TALES OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV

THE SNORING GUEST

"The master symbolists (sorcerers) tried to produce lice with their hidden arts (incantations), but they could not." (Vaeira 8:14)

And then there was the time that a guest came to visit the Baal Shem Tov at his home. After dinner, they discussed deep concepts in Torah until very late in the night. The Baal Shem Tov invited the guest to sleep in his house and everyone adjourned to their rooms.

Very early in the morning, the Baal Shem Tov's son Tzvi Hirsh, who was still a small boy, awoke from the loud noise of the guest snoring. He became frightened and rushed to his father's room. "Father, do you hear that noise from our guest's room? It is really scary to me and I can't fall back to sleep."

The Baal Shem Tov put his arm around his son and said, "Hershele, just quietly tip-toe to his room, open and close his door and he'll stop snoring."

Tzvi Hirsch reluctantly left the comfort of his father's side and went to the guest's room. There he quietly opened and closed the door to the room. Immediately thereafter, the guest stopped snoring.

The next night, the guest stayed again. As with the night before, the guest started to snore loudly. Tzvi Hirsh again awoke from the noise. This time, he went and opened and closed the door as his father, the Baal Shem Tov, had told him the night before. However, the guest did not stop snoring.

Tzvi Hirsh went to his father. "Father, can you hear the guest snoring? I did the same thing you told me last night. But this time, it didn't work."

The Baal Shem Tov explained, "Last night, the Angel of Sleep was discharged and a new one was appointed. Between the discharge of the first Angel of Sleep and the installment of the new Angel of sleep, the ploy worked. But once the new Angel started his job, the ploy no longer worked."

And so it was.

Adapted by Tzvi Meir HaCohane from a story in SHVICHEI HABESHT and translated in IN PRAISE OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV by Mintz and Ben Amos.

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The goal of the Foundation is to hasten the imminent coming of the Moshiach (Messiah) by acting on the answer of the Moshiach to the Baal Shem Tov's question: 'When are you coming Master?' (The Moshiach answered) "When your teachings have become well-known and revealed throughout the world, and when your well springs have spread outwards, imparting to others what I have taught you, so that they too will be able to perform contemplative unifications and ascents of the soul…" [quoted from a letter from the Baal Shem Tov to his brother-in-law Rabbi Gershon Kitover.]

One of the major projects of the Baal Shem Tov Foundation is the World Wide Mezuzah Campaign whose goal is to insure that every Jewish person in the world has a kosher Mezuzah attached to the doorpost of their home.

Please visit www.mezuzah.net for more information.

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