Sefer Baal Shem Tov

 

The Baal Shem Tov’s Teachings on the Torah

“All the commandments which I command you this day shall you observe to do.” (Devarim 8:1)

There is one great principle – that a person must attach himself to the inner dimension of the Torah and the commandments. One must bind one’s thoughts and soul to the root of the Torah and the mitzvos that one fulfills. If not, one cuts and separates the “shoots.”¹

I received this from my Master, and I also found it in the book Chesed l’Avraham, nahar 14.
Ben Poras Yosef, p. 21a

¹A Talmudic term implying that one posits a division between G-d and creation. In this case, the Baal Shem Tov applies it to a separation between the soul of the Torah and its outer manifestation. The Talmud states that the Elisha ben Abuya “uprooted the shoots” when he became an apostate.

Translation and commentary by Rabbi Dr. Eliezer Shore.

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