The master of an evil name Hillel Ba'al Shem and his Sefer ḥa-heshek

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The Master of an Evil Name: Hillel Ba'al Shem and His "Sefer ḥa-heshek" Author(s): Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern Source: AJS Review, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Nov., 2004), pp. 217-248 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Jewish Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4131522 Accessed: 20/10/2010 06:07 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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AJS Review 28:2 (2004), 217-248

THE MASTER OFAN EVIL NAME: HILLEL BACALSHEMAND HIS SEFER HA-IHESHEK

by Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern

I. INTRODUCTION:THE MANUSCRIPT

Back in 1993, as senior librarianat the VernadskyLibraryin Kiev, Ukraine, in chargeof cataloguinga newly uncoveredJudaicacollection, I came acrossan enigmatic manuscriptentitledSefer ha-heshek.It did not matchthe bulk of the Judaica holdings.' Nor did it fit in Abraham Harkavy'scollection of medieval manuscripts.2It was too Ashkenazic for AbrahamFirkovich'sKaraitepapers,3and too

I am gratefulto ArthurGreen and JonathanSarna,who have readpreviousdraftsof this paper and generouslysharedwith me theircriticism.I am especially gratefulto Ze'ev Gries and Moshe Rosman, whose invaluablecommentshelped me to improvethe final draft. 1. On the fascinatingfate and composition of this collection, see ZacharyBaker,"Historyof the Jewish Collections at the VernadskyLibraryin Kiev,"Shofar 10 no. 4 (1992): 31-48; Binyamin Lukin, "Archiveof the Historicaland EthnographicSociety. History and PresentCondition,"Jews in Eastern Europe, 1 no. 20 (Jerusalem, 1993): 45-61; YohananPetrovsky,"Zapisnyeknigi evreiskikh obshchestv na Ukraine. Iz arkhivaA. Ia. Garkavi,"Novyi Krug 2 (Kiev, 1992): 274-288; Nikolai Senchenko and Irina Sergeeva, "Jewish Scholarly Institutionsand LibraryCollections in Kiev after 1917: A Brief HistoricalSketch,"SovietJewishAffairs2 (1991): 45-50; Mykola Senchenkoand Iryna Serheeva,"Zistorii formuvanniakolektsiievreiskoiiliteraturyTsentral'noiNaukovoiBibliotekyim. Vernads'kohoAkademiiNaukURSR,"Svit. ChasopysNarodnohoRukhuUkrainy2-3 (1991): 64-67. The only in-depthdescriptionof the collection, togetherwith a preliminarylist of some two hundred manuscripts,is given in Dov Walfish, "'Osef ha-sefarimve-kitvei ha-yad be-sifriyat vernadskybekiev,"Mada'ei ha-yahadut34 (1994): 68-86. 2. AbrahamHarkavy(Abram lakovlevich Garkavi, 1835-1919), the founder of Russian Judaica and Hebraica,was in chargeof the Departmentof OrientalManuscriptsat the St. PetersburgImperialLibrary,responsiblefor cataloguingandacquisitions.A followerof Wissenschaftdes Judentums, Harkavyoverlookedkabbalisticworks,concentratingchiefly on Spanish-Jewishliteratureof the Golden Age. On Harkavy'smanuscriptcollection, see YohananPetrovsky,"The Lost Chapterof Russian Judaica:AbrahamHarkavy'sMSS in The VernadskyLibrarycollection,"Jews and Slavs 5 (Jerusalem: HebrewUniversity,1996), 157-168. 3. AbrahamFirkovich(1786-1874), a Karaitecommunalleader,traveler,sui generis historian of Karaismand authorof the most well-knownninteenth-centurymanuscriptforgeries,amasseda significant collection of Genizah fragmentsand Karaitemanuscripts,which he sold shortly before his deathto the St. PetersburgImperialLibrary.See V L. Vikhnovich,KaraimAvraamFirkovich:evreiskie rukopisi,istoriia,puteshestviia (St. Petersburg:"Peterburgskoevostokovedenie,"1997).

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YohananPetrovsky-Shtern early for most of S. Ansky's nineteenth-centuryfolkloric materials.4The manuscripthad a wooden cover, separatefrom the text, with a copper monogramSefer ha-heshekin Hebrew (hereafter-SH). SH's title appearsrandomlyas a running head; the authoroccasionally refers to the title of the manuscript.5Primarilybecause of its size-411 folios, 23 of them blank, some 760 filled pages altogether-and due to its magical contents, I discarded any attempts to identify the manuscriptas a version of the well-known Sefer ha-heshek,a twenty-or-so-page kabbalistic treatise on the names of the archangel Metatronattributedto Isaac Luria.6Also, since the manuscriptis not a commentaryon the book of Isaiah or Proverbs,it could neitherbe Solomon Duran'snor Solomon ha-Levi'sHeshekshelomoh.7 The manuscriptis stronglyreminiscentof a lost Yiddish book on practical Kabbalahand folk medicine entitled Sefer heshek, apparentlywritten at the beginning of the eighteenth centuryby the doctor Wolf Binyamin ben Zevi Hirsch from Posen, who studiedmedicineat the Universityof Frankfurtam Oderandpurportedlypublishedhis composition in 1727 in Hanau.8Like the Hanaubook, the newly discoveredSH drewheavily frompopularKabbalahand folk medicine.Yet, unlike the Hanauone, it was Hebrew,notYiddish;it claimed a differentauthorship (not Wolf Binyamin);it was composed in East Europeand not in Germany;and it seemed much more complex than its Hanau prototype.In addition,nobody has seen the Hanaubook since the early eighteenthcentury,9if indeed it ever existed as a book. Shatzky,who himself never saw the HanauSH, which is not listed eitherin the Friedberg,Benjacob,orVinogradcatalogues,reconstructedits contents throughobliquereferencesto its sourcesmentionedin Steinschneider,who did not see the book either.Thoughit is possible thatthe newly discoveredSH in terms of its title and genre is somehow relatedto the lost Yiddishmedical tractate,the com4. SemionAnsky (ShloymeZanvlRapoport,1863-1920), a Russian-JewishandYiddishwriter, populist,Kulturtreger,and ethnographer,amassed severalhundredJudaicamanuscriptsduringhis expeditionto the Pale of Jewish Settlementin Russia between 1911 and 1914. OnAnsky'sexpeditionand the materialshe collected, see V Lukin,"Otnarodnichestvak narodu(S. A. Ansky-etnografvostochnoevropeiskogo evreistva),"in Trudypo iudaike: istoriia i etnografiia 3, ed. Dmitrii Eliashevich (St. Petersburg:Peterburgskiievreiskii universitet, 1993), 125-161; Aleksandr Kantsedikas and Irina Sergeeva,Albomkhudozhestvennoistariny SemionaAn-skogo(Moscow and Jerusalem:Mosty kul'tury-Gesharim,2001); Rivka Gonen, ed., Ba-hazarahla-'ayarah.Ansky ve-ha-mishlahatha-etnografit ha-yehudit 1912-1914 (Jerusalem: Museon Israel, 1994); Avram Rekhtman, Yidisheetnografie un folklor: zikhroynesvegn der etnografisherekspeditsie,angefirtfun Sh. Ansky(Buenos-Aires:Yidishe wisnshaftlekherinstitut, 1958). See also the forthcomingcollection of articles Between TwoWorlds: Anskyand Russian-JewishCulture,ed. GabriellaSafranand Steven Zipperstein(Stanford:Stanford UniversityPress, 2005). 5. VernadskyNational Libraryof Ukraine,OrientaliaDepartment,JudaicaManuscriptcollection, Sefer ha-heshek,[OR. 178], f. 14b, 18b-19a, 28b-29a. 6. 1 used the Lemberg reprint(1865) of the first Yizhak Meir Epshtein edition (Jerusalem, 1865). Because of the size of the manuscriptI also ruledout the possibilityof identifyingSH as Yohanan Aliman'sSefer sha'ar ha-heshek(Livorno, 1690). 7. Firstpublicationcorrespondingly-Venice, 1588, and Saloniki, 1600. 8. Jacob Shatzky,"Seferheshek:a farfalnrefu'oh-bukhin yiddish fun 18tnyorhundertun zayn mekhaber,"YIVOBleter 4 (1932): 223-235. 9. Ibid., 223.

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The Masterof an Evil Name parisonbetween an unknownmanuscriptand an unseen book will hardlybe helpful. This SH is an in quarto manuscriptwrittenon a plain paperwithout watermarks.It has a leatherspine and no back cover.The worn, greasy edges of the paper signify thatthe manuscripthad been not only in use, but in intensive use. The author'sconsistentyet awkwardearly-eighteenth-century Ashkenazicsemicursive different from the rabbinic script, script,' along with his occasioncontemporary al Hebrewmisspellings, is telling. " Apparently,he was not a learnedrabbiandnot a rabbinicalscholar (talmid hakham), although he had access to an amazingly broadgamutof books both knownand unknownto us. The name of the authorHillel Ba'al Shem-appears throughoutthe manuscript.12The dates scatteredin the text did not go beyond 1739 or 1740. Accordingto the qualityof the paper,the ink, and the script,SH was writtenmost likely ca. 1740-1741, since at thattime a regularconsumerpurchasedpaperin orderto use it, not stock it, and the last date mentioned in SH is 1739/1740. The manuscriptis complete. It opens with the words "Andthese are 32 rules against 32 paths of wisdom""3and ends with the words "these are the words of Hillel."14Hillel wrote mostly in Hebrew,rarelyin Yiddish, inserting clumsy Slavic (Polish and Ukrainian)incantations,which he transliteratedin Hebrewcharacters.In addition,Hillel illuminatedhis manuscript with some ninety drawingsof kabbalisticamulets and anthropomorphicand traditionalJewishsymbols, as well as diagrams,tables,and series of magical signs.'5 Some of them were copies from contemporarybooks on practicalKabbalahalreadypublished,whereasotherswere unique.16 10. Forthe mid-eighteenth-centurycalligraphy,see the facsimile reproductionfrom the manuscriptwrittenby one of the colleagues of the Besht: Dov Baermi-Mezrich,Magid devaravle-yaakov, ed. AvrahamYizhak Kahn (Jerusalem:Yeshivattoldot aharon, 1971), 6 (unpaginated).See also later eighteenth-centurycalligraphyin the YehoshuaMondshinefaximile edition of the Habadcopy of "In Praise of the Besht"by Dov Baer ben Samuelof Linits:Shivheiha-besht:faksimil mi-ktavha-yad hayehidi ha-noda' lanu ve-shinuyeinushavleumat nusah ha-defus: be-zerufve-nispahim(Jerusalem:Y. Mondshine,1982). Cf. handwrittenlate-eighteenth-centurydocumentsandlettersby LevyYizhakfrom Berdichev in Kedushatlevy ha-shalem (Jerusalem:Zeev Derbarimdiker,1978), 576, 578, 580 (unpaginated);the handwrittencommentaryon the Zohar (parashatShelah) by Vilna Gaon, in Yeshayahu Vinograd,'Ozarsifrei hagr "a (Jerusalem:KerenEliyahu,2003), 357. 11. AlthoughSH was writtenby one and the same person, it containeda numberof pages by a differenthand.Apparently,the authorcommissioned them to a professionalTorahscroll scribe; see f. 239b-251a. 12. SH, f. lb, 162b, 206a, 216b, 329a, 355b, 389a. 13. SH, f. lb. Hillel is using a popularkabbalisticmetaphorof 32 paths of wisdom that dates back to Sefer Yezirah1:1, Zohar, "Terumah,"106; Pardes rimonim,sha'ar 12: 2. It was also known to the kabbalistsof hug ha- iyun, see MarkVerman,TheBooks of Contemplation:MedievalJewish Mystical Sources (Albany: State Universityof New YorkPress, 1992), 45 n. 43, 52, 71 n. 103, 75 n. 122, 152. 14. Apparentlya concluding talmudiccliche [ad kan divrei Hillel]. SH, f. 389a. 15. See, for example,SH, f. 17b, 18a,34b, 35a, 37b-38a, 47b, 85b, 89a, 96a, 112a- 113b, 156b, 204b-205b. The most amazingare the anthropomorphicamuletsthat establishthe links between kabbalistic abbreviationsand members of the humanbody; see f. 215b and 217b. The amulets and diagrams that appearin SH as well as the linguistic strategiesof Hillel will be discussed elsewhere. 16. Forthe comprehensivelist of the Judaicamuletsthat includes the list of specific kabbalis-

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YohananPetrovsky-Shtern Moshe Rosman, who saw SH (and encouragedme to write this essay) has dubbedit "themost extensiveexpositionof ba'al shem techniquesand experiences that I know of."17It is common knowledge that ba'al shem stands for "masterof the Names of God," or, as Gershon Hundert suggested, "Manipulatorsof the Name,"18 and signifies a Jewish magicianor healer,engaged in practicalKabbalah and able to use his mystical knowledge and theurgicalpowers to produceprotecting amulets that neutralize evil and restore psychological and social order among the healer'sclientele.19The term became particularlypopularafter Israel ben Eliezer (ca. 1700-1760) adoptedthe name of Ba'al Shem Tov (the Besht), the Master of a Good Name, and eventuallycame to be seen as the founderof modem Hasidism.A numberof books illustratingpracticesof ba'alei shem were published before and afterSH was written,yet SH exceeds all of them in terms of the 20 historical,social, cultural,andtheologicaldatait contains. Moreastonishingwas tic abbreviations,see Eli Davis and David Frenkel, Ha-kameya' ha-'ivri (Jerusalem: Makhon lemada'ei ha-yahadut,1995). 17. Moshe Rosman, Founderof Hasidism:A Questfor Historical Bacal Shem Tov(Berkeley: Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1996), 217-218 n. 19. 18. GershonDavid Hundert,Jews in Poland-Lithuaniain the EighteenthCentury:A Genealogy of Modernity(Berkeley and Los Angeles: Universityof CaliforniaPress, 2004), 142. 19. Forthe analysisof intellectualandtheological aspectsof ba'alei shem, see ImmanuelEtkes, "Magiyahu-vaCaleishem be-yamav shel ha-besht,"in Bacal ha-shem: ha-besht-magiyah, mistikah, hanhagah (Jerusalem:MerkazZalman Shazar,2000), 15-53; idem, "Mekomamshel ha-magiyahuva alei ha-shem ba-hevrahha-ashkenazitbe-mifneh ha-me'ot ha-yud-zayin-ha-yud-het," Zion 60 (1995): 69-104. Forthe analysis of the genre of the books ascribedto variousba'alei shem, see Hagit Matras,"Sifrei segulot u-refu'ot be-civrit:tekhanimu-mekorotal pi ha-sefarimha-rishonimasher yazu la-'orbe-'eropahbe-reshitha-me'ahha-18" (Ph.D. diss., HebrewUniversityof Jerusalem,1997); GedalyahNigal focused on the folkloric aspect of the writings by ba'alei shem in his Magic, Mysticism, and Hasidism (Northvale,NJ and London:J. Aronson, 1994); Michal Oron analyzedthe sabbatean context of one of the most prominent ba'alei shem in her "Dr. Samuel Falk and the Eibeschuetz-EmdenControversy,"in Mysticism,Magic and Kabbalahin AshkenaziJudaism:International Symposiumheld in FrankfurtA.M. 1991, ed. Karl Grrzingerand Joseph Dan (Berlin and New York:Walterde Gruyter,1995), 242-256. Oronalso publishedimportantdocumentson and of the BaSalShem fromLondon.These include letters,descriptionof theirbooks, ethical wills, and diaries. See Michal Oron,Mi- "bacalshed" le- "ba'alshem: "shmuelfalk, "ha-ba'alshem mi-london"(Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 2002). Ze'ev Gries contextualizedpopularKabbalahbooks writtenby East European ba'alei shem integratingthem into the genre of regimenvitae (conduct)literaturethatregulateseveryday behavioralpatterns,prescribesattitudesand remedies, and establishes links betweenthe tradition and popularcustoms. Gries also connectedthe popularizationof practicalKabbalahwith the rise of interest in hermeneuticstudies and medicine triggeredby the Florentinerenaissanceneoplatonicacademy. See Ze'ev Gries, Sifrutha-hanhagot:toldotehau-mekomahbe-hayei hasidei r.yisra el ba'al shem tov (Jerusalem:Mosad Bialik, 1990). For the most convincing socioculturaltypology of the ba'alei shem in the context of social anthropology,see Rosman,FounderofHasidism, 13-19. Forthe recent standardsummaryof the ba'alei shem and the books they produced,see Hundert,Jews in Poland-Lithuania, 142-153. Cf.: EncyclopediaJudaica (Jerusalem: Encyclopedia Judaica, 1972), s.v. "Bacalei shem"; JoshuaTrachtenberg,Jewish Magic and Superstition:A Study in Folk Religion (ClevelandPhiladelphia:Jewish PublicationSociety, 1939). 20. Cf.: Razi'el ha-mal 'akh (Amsterdam,1701), Shem tov katan (Sulzbach, 1706), Sefer kar1709), MifWalot'elokim (Z6tkiew, 1710, 1724 and 1725), Toldot'adam (Z6lkiew, nayim (SZ6kiew, 1720), Keren'or (Z6lkiew, 1721), Zevahpesah (Z6tkiew,1722), Divrei hakhamim(Z6tkiew,1725). For the pioneering analysis of the genre of practical Kabbalahbooks, see Hagit Matras,"Sifrei segulot

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The Master of an Evil Name thatHillel Ba'al Shem, unlike otherba'alei shem knownto date, coincided in time and space with the Besht: they traveledthroughcontiguousareas(Hillel in Volhynia and the Besht in Podol), and sometimes almostthe same areas(Rovno district in Podol), and did so almost at the same time. Thus, the portrayalof Hillel Ba'al Shem against the backdropof early-eighteenth-centuryEast Europeanitinerant healers, the comparisonand the differentiationbetween the kabbalisticpractices of Hillel Ba'al Shem and those of the Ba'al Shem Tov,and a discussion of the relationsbetweenHillel andhis own clientele arein order.Methodologically,this paper representsa slow readingof this eighteenth-centuryKabbalahmanuscriptfrom the vantagepoint of the history of culturewith special emphasison the behavioral patternsof a ba'al shem vis-a-vis a Jewish community.This paper echoes the recent appeals to "reconsiderthe meaning of the ba'al shem traditionin the developmentof early Hasidism"21and to reassess such pivotal facets of the premodern East Europeanculturalhistory as its popularkabbalisticsubculture.22 II. HILLEL'S CURRICULUM VITAE SH, our only source on Hillel, is a complex document.In it, first and foremost, Hillel is tryingto demonstratehis expertisein practicalKabbalah.He spends hundredsof pages discussing how to use holy names (shemot ha-kedushah)and impurenames (shemot ha-tum'ah)in orderto stop epidemics (14a, 20a); treat a sick child (23b); preventepilepsy, dizziness, craziness, headache, and night fear (24a-b, 159b, 279b); treat fever, wounds, pollution, diarrhea,insomnia and bad smell from the mouth (117a, 145b, 254a, 255b, 260a-b, 295a,); expel evil forces from the house (31b, 296b-297b); protecta feeding (32a-b, 267a); cure a barren woman(166a, 178a-b), regulatemenstruation(168b- 169a,262b-264b) andheartbeating (274b-275a, 278a); preventevil forces from harminga newly born child (270a);keep healthydietarylaws (107b); stop girls' hairfromgrowing(145b); protect an individual and his habitatfrom an evil eye (156b, 293b, 385b), thieves (174a-b), fire (188b), bandits(293b), Lilith (329b); identify a thief throughtalking to a homunculusin a bottle (163a-164a); and other things indispensablein u-refuotbe-civrit"(Ph.D.diss.,HebrewUniversity,Jerusalem,1997) andHavivaPedaya,"Le-hitpathuto shel ha-degemha-hevrati-dati-kalkali ba-hasidut:ha-pidyon,ha-havurah,veha-caliyahle-regel,"in Dat ve-kalkalah:yahasei gomlin, ed. MenahemBen-Sasson (Jerusalem:ZalmanShazar,1995), 311- 373. Most recentdiscoveriescorroboratethe fact thatSH occupies a unique place among seventeenth-and eighteenth-centuryEast Europeanwritings on practicalKabbalah.Thus, for instance, in 1996, Moshe Rosenfeld from Jerusalem(the authorof a numberof book catalogueson early Hebrewprint)briefly introduced me to an untitled manuscript apparentlywritten by the ba'al shem from Tomashpol (Ukraine).The size of the manuscriptdid not exceed 80 pages. Its content to some extent resembled the content of SH. However,unlike the often used SH, the clean white paperand the overall physical conditionof that manuscript(especially edges and cornersof the pages), testified to its rareuse by the owner or its readers.In addition,the amountof practicalKabbalahinformationincludedin the manuscriptof the ba'al shem fromTomashpolfalls short in comparisonwith SH. 21. KarlGrrzinger,"TsadikandBa'al Shem in EastEuropeanHasidism,"Polin 15 (2002): 162. 22. Moshe Rosman, "A Prolegomenonto the Study of Jewish CulturalHistory,"JSIJ (Jewish Studies, an InternetJournal) [Bar-IlanUniversity] 1 (2002): 126. See http://www.biu.ac.il/JS/JSIJ/ 1-2002/Rosman.pdf (accessed 11/7/04).

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Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern practicallife. Also, Hillel shows his profoundknowledgeof chiromancyandmetoposcopy (70b-73a, 200b-201a); exorcism (192b, 197a-198b); witchcraft(194a197b);originsof evil (302b-3 10a);levitation(312a); andhoroscopy(247b-251 a). Provinghe is a pious and observantJew,Hillel demonstrateshis knowledgeof major kabbalisticconcepts, which he consistentlytries to connect to variousJewish practices such as daily prayer(168b), confessional prayer(169b), healing prayer (347b-348a), bed-time prayer(369b-370a), philanthropy(150a), family purity (174a-b), observing Shabbatlaws (305a), celebratingsecondaryholidays such as Hanukah(247b-250a), giving oaths (314b) and Torahstudy (181a, 184b, 186a187b). Particularlysignificant is that in SH Hillel provides-though not abundantly and not consistently-the details of his life, his career and its ups and downs, his modusoperandi,his connectionsto the worldof rabbisand doctors,his attitudesto colleagues, his feedback to the popularizationof Kabbalahand kabbalistic bookprint,his personalmodus vivendi, and the attitudeof his contemporariestowardhim. What follows is a tentativereconstructionof Hillel's life based on data scatteredthroughoutthe manuscript. Slavic wordsin his lexicon23as well as Yiddishpermeatedwith Slavicisms24 would suggest thatperhapsthe authorof SH was bornin Easternor CentralPoland. Since he startedto be active as a practicalkabbalistand a healeraroundthe 1730s, I assume he was either five to ten years older or youngerthan the Besht, born ca. 1700, or was of his age and was bornmost likely between 1690 and 1705. SH contains no referenceto his birthplaceor to the name of his father.Given Hillel's attemptto tell his own life story and demonstratehis masteryof kabbalisticarts,his reticencein regardto his origins is noteworthy.PerhapsHillel was tryingto, as Oscar Wilde put it, "revealthe artand conceal the artist."Apparently,Hillel had good reasons to do this. Perhapsat the end of the 1720s and in the early 1730s, when he began his careeras a professionalhealer,magician, and Kabbalist,Hillel called himself the Ba'al Shem,the Masterof Name (I doubthe neededthe name,indicativeof his profession, before that time). Apparentlyhe came from a lower-middle-classPolishJewish family unable to provide him with full-time rabbinic education. Unlike the famous Jewish doctor and kabbalistTobiasha-Cohen(ca. 1652-1729)25 and the scions of prominentPolish Jewish families,26Hillel did not study medicine at 23. He refersto Slavic, mostly to Ukrainianand Polish, to describeherbs(polnytablan,7a; majevy borsch, 9a; krapiva, 147a; gorchitsa, 182a), birds or reptiles (voroni, 22b; piavke, 147b; zozuli, 204a). He also uses lengthy Polish-Ukrainianincantationstranscribedin Hebrew letters, see 362a364b. See, for instance,the following incantationin Polish (I retainHebrew spelling): Zive boze, pomozni,pomohi ten ohon ohniski i otruski,od silaiu, od glovi, ochi i od beloho kosti, od chervonikrev (Living God, [my Helper],help [to take out] that poisoning fire of fires, out of [his/her] strength,out of [his/her] head, out of [his/her] eyes and white bones, 368a-369a). 24. See his Yiddishamuletsand "dialogues"with the dybbuks,166a-168b, 139b-241a, 349a-b. 25. See AbrahamLevinson, Tuvyahha-rofe've-sifro 'macasehtuvyah'(Berlin: Rimon, 1924). 26. See "LekarzeZydowscy w dawnej Rzeczypospolitej,"in Zydzi w Polsce odrodzonej:dziatalnoki spoleczna,gospodarscza,odwiatowai kulturalna,ed. IgnaciusSchiperet al., 2 vols. (Warsaw: "Zydziw Polsce odrodzonej,"1932-33), 2:289-303.

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The Masterof an Evil Name the University of Padua or in one of the German universities.Yet, avid for the knowledge of medicine, he apprenticed with various professional doctors in Poland.Among his teachersHillel refersonce to Dr. Simhah,27twice to the great sage and doctorRabbiYadakovZilon [Zahalon],28and more than a dozen times to Isaac Fortis,"the great Rabbiand a great sage in all the countriesof Poland."29 AbrahamIsaac Fortis (dubbed also Hazak), a professional doctor from an Italianand Polish family of doctorsand rabbis,probablystudiedat the University of Mantua.30He also spent some time learningKabbalahunderthe famousMoshe Zakut(1620-1697).31 He returnedto Polandin the last decade of the seventeenth century,settled first in Lw6w and later in Rzesz6w, and establishedhimself as a court doctor to two of the five wealthiest Polish noble families, Lubomirskiand Potocki. Between 1726 and 1730 he held a position of the highest prestige when electedparnas at the Councilof the FourLands.32Hillel claimed he had learntunder Fortis,consulted his books and manuscripts,and copied Fortis'samulets and remedies.33He learnedfromFortisrules of hygiene, bothpersonalandpublic,particularlyimportantin the context of the late 1730s epidemic of cholera in Podo27. SimhahMenahemben YohananBarukhde Yona(knownas Emanuelde Jona, d. 1702)-a court doctor of the king Jan III Sobieski. Between 1664 and 1668, he studiedmedicine at the University of Padua,lived in Z61kiewand Lw6w, and helped to solve communaldisputes.He was accused of allegedly poisoning Jan III, but was found not guilty. His name, as well as remedies and amulets ascribed to him, are mentioned in a numberof practicalKabbalahbooks, including Ma'aseh tuvyah, Toldot'adam,Mif'alot 'elokimand Zevahpesah. See, for example, Mif alot 'elokim, simanim 9, 51, 52, 169, 297, 337, 346, 410, and 416. On Dr. Simhah,see Salomon Buber,Kiryahnisgavah (Cracow, 1903), 76; Schiper, Zydzi w Polsce Odrodzonej,298-299; Natan Mikhael Gelber, "Toldotyehudei Natan MikhaelGelberand IsraelBen-Shem (Jeruzolkiv,"in Seferzolkiv [Z•lkiew]: kiryahnisgavah, salem; enziklopediyahshel galuyot, 1969), 43-45. 28. Most probablyDr. Ya'akovZahalon, a Jewish physician and rabbi from Rome, graduate from the University of Rome, and the authorof an importantseventeenth-centurypopular Hebrew "handbookfor medical treatment"'Ozarha-hayim(Venice, 1683). On Zahalon,see David Ruderman, Science, Medicine,and Jewish Culturein EarlyModernEurope.Spiegel Lecturesin EuropeanJewish History (TelAviv:Tel Aviv University,1987), 9, 15, and the bibliographyhe assembledon p. 28 n. 20; idem, "Medicineand Scientific Thought:The Worldof Tobias Cohen,"in TheJews of Early Modern Venice,ed. Robert C. Davis and Benjamin Ravid (Baltimoreand London:Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), 194-98; idem, Jewish Thoughtand Scientific Discovery in Early ModernEurope(New Haven and London:Yale UniversityPress, 1995), 232-235 and bibliographyon p. 232 n. 10. Significantly,"Dr.YaCakov Zahalon],is also mentionedin Zevahpesah [3b]. Forthe referencesto Zevahpesah I used the only extantcopy of this book at the rarebook Judaicadivision of New YorkPublicLibrary. I am gratefulto Dr. LeonardGold for his assistance. 29. SH, f. 12b, 13b, 25a, 46a, 183b.Hillel says, for example:segulah mi-rofemumhehha-nikra ha-ravr.yizhakfortis, 46a; od kibaltimin rofe hazak, 183b. 30. Moshe Rosman, TheLord'Jews:Magnate-Jewishrelationsin the Polish-LithuanianCommonwealthduring the Eighteenth Century(Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversity Press for Harvard UkrainianResearch Institute, 1990), 148 and bibliographyhe assembled in n. 20; Schiper, Zydzi w Polsce Odrodzonej,299-300. 31. See EncyclopediaJudaica, s.v. "I[srael]Ha[lpern]." 32. Ibid. 33. Hillel was not uniquein the reverentattitudeto Fortis.Forotherreferencesto Fortis'sremedies and amulets, see Mif ~alot'elokim,siman 379; Toldot'adam,siman 101.

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YohananPetrovsky-Shtern lia.34Medicalreferencesin SH, which exceed medicalreferencesin books by other ba'alei shem, substantiateHillel's claim that he was an expert healer.35 Hillel seems to be familiarnot only with kabbalistictexts and manuscripts but also with the pietistic rites of the kabbalists,perhapseven with Italiankabbalists.36While describingtikkunleyl shabbat,a midnightpietistic liturgycanonized by Lurianickabbalists,he mentions it as part of "the customs of my friends in Venice and Prague"and urgesothersto follow it.37However,unlikethe case of his medical contacts,he mentionsno names of his friends-in-Kabbalah. This is yet anothermysteriouspatternof Hillel's writings. It appearsas if he wantedto conceal theirnames.The 1720s were the years of a fierce battleagainstcrypto-sabbateans from Altona to Pragueand Z61kiew.38As a numberof scholarshave demonstrated, sometimesit was not feasibleto drawthe line separatingregularkabbalistsfrom Was Hillel hinting at his proximityto the sublime mystical crypto-sabbateans.39 34. Recommendationson public hygiene appearin SH on f. 13a-15b, 20a-22b. See the story aboutthe 1654 (in fact, 1656-see Ruderman,Jewish Thoughtand ScientificDiscovery,232) epidemic in Rome which Hillel ascribedto Fortis,SH, f. 12b. Some primaryknowledgeof medical Latin,which Hillel demonstrates,may also have come from Fortis. 35. Forexample, when Hillel discusses differentways of preparingamuletsor herbalremedies to treatmelancholy(marahshehorah)he says thathe learnedthis is from "professionaldoctors in the countryof Poland,"6a-b; when he explains what should be done to a sick person,he recommendsenema with milk and sugarand makes a double referenceto Doctor Simhahand DoctorZilon [Zahalon], 23b; he claims he learnedfrom Doctor Fortishow to protecthumanbody fromevil spirits,25a; he says that Doctor Zalnik (?) taught him what measuresto take in orderto completely recover after having drunka poison (sam mavet), 108a. 36. In the second half of the seventeenthcentury,Italybecame a paramountEuropeancenterof Kabbalahlearning.It suffices to mention Moshe Zakutand his circle. For an analysis of ItalianKabbalah, see Moshe Idel, "MajorCurrentsin Italian Kabbalahbetween 1560-1660," Italia Judaica II (1986): 243-262; RobertBonfil, Rabbisand Jewish Communitiesin Renaissance Italy (Oxford University Press for the LittmanLibrary,1990), 280-298; idem., "Changein the CulturalPatternsof a Jewish Society in Crisis;ItalianJewryat the close of the sixteenthcentury,"JewishHistory2-3 (1988): 11-30; Moshe Halamish,"cOdle-toldot ha-pulmusal ha-kabalahbe-Italiyahbe-reshitha-me'ahha17,"Peterburgskiievreiskii universitet,9 vol. 3 (1986): 101-106. 37. SH, f. 187a.The questionof whetherHillel was in directcontactwith Italian(Venician)kabbalists must be left open due to the thin evidence. 38. ElishevaCarlebach,ThePursuitofHeresy: RabbiMoshe Hagiz and the SabbatianControversies (New York:ColumbiaUniversityPress, 1990), 172-185; Gelber,"Toldotyehudei zolkiv,"96104; Geshom Scholem.SabbataiSevi: TheMysticalMessiah,1626-1676 (Princeton:PrincetonUniversity Press, 1973), 78-85; Moshe Arie Perlmuter,Ha-ravyehonatan eybeschuezve-yahasole-shabta'ut (Jerusalem:Schocken PublishingHouse, 1947), 26-29, 42-49; YehudaLiebes, "Ketavimhadashim be-kabalahshabta'itmi-hugo shel r. yehonataneybeschuez,"in JerusalemStudies in Jewish Thought, ed. Yosef Dan (Jerusalem:HebrewUniversityof Jerusalem,1986), 141-349. Fora broadercontext of the crypto-Sabbateanism,see MortimerJ. Cohen, Jacob Emden:a man of controversy(Philadelphia: Dropsie College, 1937) and JacobSchacter,"Historyand Memoryof Self: the Autobiographyof Rabbi Jacob Emden,"in Jewish Historyand Jewish Memory:Essays in Honor ofYosefHayimYerushalmi, ed. ElishevaCarlebachet al. (Waltham,MA: BrandeisUniversityPress, 1998),428-452. A useful summary is to be found in Michal Galas, "Sabbateanismin the Seventeenth-CenturyPolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth:A Review of Sources,"in TheSabbatianMovementand Its Aftermath:Messianism, Sabbatianismand Frankism,ed. RachelElior(Jerusalem:The Instituteof Jewish Studies,HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem,2001), 2:51-63. 39. Carlebach,Pursuitof Heresy, 11, 171-172.

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The Masterof an Evil Name knowledgewhile simultaneouslyhiding his personalrelationswith those who balanced on the brinkof heresy? Be this as it may, before Hillel became a practicing ba'al shem, he traveledthroughBohemia, Romania,and Bukovina.He claims to have visited Tiraspol,40Vissa,41and Rozhnu.42He recollects his sporadicmeetings with an anonymouskabbalistfrom Rozhnu and claims he studiedthe manuscriptsof a certainEfraim,a renownedpreacher(maggidmesharim)andprominent kabbalistfromVissa (Bessarabia).43 Hirshfrom MezeHillel was lucky to landunderthe wings of his tutor, the head of the rabrich (MiqdzyrzecPodliaski).44RabbiZevi Hirsch (d. 1724), Z.evi binicalcourtin Mezerich,could boastan impressivepedigreeandlearning.He was the son of R. Alexanderand the grandsonof Zevi Hirsch,the head of the rabbinic court in the same locality, who is mentionedin seventeenth-centuryresponseand who himself is the authorof the volume of responsaTorathayim(Lublin,1708 and 1724); R. Zevi Hirsch was also the son-in-law of Rabbi Mordekhay,the head of the rabbiniccourt in Brisk (Brest of Lithuania)and the fatherof Mordekhayand Avishal,who eventuallybecame rabbisof Lissa andFrankfurt,respectively.45Hillel assertsthathe spenta certainperiodof time underZevi Hirschcopyinghis manuscripts, talking to him, and learning from him the secrets of amulets and holy names.46Hillel's assertionis revealingfrom two perspectives.First,even if he did not mention how long he stayed in Mezerich,the mere fact that he studiedunder such an authorityas Zevi Hirsch-in additionto Fortis-testifies to his thorough 40. Southeastfrom Jassy (Bessarabia),nowadaysin Moldova, 188b. 41. Jassy District (Bessarabia),now in Moldova, 189a. 42. Bukovina,now in Ukraine, 189a. 43. Perhapsthe travelsof Hillel BacalShem were partof a largerphenomenonof Jewish wandererssalientamong East EuropeanJews in the late-seventeenth-century and first half of the eighteenth of Jews in Lithuaniathat the council Gries to the records of references Ze'ev century. brings important specified types of beggars and vagabondswho were a burdenfor the Jewish communities in eastern Poland(Pinkas medinatlita, p. 33 sect. 130, p. 38 sect. 164, p. 53 sect. 250; p. 76 sect. 378; p. 133 sect. 559; p. 144 sect. 596). Depicting itinerantJews, Gries includes in his list regularbeggarsas well as sabbateanand hasidic preachersand "prophets,"regularvagabondteachers,fundraisersfor EretsYisrael, preachersof penitence (rebukers,mokhihim),and exorcists. See his review essay of Marc Saperstein, Jewish Preaching 1200-1800, An Anthology(New Haven:Yale UniversityPress, 1989), in TheJournal ofJewish Thoughtand Philosophy4 no. 1 (1994): 113-122, esp. 117-119. 44. Hillel identifies him as ha-rav ha-gadol he-hasid ha-mefursamu-mekubalkavod moreynu ve-rabeinuzevi hirsh ben ha-rayvha-gadol moreynuha-rayvavram hu avrahamav bet din be kehillah kedoshah mezirich be-medinatpodlasye ha-samukhbrisk de-lita ve-kehillah kedoshah tiktin ve-hu hatanmi-ravha-gadol de-briskkavod moreynuha-rayvmordekhay.Hillel claims thatRabbiZevi Hirsch was the highest authorityin both revealedand esoteric law in the whole Podlasiearea.In addition,Hillel refersto him as often as to Fortis.See, for example, SH, f 63b, 107a, 174a, 358a-b. Hillel is accurate even in the way he refers to R. Zevi Hirsch'sfather,R. Abraham,the authorof Torathayim:the latter signed his endorsementof 'Olat yizhak (Frankfurta/Main, 1692) with the following formula: avram hu avraham.See Meir Edelboym, Di yidn-shtot Mezrich (Buenos-Aires: Mezricher-lanslaytfaraynin Argentina,1957), 295. 45. For the discussion of R. Zevi Hirsch(Junior,Hillel's mentor)pedigree, see Edelboym,Di yidn-shtotArgentina,294-297. 46. Hillel repeatedlycites his learningunderRabbiZevi Hirsh:"AndI stayedwith him and in my thirstI drankthe wordsof the greatRabbiuntil I understoodlittle by little the smallerface [of God] (mi-z'eyr"anpin)of his sacredwritings and copied them."SH, f. 118a.

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YohananPetrovsky-Shtern preparationfor his career.Second, Hillel's claim that he had copied amulets and remedies from Zevi Hirsch implies that practicalKabbalahhad alreadybecome part and parcel of general Jewish culture-even prominentrabbiswere engaged in it, to say nothing of itineranthealers, well-established doctors, and ba'alei shem.47 Thus, with medicaland kabbalisticexperiencesgained underFortisandZevi Hirsch, in the 1730s Hillel took to the road. FromMezerich he moved to Podolia andVolynia,and,at the end of the 1730s, to Lithuania.48It was in Galicia andVolhynia thathe startedhis careerof a ba'al shem. In 1731 he performedan exorcism in the town of Shinove(Pol.: Sieniawa,nearPrzemys'l).49Between 1731 and 1733 he was active as ba'al shem in Olik (Olyka), and in 1733 he came to Ostrah(Ostr6g) and laterto Tutchin.50 During his trip to the north,Hillel came to Shklov.51 In 1739 he reachedKeidan.52Apparently,at that time he was marriedand had at least two daughters.53Between 1739 and 1741 he moved westward,headingprobably to Posen (Poznani),where he startedwriting his manuscript,which, he believed, would change his life for the better.54 BAcALSHEMANDTHEJEWISHCOMMUNITY III. HILLEL The beginning of Hillel's careerwas promising. He visited importantJewish communitiesin Volyniaand Podoliaandwas commissionedas bacalshem. His success in Ostrah,the third place he visited in his itinerary,was pivotal. In the 1730s, Ostrahwas an importantprivatePolishtown. It boasteda huge Polishpalace and fortress,one of the busiest annual fairs in Poland,a beautiful,big sixteenthcentury,fortress-shapedsynagogue, more than 20 smallersynagogues and prayer houses, and illustriousrabbis, some of them descendantsof the disciples of Maharal(RabbiYehudahL6we ben Bezalel of Prague, 1525-1609).55 Hillel came to 47. Thus SH provides additionalsupportto the argumentthatby the 1720s Kabbalahcaptured minds of East EuropeanJews, see Etkes, Bacal ha-shem, chap. 1; Hundert,Jews in Poland-Lithuania, chap. 6; Rosman, Founderof Hasidism, chap. 1. On the spreadof practicalKabbalahin East Europe see Ze'ev Gries's"He-catakatve-hadpasatsifrei kabbalahke-makorle-limudah,"Mahanayim6 (1994): 204-211. 48. SH, f. 35b, 125a-127a. 49. Galicia/Red Ruthenia,now in EasternPoland. 50. All three localities were in the same Rovno districtof Podolia and some of them were repeatedlymentionedin the stories about Bacal Shem Tov collected in Shivheiha-besht. See, for example, stories nos. 26, 59 and 67 for Ostrah(Ostrog)and 204 for Olyka. 51. SH, f. 209b. 52. SH, f. 35b; Pol.: Kiejdany,near Kovno, Lithuania. 53. See Hillel's complaintsof his bad luck in the family context, SH, f. 74b. 54. This assumptionis based on Hillel's attemptsto please GermanJews (yehudei Ashkenaz) at the expense of Polish Jews (yehudeiPolin). Hillel refersto the formeras to his potentialreadersand, he hopes, his futureemployers:"AsI have observedin differentcommunitiesin Poland,Podol, andVolhyn, they [the Jews] prayin theirhouses of learning(batei midrash)in such a loose way,thatonly some of them will go to Paradise.It is because of that [loose prayer]thatthe Redemptionis not coming. However, I praise the [Jews in the] countriesof Ashkenaz, let them see the Redemption!"SH, f 80a. 55. YitzhakAlperowitz and Hayyim Finkel, eds., Sefer ostrah, volin: mazevetzikaronle-kehilah kedoshah(TelAviv: 'Irgunyozei ostrahbe-yisra'el, 1987), 37-38, 58-59.

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The Masterof an Evil Name the town of Ostrahand stayed at the home of the rabbiof the kloyz,who was the son of the chief rabbiof the town. EitherHillel could not prove his pedigree and learningand was not allowed into the kloyz, an elitist prayerhouse of East European kabbalists,or the kloyzdid not fit Hillel's immediateinterests.56At any rate, Hillel spent two or three days in a special room of the local bet midrash.Indeed, he learnedthattherewas an incidentin the community-a womanhad an evil spirit (dybbuk)who refused to leave her body-and he waited until the elders of the city commissionedhim to performthe exorcism.Apparently,therewas some consternationamong the elders, who were eitherreluctantto rely on the powers of an itinerantba'al shem or mistrustedHillel personally,or both.This is how Hillel describes the episode: Oneeveningtheevil spirit[ruah]sentforthehonorable man,theformerbeadle [shamash]of the Rabbi,a greathasidandthe KabbalistNaftaliKohen himthathe shouldimmediThespiritinstructed Zedek,of blessedmemory.57 "He Shem,whohadjustcometo theircommunity. atelyfindRebHillelBaCal [RebHillelBaCal Shem]willputanendto mydayswiththehelpof holynames in thesynagogue.Hemightbe ableto finda kindof remedyforme."Andthat man[thebeadle]didnotwantto listento thespiritandstartedto talkin public. Later,thedemontoldthebeadlefromthebodyof thewoman:"Ifyoudo notgo to theBaCal Shem,youwillbe sorry,forit will definitelybe toolate."58 From this episode one may learn, first, that Hillel was not a famous bacal shem. Second,he did his best to provehe was well known-if not among local Jews, than at least among the otherworldlyinhabitants.Hillel used the dybbuk,a representative of the evil powers,to establishhis reputation.Third,local dwellerstreatedHillel harshly despite his desire to help them.59They mistrustedHillel and in all likelihood mocked him in public-hence the reluctanceof the beadle to resortto Hillel's help. The case Hillel encounteredin Ostrahwas not an easy one.60The confes56. In connectionto the individualmystics activebefore the Ba'al ShemTov,Hundertmentions that "[i]n some towns, there were groups of Hasidim who prayed separatelyin their own kloyzen ("prayerrooms"),or study halls, and were thoughtto benefit the communitythat supportedthem by their special ties to Heaven."See Hundert,Jews in Poland-Lithuania,120 and referenceshe brings in n. 5. The importanceof the kloyz (and not bet midrash)as the center of study of East Europeankabbalists before the Besht has been in the focus of JosephWeiss's fundamentalessay, "A Circle of Pneumatics in Pre-Hasidism,"in Studies in East EuropeanJewish Mysticismand Hasidism (London and Portland:The LittmanLibraryof Jewish Civilization, 1997), 27-42. 57. To some extent the details providedin the text corroboratethe veracity of the whole story. The late Naftali Cohen Zedek, mentioned by Hillel Ba al Shem, was most likely Rabbi Naftali ben Yizhak Kaz, the head of the rabbinicalcourt and the chief rabbiof the province.After Ostrahhe held the position of a chief rabbiin Posen and Frankfurtam Main. He passed away in Turkeywhile traveling to the Landof Israel. See Sefer ostrah, 38. 58. SH, 126a. 59. Hillel thus describesthe treatmenthe receivedin Ostrah:"Theybroughtme [by force] from the ritualbath before the morningprayer,""they opened their mouths againstme.. ." SH, f. 126a-b. 60. My analysis of the socio-psychological reality of exorcism is based on the methodology

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Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern sion obtained from the woman/dybbukunderthe threatof excommunicationrevealed that a certainJew took a non-Jewishconcubine and had childrenwith her. For unknownreasons he was later involved in a murdercase. Jews tried to arrest and prosecutehim but he convertedto Greek Orthodoxy(be-'emunatyavan) and circumventedpunishment.Finally,he died a terribledeath. Since he was possibly not buriedproperly(a posthumouspunishmentfor a criminaland an apostate),after severalyears he apparentlybecame an evil spirit(ruah). He settled in a tree in Ostrah,not far from the town's big synagogue, waiting for a victim.61Once on Shabbat,when a pregnantwoman was sitting underthe tree inhabitedby the spirit, the latterenteredher body throughherrighteye, thusbecoming a dybbuk.62She lost sight in thateye. The same night the dybbuktorturedthe woman'shusbanduntil he died. Soon the womangave birthto a babygirl. Althoughthe girl was healthy, the dybbukspentsome seven yearswithinthe woman'sbody,growing strongerand causing her bitter sufferingsuntil she became completely blind. At this point the communitydecided to search for a remedy. Furtherdetails of the story make us think that Hillel uses "evil spirit"(he avoids the word "dybbuk")as a substitutefor the issues of promiscuityand heterodoxy.A certainwoman from Ostrahhad intimaterelationswith a convertoutside her wedlock. Her lover killed her Jewish husband but did not harm the daughter.Blindnesswas eithermetaphorical(she was the only one who did not understandthe resultsof her sickness) or real, inflicted by the harshtreatmentof the Jewish woman by the convert. Perhapsthe implicationsof heterodoxymade Hillel subsequentlytransferthe exorcismto outsidethe centerof the town.63The proxelaboratedby MarionGibson in "Witchcrafttrials-how to read them"and "Deconstructinggeneric stories,"in Reading Witchcraft:Stories of EarlyEuropeanWitches(Londonand New York:Routledge, 1999), 50-109. It is also supportedby ChristineWorobec'sstatementthat certaintypes of possession "representa socially understoodillness as opposed to a medical disease,"see ChristineD. Worobec, Possessed: Women,Witches,and Demons in Imperial Russia (DeKalb: NorthernIllinois University Press, 2001), 17. My approachfinds supportalso in YoramBilu's statement:"The validationof the moral ascendancyof religious leadersthroughthe dybbukidiom contributedto social control ... The exorcisticritualconstituteda conservativemechanismthatfacilitatedthe perpetuationof the traditional status hierarchyin the community."See YoramBilu, "The Taming of the Deviants and Beyond: An Analysis of DybbukPossession and Excorcismin Judaism,"in SpiritPosession in Judaism:Cases and Contextfrom the MiddleAges to the Present, ed. MattGoldish (Detroit:WayneStateUniversityPress, 2003), 64. 61. The motif of an evil spiritor a spiritof a deceased person sitting on a tree and addressing the vagabondsappearsalreadyin Sefer hasidim. See JehudaWistinetzkiand Jacob Freimann,ed., Sefer hasidim(Frankfurta/M: WarhmannVerlag, 1924), 37 (siman 35); this book is based on ParmaMS. Cf. Reuven Margalioted., Sefer hasidim (Jerusalem:Mosad ha-Ray Kook, 1957), 176-178 (siman 170); this is based on Bologna MS. 62. According to the evidence meticulouslycollected by Nigal, evil spirits and dibbukimprefer to enter homes either throughdoors not protectedby mezuzotor throughany part of the body of a sick person, in particularpregnantwomen. Fora comprehensivelist of the "preferredentrances"of the dibbukim,see GedalyaNigal, Sipurei 'dibbuk'be-sifrutyisrael (Jerusalem:Reuven Mas, 1983), 2628. 63. On a very similarcase involving a Jewish woman and her husband,Jan Serafinowicz,who converted to Catholicism after being attended to by a ba'al shem, see Meir Balaban, Le-toldot ha-

tenu'ahha-frankit(Tel Aviv: Devir, 1934), 57-58. On Serafinowicz, see Shimon Dubnow,History of

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The Masterof an Evil Name imity of the "enemiesof Israel"and of the "impureplace"-oblique referencesto the nearbychurch-prevented Hillel fromfully applyinghis powers.64In addition, the local priests perhapswere awareof the incidentand tried to resolve it by converting the woman.65Very likely the exorcism led to confessions offensive to Christianity,and Hillel decided to transferthe operationelsewhere to avoid publicity. On the otherhand,exorcism led to confessions on the partof the womanthat were offensive to the Jewish communityat large. Nobody liked the fact that Hillel made the OstrahJews wash their dirty laundryin public.66 Hillel portraysthe exorcism in great detail. If SH presents it accurately,at least in regardto Hillel's modusoperandi,one featureof Hillel's practicesbecomes particularlysalient. It was the dybbukthat instructedHillel aboutthe methods of exorcism, its time and place, the preparationit required,and its possible outcome.67The dybbukallegedly told Hillel to bring seven Torahscrolls and seven pristineboys ("who have not sinned").He advised Hillel to take the boys, before the procedure,to the ritualbath and to the morningprayer.He purportedlyindicated that Hillel should go to the town of Tutchin,not far from Ostrah(samukh le-kik ostrah),andfinish the ceremonythere.Finally,the dybbukencouragedHillel: "Andyou, Rabbi, should not be scaredand do not run away from me."68In terms of endorsementof his activities, Hillel briefly mentions the amulets of R. Zevi HirschbenAvraham,whichhe used forthe exorcism,yet, when it cameto the procedureitself, his only spiritualinstructor-his personalmaggid-was the dybbuk.69 the Jews in Russia and Poland (Philadelphia:Jewish PublicationSociety, 1916-1920), 1:173; Israel Halpern,ed., Pinkas va'ad 'arb'a 'arazot(Jerusalem:Mosad Bialik, 1948) p. 265 par. 549; Hundert, Jews in Poland-Lithuania,75 and 141; Rosman,Lords'Jews, 206-207. 64. Hillel resortedto the dybbuk' assistanceto explain the reason for his own weakness:"You arethe Rabbiwho has been acting for alreadysix days.Youhavepronouncedoaths againstme andhave tried to exorcise me using holy names. However,althoughyou did not manage to do anything(shum pe'ulah) againstme, you have somewhatweakenedthe wicked forces which surroundmy soul, and you have harmedmy members,sinews, and bones. However,this is not the rightplace thatallows applying the holy names, because the strongholdof evil stands next to-distinguish!-the holy synagogue. If you like to accomplishyour work, you should bettertry a differentplace"SH, f. 125a. 65. The woman/dybbukwarnedHillel aboutthe possible impactof local priests:"Thesearethe priestswho give theirbad advice thatthey derivefromthe powersof theirtradition.Theiradvice comes from theirmouths [in the form of] fire and flames, and theirwordsare not true.They will surrenderto you, if God wants it" SH, 125b. Like ba'alei shem, both Easternand WesternChristianChurchesresorted to exorcism as to an effective ecclesiastical ritual aimed at obtaining confession. See Stuart Clark, Thinkingwith Demons: The Idea of Witchcraftin Early Modern Europe (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 428-434; Worobec,Possessed, 23-25, 45-48. 66. Hillel discoveredoutrageousand by no means flatteringfacts about the community:"And he [the evil spirit]revealedpubliclyhorribleand nasty things which had happenedin thattown among the Jews.And the Jews understoodthatthe birdfromheavenraisedits voice, the time hadcome, and the end of all ends. All the secretsbecame knowndue to the powers of heavenlyand earthlyoaths.All the secrets impossibleto convey here thathappenedin thattown were finally disclosed"SH, f. 127a. 67. In addition,Hillel a priori relinquishedany responsibilityfor the operationandburdensthe dybbukwith it: "Theonly thing which I do not know is whetherI will leave her body without her soul or with it,"confesses the dybbuk.SH, f. 127a. 68. SH, f. 125b. 69. On the dichotomydybbuk-maggid,see the groundbreakingarticlebyYoramBilu, "Dybbuk

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YohananPetrovsky-Shtern Due to the "instructions"of the dybbuk,who wantedthe ba'al shem to banishhim, Hillel was a success, and socio-psychologicalorderwas restored: I pronounced onegreatoathandone greatpetitionin thepresenceof tenappropriate Elul,5493[1733],thespirit peopleandtheTorahscrolls.Thursday, leftthebodyof thatwomanthroughthelittletoeof herleftleg fromunderher littlenailso thatsomebloodcameoutof hertoe.70Afterthatshebeganseeinga littlebitandshestartedgoingto thesynagogue,to thecemetery,andto all otherplacesas shefoundfit. However,shecouldnotsee atallthroughthe onlyeyeby whichthespirithadenteredherbody.71 The Ostrahcase suggests a clear-cutpatternof relationsbetween the bacal shem, the communal(kehillah) authority,the ordinaryJews of the town, and the spirit.The ba'al shem performedexorcism in the atmosphereof public contempt. Although mistreatedby the inhabitantsof the town, Hillel was still respectedby the kahal. He dependedcompletelyon the decision of the local authority.He started to operateonly when he obtainedthe official consent of the kahal elders.72The difference in attitudesto Hillel Ba'al Shem manifeststhe interestsof the communal leaderswho employedthe ba'al shem as an instrumentto strengthentheirpower. While the kahalused Hillel to instill fear of promiscuityand restoresocial and psychological orderin the community,Hillel used the dybbukto instructhis audience and instill some awe toward,if not belief in, the ba'al shem's magic. As we will see, this pragmaticusage of the dybbukfor self-promotionwas not atypical for Hillel's modusoperandi. Paradoxically,the only creaturein SH that acknowledgedthe wisdom and high statusof Hillel Ba'al Shem was the evil spirit,Hillel's alter ego.73The Ostrah dybbuknot only "helped"Hillel to understandthe situationin the communitybut

and Maggid:TwoCulturalPatternsof Altered Consciousnessin Judaism,"AJSReview21 no. 2 (1996): 341-366. 70. In this case Hillel Bacal Shem closely follows the advise of Haim Vital who in his Shacar ruah ha-kadesh in the name of Isaac Luriastronglyrecommendedthat practicalkabbalistsmake the evil spirit leave humanbody througha toe so that it does not harmthe body. Eventually,the little toe on the left foot became a "classical"place for the exit of an evil spirit. Fora comprehensivelist of the "preferredexits" of the dibbukim,see Nigal, Sipurei 'dibbuk'be-sifrutyisrael, 54-60. 71. SH, f. 127a. 72. "Andthat man [beadle] went to the parnas ha-hodesh and relatedto him the words of the spirit.And theparnas ha-hodesh sent the beadle for me and asked me on behalf of the whole community to do some good for that woman,"SH, f. 126b. Generally,the Jewish communityof Ostrah(Ostrog) is mentionedseveraltimes in Shivheiha-besht.Forinstance,in story no. 26, a certaindoctorfrom this town is referredto as a staunchopponentof the Besht who mocks his magic powers. Similarly,in SH the holy communityof Ostrahdoes not seem very hospitableto Hillel Ba'al Shem.They also mock him. They openly mistrusthim while he is workingout ways to banish the dybbuk.They startto hate him even more so when the communitylearnsa lot of nasty and revealingthings aboutitself duringthe exorcism. The general commotion caused by Hillel Ba'al Shem in the communityis also quite obvious. Cf. Bilu, "Tamingof the Deviants,"55-59. 73. SH, f. 125a.

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The Master of an Evil Name also taughtthe Jews how to behaveand serve God.74Hillel'sassumptionis clear:if the communitydid not trustHillel BacalShem,let themlistento a dybbuk.Inthe Ostrahepisode only the dybbuk,the spiritof a deadJewishconvert,addressedHillel as here to discuss the reliabilityof the evidence of early"ha-rav"It is inappropriate eighteenth-centurydemons,yet SH clearlyindicatesthattherewas nobodyelse who respected Hillel: after the dybbuk"revelations"and successful exorcism, Hillel seems to have been left alone. Had therebeen some benign arrangementbetween him and the local kahal, Hillel, who looked for a stableposition in a community, would have mentionedit. His reticenceimplies that,again,he was doomedto loneliness, solitude,and wandering.Indeed,to make evil powershis only advocatewas Hillel's clever ploy in the face of his situation.But the magicianwho was at home with dybbuksandevil powerswas balancingon the brinkof the permitted.Hillel did not realizehe was causinghis own failure-which was aroundthe corner.

IV BAcAL

SHEM AMONG HIS COLLEAGUES

Three factors caused Hillel's downfall: first, competition in the marketof East EuropeanitinerantKabbalists;second, the rise of publicationsof practical Kabbalahbooks; and third,the crisis of the profession of ba'alei shem. His personal failures,which causedhis distressand depression,were simply the resultsof these overarchingreasons.75 Hillel suffered mostly because of his colleagues, pseudo-ba'alei shem, alleged impostors,troublemakers,and unscrupulouscompetitors,who exacerbated the constraintsin the marketof practicalKabbalah.Hillel depictedthem as "robbers" and "false hasidim" (hasidim shakranim)who sacrilegiously introduced themselves as experiencedkabbaliststo the communalleadership.76Hillel complained thatthey neverused Kabbalahfor its own sake (li-shemah);whateverthey did, they did only for money.They obtainedfalsified endorsementsfrom insignificant rabbisand producedbogus miracles that had nothing to do with the honest opera sacra of a genuine ba'al shem.77They caused skepticism among Jews towards amulets and holy names and subsequentlytowardsall those healers who earnedtheirliving honestly.78As a result,when a realba'al shem arrivedin a community and provided valid endorsementsfrom renownedrabbis, nobody would trust him.79Therefore, from Hillel's vantage point, it was absolutely pivotal to 74. "Theonly thing I would tell you-through my stories and the deeds of my wicked handsis thatpeople should learn from me and throughme how to serve the blessed Name,"SH, f. 125b. 75. Hillel complains:"I shouldnot say morein the time of my distressanddistressof my daughters, yet I failed and got up and not let my foes rejoice over me [Ps. 30]. I failed several times in several nasty places involved with evil forces ." See SH, f. 74b. ... 76. SH, f. 319b. 77. ForHillel's repeatedcomplaintsof pseudo-ba'alei-shem,see SH, f. 95a, 172b, 276b-277a, 321b. 78. SH, f. 299b-300a. 79. Kahanaprovidesa numberof cases provingthatat the beginningof the eighteenthcentury the itinerantba'alei shem or practicalkabbalistswere often identified with and treatedas crypto-sabbateans. See David Kahana, Toldotha-mekubalim,ha-shabta'imve-ha-hasidim (Odessa: Moriyah, 1914), 18- 19. Kahanaseems to follow Ya akov Emden'ssharpcriticismof ba'alei shem, most of whom

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YohananPetrovsky-Shtern distinguishbetween a real bacal shem and a charlatan.Hillel suggested that the community should investigate, if not interrogate,any ba'al shem to verify his knowledge of Kabbalahbooks, his understandingof holy names, his haskamot (whetherthey were writtenby ordinaryor well-knownrabbis),and finally,his personal behavior(how he prays,fasts, performsritualablutions,etc.).80 Hillel was deeplyconcernedthatcharlatanshadunderminedthe trustof common folk in the magic of the ba'al shem. Skepticismand disbelief of the ordinary Jews towardsthe kabbalists,accordingto Hillel'sobliquereferences,had sabbatean implications.Hillel illustratedthe spiritualdamagecaused by itinerantsabbateans through a peculiar incident that happenedin the county of Pokutain Bukovina Provincein the town of Tismenits(Tysmienica),some 70 miles west of Chernovitz: A wickedmanwhowasa scribeandrenownedKabbalist cameintotown.He for there several until house of thegreathasidand weeks he entered the stayed Kabbalist YosefHols,of blessedmemory,whopassedawayleavingbehinda kosherandsacredTorahscroll.Theabovemanwentto [RabbiHols's]widow to [inspect]thescrollandfoundit perfect.Laterhe forgeda cut(hakikah)[in thescroll]anddemonstrated it in public.Thenhedemonstrated themistakeof the[late]Rabbito themostillustrious in the town. The next nightRabpeople bi [Hols]appeared[to someone]in a dreamandrevealedeverythingthatthis scribehadcommitted, includingthetime,thebook,thechapter,andthecolumnin whichthescribehadmadehis forgery,prohibiting himto disclosethis to the scribe.Soon afterwards information the scribesteppedon a slippery path.He wasbanishedandwentto anothercountry,to LittlePoland.81 In this peculiarepisode, a scribe andkabbalistwhose reputationwas in good standingabusedthe credibilityof the community.He insertedcertainmisspellings into a Torahscroll with the aim of denigratingthe formerspiritualauthority.The forgery was not a simple misspelling (hisaron or yeter); otherwise it would have been easy to correct.The scribedemonstratedthe mistakein public because it was impossibleto correctit accordingto Judaicscriballaws (hilkhotSTAM).82Forreasons of self-censorship,Hillel preferredto make oblique allusions withoutactually spelling out the "mistake."But in the context of early-eighteenth-centuryEast Emden, by no means unbiased,identified as sabbateans.See, for example, the treatmentof Eliyahu Ulianov, Shmuel Essingen, and Moshe Pragerin Ya'akovEmdenSefer hit'abkut28; idem. Torathakin'aot 118-119. However,Scholem convincinglyproves the sabbateanorigin of these practicalhealers, see GershomScholem, Mehkarimu-mekorotle-toldotha-shabta'ut,ed. YehudaLiebes (Jerusalem: ZalmanShazar,1994), 110-111. However,assessing the spreadof pietisticdoctrinesandmysticalideas in eighteenth-centuryPoland,Hundertnotes that some of the pietists "wereundoubtedlyalso adherents of Shabbateanism,but others were not."He also arguesthat the borderseparatingold-style (preBeshtian) pietists and crypto-sabbateanswas blurred.See Hundert,Jews in Poland-Lithuania,121122, 152. 80. SH, f. 173a. 81. SH, f. 94b. 82. See KuntresMishnat sofrim on Mishnah Berurah, 36 and Mishnah Berurah on Shulhan ;Arukh'OrakhHayim 32:20. On the scribal laws related to mistakes in the Torahscroll, see Yizhak ShteinerandYizhakGoldshtein,Dinei sefer torahshe-nimzahbo taut (Jerusalem:OT, 1984).

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The Masterof an Evil Name Europeancrypto-Sabbateanisman uncorrectable"mistake"implied perhapsone and the same notorioustrick:The followers of SabbataiTsevi, scribes in the first place, were known to insert the name of the pseudo-Messiahinsteadof the tetragrammatoninto sifrei STAM-phylacteries, mezuzas, and Torahscrolls. One may want to compareHillel's descriptionwith the following testimony of Rabbi Moshe Hagiz, Hillel's contemporary,known as a persecutorof cryptosabbateanspar excellence. The text is taken from his Gebiat 'edut, translatedby Elisheva Carlebach: InPolandonewitnesstestifiedto a different of thesacred:R. sortof profanation Nathan,headof thestudyhall,hada Torahscrollfromwhichthenameof God wasomitted.Instead,he inscribed Zebi.Therewereapthenameof Sabbatai of Zholkiew who of R. souls knew this, amongthem, proximately fifty Hayyim andtheydidthesamewithphylacteries. Whentheyinvestigated them,he tearfullyconfessed;whenit wasall foundto be true,theyburnedthescrollandthe Thecommunal scribehadcontaminated manypeoplewiththese phylacteries. him and the and communal leaders phylacteries, whippedhim... 83 exposed ApparentlyMoshe Hagiz and Hillel Ba'al Shem depict identical behavioralpatterns, which Hagiz tracedto crypto-sabbateansand Hillel to false bacaleishem. It would be temptingto reinterpretHillel's referencesto the predominanceof charlatansamong Jewish East Europeanhealersin the context of the crypto-sabbatean schism.84This might be particularlyimportantin view of the parallelHillel traced between pseudo-magiciansand the dybbuks.As if sharing common knowledge, sometimes the contemporaryJewish community did perceive crypto-sabbateans as possessed by dybbuks.85In this context, the rapidexplosion of the population of itinerantba'alei shem was perhapsa responsenot only to the growing number of those possessed by dybbuksand needing exorcism, but also to the expansionof crypto-Sabbateanisminto Poland and the necessity to identify, neutralize,or excommunicatethe harbingersof heresy.86 83. Carlebach,Pursuit of Heresy, 184-5; Zvi Mark,"Dybbukand Devekut in the Shivhe haBesht:Towarda Phenomenologyof Madnessin EarlyHasidism,"in SpiritPosession in Judaism: Cases and Contextfromthe MiddleAges to the Present, ed. MattGoldish (Detroit:WayneStateUniversity Press, 2003), 274-280. 84. Cf. Scholem'sportrayalof SabbataiRafaelfromMistra(Misithra)the first to combinepractical Kabbalahwith sabbateanpropaganda.Scholem, SabbataiSevi, 783-789. 85. Bilu, "DybbukandMaggid,"352, Scholem,SabbataiSevi, 606; cf. literaryreflectionof this parallelin Isaac Bashevis Singer,Satan in Goray,Trans.Jacob Sloan (New York:Avon Books, 1955), chap. 13. Forthe analysis of sabbateanunderpinningsin Singer'snovel, see Bezalel Naor,Post Sabbatian Sabbatianism:Study of an UndergroundMessianic Movement(Spring Valley,NY: Orot, 1999), 98-103; for more literaryvariationson this topic, see RobertAlter,After the Tradition(New York:E. P. Dutton, 1969), 61-75. 86. In the sixteenthandseventeenthcenturies,ProtestantsandCatholicsalso identifiedheretics as demons or possessed; see Clark, Thinkingwith Demons, 387-88, 534-37, and esp. 385-88. One may see obliqueevidence of this parallelin the reversetakingplace in WesternEuropein the eighteenth century,when, due to growing religious tolerance,the numberof witch-huntingcases radicallydiminished. See MarijkeGijswijt-Hofstra,Brian Levack, and Roy Porter,Witchcraftand Magic in Europe:

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YohananPetrovsky-Shtern Hillel was not unawareof the righteoushealers among his colleagues. He describesthem with one of his favoritewords,zanua' (modest), which in SH indicates the highest level of spiritual purity and personal righteousness."7Only zanuaC,a modest person, is able to produce a truly effective amulet (kameyac mumheh).88Among the real wonder-workersHillel mentions a numberof righteous magicians89such as Eli[yahu] Bacal Shem,90Joel Bacal Shem,91Naftali Kaz,92RabbiYekovsky[possibly Jenowski] BaCalShem,93Perez Bacal Shem,94 The Eighteenthand Nineteenth Centuries(London:Athlone Press, 1997), 42. On the other hand, in eighteenth-centuryRussia, due to the Nikon schism and persecutionsof the Old Believers (perceived as witches), witch-huntingcases were on the rise, especially between 1690 and 1739. See, for example, the fundamentalresearchby AleksandrLavrov,Koldovstvoi religiia v Rossii, 1700-1740 (Moscow: Drevlekhranilishche,2000), 347-354. 87. In Judaictraditionthe usage of the notionzanua' is inseparablefrom the secretknowledge. The twelve-letterName of God, for example, was transmittedby the sages to zenudimshe-bi-kehunah, that is, the "discrete(modest) among the priests."Also, the secret forty-two-letterName of God, according to R. Yehudaha-Nasi, was transmittedonly to a "discrete(modest) one:" ein mosrim oto ela le-mi she zanua'. See B. Kiddushin71a. 88. SH, f. 153a. Razi'el ha-mal'akhmakesthe same claim and uses the same word,zanuad.See Sefer Razi'el ha-mal'akh,8a and 33a (Medzhybozh, 1819). 89. Firstfour ba'alei shem-SH, f. 277a; second two-SH, f. 155a. 90. EliyahubarAaronYehudaMehalem(b . 1550), the headof the rabbiniccourtin Chelm, studied in Lublinat the yeshivah of R. Shlomoh Luria.See Etkes, Ba'al ha-shem, 18 and 33. In SH Hillel reproducesin greaterdetail one of the famous stories about EliyahuBacal Shem that appearedalso in Toldot'adam, siman 86. Cf. SH, f. 44b. 91. Joel ben Uri Heilperin(Hilpern)fromZamogc,the famousba'al shem and grandsonof Joel bar IzhakAyzik Heilperin,Bacal Shem from Zamoic (ca. 1690-ca. 1755), was one of the most wellknown practicalkabbalistsof his time. He endorsedand penned a numberof famous books on practical Kabbalah,amongthemZevahpesah (1722), Mif ~alot'elokim(1710), and Toldot'adam(1720). See a detaileddiscussion of him in Moshe Hillel, Ba'alei shem (Jerusalem:MakhonBney Issakhar,1993), 54-64, 90-179; Etkes, Bacal ha-shem,41-50; Matras,"Sifrei segulot,"141-143; and Hundert,Jews in Poland-Lithuania,150-152. On the importanceof practicalKabbalahbooks in the developmentof be-hasidut,"in Zadikve-cedah, early Hasidism, see HavivaPedaya,"Ha-degemha-hevrati-dati-kalkali ed. David Assaf (Jerusalem:MerkazZalmanShazar,2001), 434-397, esp. 364-366. 92. RabbiNaftalibenYizhakha-Kohen(Kaz) fromPosen (Pozna, 1649-1719), one of the leading authoritiesin practicalKabbalah,was known for his wonderfulamuletsand successful exorcisms. He endorsedmanybooks on practicalKabbalah,includingMif 'alot 'elokim(sometimes even ascribed to him-see, for example, Lembergedition, 1872). He personallyknew the famous bacalshem Binyamin Beinish of Krotoszynand endorsedhis Amtahatbinyamin(Wilhelmsdorf, 1716). See the discussion in Matras,"Sifrei segulot,"n. 11 on pp. 2-3 of the supplementbetween pages 141-142. On Katz see GedalyahNigal, " Al rav naftali kaz mi-pozna,"Sinai 92 (1983): 91-94; Ariel Bar-Levav, "Ha-mavetbe-'olamo shel ha-mekubalnaftali ha-kohenkaz" (Ph.D., Hebrew University,Jerusalem, 1990); YehudaLiebes, "A Profile of R. Naphtali Katz FromFrankfurtand His AttitudeTowardsSabbateanism,"in Gr6zingerand Dan, Mysticism,Magic and Kabbalahin AshkenaziJudaism, 208-222 and Rachel Elior, "R. NathanAdler and the FrankfurtPietists:Pietist Groupsin East and CentralEurope duringthe EighteenthCentury,"in Jiidische Kulturin Frankfurtam Main von den Anfdingenbiz zur Gegenwart,ed. Karl-ErichGr6zinger(Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz,1997), 135-177. 93. Most likely Yacakovben Moshe Kaz fromYanov(Pol.: Jan6w,therefore,Yanovski),the authorof Minhatyaakov solet (Wilhelmsdorf,1731), the book on practicalKabbalah,amuletsand remedies. See Etkes,Ba'al ha-shem,43, 46 n. 83. Yacakovb. Moshe'sbook was endorsedby Joel Bacal Shem from Zamod, see Moshe Hillel, Ba'alei shem, 164. 94. I was not able to identify him.

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The Masterof an Evil Name and Heshel Ba'al Shem.95The conductof these ba'alei shem seems to correspond to Hillel's high standardsof personalpurityand asceticism establishedin SH. Hillel did not hesitate to copy from their books and reproducetheir amulets.To use his own parlance,these wonder-workersand experts in practicalKabbalahwere true hasidim-in contrast with the false hasidim, charlatans,and fake ba'alei shem. However,even these righteousbaCaleishem troubledHillel. Theirimmaculate conductnotwithstanding,Hillel felt deeply hurtby the fact thatthey began to publicize secret mystical knowledge and put theirbooks on practicalKabbalahto press. There is nothing else in SH thattroubleshim as much as the publicationof books of ba'alei shem.96 A number of prominent eighteenth-centuryrabbis, among them Yonatan EybeschuetzandYa'akovEmden,did not welcome the disseminationof books on practicalKabbalahand opposed the whole idea of their publication.97It does not seem strangethat Hillel Ba'al Shem was also unhappy,even deeply depressed,because of theirpublication.Hillel's own reasons,however,were differentfromthose ofYaCakovEmden. First,being published,esoteric secrets lost their secrecy; anyone was able to copy an amulet from a newly publishedkabbalisticbook and use it at his own discretion.Second,publishedbooks nullified the importanceof Hillel's knowledge of the secret techniques he used to write and apply the amulets. Third,Hillel cites an authoritativewarningagainstpublishingbooks on Kabbalah: Mystical books should not be published,and if published,should not be used for the sacredwork of a ba'al shem.98Hence, Hillel's indignation: In ourgeneration, manybookswithholynamesandamulets,all of themsecret,werepublished.Do not use them-not in this worldnor in the world to come, for they helpthe wicked.Someonepurchasesa book for himself 95. It is tempting to identify Heshel Bacal Shem from SH with Heschel Zoref, a crypto-sabbatean,whom Gershom Scholem identified with RabbiAdam, the mystical teacherof the Besht. See In Praise of the BacalShem TowvTheEarliest Collection of Legends about the Founderof Hasidism, trans.and ed. Dan Ben-Amos and JeromeMintz (Bloomington:IndianaUniversityPress, 1970), 1518, 31-32; the discussion of RabbiAdam as Heschel Zoref in GershomScholem, "Ha-naviha-shabtayi r.heshel zoref-r. 'adambacalshem,"in his Mehkereishabtaut,ed. YehudaLiebes (Jerusalem:Am Coved,1991), 579-599; for criticismof Scholem'sidentificationsee Moshe Hillel, Ba'alei shem, 305316. Rosmanrejects Scholem's identificationand stronglysupportsthe viewpoint of Chone Shmeruk, who identified RabbiAdam as the legendarylate-sixteenth-centuryfigure from Prague,rejectingthus any connectionbetween him and Heshel Zoref. See Rosman,FounderofHasidism, 144-145. Forbetter understandingof Hillel Ba'al Shem it is importantthat despite his sabbateanreputation,Heschel Zoref was toleratedby such kabbalistsas Zevi Hirsch Kaidanover,see Hundert,Jews in Poland-Lithuania, 125. 96. Fora list of books on practicalKabbalahprintedin Z61kiew,see YeshayahuVinograd,'Ozar ha-sefer ha-civri.2 vols. (Jerusalem:ha-makhonle-bibliografiamemuhshevet,1993), 2:306-308. 97. Moshe Idel, Hasidism:BetweenEcstasy and Magic (Albany:State Universityof New York Press, 1995), 34, 36. 98. Hillel constantlyreiterateshis criticism:"I have found in severalbooks of great Kabbalists of previousgenerationswho warnedagainst the usage of mystical books,"SH, f. 172a-b. And again, "Ina couple of smallbooks publishedin Zholkvathey issued severalamulets(segulot) andlots of names (shemot) yet everythingwas printedwithout any sense (bli ta am); one should not rely on them,"SH, f. 188a.

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YohananPetrovsky-Shtern [such as] Toldot,99Zevah pesah,'00 and Po'el gevurot'0' printedin Zholkva

[Z6lkiew].Thesebooksneverrevealsecretsbut only confusepeople.One shouldrevealsecretsonlyto themodest(zanua').102 Accordingto Hillel, the unscrupulousnessof certainba'alei shem is the most important reason against the publication of books on practical Kabbalah.Printed books foundtheirway easily into the handsof impostorswho did not behavethemselves in accordwith the pietistic requirements,thus obtainingan easy opportunity to cheat.103That is why, claims Hillel, the publicationof practicalKabbalah books has corruptedhis generation.104In addition,Hillel stresses the intellectual problem:The recipientsof the newly publishedKabbalahbooks do not understand the intrinsicmechanisms of the amulets and do not know how to produce new amuletson the basis of the publishedones. Indeed,implies Hillel Ba'al Shem, the printedKabbalahkills while the oral revives. Further,in orderto understandhow to use a handwrittenor publishedamulet,whatits connectionwith the Torahis, and in what cases it might be effective, one needs Hillel's oral explanationor clarification. Ultimately,Hillel is tryingex postfacto to win a lost battle:He fights against publicationof practical Kabbalahbooks and democratizationof the kabbalistic knowledge since real knowledge for him is oral, elitist, and manuscript-based.'05 99. Toldot'adam(Z6?kiew,1720). 100. Z61kiew,1722. 101. There was no such book published in Z61kiewor elsewhere. Most likely, Hillel refers to Mif'alot 'elokim(i6lkiew, 1710 and 1724), but confuses the title. 102. SH, f. 172a. 103. books on practicalKabbalahwere printedin pocket-size format.Zevahpesah inSZ6kiew dicates this characteristicon its title page. The publicationof small-size books allowed Z61kiew,first, to producea cheapproductand reachout to a wider Jewishaudience,and,second, to put to press more books thanthe maximum700 annualkuntrasim(in this case, book copies), permittedto Z6lkiewprinting press by the Council of FourLandsas a result of the fierce competitionbetween Lublin,Z61kiew, and Cracowprintingpresses at the very end of the seventeenthcentury.Forthe decisions of the Council, see Shlomo Buber,Kiryahnisgavah:hi ha-cirZolkiv(Cracow:Bi-defuso shelY. Fisher,1903), 104105. For a brief history of the Z61kiewprintingpress, see Meir Balaban,"Batei defus yehudiim bezolkiv,"in Gelber and Ben-Shem, Sefer zolkiv, 215-224; Haim Dov Friedberg,Toldotha-defus bepolanyah (Tel Aviv: Barukh Fridberg,1950), 62-68; Israel Halpern, Yehudimve-yahadutbe-mizrah eropa: mehkarimbe-toldotehem(Jerusalem:Magness, 1968), 83-84. 104. "In our generationeveryone buys a book Toldot'adam for himself. The book, which is a waste of ink andpaper,everyonebuys very cheap and becomes ba'al shemot.Yet,those who buy it, do not know anythingaboutthis world and about the world to come. They even do not behave according to the good behaviordescribedin that small book Toldot'adam."SH, f. 155a-b. 105. Mention should be made of the similaritybetween Hillel's, JonathanEybeschuetz's,and Jacob Emden'scriticismof the publicizingof the Kabbalahbooks, see Idel, Hasidism, 35-36. On the dichotomy"booksvs. manuscripts"in the context of a demonopolizationof the elitist knowledge and democratizationprocess in East EuropeanJewish culture, see ElchananReiner,"TheAshkenaziel1ite at the Beginningof the ModernEra:Manuscriptversus PrintedBook,"Polin 10 (1997): 85-94; Moshe Rosman,"Le-toldotavshel makorhistori,"Zion 58 (1993): 175-214. Forthe more generaldiscussion of "manuscriptvs. printedbook dichotomy,"see Ze'ev Gries, Ha-Sefer ke-sokhentarbut:ba-shanim 460-660 (1700-1900) (TelAviv:ha-kibbutsha-meuhad,2002), 12-13 and bibliographyhe assembles in notes 5 and 6.

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The Master of an Evil Name Not only do books deny his manuscript;they rejectthe indispensabilityof Hillel's personalinvolvementimplied in SH.'06 The impactof the false and genuine ba'alei shem on Hillel's careerwas that rank-and-fileJews became skepticalaboutthe magicalpowersof all healers.Common disbelief in the ba'al shem contradictedthe very core of the healing process, which, accordingto Hillel, requiredstrongbelief in the magical powersof the baCalshem. Even a professionallymade amuletwould not operateif one did not believe in it, argues Hillel.107 Hillel provides dreadful stories that illuminate the fatality of such disbelief. In one case, which took place in Keidan, Lithuania,in 1739, a womanrefusedto follow the advice of her relativesto get ridof the amulet. She kept it and managedto save herself from the evil Lilith.'08Her husbandtook his amuletoff, but Hillel does not sharewith his readerwhathappenednext. In another case, which took place in Wilkowysk, Grodno Province, the dybbukhad been banishedfrom a body of a woman,yet, because she had takenher protecting amuletfrom her neck and allowed skepticalrelativesto open it, the spiritreturned and destroyedall the efforts of the ba'al shem.109It is very likely that one or both of these episodes depict the failures of Hillel. The chronologicaljuxtapositionof Hillel's failureswith the beginningof his workon the SHmanuscript(around1739) makes one surmisethatHillel decided to restorehis reputationdemonstratingthat he is a knowledgeable,well-connected, reputed,and pious ba'al shem. His socioeconomic position was precarious.Hillel consideredwriting a book as his last chance. Hillel makes it clearthaton severaloccasions his performanceas ba'al shem was a complete failure.011As the resultof his failurehe was eitherbanishedfrom a numberof localities or put undertemporaryherem.It is evident, however,that he could not continuepracticingas ba'al shem."' He had lost his reputation.Hillel's attemptto assimilate with scribes, preachers,slaughterers-"secondary intelligentsia"-and to establishhimself as a healer and kabbalist,that is to say, an 106. "People bought [printedbooks on practicalKabbalah- YPS] so that they came into the hands of riff raff who don't know or understandany book or wisdom; only whateveris in these little books. They don't know how things occur, and they don't even performa properpracticeas it is prescribed. Obviously,they don't know the origins or functions of the names, for they do not have the slightest knowledge even of the exoteric partof the holy Torah."SH, f. 119b. 107. SH, f. 277a. 108. Perhapsthe origin of this amulet is to be found among the popularmedievaltales of Ben Sira that connect the destructivefunctions of Lilith to the circumstancesof the creation of the first woman and thatrequirefrom a healer responsiblefor writingthe amuletspecial spiritualand physical qualities.See EliYassif,Sipureiben sira be-yemeiha-beynayim(Jerusalem:MagnesPress, 1985), 231234. 109. SH, f. 34b, 54b-55a. This episode happenedafter the 1725 incidentwhen an amulet on a womanwas discoveredcontainingsabbateansymbols purportedlywrittenby R. Eybeschuetz.The similarityof these episodes suggests thatthe Jewish communitymistrustedthe productionof baCaleishem on the groundsof their alleged involvementin heresy. See Perlmuter,Ha-ravyehonatan eybeschuez, 37-42; Scholem, Mehkereyshabta'ut,228-230, 707-733. 110. SH, f. 74b. 111. "Theonly thing I am seeking is a nice place to which I could come and regainmy profession."See SH, f. 74b.

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YohananPetrovsky-Shtern "official"ba'al shem in a particularJewish locality ended up in fiasco.112Perhaps Hillel expected that his manuscript,SH, would prove that he was a great healer, thathe was awareof new developmentsin practicalKabbalahand deservedbetter treatment.Hence, he conceived SH as an encyclopedia of practicalKabbalahin generaland as his expandedresum6in particular." Due to this twofold purpose, SH combined the vademecumof a practicalkabbalistand a personalconfession. V. HILLEL'S VADEMECUM

Following the tradition of Sefer ha-zohar and Razi'el ha-mal'akh,Hillel claims thatSH is a holy book.114He identifies two reasonsfor this. First,SH comprises a wealth of holy names, quotations from sacred kabbalistic sources, and amulets-in fact, SH itself may be regardedas a talisman,the holiness and effectiveness of which is undeniable.Second,Hillel arguesthat essentiallySH is much older than any printedbook on practicalKabbalah.He claims that all the printed books had been merely copied from SH, which remainedunknown until Hillel Ba'al Shem obtainedthe privilege to disclose it. However,Hillel did not have a maggid-a mystical teacher;a double, like Yosef Karo'smaggid mesharim"115 to secretly convey to him the contents of the book. Insteadof cleaving to esoteric celestial wisdom through the maggid, Hillel reaches out to it through pseudoepigrapicmediators--secret kabbalisticbooks and teachings.116 Twolegends cover the origins of SH. Accordingto the first, Ashmodai,king of demons, revealedsecret knowledgeto King Solomon, who recordedit, titled it SH, and hid it in the WesternWall of the Temple."7 It was uncoveredin the times 112. It was Yosef Weiss who put forwardand elaboratedthe concept of "secondaryintelligentsia"(he called it ha-nodedet,vagabond;me-madregahshniyah, second-rank,and ha-bilti-rashmit, non-official) that comprisedwanderingethical teachers,preachers,healers, etc. and that socially cemented the rising hasidic movement. See his "Reshit zemihatahshel ha-derekhha-hasidit,"Zion 16 (1951): 49-56. Forthe critiqueof Weiss, see Haim Lieberman,Ohel rahe"I(New York:H. Lieberman, 1980), 3-5. 113. Hillel perceives his writing of SH as a pious act and his perceptionresemblesthe attitude to writing among hasidei ashkenaz. See Colette Siratet al., La conception du livre chez les pietistes ashkenazesau moyenage (Genbve:Droz, 1996), 144. 114. "Seferha-kadoshha-zeh,"SH, f 194a, 314a, and throughout.Cf. "ba-seferha-kadoshhazeh," "mi-hokhmatha-sefer ha-kadoshha-zeh,"reiteratedten times at the beginning of Sefer razi'el (Amsterdam,1701), f. 3a-4b. On traditionof a sacredbook in the EuropeanJewish pietistic tradition, see Sirat,La conceptiondu livre, 37-63. 115. See R. J. Zwi Werblowsky,Joseph Karo:Lawyerand Mystic (London:OxfordUniversity Press, 1962). 116. In additionto pseudoepigraphicsources, SH containsreferencesto such well-knownkabbalisticsourcesas Seferyeszirah(34b, 318a);SodotofNachmanides( 15b,32a-b); Seferha-zohar( 171a, 187a-Pekudei; 302a, 302b, 303b, 305b, 306b-Bereshit); Tikkuneizohar (84a); Lurianic Kabbalah (14a, 16b, 23b, 30a, 70ff); Natan Neta Hannover'sLurianicsiddurSha arei zion (73b, 186a-187b); Sefer ha-pardes(20a);'Emekha-melekh(20a); Ma'aseh'elokim(35b); Sefer razi'el [ha-mal'akh](62b, 117a); Toldot'adam(74b, 105b, 155a-b); Korbanshabat (327a); Zevahpesah (both 172a). 117. SH, f. 117b-119b. Apparentlythe literaryroots of this legend date back to the encounter between King Solomon and Ashmodai, King of Demons, whom Solomon captured,incarcerated,and made reveal the secrets of shamir, a wondrousworm instrumentalin cutting the stones indispensable for the buildingof the Temple,depicted in B. Gittin.However,the idea of a secret book is absentfrom

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The Master of an Evil Name of the Sanhedrinand transferredthroughgenerationsuntil it came into the hands of Hillel. Accordingto the second legend,Hillel himself discovered"theold book SH" and drew heavily from it.11isYet, Hillel's legend is not consistent:In a number of places, for example, Hillel notes SH and the writings of his mentorTsevi Hirschas two differenttexts, whereaselsewherehe claims thatSH was eitherwritten by Zevi Hirschor belonged to him."•19By the same token Hillel also attributes SHto his friendRabbiEfraimfromVissa.120EvidentlyHillel does not have a clearcut version of his own versus the esoteric tradition.Intellectuallyhe is too shy. In a similar situation,the Besht also maintainsthat he was in possession of unique manuscripts-in his case, of an enigmaticRabbiAdam Ba'al Shem. However,the Besht takes the decisive step towardsspiritualappropriationof his mystical manuscript. He claims that besides him and the Patriarchsperhapsnobody else ever knew the contentsof the manuscript:"Theywere in the handsof Abrahamthe Patriarch,may he rest in piece, and in the hands of Joshua,the son of Nun, but I do not know who are the others."'21Hillel Ba'al Shem would not dare make such a bold statement.Direct connection to the secret celestial library(Liebes) is something he cannotafford.The gravityof his magic groundedhim.'22 SH depicts a world split into two parts. Living beings inhabitits first part; spiritual powers inhabit the second. Each part is divided into two subsequent realms.This world,ha-'olam ha-zeh, has a borderseparatingJews from gentiles. The other world is split into the realm of holy names and angels, shemot hakedushah,and evil names and powers,shemotha-tum'ah.Each of these four parts has a pronouncedhierarchyof values and is integralper se. That is why SH starts with the extensive explanationof this parallelism: Andhereare32 rulesthatmatch32 pathsof wisdomas frontandback.As theyoperate,thankGod,in theupper[spheres]-we will be ableto operatein thelowerones.As therearetenevil sephirotmatchingtenholysephirot,there areholynamesandtherearefoulnames,therearecelestialangelsandthere areangelsof theearth(mal'akhey de-'ara).123 this source. See B. Gittin68a-b. It appearsonly in Sefer which lists fourbooks thatSolomon ha-zohar, received from Ashmodai, namely: the book containingmagical material,the book of the wisdom of Solomon, the book on physiognomy,and the book on the knowledge of precious stones. See Sefer hazohar 3:194b, 3:193b, 2:70a, 1:225b.Formore detail, see Louis Ginzberg,TheLegendsof the Jews, 6 vols. (Philadelphia:The Jewish PublicationSociety of America, 1968), 6:301-302 n. 93. 118. SH, f. 90a. 119. Forexample, he says "ThusI heardfrom the greatrabbiand he showedto me in his book Sefer ha-heshekand I copied severalpages."SH, f. 173b. 120. Forexample, Hillel recollects seeing an amulet in the book "Seferha-heshek[written]by the great rabbi,renownedhasid and kabbalistEfraim,maggid mesharimfrom Vissa." 121. Shivhei ha-besht, no. 187. See Ben-Amos and Mintz, In Praise of the Ba'al Shem Tov, 196-97. 122. It is interestingto compareHillel's manipulationswith the holy names and the interpretation of magic/mysticalin Yosef Karo:"Thedifferencebetween legitimateand illegitimateuse of Holy Names is thereforenot of pure (spiritual)versus selfish (magical) intentions..,. but between formulae of ascent and formulaeof descent."See Werblowsky,Joseph Karo, 73. 123. SH, f. Ib.

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Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern The same reflectioncharacterizesbothrealms:Tenheavenlyemanationsarerepeated in ten impureemanations,whereasthe angelsof heavensarenegativelyparalleled by the angels of earth.All elementsoppose each otherand mirroreach other.Holy sefirahketer(the Crown)is paralleledby an abominablesefirahkaret(literally"cut off by God");good angelKatriel(literally"theCrownedLord")is overshadowedby a corruptangel Kartiel(the DestroyedLord).124However,the dividingbordersbetween them are not impenetrable.A Jew can become an apostate;a demon can appearto the Jews disguisedas a scribeor even as a ba'al shem;good angels become evil as a resultof a mere change of the orderof lettersin theirnames. SH is full of antithesesand,to use the parlanceof RomanJacobson,negativeparallelism.125 The permeabilityof the antitheticalrealms representsa constant threatto simple folk. As in the case of Macbeth'switches, it is difficult, if at all possible, to distinguishbetweenfairandfoul in Hillel's shamanicbeliefs. The threatof an eruption of evil powersinto the mattersof this world makes life dangerousand people suspicious. Hence, the importanceof the ba'al shem. He functions as a mediator between the four realms. He controls them semiotically throughtheir signs and names.He knowshow to differentiatebetweenthemandhow to transformthe powers of one into the powersof another.Finally,the ba'al shem reestablishesthe balance between them. Who, if not the bacalshem, is able to identify evil powers in the guise of a kabbalistor a scribe?And who can exorcise these powers,if not the ba'al shem? In the languageof social anthropology,SH introducesthe ba'al shem as a shamanwith a pronouncedmediatoryfunctionto restorecosmic, theological, societal, and psychological order.126Thus, the ultimategoal of SH, informingits style and genre, is to clarify to a reader-whether communalauthorityor wealthy protector-the indispensabilityof the ba'al shem.Tojustify his mission, Hillel depicts the complexity and dangerof the spiritualworlds. According to Hillel, sitra' 'ahra' (the evil power) and its wicked heirs, the demons, areubiquitous.127The numberof amuletsprescribedin SH testifies to the astonishingability of sitra' 'ahrato adaptto any environment.128 To keep it under 124. SH, f. 298a. In the traditionalkabbalistictexts, Katriel(Akhtariel)is partof the celestial dichotomyKatriel/Metatron,and not of the ManicheandichotomyKatriel/Kartiel.See the discussion in ArthurGreen,Keter:the Crownof God in EarlyJewish Mysticism(Princeton:PrincetonUniversity Press, 1997), 62-65. 125. See RomanJacobson,Selected Works(The Hague:Mouton, 1979), 5:311-312. 126. Rosmanwas the first to insightfullyplace ba'alei shem in the contextof shamanism,which he explainedin the terms of MirceaEliade'ssocial anthropologyand which has become standardsince his 1996 book on the historicalBesht. See Rosman,FounderofHasidism, 13-15, 17-19. 127. Demons follow the commandmentto multiply much betterthan do humanbeings (83b). They are not afraidof and cannotbe stoppedby sifrei STAM(94b). Neither the great rabbinicauthority such as the head of a rabbinicalcourt and roshyeshivah, nor the learningfervorof the lomdimcan stop them (107a). They prefernewly built houses (293b). A special prayeris requiredto preventtheir appearance(46b-47a). If the prayerdoes not help, special secret names have to be pronouncedto banish the evil (341b). Sometimes damnationis requiredto put evil undercontrol (344b). 128. Hillel prescribesprotectiveamuletsthatshouldbe placedon the frontdoor(since a mezuza would not help, 188a,297b), abovethe threshold(103b), andovereach of the doorsof the house (297a), and still additionalamuletsare requiredagainstfire (188b, 317a), thieves (156b, 173b), evil eye (41b), demons (291a), evildoers (194b-195a), and dybbuks(198b, 132b-135a).

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The Master of an Evil Name control,Hillel extensively employs the names of abomination(shemotha-tum'ah) thatcoverin SH a separatechapter;he even establishesan immediatedialoguewith evil powers.129Hillel not only designs amuletsagainstthe powersof kelipah(here: evil), but also makes kelipahinstrumentalin achieving practicalpurposes.SH includes amuletsthatallow observingevil powersin corpore(316a). It offersamulets that disable people (195b), induce sleep (196a), interruptrest (212b, 293b), bring evil powersinto a house (196b), preventsuccessful copulationbetween a husband and a wife (197b), and revive the dead in a dream(310a). It also offers effective imprecationsagainst enemies. SH offers one of these curses among its amendments to the Eighteen Benedictionsprayer,including it, quite surprisingly,in the petition of health and recovery(refa'eni): to thewordsof theHoly Maythenameof PlonibenPlonibecursedaccording the be due the to blessed to One, he, permission fight Christians.130Godof Yisrael,maythesonsof thismanbecomeorphansandhis wife a widowand recordedinthisTorahbefallhim.Forhe mayallthediseasesandpunishments is thetrustworthy andmercifulKing....'31 ThereforeSH is not only a kabbalisticbook but also a witchcraftprimer.It is obsessed with kelipot, forces of evil, and it seems not to be interestedin nezozot,divine sparks.Hillel is readyto use his magic to protectan individualor individuals from evil, but he is not readyto uplift an individualor individualsresortingto his mystical worldview.To paraphraseMoshe Idel, SH oscillates between mysticism and magic, but gravitatestowardsmagic.132Hence SH sharplycontrastswith the bulk of CentralEuropeanbooks of practicalKabbalahand resembles East European ones such as Zevah pesah, Toldot'adamor Mifadalot'elokim.Yet its unparalleled necromanticnuances, absent in Zevah pesah or Mifacalot'elokim,firmly place the book in the context of eighteenth-centuryPolish and Russiankoldovstvo (witchcraft).The significant amountof Slavic wordsand entirepassages of Slav129. Hillel appliesthe "namesof abomination"extensively (9a, 33b, 58b-59a, 60b-62a, 11la, 354a, 380b-381b). He interactswith the dybbuks(125a-127b, 135b-138b, 235a, 238a, 239b). In his interactionswith evil powers, Hillel was not particularlyinnovative:evil names appearedin the kabbalistic literaturelong before the spreadof LurianicKabbalah.Writtenca. 1488 and 1504 in Morocco, Sefer ha-meshivcontaineddescriptionsof evil names (shemotha-tumah),demonologicreferences, as well as descriptionof methodsto neutralizeevil power.See GershomScholem, "Le-ma'aser yosef della reina,"Meassefziyon 5 (1933): 126-127; idem., "Le-ma'asehr' yosefdella reina,"in Studies in Jewish Religious and IntellectualHistory,PresentedtoAlexanderAltmannon the Occasion of His SeventiethBirthday,ed. Siegfried Stein, RaphaelLoewe (University:Universityof AlabamaPress; London: Instituteof Jewish Studies, 1979), 101-109. 130. Tentative translationof two consecutive abbreviations:RF'EL [rashutpituah 'emz'ey lahimah]YHN"H [Yeshuaha-Notsri(ha-mekulal?)]. 131. SH, f. 68a. 132. Idel discusses differencesandsimilaritybetweenmysticalandmagic elementsin Hasidism and arguesthatmystical-magicmodel is prevalentin the entirecorpusof the hasidic literature.See Idel, Hasidism, 82-112. ForHillel, however,magical and mystical are two poles of the dichotomythatcannot be synthesized: Mysticism is a privilege of a kabbalist,whereas magic is for the popular consumption.

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YohananPetrovsky-Shtern ic incantationsand imprecationsin SH, to be discussed elsewhere, testify to the fundamental commonality between the practices and worldview of a Slavic znakhar' (herbalhealer)and a Jewish ba'al shem.133

ID VI. HILLEL'S Who was Hillel Bacal Shem? Obviously,he was not a charlatanwho cynically exploitedandpreyedon the most paganprejudicesof simple folk, like ba'alei shem depictedby JoshuaTrachtenberg.134 Suffice to mentionthat the ba'al shem and large segmentsof the communitysharedthe same values and beliefs. Nor was Hillel a halakhic authority,a rabbinicscholar, or a rabbi, as those ba aley shem portrayedby ImmanuelEtkes.135 Rather,Hillel's worldviewand his tragic fate resemble those itinerantbacalei shem, vagabond shamans, members of the communal "secondaryintelligentsia"and practicalkabbalists,thirsty for some social leadershipand a permanentposition in the community,as describedby Gedalyah Nigal,136Michal Oron,'37 and Moshe Rosman.138Hillel could do nothing but dream of the status of Rabbi JonathanEybeschuetzor Joel Heilperin-junior.The former practiced the art of ba'al shem and occupied the lucrativeposition of a town rabbiin Prague,and the latterwas a community-sponsoredpracticalkabbalist in Zamos~. Hillel could not claim, like the charismaticand very authoritative Naftali Kaz from Pozna, that he personally had met the Angel of Death; he did not have the necessary positive charismato counterbalancethis encounter. Rather,Hillel must be comparedto BinyaminBeinish from Krotoszyn:both Hillel and BinyaminBeinish complainedof the vicissitudes of an itinerantlife; they both were self-taught kabbalistswho knew Lurianicsources and the Zohar,but both failed to establishthemselves in the community.Indeed,strikingstylistic and 133. This commonalityis manifestedin the significance for both the Slavic znakhar'and the Jewish ba'al shem alike of the phenomenaof "popularreligion,"that is, magical manuscriptscombin" and "Trebnik ing prayersandhealingremedies(Rus.: "Travnik "), blackmagic, andthe unityof prayer and incantation.See Lavrov,Koldovstvoi religiia v Rossii, 75 ff., 92-93, 127. I use here the Slavic notion znakharonly to give an additionalEast Europeanflavorto Moshe Rosman'sshrewddefinition of the ba'al shem as shaman. See Rosman,Founderof Hasidism, 13-19. 134. Trachtenberg,Jewish Magic and Superstition,79, 144, 196, 200. 135. ImmanuelEtkes, "Mekomamshel ha-magiyahu-va'alei ha-shembe-hevrahha-ashkenazit be-mifneh ha-me'otha-yud-zayin-ha-yud-het," Zion LX (1995): 87-89. 136. Nigal, Magic, Mysticism,and Hasidism, 10-12. Nigal highlightsthe dualisticfunctionof a ba'al shem: "twopersonalitiesare capableof dwelling within the same person:the personalityof the Rav-Philosopher-Leader(and even posek) and the personalityof a wonder-workingba'al-shem.Apparently,no one in that period thoughtthat these two personalitieswere in any way contradictory;to the contrary,all believed that they could exist harmoniouslywithin the same person,"ibid., 20-21. 137. In her article on RabbiSamuel Falkknown as BacalShem from London,Oronaccurately highlights the ba'al shem's constant strive for social leadershipand his desire to use his magic practices with the aim of establishing himself socially. See Michal Oron, "Dr. Samuel Falk and the Eibeschuetz-EmdenControversy,"242-245. Also see Oron, Mi- "ba'alshed " le- "ba'alshem." 138. Rosmandefines the commondenominatorofbaalei shem as their"abilityto employ magical techniquesfor manipulatingthe nameor namesof God to achievepracticaleffects in everydaylife" and of their practiceof "whatwas termed practicalkabbalah."Rosman demonstratesthe presence of ba'alei shem at various levels of society. See Rosman,FounderofHasidism, 13-15, 17-19.

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The Master of an Evil Name thematicparallelsexist betweenBinyaminBeinish'sSefershem tov katanand Hillel's Sefer ha-heshekthatdeserve separatediscussion. On the otherhand,although he was not a town rabbi, Hillel resembles Hirsh Franklfrom Shwabach(16621740). Like Frankl,Hillel sufferedfrompersecutionsandwas deprivedof the right to operateas ba'al shem. Frankl'sbook did not survive persecution,yet from its German renderingit is obvious that both Hillel and Frankl shared Manichean worldviews,were at home with evil powers,and were inclined to black magic and witchcraft.139Ultimately,Hillel resemblesIsraelben Eliezer,the Besht, beforethe latter settled down ca. 1740 in Miqdzyboz as a kahal-supportedmystic and magician.140Hillel and Israel Besht both were itineranthealers and practicalkabbalists, neitherwas a rabbinicfigure, andboth were looking for a tenuredposition. We will speculatelaterwhetherthe differencesbetweenthem stemmedonly from the fact thatone (the Besht) was more successful in the communalmarketthanthe other (Hillel). Like most of the East Europeankabbalists,referredto in SH as hasidim,Hillel Ba'al Shem was a classical pre-Beshtianhasid. He belonged to the generation of late- seventeenth and early-eighteenth-centurymystics, who, as Gershom Scholem indicates, combined learningKabbalahand practicingasceticism. Neither the Kuty kabbalisticcircle nor the kloiz of Brody were mentionedin SH, yet Hillel's rigorousbehavioralrequirementsseem to correspondfully with the patterns of personalconductadoptedby hasidimin Kuty,Brody,and othergroups of EastEuropeanpietists.141 Moreover,SHmay be used as a sourcefor the pre-Beshtian Hasidism that provides detailed descriptions of hasidic mystical practices (hanhagot).142Hillel reiteratesthat ritual purity (tevilah, tefilah ve-taharah) is indispensablefor a kabbalistengaged in holy work. Hillel meticulouslydescribes when it is forbiddenor allowed to write amulets. He introduceshis peculiarcalendarof "clean"and "unclean"days for those who are"modest."He designs a special calendarfor oaths and damnations.He stresses that a person cannotbe a true healer, ba'al shem, unless he is a true kabbalist,ba'al sod.143 According to Hillel's rites, a healer should pray with profound kavanah, alone, not necessarily with a quorum.144 A week of abstinence and daily ritual 139. GedalyahNigal, Ba'al-shem le-ma'asar'olam: Goralo ha-tragi shel ha-rav hirshfrankl (Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University Press, 1993), 11-16. Mention should be made of the dramaticdifference between Hillel's Manicheanusage of the evil powers and the idea of the transcendedevil in LurianicKabbalah.See IsaiahTishby,Toratha-racve-ha-kelipahbe-kabalatha-'ari (Jerusalem:Mifal ha-shikhpul,1962). 140. Rosman,FounderofHasidism, 63-82, 159-170. 141. See YaakovHisday,"Eved ha-shem-be-doram shel avot ha-hasidut,"Zion 47 (1982): 253-292; Hundert,Jews in Poland-Lithuania,119-142; JosephWeiss, "Pneumaticsin Pre-Hasidism," 27-42; Rivka Shatz Uffenheimer,Hasidism as Mysticism:QuietisticElementsin EighteenthCentury Hasidic Thought(Princeton:PrincetonUniversity Press; Jerusalem:The Magnes Press, 1993), 111143; AbrahamJ. Heshcel, TheCircle of the Baal Shem Tov:Studies in Hasidism, ed. Samuel Dressner (Chicago and London:Universityof Chicago Press, 1985), esp. 4-14, 45-56, 113-151. 142. For an in-depthdiscussion of the books on hasidic behavioralpatterns,see Gries, Sifrut ha-hanhagot.

143. SH, f. 2a, 105b, 153a, 154a, 314b. 144. SH, f. 62b. Cf. the personalconduct of the Besht who was reportedto pray in the loneli-

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YohananPetrovsky-Shtern ablutionsare requiredfor particularamulets.Writingthe amuletrequirespietistic conduct and a tranquilenvironment.The kabbalistshould preparean amulet in a clean room. He must be alone in this room. He should write an amulet on a fine parchment.There shouldbe nobody else in the house: no rituallyuncleanwomen, no charlatanssuspectedof makingforgeries,and,amazingly,no repentantsinners, ba'alei teshuvah.145Indeed,deliberateself-restraintfrom physical pleasures, the applicationof kavvanotand fastingbeforeandafterthe performancemakeHillel's conduct particularlyclose to the membersof the pneumaticcircles, predecessors of the BeshtianHasidism.'46However,in vain would one look in SH for such notions of the Beshtian Hasidism as devekut.147Nor does SH requireconcentration on the letters of the amulets.148 Nor does one find in SH-except in traditional formulaicstatements-an indicationof its author'sstrong concern with communal redemption.Divine sparkshave no place in the darkrealms of SH-perhaps this is one of the reasons that in SH there are no traces of a joyous spiritualityso characteristicof BeshtianHasidism. VII. CONCLUSIONS Hillel was both a typical and an atypical ba'al shem. He was deeply immersed in a Manicheanuniverseinhabitedby powerfuldemons, evil spirits,dybbuks, and devils.'49 In his mind, these powers were ubiquitous, as in the Weltanschauungof the famous kabbalist Shimshon of Ostropolie (d. 1648), to whom Hillel refers,and in his nephewYaCakov ben Pesah'sZevah (26lkiew, pesah.

ness of the Carpathianwoods. See Shivhei ha-besht, stories nos. 8 and 9; Ben-Amos and Mintz, In Praise of the Ba'al Shem Tov,18-23. 145. SH, f. 154a, 226b-227a, 331b. Hillel interpretsliterallythe famous statement"inthe place of the ba'alei teshuvah the righteouszaddikimare not able to stand."His interpretationfollows R. Yohananand not R. Avahu,see Berakhot34b and Rashi ad loc. Interestinglyenough, as in a numberof othercases, here, too, Hillel seems to be arguingagainstcrypto-sabbateanreadingof classical sources, in this case, of the gemara. See, for instance, the sabbateaninterpretationof Berakhot34b that emphasizes the superiorityof a ba'al teshuvahover zaddikgamur,in Naor,Post SabbatianSabbatianism, 22-25. However,in othercases Hillel inclines towardsabbateanideas. Thus, for instance,he resortsto a sabbateaninterpretationof the planet Saturn,which for the sixteenth-centurykabbalistsymbolized six profanedays of the week and not Shabbatbut for ShabbetaiTsevi and his followers came to symbolize Shabbatand JubileeYear.See Elliot K. Ginsburg,TheShabbatin the Classical Kabbalah(State University of New YorkPress, 1989), 198 and 240-241; Moshe Idel, Messianic Mystics (Yale:Yale University,1998), 192-196; Scholem, SabbataiSevi, 430. At this point I thinkthe questionof Hillel's inconsistentcrypto-Sabbateanismhas to be left open. 146. The Besht was also stringentaboutrules of writingamulets.Cf. Shivheiha-besht,no. 187; Ben-Amos and Mintz,In Praise of the Ba'al Shem Tov,196-197. 147. On the importanceof devekutin Hasidism, see GershomScholem, "Devekutas Communion with God,"in TheMessianicIdea in Judaism(New York:SchockenBooks, 1971), 186-191, 206211. 148. On the importanceof contemplativeandecstaticpracticesin Hasidism,see Idel,Hasidism, 45 and 75. 149. It will be fruitfulto compare(and differentiate)the worldviewof Hillel and that of AbrahamYagel(1552-ca. 1623), an Italian-Jewishdoctor,magician,andkabbalistwho resortedto the work of Aristotle to prove the physical reality of demons. See David B. Ruderman,Kabbalah,Magic, and Science (Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversityPress, 1988), 43-58.

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The Masterof an Evil Name 1722), which Hillel often quotes.'50Hillel's familiaritywith and closeness to this world informsthe second meaningof his title thatI propose:the Masterof an Evil Name. Hillel starts with making a dybbukhis only respectableinterlocutorand ends by makingevil powerspredominantin his thinking.Hillel says, for instance, thatany operation(pe'ulah)thatresemblesa burntoffering(ketoret)shouldbe forbidden because burntofferings nurturedemons; any imitationof the burntoffering will benefit evil powers.'5' To be on the safe side, one should not disturbevil, Hillel seems to argue. But should evil appear,Hillel's knowledge of how to control its advancewould be crucial. Again, the contrastwith the Besht is illuminating.Havingbeen rebukedfor smokinghis pipe, the Besht is reportedto haverepliedthatwhile smokinghe thinks about the incense (ketoret)in the Temple.Througha kavanahmechanismhe spiritualizesa suspicioushabit,imagininghimself serving God in the Templeand thus achieving a higher status of devekut(cleaving to God).152 Besht came to be perceived as a pietist who mysticallytransformsevil, elevating humansouls trapped in it. 53In contrast,Hillel eitherengages with evil or keeps it at bay,but always is bound by evil names or an Evil Name, with which he magisteriallyoperatesand, perhaps,whose victim he becomes.154 150. On Shimshon and his worldview,see YehudaLiebes, "Halom u-mezi'ut: le-demuto shel ha-kadoshha-mekubalr. shimshonmi-ostropolye,"Tarbiz52 (1982): 83-109. See SH, f. 42b. 151. SH, f. 229a. A particularpredispositionof demons to the smell of incense is mentionedin variousJewish sources. For instance, in a Yiddish text on Yosef de la Reyna writtenin Amsterdamby crypto-SabbatianLeib ben Ozer Rosenkrantz(d. 1727), the incense is depictedas a powerfulremedy thathelps demonsto acquireadditionalpower,breakthe chainsthatbindthem,andliberatethemselves. See Zalman Rubashov(Shazar), "Ma'asehr. yosef de la reyna be-masoretha-shabtait,"in Eder hayekar:divreisifrutu-mehkarmukdashimle-shmuelaba gorodetsky,ed. EmanuelBin-Gorion(TelAviv: Devir, 1947), 110-114. An episode in Sefer ha-zohar, ParashatTerumahdepicts burntofferings, the smell of which helps demons to cause nocturnalpollutionto men. Althoughthe Zoharicmotif does not emphasize the direct impact of the incense on demons, it is functionallyclose to the incense/demon motif since it demonstratesthe ability of evil angels to nurturethemselves from the smell of the offerings (korbanot).See Zohar 2:130a. 152. Forthe Beshtianconcept of the spiritualmeaningand theurgicalpowerof burntofferings, see the discussion in Rosman,FounderofHasidism, I11. Sabbatiansconsideredsmoking tobacco one of the ways to neutralizeevil powers.This behavioralpatternwas later inheritedby the Hasidim,who consideredsmoking the way to substituteincense offerings in the Temple.Mitnagdim,authorsof antihasidic writings such as Zamirarizim and Sheverposhim, were quick to depict and mock this hasidic custom. For a comprehensivelist of sources on tobacco smoking among sabbatiansand hasidim, see Gries, Sifrutha-hanhagot,205 n. 109. Louis Jacobs, however,considers smoking tobacco "peripheral" for the hasidim, see his "Tobaccoand the Hasidim,"Polin 11 (1998): 25-30. 153. See, e.g., the story about the Besht uplifting the soul of a man turnedinto a frog for disobeying Jewish legal practicesand trappedby Satan,see Ben-Amos and Mintz, In Praise of the Bacal ShemTov,par. 12, p. 24-26; also see a story aboutthe Besht neutralizingevil and upliftingthe soul of a divorcedand "loose" woman ready to convertout of Judaism,ibid., 245-247 par.238. It is significant thatthe Besht made an attempt(thoughunsuccessful)to make a tikkun(correction)and uplift the sparkof ShabbetaiTsevi, see ibid., par.66, p. 86-87. 154. As far as the furtherdevelopmentof Hillel's healing methods and the usage of the "holy and impurenames"(shemotha-kedushahandshemot ha-tum'ah),the eighteenth-centuryhasidic literaturemoved far away from "magic"to "mysticism,"insisting on the predominanceof spiritualrather

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YohananPetrovsky-Shtern Hillel's life story and his book furnisha numberof tricky questions. If one takes into considerationthe crypto-sabbateanovertonesof the notion "modest"in eighteenth-centuryEast Europe, one might ask whether Hillel was only a preBeshtianHasid,zanuac,or also a repentantcrypto-sabbatean.155 Hillel mentionsa numberof times thathe is "repenting."His repentance,teshuvah,could have been the confession not only of a ba'al shem who has had some spectacularfailuresbut also of a crypto-sabbateantrying to come to grips with the Jewish community.156 Indeed, for the purpose of exorcising dybbuks,that is to say, schismatics, there was nobody betterthan a formercrypto-sabbatean:he knew the disease and was able to take care of it. Fromthis vantagepoint it wouldbe temptingto reassess the early-eighteenth-centurydybbuksas schismatics and to reconsiderexorcisms in the Polish-Jewishcommunityin the context of the communalstruggle againstthe crypto-sabbateanheresy and its ramifications.Forexample, before he left for the Landof Israel,R. Naftali Kaz from Posen, namedin SH amongprominentba'alei shem, was reportedto have met the Angel of Death in the disguise of a beggar.157 But it is well-known that the "Angel of Death,"Mal'akh ha-mavet, was the euphemism for the notorioussabbateanHayyim Malakhused in all the bans of excommunicationspronounced,repeated,and enforced in Centraland East Europe againsthim and his followers.158 Was R. Naftali Kaz using the languagethat was transparentfor his contemporariesbutobscureonly for us? WhenZ61kiew,this uncrowned capital of the crypto-sabbateans,startedan unparalleledpublicationof books by ba'alei shem, was thatan attemptto combatthe heresy or to disseminate it? At any rate, these speculationsare particularlypivotal in view of the dramatic than naturaltypes of medicine. Forexample, analyzingthe Degel mahanehefraimby Moshe Ephraim of Sudylk6w,the grandsonof the Besht, Alan Brill observes that"Incontrastto bacaleishem literature, the Degel does not discuss demons or naturalcures. Instead,the spiritualstatusof the zaddik is based on his connectionto the inner light of the Torahand his sense of the Divine vitality within objects that cures and gives powerover nature."See Brill's"The SpiritualWorldof the Masterof Awe: Divine, Vitality, Theosis, and Healing in Degel MahanehEphraim,"Jewish Studies Quarterly8 (2001): 27-65; the quotationis on p. 31. 155. While I leave this questionopen, I need to mentionthat one does not find in SH traces of a propheticfervor,which, accordingto the recent research,was pivotal for the sabbateans.See Matt Goldish, TheSabbateanProphets(Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversityPress, 2004). 156. This is not to rule out the possibility of placing Hillel's teshuvahin the context of pietistic practicesthat were establishedby hasidei ashkenazand subsequentlyinformedmuch of pre-Beshtian hasidic rites. Cf. Yosef Dan, HasidutAshkenaz(TelAviv: Misradha-bitahon,1992), 72-76. On the decisive impact of hasidei ashkenazon the formationof the religious values of the early Polish-Jewish communities,see IsraelTa-Shma,"Onthe Historyof the Jews in Twelfth-ThirteenthCenturyPoland," Polin 10 (1997): 287-317. 157. Nigal, "RavNaftali Kaz,"92. 158. On Haim Malakh, see Gershom Scholem, "Berukhiyahrosh ha-shabtaimbe saloniki," Zion 6 (1941):119-147, esp. 123-24; idem., "Iggeretme'et rabiHayimMalakh,"Zion 11 (1946): 168174; idem., "Le movementsabbataisteen Pologne,"Revieude I'histoiredes religions 143 (153): 209220; idem., "Malakh,Hayim,"Ha-entsiklopedyahha-ivrit(JerusalemandTelAviv: Hevrahle-hotsa'at entsiklopedyot,1963), 23:524-525; EncyclopediaJudaica, s.v. "Malakh,Hayimben Solomon";Gershom Scholem, Mehkarimu-mekorotle-toldot ha-shabtautve-gilguleyah(Jerusalem:Mosad Bialik, 1974), 100-109. Also, see Jan Dokt6r,Sladami Mesjasza-Apostaty.Zydowskieruchymesjanhskiew XVIIi XVIIIwieku(Wroclaw:Leopoldinum,1998), 70-71, 113-114.

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The Master of an Evil Name demographicincreaseof ba'alei shem in East Europeat the turnof the eighteenth century-and their abrupt decrease at the end of the eighteenth century. One should not forget that it was an abundance,and not scarcity,of various types of ba'alei shem that irritatedthe authorof Sefer ha-heshekand made his ordealsbitter. Hillel could have been irritatedand even intimidatedbecause he constantly felt the pressurefromanothertype of his competitors,the so-calledfeldshers(originally,formerbarbershiredby the armyto attendto the woundedsoldiers andprovide primarymedical assistance,who at a later stage became paramedics).These semiprofessionaldoctors "withbelow universitylevel education"rapidlygrew in numbersin the late-seventeenthand early-eighteenthcenturies.Perhapssome of them turnedto privatepracticein Easternand CentralPolandas soon as they left Jan Sobieski's army,which boasted quite a numberof Jewishfeldshers. Others could have migratedwestwardfrom Russia and left-bankUkraine,where, in the 1710s, Peterthe Greatestablishedat least fifty militarygarrisonhospitals staffed withfeldshers as well as special institutionsfor trainingthem. Finally,some doctors could come from Germanlands where Jews, startingfrom 1721, were granted the right to study medicine at universities. 59 Hillel was one of the last early-modernitinerantkabbalistsinvolved,to use Moshe Idel's parlance,in magic and mysticism; as such he was challenged from the one side by the rapidprofessionalizationof the field of popularKabbalahand from the otherby the rising professionalizationof popularmedicine. Feldshers and doctors, and, late in the eighteenthcentury,new Beshtian Hasidim were slowly but steadily pushing oldfashionedhealers such as Hillel out of the East Europeanmarketplaceby making them altogetherredundant. Anotherreasonthatcaused so manygrievancesto Hillel was perhapsthe fact that Hillel was not a learnedTalmudicscholar (talmid hakham).Hillel does not seem to have received a consistent rabbinic(yeshivah) education.He could hardly compete with rabbis and scholars who, in addition to their main occupation, practicedas exorcists and healers.160Fromthis viewpoint, Hillel's failureobliquely explains the success of the Besht, who was no talmid hakhameither.Yet the Besht, despite the attemptsof the editorsof Shivheiha-Beshtto emphasizehis divinely inspiredknowledge and diminishhis reputationas a rabbinicscholar,managed to set and accomplisha task the tracesof which we do not find in SH. In his letterthe Besht wrote to GershonKutover,his brother-in-law,the Besht attempted synthesizingmidrashicreferences,Kabbalah,popularJudaicbeliefs, theurgy,and magic in the frameworkof a mystically shapedpropheticvision. We are not able to look at the prose writtenby the Besht or at the letters composed by Hillel, but 159. See EdwardKossoy and AbrahamOhry, The Feldshers: Medical, Sociological and HistoricalAspects of Practitionersof Medicine with Below UniversityLevel Education(Jerusalem:Magness Press, 1992), 68-71, 135-36, 144-45; JohnM. Efron,Medicineand the GermanJews: a History (New Haven, CT:Yale UniversityPress, 2001), 60-61. 160. In his review of Rosman'sbook on the Baal Shem Tov,Gries mentionedthatthe statusof talmidhakhamwas pivotal for a practicingba'al shem eager to sell his amulets and healing remedies to his clientele. See his "Demutoha-historitshel-ha-besht:bein sakinha-minatehimshel ha-historiyon le-makheloshel hokerha-sifrut,"Kabbalah5 (2000): 423.

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YohananPetrovsky-Shtern in comparisonwith the somewhatclumsy and sometimes not very articulateHillel, one may want to observe thatfrom a literaryperspectivethe Besht is more talented: he does look like a talmid hakhamwho is proficient in classical Hebrew sources and who masteredthe style of a rabbinicepistle. Finally,in the vein of a purespeculation,let us considerdifferencesbetween Hillel Ba'al Shem and the Ba'al Shem Tov.Unlike Hillel, Israelben Eliezer "was a ba'al shem parexcellence, offering the promiseof collective securityfor the entire House of Israel and not just magical defense for individualsor his own community."161 Perhapsdue to this strongcommitmentto the mystical,communal,and salvific-which we do not find in SH-Israel ben Eliezer became a charismatic personality,a sedentaryba'al shem supportedby the community,and eventually, in the hasidic memory,the founderof the movement.This appraisalof the Besht has been furthersubstantiatedby the careerof Hillel, who apparentlynever tried to transformmagic, failed to establishhimself in a Jewishcommunity,andfell into oblivion. YohananPetrovsky-Shtern, NorthwesternUniversity Evanston,Illinois

161. Rosman,Founderof Hasidism, 181. Rosman is right arguingthat "[t]his was apparently one of the featuresof his activity that singled him out as a ba'al shem par excellence."Also see idem, "InnovativeTradition:Jewish Culturein the Polish-LithuanianCommonwealth,"in Culturesof the Jews: A New History, ed. David Biale (New York:Schocken Books, 2002), 551.

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