Give Up Control

This story is about the Baal Shem Tov, an 18th century magician, mystic and healer, who founded the movement of spiritual renewal that swept through easter Europe in the 1700s. The story is of a fateful meeting between Jacob Joseph, a well known religious master of the time, and the Ball Shem. Jacob had apparently heard of the Baal Shem before but had refused to join his ecstatic movement. The following is a story of their meeting, a story of surrender, as told by Marc Gafni.