The Mythological Figure of Israel Ba’al Shem Tov

This volume – produced by Blima Books and published by the JTS-Schocken Institute for Jewish Research, collects three lectures given at the Schocken Institute in 2019. The lectures present the wide sweep of the development of the image of R. Israel Ba’al Shem Tov in story and theology, from the beginning of Hasidism in the mid-eighteenth century until the middle of the twentieth century. They include an attempt to understand the various – and sometimes strange – legends which surround the historical figure of the Ba’al Shem Tov, as well as to reveal the biases of Hasidic literature, Haskalah literature, and academic scholarship.

 Professor Jonatan Meir teaches at the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben Gurion University in the Negev and is a member of the Israel National Academy of Sciences. He has written many books and articles about