{"id":14146,"date":"2026-01-07T12:54:37","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T12:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.kabbalah.info\/?post_type=book&#038;p=14146"},"modified":"2026-01-07T12:54:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T12:54:38","slug":"the-way-of-the-baal-shem-tov","status":"publish","type":"book","link":"https:\/\/www.kabbalah.info\/en\/the-way-of-the-baal-shem-tov\/","title":{"rendered":"781. The Way of the Baal Shem Tov"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>December 5, 1964<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The way of the Baal Shem Tov is that he set up a&nbsp;<em>Heder<\/em>&nbsp;[room for learning Torah], meaning gave lessons on becoming rabbis, and anyone who graduated from the&nbsp;<em>Heder<\/em>&nbsp;received the title Rabbi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rabbi means \u201cteacher,\u201d meaning that one who teaches one\u2019s friend Torah is called a \u201crav.\u201d Before the Baal Shem Tov, the custom was to give the title Rabbi only to those who learned with their disciples the revealed Torah. The way of the Baal Shem Tov is to call by the name Rabbi also those who learn with their students the hidden Torah, since he established a seminary for teaching the hidden Torah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prior to the Baal Shem Tov, there were no seminaries dedicated to learning the hidden, and all the seminaries that were at that time were only for learning the revealed Torah. Anyone who yearned to learn the hidden had difficulty finding a teacher for this purpose. For this reason, many forces were lost because they did not find a place dedicated to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But after the Baal Shem Tov established a special seminary for the hidden Torah, all the wise disciples whose heart yearned to learn the Creator and whose soul yearned for the hidden Torah knew where to turn. By this, the disciples learning the hidden Torah proliferated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We should understand the difference between the revealed Torah and the hidden Torah. \u201cRevealed\u201d means that which is revealed to all. This was said about the practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The practice of&nbsp;<em>Mitzvot<\/em>&nbsp;[commandments], as well as the words of the Torah and the prayers are also regarded as part of the practice, as our sages said, \u201cTwisting the lips is an act,\u201d meaning because it is revealed, so his friend can see if he is praying or learning. In order to know the orders of the work of the&nbsp;<em>Mitzvot<\/em>, meaning their measures and times, this is called \u201cthe revealed Torah,\u201d where the Torah teaches us how to practice the&nbsp;<em>Mitzvot<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Concealed was said only about the thought and the intention in the matter, since one cannot know what his friend thinks during the practice of a&nbsp;<em>Mitzva<\/em>&nbsp;[commandment], whether it is for the sake of the Creator or to the contrary, only because of false piety. The learning of the thought and the intention is called \u201chidden\u201d and \u201csecret,\u201d as it is written, \u201cThe secret of the Lord is to those who fear Him.\u201d What is \u201cThe secret of the Lord is to those who fear Him\u201d? It is that the Creator gives the gift of fear of heaven to a person, and this is considered that the secret of the Creator is to those who fear Him, meaning they have fear of Him, and this is a gift from the Creator. He gives this secret only to those He likes, meaning He gives him a thought that it should be for the sake of the Creator. This is called \u201cthe hidden Torah,\u201d which teaches how to be rewarded with the quality of thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 5, 1964 The way of the Baal Shem Tov is that he set up a&nbsp;Heder&nbsp;[room for learning Torah], meaning [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":6246,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"topic":[26],"class_list":["post-14146","book","type-book","status-publish","hentry","topic-rabash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kabbalah | 781. 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