A Fake Letter!
A letter supposedly by the Baal Shem Tov to his disciple the author of Toldos Yaakov Yosef.
A letter dated "Ki Setze 1711" attributed to be written by the Baal Shem Tov addressed to his outstanding student Rabbi Ya’akov Yosef of Polnoaah, the author of Toldos Yaakov Yosef.
This letter deals with a question that was sent to the Baal Shem Tov from his student Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polnaah while he was a rabbi in the city of Nemirov, and deals with the laws of Tereifa.
As a matter of fact:
this question appears in Noda BiYehuda (II Siman 16), and also there the answer ends: "Since I received your letter at the beginning of the night…" – presumably the forger edited this letter ‘Igeres Ha’Baal Shem Tov’ according to this answer. – the forger, who apparently was not familiar with the exact order of the generations, copied with deliberate intent from the Noda BeYehuda, since the author Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, is also from the city of Apta. Although in the year 1711 he was not born yet, but only three years later in the year 1714.
This letter was discovered for the first time by Naftali ben Menachem [Fried], who published a small part of it, as well as the suspicion that it was forged, in his book ‘Besharei Sefer’ (Jerusalem 1967, p. 39). According to him, this letter is in question, since it is not similar to well-known letters attributed to the Baal Shem Tov, such as the one published in ‘The Great Figures of Chassidus’ (Hebrew – p. 24) and more. He also cites from Rabbi Erenberger who noted that this letter already appears in Noda BeYehuda, although ‘unfortunately I was not able to find out out of lack of time.’
Here we reveal this letter in its entirety, after it was archived for about 60 years since it was ‘discovered’!
