By COLlive reporter
A new book of the Baal Shem Tov’s own teachings has been translated into English from the original “Kesser Shem Tov”. With short but powerful insights on the weekly Parsha and Yomim Tovim, “Portions of Light” promises to inspire, uplift, expand and deepen your soul-experience.
While featuring a glimpse of the original language, the English rendering makes the wisdom accessible to everyone from the seasoned chossid the novice, with a curiosity for Chassidus’s novel approach.
The new volume is produced by Chayenu, the culmination of several years of a weekly column, and is published by Kehot Publication Society.
The book started because of the “one minute of Torah” podcast of Rabbi Moshe Levin of Bais Bezalel Chabad, which is located in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles.
One couple who regularly listen to this class was so inspired by the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov that they reached out to Rabbi Levin to make a series of recordings just about the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings.
Then, Mrs. Ilana Yakovelev who has been attending that class was so inspired that she reached out to the editors of the Chayenu weekly Torah study booklet. She suggested that the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov become a section in Chayenu.
After that happened, many Chayenu readers asked how can they access these teachings of the Baal Shem Tov—which has featured each week of the past few years—in an ongoing, organized way.
That’s how the idea for the book was born. Chayenu director Rabbi Yossi Pels and editor Rabbi Itzick Yarmush got to work, in collaboration with Rabbi Yosef Boruch Friedman, Rabbi Dovid Olidort, and Rabbi Mendel Laine of Kehot.
“It dawned on us that perhaps there is an even wider audience waiting to learn the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov,” the editors said. “This motivated us to compile the teachings in a book and publish them as a self-standing work.”
R’ Yakov Paley, a skilled writer from Miami, penned the translation, and it went through many phases of final touch-ups by the team at Chayenu and Kehot Publication Society to produce the beautiful final product.
It is being published in time for Shavuos, marking the receiving of the Torah on Har Sinai some 3320 years ago, and also the 260th yahrtzeit of the Baal Shem Tov, the founding father of Chassidus.
The book is currently sold at an introductory discounted rate (bulk orders, steeply discounted, are available) at Kehot.com
