(ISRAEL BA’AL SHEM TOV). Shivchei HaBeSH”T [collected tales of the founder of the Chassidic Movement]

(CHASSIDISM)

Yehuda Leib Rabinstein)

(Laszczow

1815

Two different printer’s marks- one on the title page and the other on f. 32a. THE SALMAN SCHOCKEN COPY

Vinograd, Laszczow 8; A. Yaari, Ha-Defus Ha-Ivri Be-Laszczow, Kiryath Sepher Vol. XII, pp.241-2; Y. Raphael, Areshet II, p.367, no. 3 (illustrated)

The Shivchei HaBeSH”T is the earliest and the most popular Chassidic works to appear concening the life and teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. According to some, it interweaves fact with fable, nevertheless, it remains an important literary source concerning the founder of the Chassidic Movement. Although the approbations of the first edition (Kopust, 1815), prohibited it’s re-publication for six years, the publisher of this Laszczow edition writes he received Rabbinical permission to print anew as no other copies were to be found. According to Yaari, this Laszczow edition is especially scarce, as Horodetsky did not record it in his scholarly edition of Berlin, 1922