The Great Maggid

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Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov was bom on the 18th of Elul 5458 ( 1698) in Okup, a small border-town between the Vol- hynia and Podolia districts in Russia/ At a young age he joined up with a group of itinerant Nistarim, a group of mystics who concealed their identities and secretly pursued the study and application of the tenets of Jewish mysticism. There were many groups of these mystics, often referred to as Tzadikim Nistarim (anonymous saints).* Originally they made it their task to pursue and promulgate the teachings of the Cabbalah. In the wake of the calamitous events of the persecutions and pogroms of the seventeenth century, and the tragic conseQuences of the pseudo-messianic movement of Shabatay Tzvi and his followers. 1. See J. I. Scbodiet, Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, chapter IV, p. 35, and notes 1 and 3 ad loc. 2. Ibid., chapter II, p. 28. An organized society of Nistarim is said to have been founded by Rabbi Elijah Baal Shem of Worms (not to be confused with Rabbi Elijah Loans who also is known as 'Baal Shem of Worms'), a Cabbalist whose father. Rabbi Joseph Juspa, was of the refugees expelled from Spain in 1492. See more on him, his activities and his society of Nistarim, in Sefer Hazichronos (Memoirs of Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn of Lubavitch, 2 volumes; Yiddish edition. New York: Kehot 1955-65; English edition New York: Kdiot 1956 60). A nundjer of the Baal Shem Tov’s associates and disciples original ly were members of this or similar groups of Nistarim and allusions to them may be found in Shivchei Habesht and other wmrks relating to that p e ri^ of time. 31.

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