THE ATLAS OF THE MOVEMENT THAT MOVED THE ADDRESS

Jacob Joseph of Polnoye

Toldot

nature

A rabbi of the old school who became the Besht's closest disciple and, in 1780, printed the first Hasidic book — Toldot Yaakov Yosef, a Torah commentary studded with some two hundred and eighty teachings introduced by the words I heard from my teacher.

Without him there is no textual Besht at all. He is also the wing's first polemicist: the book is savage about the learned elite who despise the common people, and it was burned in Vilna and Brody almost immediately.

rhymes with

sephirahgevurah

whyGevurah is the sharp edge — and this is the book that drew the line the opposition then attacked.