a certain Eliezer. According to Shivḥei haBesht,Eliezer lived at the edge of Wallachia. He and his wife were elderly.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Baal Shem Tov” is polish founder of Hasidic Judaism (1698–1760). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Baal, Shem and Polish, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q319062. VIAF identifies the subject as 64812822. The Library of Congress control number is n80067290. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1700 and 1760.
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This entry incorporates text from “Baal Shem Tov” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.