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Founder of Hasidism - A Quest for the Historical Ba'al Shem Tov (Paperback, 2nd Revised edition)
Loot Price: R815
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Founder of Hasidism - A Quest for the Historical Ba'al Shem Tov (Paperback, 2nd Revised edition)
Series: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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The Ba'al Shem Tov is an elusive subject for historians because
documentary evidence about his life is scanty and equivocal. Until
now, much of what was known about him was based on stories compiled
more than a generation after his death, many of which serve more to
mythologize him than to describe him. The portrait Moshe Rosman
provides is drawn from life instead of from myth. Based on
innovative critical analysis of familiar and previously unexplored
archival sources, and concentrating on accounts that can be
attributed to the Besht or to contemporary eyewitnesses, this book
goes further than any previous work in uncovering the historical
Ba'al Shem Tov. Additionally, documents in Polish and Hebrew
discovered by Professor Rosman during his research for the book
enable him to give the first detailed description of the cultural,
social, economic, and political context of the Besht's life.
Founder of Hasidism supplies the history behind the legend. It
presents the best, most convincing description that can be drawn
from the existing documentary evidence, changing our understanding
of the Besht and with it the master-narrative of hasidism. A
substantial new introduction considers what has changed in the
study of Hasidism since the influential first edition was
published, these changes being in part due to the effect of the
book. New approaches, new sources, and new interpretations have
been introduced, and these are reviewed and critically assessed.
Criticisms of the original edition are answered and key issues
reconsidered, including the authenticity of the various versions of
the Holy Epistle; the ways in which Jacob Joseph of Polonne's books
can be utilized as historical sources; and the relationship to
history of the stories about the Ba'al Shem Tov in the
hagiographical collection Shivhei Ha-Besht.
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