Abstract
The extent of R. Israel Baal Shem Tov's (the Besht's) commitment to the traditional messianic ideal, which foresees a Messiah bringing spiritual and political redemption to corporate Israel, has been the subject of ongoing scholarly debate. Ben Zion Dinur argued that the Besht saw it as his mission to hasten the arrival of precisely such a Messiah.1 The Besht, in Dinur's view, believed that his teachings had a redemptive quality, and he therefore saw in the spreading of these teachings a way to fulfill this traditional mission. Dinur's view, however, has been rejected, either in its entirety or only in part, by most scholars.2 Gershom Scholem, for example, saw the Besht as neutralizing traditional Messianism and instead focusing on personal redemption.3 Isaiah Tishby,
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