BAʿAL SHEM TOV (master of the good name), popular designation for Yisraʾel ben Eliʿezer (c. 1700–1760), the founder of the Hasidic movement in eastern Europe, who is also known by the acronym BeSHT (commonly written "Besht"). There are few historically authentic sources that describe the life of the Besht; most information must be gleaned from nineteenth-century hagiography, especially the collection of more than three hundred stories about him, known as Shivhei ha-Besht (In Praise of the Besht; first printed in 1815), and the works of later Hasidic writers.

Born in the small town of Okopy in the southern Ukraine, Yisraʾel ben Eliʿezer is said to have begun preaching around 1738, after a long period of seclusion in the Carpathian Mountains with his wife. According to other accounts, he served throughout his life as a popular healer...