2 - The Tsadik, his Followers, and his Opponents

Summary

IN THE HASIDIC STORY, the tsadik is gifted with superhuman qualities that raise him to the level of prophet. The tsadik's abilities to hear from great distances, to see from afar, and to know the future all ensue from divine inspiration. The tellers of the hasidic story assert confidently that ‘tsadikim see with divine inspiration’, or, in the well-known formulation of the Ba'al Shem Tov, ‘everything is with divine inspiration’. The Ba'al Shem Tov once said, ‘When I go to the ritual bath, I close my eyes once, and I see all the worlds’; and on another occasion, having prophesied to a certain individual what would happen to him when he got home, he asked that person to send a messenger back to tell him what had taken place, adding, ‘even though, praise be to God, I have eyes to see from afar’.

THE TSADIK AND HIS SPECIAL POWERS

The superhuman vision of the Ba'al Shem Tov is graphically illustrated in many stories. He saw a Jew who was forced to spend the sabbath in a field, and a thief who had been exiled and who was about to murder him, and took action to rescue the Jew. He saw from afar someone who was suffering; he witnessed a transgression committed by his brother-in-law, R. Gershon; he knew about the death of R. Eliezer of Amsterdam; and he gazed all the way to Koznitz, to the home of the elderly bookbinder R. Shabetai. The Ba'al Shem Tov saw and understood the thoughts of R. Nahman of Kosov; he knew where Torah scholars erred in their prayers, and where mitnagedim were not praying in the proper spirit. His vision extended beyond the borders of his country: on one occasion, during the sabbath eve prayers, he sought R. Gershon and ‘did not find him in the Land of Israel’. He was even capable of seeing the future. Using this ability, he could write a letter to the leaders of the Brod community—who would be elected twenty years later! Obviously, he also knew that the letter, which he gave to an ill-fated Jew, would be forgotten, found twenty years later, and given to the communal leaders on the day that a son would be born to the wife of one official, and a daughter to the wife of another.