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Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 10Jews in Early Modern Poland$
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Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 10: Jews in Early Modern Poland

Gershon David Hundert

Print publication date: 1997

Print ISBN-13: 9781874774310

Published to Liverpool Scholarship Online: February 2021

DOI: 10.3828/liverpool/9781874774310.001.0001

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PRINTED FROM LIVERPOOL SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.liverpool.universitypressscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Liverpool University Press, 2022. All Rights Reserved. An individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in LSO for personal use.date: 01 July 2022

In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov: A User’s Guide to the Editions of Shivḥei haBesht

In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov: A User’s Guide to the Editions of Shivḥei haBesht

Chapter:
(p.183) In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov: A User’s Guide to the Editions of Shivḥei haBesht
Source:
Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 10
Author(s):

Moshe Rosman

Publisher:
Liverpool University Press
DOI:10.3828/liverpool/9781874774310.003.0007

This chapter provides a critical analysis of the most studied document related to early hasidism known as Shivḥei haBesht (In Praise of the Ba'al Shem Tov): the collection of legends and stories about the putative founder of the movement, Israel Ba'al Shem Tov. While it is an eminently accessible text, it is also a complex one, particularly when used for historiographical purposes, and over the last 150 years or so scholars have been engaged in a seemingly endless spiral of deconstruction, interpretation, and application of it. The question which has been central to historical studies of Shivḥei haBesht has been its reliability as a historical source. Virtually no one accepts the stories at face value. Their obvious mythical content, and the book's very title, proclaim its hagiographic nature, and have induced scepticism among scholars and hasidim alike. The chapter then reviews the historiographical usefulness of the most significant available editions of Shivḥei haBesht.

Keywords:   hasidism, Shivḥei haBesht, Israel Ba'al Shem Tov, hasidim, historical studies, historiography

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