The Modern Path of The Baal Shem Tov

I woke up one morning this week to a notification of a tweet, or an X post by Dovid Bashevkin. He wrote: “Genuinely think the only way Modern Orthodoxy will survive in America is if it more wholeheartedly embraces Kabbalah and Chassidus.”

It was an interesting and eye-opening observation, or may I say admission, from someone who is a key figure in the Modern Orthodox world. However, it wouldn’t be accurate to just pigeonhole Reb Dovid as a Modern Orthodox figurehead because his worldview is certainly more nuanced and sophisticated than just being characterized by one brand of Judaism or another.

I remember Dovid Bashevkin well as the two of us spent a number of years, during our formative years, going to shiur on Shabbos mornings in Shaarei Tefilla given by Mr. Ari Bergmann. I was envious then of the close relationship that Dovid and Ari had developed and came to understand that Bashevkin was working and ultimately completed his doctoral thesis on the philosophy Peshischa, Izbitz with an emphasis on Reb Tzadok Hakohen of Lublin, a subject that Ari was very intrigued by and served as a mentor and sounding board for. So, with that backdrop one can easily discern that, that one-line tweet was produced from within the heart and mind of someone within whom the worlds of Modern Orthodoxy and Chassidus have converged in a serious way.

Dovid Bashevkin has made his mark as a thought leader within the broader Jewish community as a director of education for the Orthodox Union’s NCSY, a syndicated journalist, as well as podcaster for the “18Forty” platform, which was so named for the year when Rav Mordechai Yosef Leiner defected from his Rebbe, Reb Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, and formed what would become known as the Izbitz/Radzyn Chasidic dynasty. As such, his words are reckoned with and generate feedback as did this weighty statement. In fact, I got into a mini-spat with one of the commenters who felt that Modern Orthodoxy embracing Chassidus meant Modern Orthodoxy becoming un-modern. It was easily discernible that my disputant lacked a fundamental understanding as to the role of Chassidus within Jewish life and observance.

It’s true that the Chassidic movement was born in Ukraine by Reb Yisrael ben Eliezer who would become known as the Baal Shem Tov. There were deep concerns in the genesis of the fledgling movement that the rise of the Baal Shem Tov was another false messianic movement emerging on the heels of Shabtai Tzvi who created a major rift within Judaism, and whose false messianic campaign had long-standing ramifications that continue to plague the Jewish people even until today. Those allegations were clearly disproven as the influence of the Baal Shem Tov would continue to burgeon, appealing by and large to the simple folk but at the same time built around a core group of sixty students—many of whom defected from the worldview of the misnagdim such as Rabbi Dov Ber Friedman, the Maggid of Mezeritch, who learned with the Pnei Yehoshua prior to studying under the tutelage of the Baal Shem Tov, and Reb Yaakov Yosef, known by the name of his sefer the Toldos Yaakov Yosef, who spent a significant amount of time railing against the Baal Shem Tov until ultimately becoming his student through a number of miraculous accounts. Although the opposition to the Baal Shem Tov and his path would follow it for hundreds of years throughout its storied history, the path of the Besht, as he is referred to, would engulf the whole of Europe built upon the importance of joy, fear of heaven, and love of G-d, the Torah, and every Jew.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe, of blessed memory, delivered a maamar that he called Inyanah Shel Toras Hachassidus, which among other things he demonstrates that the Baal Shem Tov with his Chassidic movement did not seek to add anything to Torah or to Judaism, as the Chasam Sofer famously said, “chadash assur min haTorah,” but what he sought to do and succeeded in doing was deepening the experience of Judaism by infusing Yiddishkeit, davening, Torah study, and mitzvah observance with a palpable joy, passion, and excitement, emphasizing the importance of generating a relationship with Hashem rather than engaging in dry, meaningless ritual observance as something we must do or else, to something that we look forward to doing.

There are five levels to the soul that are known as the nefesh, ruach, neshama, chaya, and yechida, which correspond to the five levels within Torah that are known as pshat, remez, derush, sod, and chassidus (or sod she’b’sod or razin d’razin). The Baal Shem Tov came to hone the final two levels of the soul, the chaya and yechida, whose beginning letters spell the word chai, which means life. The philosophy of the Baal Shem Tov breathed life into a comatose people whose name was the collective name of the Jewish people, Yisrael.

And although for many years the Chassidic movement was known for a certain distinct mode of dress, which certainly continues to a large degree today in many communities throughout the U.S., Europe, and Israel, the truth is the experience of chassidus and the profound interpretation of the Baal Shem Tov and his students have continued to inspire generations of young people who had grown up being educated in mainstream yeshivas and Modern Orthodox Jewish day schools, which has, to a certain degree, been seen as a referendum on the educational system being put forth in these institutions that sought to shield its students by and large from the Chassidic movement.

In my own life, despite my deep patrilineal ties to the Lubavitch chassidic sect with nine generations having followed the Chabad Rebbeim from the Mitteler Rebbe and on, being a product of a mixed marriage with my maternal grandfather having studied in the Mussar Yeshiva of Novardok led to my siblings and I to be brought up and educated in the mainstream yeshivos both in Brooklyn, where we began, and ultimately in Far Rockaway at Yeshiva Darchei Torah and in Waterbury, CT. Despite my overall success within the Litvish yeshiva system, I would ultimately reclaim my patrilineal heritage and make the decision, together with my wife, to put on a kapota and eventually, a number of years later, to grow a beard. The notion of wearing a kapota without a beard back in those days, close to twenty years ago, was not common at all. In fact, although I would ultimately decide to do it, it presented externally, anyway, as an anomaly of sorts.

But that is just the thing; chassidus isn’t external. To the contrary, the famous Chabad aphorism says: “Chabad mont penimiyus,” Chabad demands inwardness. That means that anything which seems chassidic on an external level needs to be born from a deep intense feeling. In fact, the Maggid of Mezeritch once taught that Chassidus without love and awe of G-d is precisely the definition of Amalek. With Shavuos just two weeks out, the yom tov when we famously read the Ten Commandments, one of which is: “Do not make for yourselves an idol or the image of anything,” which is based upon the reality of G-d’s infinitude that precludes His being defined to one image or another. Chassidic garb notwithstanding, this means that fealty to G-d is not captured by an image but is represented by a consciousness or an awareness of G-d in one’s life and in the world. It follows then that regardless of which brand of Judaism someone identifies as formatively or socially it isn’t in contradistinction with embracing chassidic values and a Baal Shem Tov inspired Judaism.

I didn’t come armed with Pew research studies, or any studies for that matter. I’m not much of a believer in statistics altogether. But as I mentioned above, the rate at which boys and girls that have been brought up in mainstream and especially Modern Orthodox day schools, are being inspired by and ultimately molding their own families based on the chassidic worldview in order to advance in their Judaism and ensure future generations of inspired and a meaningful Jewish experience, is in certain respects seen as an indictment upon the systems which were not inspiring enough to hold them in.

There are chassidic sects who despite their outward chassidic appearance and the social chassidic culture, have not done enough to emphasize the study of chassidus and honing the feeling, excitement, and passion that were the underpinnings of the movement and instead have always been sticklers for what being a chassid looks like, which has driven many of their own youth far from the homes of their forebears. The Satmar Rebbe famously said: “The path of the Baal Shem Tov has been forgotten” and although I have no doubt that the Rebbe knew what he was saying, to me, as an outside observer it doesn’t seem like that statement boded too well for many Satmar youth who need the path of the Baal Shem Tov to help them succeed in mending the worlds of Torah and commerce into one seamless world with G-d at the center of it all.

There are two holidays which are particularly centered on Torah study—Chanukah and Shavuos. Chanukah celebrates the light of the menorah which is akin to the light of Torah, which the Greeks sought to proscribe and Shavuos of course is the yom tov that marks the giving of the Torah. It’s interesting that both of these yomim tovim are preceded by later established holidays, both of which have continued to gain popularity with the passage of time. The 19th of Kislev celebrates the release of the Alter Rebbe from Czarist prison ultimately for the crime of spreading chassidus, which he would continue to increase after his release. And Lag B’Omer is the day of Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai’s passing, which he had instructed be observed festively with bonfires, music, and dancing in celebration of the inner light of Torah and the soul that is not subjected to death. A couple of years ago I met an acquaintance on the morning of Lag B’Omer and asked him what his plans were for that evening. He said, “I’ll probably take my son to Aish Kodesh; you need to expose your kids to that these days if you want them to stay on the derech.” This past week hundreds of men, women, and teenaged mesivta students flowed through the doors of Khal Mevakshei Hashem to observe Lag B’Omer. More than one person I met this week commented how Lag B’Omer and Purim have become increasingly more serious in the past decade due to a realization of the power of Rashbi, the Zohar, and penimiyus HaTorah and Purim which is the yom tov of wine which corresponds to the secrets of Torah. The point is that both Torah centric holidays are preceded by holidays which are centered on penimiyus haTorah in its initial and final iteration with Rashbi and the Alter Rebbe who continued the path of the Baal Shem Tov whose celebrations are worldwide attracting participants from every conceivable background.

The problem is that despite this undercurrent, which has been gaining steam for many years now, there continue to be obstacles in the way of introducing it within our institutions in a serious and comprehensive manner. The fact is, like the fifth layer of the soul, the yechida, the study of Chassidus is not a divergence from any other path that a person finds themselves on, what it is a deepening of the pervasiveness of the unity of G-d in Torah, the world, and within every creature that we encounter on a moment-to-moment basis. It deepens Torah study and mitzvah performance and unearths the light of G-d doing away with the notion of mundane versus holy by sanctifying every moment and every encounter.

These words that I am now typing serve as a postscript to this piece that I had already submitted and subsequently called back when I looked at the shnayim mikra for Tuesday, the day that I wrote this piece. The verse at the beginning of the third aliyah states, “You will eat very old produce and you will clear out the old from before the new” and I saw precisely this thesis sitting there at the backdrop of this verse waiting to be noticed. Rashi explains the Torah means that the produce will remain well preserved, growing mellow with age, so that the very old produce from three years ago will be better to eat than the prior year’s produce. However, the threshing floors will be full of new grain, which would decay if left there, and therefore must be stored. The storehouses, however, will be filled with the abundant old produce. Therefore, you will have to remove what is in the storehouses and take it elsewhere in the house in order to put the new produce into them. The convergence of the preferred old produce with the new grain to me seems to be outlining this narrative of the need to mend what Rebbe Nachman characterized as children’s stories from prehistoric times, which likewise is a convergence of the old with the new in order to make a marriage between the modern and the old in order to produce a unified being that is much greater than the sum of its parts.

Our rabbis teach us that Moshe is representative of the sun and Yehoshua of the moon. That means Moshe is the mashpiah and the Jewish people the recipients. Having not long ago experienced the solar eclipse, which necessitated certain protective glasses with which to look at it, chassidus is a lens that offers a safe and wholesome view of G-d and the way G-dliness is manifested in Torah, tefillah, and in all elements of the world and society at large. By the looks of it the value system of the Baal Shem Tov is not just needed for our modern Jewish society but society at large. n

Yochanan Gordon can be reached at ygordon5t@gmail.com. Read more of Yochanan’s articles at 5TJT.com.