THE BAAL SHEM TOV’S LEGACY

Any object belonging to a tzaddik acquires some of his sanctity. All the more, that which was owned by the holy Baal Shem Tov, whose holiness suffused even his material belongings. Some of these items were passed down through the generations in various inheritances and some amazing stories are told about them. * Presented for Shavuos, which marks the passing of the Baal Shem Tov.

The gravesite of the Baal Shem Tov under communist rule | The Baal Shem Tov’s Torah held by the Machnovka RebbeSIFREI TORAH

The holy Baal Shem had Sifrei Torah from two scribes, the first was from the sofer, R’ Alexander Shochet, and the other was from R’ Tzvi Sofer, who was also the Baal Shem’s personal scribe and the only one who traveled with him to Eretz Yisroel (aside from his daughter). R’ Tzvi Sofer wrote two Sifrei Torah and another half of one, which he did not complete.

One Torah was in the possession of R’ Tzvi, the Baal Shem Tov’s only son. It was later given as a gift to the tzaddik, R’ Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl, the Meor Einayim. The Torah was then bequeathed to his son, R’ Mordechai, known as the Maggid of Chernobyl.

After the passing of the Maggid of Chernobyl, each of his sons wanted the Baal Shem Tov’s Torah. After some discussion, it was decided that it would stay for a year with each one of them. The first of the brothers who got to use the Seifer Torah was the oldest, R’ Aharon. When the year was over, it was time to give the Torah to the next brother in line. None of the brothers would dare take it from where it had been for years (since the time of their father and grandfather), and so it remained in Chernobyl.

Today the whereabouts of that Torah are unknown.

The half a Torah that R’ Tzvi Sofer wrote is presently in the possession of the Vizhnitzer Rebbe. By “half,” it means the beginning and end were written and the middle is missing.

This half a Torah moved around a lot. At first it was in the possession of the tzaddik, R’ Zev of Rachmistrivka, who bequeathed it to his son-in-law, the Imrei Chaim of Vizhnitz (1888-1972).

It is told that during the Holocaust, the Vizhnitzer Admurim had to leave their homes in Grosswarden and flee to save their lives. They left various belongings behind, including the half a Torah.

After the war, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe returned to Grosswarden to see what he could salvage. Many of the holy items had disappeared during his absence. After many inquiries, he found out that some of the items, apparently the half a Torah too, were in one of the rooms in a big jumbled heap, with no respect for the contents. The Admur remembered that he had a clear sign by which he could identify the half a Torah.

He remembered that some years earlier, on a Friday, he had reviewed the sidra and rolled the scroll until the end because he wanted to see the last verse, “before the eyes of all Yisroel,” which, according to tradition, was written by the Baal Shem Tov himself. He noticed then that the letter Lamed arched up.

Based on this sign, the Admur along with R’ Zeide Einhorn (from whom this story was heard) went to look for the scroll. First they found the outer covering and then they located the Torah scrolls that were there and which apparently were separated from their identifying covers. They unrolled the s’farim one after the other, until the end, and the third one had the distinct Lamed.

In Vizhnitz they take out this Torah scroll on Yom Kippur and the Rebbe holds it during Kol Nidrei and on Simchas Torah, even though they don’t read from it since it is not complete.

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R’ Tzvi Sofer wrote another Torah for the Baal Shem Tov which he also used. After his passing, it went to the grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, R’ Boruch of Mezhibuzh. It then went to R’ Boruch’s grandson who sold it for a fortune to the tzaddik, R’ Yitzchok of Skver. He would testify to the importance of this Torah, saying it was worth traveling eighty miles to have the merit of an aliya with it.

After his passing, this Torah went to his oldest son, R’ Avrohom Yehoshua Heschel of Skver and then to his oldest son, R’ Yosef Meir of Machnovka, and then to his only son, R’ Avrohom Yehoshua Heschel of Machnovka who lived for many years in B’nei Brak. He rescued this Torah from Russia and brought it to Eretz Yisroel.

During the first years after the Communist Revolution, the communists found out about the precious Torah and they tried to devise a way to confiscate it. But the Admur protected it with mesirus nefesh. When he moved to Eretz Yisroel he wanted to bring the precious Torah with him, but the Russian government refused to allow him to take it out of Russia. The Israeli ambassador in Russia came to his aid by taking the Torah and sending it to Eretz Yisroel via diplomatic mail which is not examined.

Today, the Torah is in the beis midrash he opened, under the leadership of his successor, the Machnovka Rebbe.

The previous Machnovka Rebbe had the practice that every time this Torah was taken out in his shul, they would add many aliyos (unlike Chabad custom), in order to enable more and more people to say a bracha over it.

This Torah is read from every Shabbos Mevarchim. When the Skverer Rebbe goes to Eretz Yisroel he goes to the Machnovka beis midrash for a t’filla when there is Krias ha’Torah in order to have an aliya in this Torah.

T’FILLIN

We do not know for sure who wrote the Baal Shem Tov’s t’fillin but perhaps we can glean some details from the following story.

These t’fillin were not written with ordinary k’dusha. When the Baal Shem Tov asked R’ Tzvi Sofer to write t’fillin for him, he taught the scribe the mystical intentions to think of while writing and said he was going to show him “the t’fillin of the Master of the World.” The two of them went to a forest near Mezhibuzh to meditate there. The talmid, R’ Zev (Wolf) Kitzis, followed them and hid among the trees. He suddenly heard the Baal Shem Tov loudly saying the verse, “Mikveh Yisroel Hashem,” and a pit full of water immediately appeared and the two men immersed in it.

The Baal Shem Tov suddenly sensed with his ruach ha’kodesh that someone else was present, an uninvited guest. The two men began to search until they found R’ Zev hiding behind a tree. The Baal Shem Tov said, “What are you doing here when this is none of your business?” R’ Zev had to return home. Nothing more is known.

It is told that the Baal Shem Tov prepared R’ Tzvi to write his parshiyos, even though he already had t’fillin written by the holy R’ Efraim the scribe, which he had yearned to acquire and he prized greatly.

The Baal Shem Tov’s student, the tzaddik, R’ Pinchas of Koretz, hinted at the lofty differences between the two sets of t’fillin, as related in Imrei Pinchas, that R’ Refael of Bershad (one of the great students of R’ Pinchas) had precious Rashi t’fillin written by R’ Efraim. His master, R’ Pinchas, told him that the t’fillin that R’ Efraim wrote were better for Rashi t’fillin, while the t’fillin written by R’ Tzvi the scribe were better for Rabbeinu Tam t’fillin.

R’ Pinchas of Koretz explained that R’ Tzvi’s writing was “from the World of Masculinity,” and the writing of R’ Efraim was “from the World of Femininity.”

R’ Pinchas’ son, R’ Moshe, wanted to learn the scribal arts and his father told him to write like R’ Tzvi Sofer for the reason mentioned before, but he preferred to learn from the writing of R’ Efraim because it is a beautiful handwriting. His father said, “Because of this, you wife will give birth to a girl,” and that’s what happened.

The Baal Shem Tov’s t’fillin that R’ Tzvi wrote were passed down over the years until they became the property of R’ Yitzchok of Skver as part of his dowry when he married his third wife, the daughter of R’ Tzvi of Skver, the son of R’ Aharon of Titiov, the son of R’ Tzvi, the son of the Baal Shem Tov.

The Chassidim once asked R’ Dovid of Skver if he occasionally put on these t’fillin and he said, “Sometimes, on Erev Yom Kippur, if I have time.”

These t’fillin eventually reached the Machnovka Rebbe. In 5730, a halachic question arose about one of the letters and he asked the head of the Skverer beis din who wrote a t’shuva averring that it was kosher.

THE ZOHAR

The Zohar belonging to the Baal Shem Tov was in the possession of the tzaddik, R’ Naftali Tzvi of Teveria. He received them as an inheritance because his father, R’ Yaakov Meneles, was the son-in-law of R’ Tzvi, son of the Baal Shem Tov. In this volume of the Zohar, tradition has it that there are some hairs from the Baal Shem Tov’s beard.

We don’t know much about this Zohar, but it is said that when R’ Naftali Tzvi once went to spend time with his Rebbe, the Beis Aharon of Karlin, he brought the Zohar along as a gift and since then, it was passed down within the Karlin dynasty.

In Zecher Tzaddik Livracha it tells of the tzaddik, author of Heichal Bracha, of Komarna, who had a childless Chassid. The Chassid prayed innumerable times until Hashem acceded to his prayers and he and his wife were expecting a child. When it came time to give birth, the woman had difficulty and both she and the child were in danger. The doctors said that either she or the baby could be saved.

At this time, the tzaddik from Komarna was in Triskavitz, not far from where this Chassid lived. He went to the tzaddik crying and screaming and asking that he pray for them.

The tzaddik R’ Asher of Karlin was also there at this time and he had the Baal Shem Tov’s Zohar with him. The Chassid met the tzaddik of Komarna as he arrived at the home of R’ Asher of Karlin in order to view the holy Zohar. The two of them sat there while the Chassid stood and wailed.

The tzaddik from Karlin said to the Komarna Rebbe, “You brought about this conception so you need to arouse mercy now.”

The Komarna Rebbe grasped the hairs of the beard that were in the Zohar and said to the tzaddik from Karlin, “In the merit of our holy master, the Baal Shem Tov, may his merit protect us, whose holy hairs these are, I decree that this woman should give birth to a healthy child calmly and easily without any obstacle and the child should emerge and endure and both of them, mother and baby, should live and endure.”

When he finished speaking, he fondly said to his Chassid, “Return home now and relate good news.”

Indeed, within a short time he returned with good news that the birth concluded properly and mother and child were fine.

HA’TZOREF

This book was a handwritten, deep kabbalistic work by R’ Yehoshua Heschel Tzoref of Cracow. It consisted of 1400 pages which contain wondrous secrets, most of them on the verse of Shma Yisroel.

The original was owned by the Baal Shem Tov and he wrote his own handwritten notes in the margins as testified by the Chassid, R’ Yeshaya Wolf Tzikernik in his book, Maasiyos U’Maamarim Yekarim.

After the passing of the Baal Shem Tov, this precious manuscript went to his son R’ Tzvi, and from him to his son, R’ Aharon of Titiov. It then passed through a number of hands and ended up in the possession of R’ Yitzchok of Skver.

After his passing it went to his son, R’ Yisroel of Skver, and from him it went to his son-in-law, R’ Dovid Yaakov of Zhitomir. R’ Yitzchok of Skver said that during the pogroms in Russia in 1920, he found this manuscript rolling in disgrace on the ground and he immediately ran to tell his relative, R’ Yaakov Yosef of Skver. Together, they leafed through the pages and found written that in the year 5798/1938 the chevlei Moshiach would begin. They also saw a drawing of Golyas the Philistine and many other amazing things.

He said that he saw the notes that the Baal Shem Tov had written in red ink.

MIDRASH YALKUT SHIMONI

These s’farim were in the possession of R’ Dovid Moshe of Chortkov.

In the writings of R’ Mordechai Aryeh Horowitz of Banila it says:

“I heard from a household member of our holy master [R’ Dovid Moshe of Chortkov] that he had a Yalkut from the holy Baal Shem Tov which was always there and when he needed to make a pidyon nefesh for some great matter, he would get up from his chair and go himself, not send someone, and take the Yalkut to his desk and sit down and do what he did for a pidyon nefesh and then he himself put it back.”

[R’ Avrohom Yaakov Bombach, grandson of the rav of Banila, added that one time, when his grandfather told about this in the Yavne shul, at a gathering of Chassidim, he explained the matter based on something Reb Avrohom Yaakov of Sadigora said, that if a tzaddik puts an item somewhere and someone comes and takes it, he disrupts the unification G-d forbid, because the tzaddik, in everything he does, is generating unifications and by undoing his action one disrupts the unification, G-d forbid. So he did not want anyone else to touch the sifrei HaBaal Shem Tov that were full of yichudim of the Baal Shem Tov.]

STONE FROM THE CHOSHEN – ACHLAMA

A stone from the choshen which was worn over the heart of the High Priest, ended up in the possession of the Baal Shem Tov. It was the achlama stone (which the Targum translates as calf’s eye). There is a version of this story that the Baal Shem Tov received this stone together with the writings of Rabbi Adam Baal Shem.

After his passing, the stone was passed down to his son, R’ Tzvi, and it later became the possession of R’ Yitzchok of Skver who received it as part of his dowry when he married his third wife who was a granddaughter of the Baal Shem Tov.

After his passing, the stone went to his son, R’ Dovid of Skver. Every year, before Pesach, when he would open the box where the items were placed, his family stood around him and each one tried to get a glimpse of the “calf’s eye.” He said that this stone was blue and was not square but shaped like a calf’s eye.

When the Bolsheviks broke into R’ Dovid’s court, they entered his room and robbed him of its treasures including coins from the time of Mordechai and Esther, various protective charms from the Meor Einayim and from his son the Maggid of Chernobyl, and this achlama stone. R’ Dovid screamed at them, “Many wicked people, Tatars, Germans, the Czar’s army, already tried to touch this holy legacy but were unable to. They (the Bolsheviks) were able to, and this is only because their klipa is very powerful and they are a manifestation of impurity.”

His son, R’ Yosef, who was there, testified to this and added that this was something new for them, since in those early days, the Bolsheviks were more liberal than other soldiers. Only later on, when the Bolsheviks joined the Russian government and began hatefully uprooting all matters of Torah and Judaism, did they all realize that they were indeed the biggest klipa.

TANACH

The Baal Shem Tov had a Tanach (from which R’ Tzvi Sofer copied the Torah that he wrote for the Baal Shem Tov), which R’ Yitzchok of Skver also received as part of his dowry.

In the T’hillim therein, there are drops of blood which fell from the Baal Shem Tov’s eyes. Likewise, there are holy hairs from the Baal Shem Tov’s beard.

After R’ Yitzchok’s passing, it went to his son, R’ Dovid, and he would say the verses of “Tikkun Leil Shavuos” from this Tanach. After the passing of R’ Dovid, and because of the Bolshevik uprising, his son, R’ Yitzchok, had to flee to Romania and he took it with him.

R’ Yitzchok had the Tanach until World War II.

GLASS CUP

The Baal Shem Tov’s glass cup was received in yerusha by R’ Aharon of Chernobyl and he gave it as a gift to the Beis Aharon of Karlin.

Chassidim said that the Beis Aharon once traveled near Chernobyl but had no intentions of entering the city. When the tzaddik of Chernobyl learned of this, he sent a delegation of distinguished Chassidim to ask him to visit him. When the tzaddik of Karlin heard their request, he said it was hard for him to change his itinerary but if the tzaddik of Chernobyl agreed to give him something from his treasury he would go to him.

The Chassidim returned to their Rebbe and conveyed the message. The tzaddik of Chernobyl agreed to the condition and said he could take what he saw fit to take.

Before he arrived, the tzaddik of Chernobyl took the glass he received as yerusha from the Baal Shem Tov, wrapped it in a handkerchief and placed it among the other items so it would not stand out.

The tzaddik of Chernobyl took his guest to his treasury and told him to pick something. The Beis Aharon put his hand among the items and reached for the glass which was wrapped. He took the glass and said, “We would really like this.”

The tzaddik of Chernobyl clapped his hands and said, “I did not expect such a maven,” and gave him the glass as a gift.

In connection with the Torah that R’ Yitzchok of Skver received as a yerusha, the story is told of the trip that the Shinive Rav made to the Skverer Rebbe in connection with this Torah.

On Shabbos, they honored the Shinive Rav with an aliya in the holy Baal Shem Tov’s Torah. Before reciting the blessing, he noticed a p’sul (something that invalidates a Torah) and he wanted to mention it but the Skverer Rebbe grasped his hand and said, “Young man, do not say anything and do not pasul the Baal Shem Tov’s Torah scroll.” Hearing this, he was amazed that the Skverer Rebbe had read his mind, but he thought maybe it was just a coincidence.

When they placed the Torah in the heichal, he went over to the Skverer Rebbe again to tell him to tie the Torah on the outside so they would know to fix it after Shabbos. Once again, the Rebbe preempted him and said, “Please, do not say anything.” Now the Shinive Rav saw that the Skverer Rebbe knew what he was thinking and he decided to connect to him.

On Motzaei Shabbos, when the Shinive Rav went to the Skverer Rebbe, the latter immediately said to him, ‘Shinive Rav, pasken the shaila.’ The Shinive said nothing. The Skverer Rebbe then said that in the Avudraham it mentions this question. The Shinive later said that he looked in many s’farim and did not find this question, just in the Avudraham, and the Avudraham says it’s kosher!

Some say that the Skverer Rebbe asked him, “From where do you immediately pasken that it’s pasul?” The Shinive Rav immediately went over to the bookcase and took out a Minchas Cohen and showed him the source. Afterward, the Shinive Rav said that he had special heavenly assistance that he immediately found the source that paskens as he did, out of the huge number of s’farim there.

According to another version, the Shinive Rav insisted that the Torah is pasul and they needed to take out another one. After the Torah reading, the Skverer Rebbe told the Shinive Rav to find a leniency to say the Torah was kosher according to the din and to write him a t’shuva. After some time, the Shinive sent him a t’shuva declaring the Torah was kosher.

Some say an interesting reason for the Shinive Rav’s trip to the Skverer Rebbe, as related in Migdal Oz:

“When the Shinive Rav was in Eretz Yisroel, he stayed in the old city of Tzfas and before he left there he slept one night in Miron. The next day he realized that he had forgotten his tallis and t’fillin in Tzfas. Having no choice he borrowed someone’s t’fillin and davened with them and sensed a special k’dusha. After the davening he asked where these t’fillin were from and was told that he received it as a yerusha and they were written by the scribe of the Baal Shem Tov.

“The Shinive Rav begged him to sell them to him but the man refused. It was only after much pleading that he agreed to sell them for a large sum.

“Afterward, when the Shinive Rav returned home, there was a major storm at sea and the boat nearly sank. They began throwing things overboard and, by mistake, the t’fillin were also thrown into the sea. The Shinive Rav was greatly upset, thinking he was at fault here. He went to his father, the Divrei Chaim, and asked for a tikkun for t’shuva. His father said it was a punishment for taking them out of Eretz Yisroel and the tikkun would be to find a Torah written by the same scribe and have an aliya and concentrate on a kavana he conveyed to him.

“That is why when the Shinive Rav heard that the Skverer Rebbe had a Torah from the Baal Shem Tov, he went to him.”