Page "Baal Shem Tov" Paragraph 35

The foundation-stone of Hasidism as laid by Besht is a strongly marked panentheistic conception of God.

He declared the whole universe, mind and matter, to be a manifestation of the Divine Being ; that this manifestation is not an emanation from God, as is the conception of the Kabbalah by Mitnagdim, for nothing can be separated from God: all things are rather forms in which God reveals Himself.

When man speaks, said Besht, he should remember that his speech is an element of life, and that life itself is a manifestation of God.

Even evil exists in God.

This seeming contradiction is explained on the ground that evil is not bad in itself, but only in its relation to man.

It is wrong to look with desire upon a woman ; but it is divine to admire her beauty: it is wrong only insofar as man does not regard beauty as a manifestation of God, but misconceives it, and thinks of it in reference to himself.

Nevertheless, sin is nothing positive, but is identical with the imperfections of human deeds and thought.

Whoever does not believe that God resides in all things, but separates God and them in his thoughts, has not the right conception of God.

It is equally fallacious to think of a creation in time: creation, that is, God ’ s activity, has no end.

God is ever active in the changes of nature: in fact, it is in these changes that God ’ s continuous creativeness consists.