Adele, Daughter of the Illustrious Baal Shem Tov

🖨 Print

To understand Adele and her place in Jewish history, we first need to recognize the greatness of her father, Reb Yisrael Baal Shem Tov but that sentence alone is a contradiction. The Baal Shem Tov is not someone we can fully understand because that would confine him to our limited human perspective. The Baal Shem Tov is someone who stands out in history as a spiritual giant, focused only on connecting with Hashem and guiding his fellow downtrodden brothers to connect and rejoice as they should.

Not much is known about the Baal Sem Tov’s immediate family. He was left orphaned by his parents at a young age, and not much is known about them, nor is there much information about his wife. His daughter Adele, however, is remembered and spoken about whenever the life story of the Baal Shem Tov is discussed. She was there in his difficult moments, in his travels, and when the Baal Shem Tov’s greatness was concealed from the world.

Who was Adele, the daughter of the Baal Shem Tov and what is her story?

Adele was born around 1720¹, in the Podolia region (now western Ukraine), to Reb Yisrael and Chana. Born years before her father revealed himself and his message to the world², Adele grew up while the family was still living inconspicuously, in an off-the-road village in a small dilapidated house, her father a teacher for young children.

Before the Baal Shem Tov’s passing, he explained that he attained Adele’s soul from the Torah, and that it can be seen in the name he chose for her, Adele (אדל), spelled in Hebrew ‘aleph-dalet-lamed,’ serving as an acronym for esh dat lamo, “A fiery law for them,”³ a reference to the Torah itself.⁴

Adele was the only daughter of the Baal Shem Tov, and many years older than her only brother, Tzvi, who was himself a very quiet and humble man. Adele was at her father’s side from the beginning of his public work, and remained so throughout his life, keeping his home and his legacy alive for more than two decades after his passing. Adele and her father shared a particularly close relationship and his immense respect for her is evident in many accounts, stories, and letters.

Growing up in the Baal Shem Tov’s home, she not only loved and respected the ways of Torah and Chassidism, she learned and understood it as well⁵,as is seen from the following anecdote:

One Motzei Shabbos, the Baal Shem Tov’s students were sitting and discussing through which “gate” one could best connect with G‑d (in connection with the prayer that many communities say on Motzei Shabbat which lists close to 60 such gates). Each student suggested another level and another gate, but the Baal Shem Tov did not accept any of their answers.

Adele, who was listening to the entire conversation, shared her opinion that the gate of “siyata dishmaya” [Help from Heaven] must be the best gate, and the Baal Shem Tov explained to the students that she was correct, because all the other gates need “Help of Heaven” to be opened⁶.

Adele’s voyage with the Baal Shem Tov

When discussing Adele, it is impossible to omit the voyage she took with her saintly father – which she has become famous for. It was Adele who understood her father’s longing to reach the Holy Land, and it was Adele who stood by his side along his treacherous, and ultimately, unsuccessful journey.

The Baal Shem Tov attempted to travel to the Holy Land several times. On each occasion he was met with obstacles that sent him home⁷. On his first trip, he was accompanied by his attendant and scribe, Reb Tzvi, and Adele.

The voyage was laden with dangers and unwanted detours, and they never actually made it to their destination.

Their first unplanned stop was Constantinople (Istanbul). There, the Captain tricked them into getting off at the port to “make some repairs,” and they were stranded with no supplies right before Passover.

The Seder night was quite eventful. Adele had met a wealthy Polish Jew who supplied them with Pesach necessities, and the Baal Shem Tov blessed the Polish Jew and his wife (who were childless) with children (for which he subsequently lost his portion in the World to Come for a few minutes). And while saying the passage in the Haggadah “Le’osei Niflaot Gedolot,” “to the One who performs great wonders,” the Baal Shem Tov intervened in the heavenly courts and saved the local Jewish community from a terrible decree⁸.

But the worst was yet to come. On Chol Hamoed (the interim days of) Pesach, the Baal Shem Tov, Adele, and Tzvi boarded another ship headed straight to Israel. During the trip there was a wild storm that almost caused the ship to capsize, and it showed no signs of abating. The Baal Shem Tov tried using spiritual means to save the ship from going under, but he wasn’t very successful. Adele was in grave danger (according to most versions, she actually ended up in the stormy sea), and only through prayer and a miracle was the Baal Shem Tov able to save her. They ended up at a forsaken island port, and after some more hardships and clear signs that it was not ordained from Above for the Baal Shem Tov to reach Eretz Yisrael at this stage, they headed back to Mezhibuzh, Ukraine.

And so their trip, which could be looked at as unsuccessful – but is actually recounted as a time when Mezhibuzh drew closest to her father, when she recognized and basked in his greatness – came to a close.

Adele’s life is not merely one of historical interest, but serves as a legacy interwoven with the threads of the Baal Shem Tov’s greatness. Her piety and loyalty has gifted the world with precious descendants – gedolei hador, whose teachings still guide klal yisrael through the traverses of galus.

To support their family, Adele and her husband Reb Yechiel ran a shoe store. One Simchat Torah, the Baal Shem Tov and his students were dancing the night away with joy and jubilation. At one point, Adele noticed that one man’s shoes had ripped. Having a large supply of shoes at her disposal, she approached the chassid and offered to bring him a new pair if he promised to bless her with a child. The chassid happily blessed her and continued to dance with a new pair of shoes. Within the year, Adele and her husband were blessed with a new baby⁹.

Altogether, Adele and Reb Yechiel raised three children: Reb Moshe Chaim Ephraim of Sudlkov, who wrote the classic Chassidic text Degel Machaneh Efraim; Reb Boruch’l of Mezhibuzh, a powerful leader in the next generation of Chassidim; and Faiga, who, in addition to her own piety and greatness, was the mother of the famed Rebbe Nachman of Breslov.

The Tzemach Dovid, the Rebbe of Skoliye, related that as the Baal Shem Tov prepared to pass on, he spoke to each of his students, providing direction before he would leave them alone on this earth. After all the students, Adele approached her father sobbing, “What will be with me? Who are you leaving me with?” The Baal Shem Tov comforted her and promised that for the next 10 generations he would be with her and all of her offspring at their births, weddings, and deaths¹⁰.

Nachlas Tzvi 14 ↩︎
The Baal Shem Tov “revealed himself” beginning in the year 5494 (1734), when he turned 36. ↩︎
Deuteronomy 33:2. ↩︎
Shivchei Habesht, 86 ↩︎
Sefer Haadmorim – Dr. Yitzchak Alfasi ↩︎
Shulchan Hatahor by Reb Mendel Roteh, and the Yesod Tzaddik by Reb Shlomo of Zehvil. ↩︎
The Baal Shem Tov knew that if he made it to Eretz Yisrael, he would be able to hasten the coming of Moshiach, and therefore tried, throughout his entire life, to get there. ↩︎
The Turkish Sultan had been convinced by one of his anti-Semitic ministers to impose a terrible decree on the Jews, but over that first night of Passover the Sultan decided (either after a visit from his mother or after a nagging feeling that wouldn’t let him sleep) to back down, and he punished the evil minister instead. The story is written in several places, with different or limited details. ↩︎
Shivchei Habesht ↩︎
Butzina Denahara, pg. 5 ↩︎