Well, this is kind of incredible.

After a whole day of going up and down the Baal Shem Tov’s family tree, trying to figure things out more about his father, Eliezer, (and more on that in the next post, because a lot of that story of him being a Minister of War is not as impossible as it sounds) – the Ravberland.com site just put this post up, from last Monday:

https://ravberland.com/en/blog/the-story-of-the-revelation-of-the-baal-shem-tov-daily-chizzuk-by-rabbi-eliezer-berland-shlit-a

Go read the whole thing, but the part that stands out a mile is that the Rav has apparently now ‘revealed’ who the hidden tzaddik who gave the Baal Shem Tov the practical kabbalah magic writings was:

Namely, his father-in-law, who is known to us as R Ephraim Fischel of Kitov / Brody.

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This is how the Rav phrased it:

At age five, the Baal Shem Tov’s father passed away, but one thing he knew – do not fear! He suddenly saw a bear in his town of Okop; the bear had come from the zoo. The Baal Shem Tov was a melamed (teacher). He would help children. They were walking in the street and suddenly a bear came along. The Baal Shem Tov made the bear flee, struck it, and killed it. Then everyone understood that he was a holy man. People who had a dispute would come to him and he would make peace between them.

The public didn’t know that he knew how to learn. He pretended like he didn’t know how to learn, didn’t understand books, didn’t know anything — didn’t even know how to say Tehillim.

Until Rabbi Adam (Rabbi Adam Baal Shem) arrived – the one who created a golem.

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There was a Din Torah (a case in Torah law) there, and the Baal Shem Tov succeeded in resolving it, and then Rabbi Adam understood that this was a very great man, a hidden Tzaddik. He said, “Reveal to me who you are.” He revealed himself to him, and then Rabbi Adam wrote a document that he would give him his daughter.

His daughter was the sister of Gershon Kitover, who was the Av Beit Din in Brody.

Suddenly, they brought before Rabbi Gershon of Kitov the bundle, the whole sack, and took out from it the documents. In the sack, they saw a document on which was written that Rabbi Adam gave his daughter to someone by the name of Rabbi Yisrael of Okop…

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Now, let’s recall what we learnt from the ‘magick book’ auction, of the spells and incantations used by Baalei Shems in the BESHT’s time, including the incantation to make a golem:

The most important source quoted in the present manuscript is undoubtedly the Baal Shem Tov. Kabbalistic Secrets Transmitted by R. Adam Baal Shem to the Baal Shem Tov.

And this:

Prof. Shmeruk later discovered an earlier source than Shivchei HaBaal Shem Tov mentioning R. Adam Baal Shem – a booklet in Yiddish featuring stories about R. Adam Baal Shem. According to Shmeruk, this booklet was printed in Prague in the 17th century. The booklet indicates that R. Adam Baal Shem lived in Prague, and describes his meeting with Emperor Maximillian II. This emperor reigned in 1564-1576, during the Maharal’s tenure as rabbi of Prague.

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So, either ‘Adam Baal Shem’ was really old by the time he’d turned into ‘Ephraim Fischel [Hakohen] Kitover’ of Brody, or there is yet another mystery here.

Here’s another snippet from that post on the sale of the ‘magick book’:

[T]his manuscript documents an interesting chain of transmission of practical kabbalah: “From the writings of R. Yisrael Baal Shem [=the Baal Shem Tov], transmitted to him by R. Adam Baal Shem, who received from Gur Aryeh [=the Maharal of Prague].

Point is:

Ephraim Fischel [Hakohen] Kitover does link us back to Prague, and the Maharal of Prague.

Here’s how.

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He apparently marries Etel Toba Cohen Chayut – the granddaughter of the SHACH, and also the granddaughter of R YITZHAK CHAYUT of PRAGUE.

R Yitzhak Chayut had a ‘political rivalry’ going with the Maharal of Prague, and apparently was also related in marriage (more on that in a moment).

Here’s a snippet on him with an alternative spelling of his last name, from the Jewish Encylcopadia site HERE:

CHAJES, ISAAC BEN ABRAHAM (1538–c. 1615), rabbi of Prague. Chajes was appointed to this position in 1584 after having been rabbi of Prossnitz… His grandson Jehiel Hillel Altschuler, author of Metzudat David…He followed the pilpulistic method of Jacob *Pollak and was severely criticized by Jair Chayyim *Bacharach, who in his ?avvat Ya’ir wrote of Chajes that “anyone who reads what this person has written in the introduction to his works will testify and see how he has blundered, may the Lord save us.”

The precise date of his death is unknown; the exact date given by some, 18 Elul 1613, cannot be substantiated. All that is known is that in 1615 he was no longer alive. His sons were Monish, av bet din of Vilna, Abraham, author of Holekh Tammim (Cracow, 1634), and Eliezer of Prague.

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On Yivo, HERE, we are told:

According to David Gans (Tsemaḥ David; 1592), Chajes remained in Prague until 1584, later moving to Poland.

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This fits with the detail from the ‘magick book’ description, above, that:

The booklet indicates that R. Adam Baal Shem lived in Prague, and describes his meeting with Emperor Maximillian II. This emperor reigned in 1564-1576, during the Maharal’s tenure as rabbi of Prague.

Yitzhak Chayut is in the right place, at the right time, for this description of ‘Adam Baal Shem’ from that 17th century yiddish pamphlet.

And then, he moves to Poland – more exactly, to Brody.

This description comes from the Pinkas Hakehillah page for Turobin on Jewish Gen, HERE:

R. Menachem Monish Chayut (rabbi of Turobin in the 1670s), son of the prominent R. Yitzhak Chayut of Brody.

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R. Menachem Monish Chayut is married to none other than the SHACH’s daughter, Esther HaTzaddikah.

(I did a whole post on this very improbable story, maybe I’ll dig it out again.)

And ‘EPHRAIM FISCHEL HAKOHEN KITOVER’ of BRODY apparently marries their daughter, ETA TOBA – who are the parents of the BESHT’s wife.

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On GENI, the whole family tree for EPHRAIM FISCHEL is more than a mess than usual.

They have his son R AVRAHAM GERSHON KITOVER of BRODY moonlighting as his father, too.

In other words, EPHRAIM FISCHEL aka ‘ADAM BAAL SHEM” seems to spring from the head of Zeus.

Let’s see if we can figure it out a little more, by going through more of R YITZHAK CHAYUT’s descendants, to see if we can make any more possible links.

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Let’s start with ELIEZER of PRAGUE CHAYUT/ CHAJES.

His son appears to be YAAKOV YITZHAK CHAJES, Dayan and Moreh Tzedek of Prague, who dies in 1687. He marries EDEL ASHKENAZI KATZENELLENBOGEN,

A footnote on her geni page taken from the Unbroken Chain Third Edition states:

Abraham Aschkenasi Katzenellenbogen [Edel’s father] died in Iyar 1637 and was son-in-law of the Isaac Chajes darschan who was author of Pne Jitschak and Pakad Jitschak {i.e. the Isaac Chajes who had d. 1615].

I.e. YAAKOV YITZHAK and EDEL ASHKENAZI (died 1687) were first cousins, and both descendants of YITZHAK CHAYUT of PRAGUE.

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Here’s a different geni family tree for ELIEZER of PRAGUE CHAYUT/ CHAJES, that shows he also had a daughter, SARAH HOROWITZ.

She married Rabbi Yaakov ha-Levi Horowitz (Horowitz), of Cracow (1595 – 1642), grandson of the SHLAH HaKADOSH.

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Then, there is an unnamed daughter of YITZHAK CHAYUT who is meant to have married none other than the MAHARAL OF PRAGUE…

(Remember, there are 23 discussions on the MAHARAL’s profile, and his family tree is a huge, huge mess.)

The current version has the MAHARAL marrying Chayut’s sister, as his first wife.

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Then, we have another unnamed daughter who marries ISSACHAR BEER THEIN, and they end up with the AUSTERLITZ family, which already gets us into the heartland of what becomes the Prague Frankist nexus.

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Another son is the ‘big kabbalist’ AVRAHAM CHAYES.

He’s the author of

And this is what it says about him on the geni notes page, including his tomb epitaph:

There’s another son with no details, SHMUEL CHAYES.

And the last one of YITZHAK CHAYES’ sons is that MENACHEM MANISH CHAJES, ABD of VILNA, who marries the SHACH’s daughter, and becomes the F-I-L of ‘EPHRAIM FISCHEL KITOVER’.

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Tov.

My head is also spinning.

We’ll shove the geni back in its bottle for now, but I had to share this amazing bit of siyatta di shmeya, even though I don’t know how I get to the next ‘breakthrough’, discovering the real ancestry of ‘EPHRAIM FISHEL [HAKOHEN] KITOVER’ – who is also having that same Kohen / not a Kohen issue we identified was happening on the ‘Rebbe Tree’.

See HERE.

Snippet:

Efraim Kitover could not be the son of the Shach who was a Kohen. Efraim;s son Avraham Gershon is buried on Har hazeitim and his original tombstone is still there. If he was a Kohen it would have been mentioned on the tombstone.

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And there are more ‘problems’ with his family tree, too, from HERE:

Snippets of the discussion:

Can anybody explain me how come Rabbi Ephraim was born in 1720 and his daughter was born in 1717?

And his son was born in 1701.

I have looked at this before, but don’t have edit access to the profile, and never did anything about it.

As I recall, R’ Ephraim died c.1720, rather than was born in 1720. He died shortly before his daughter married the Besht. So she was born earlier than 1717. Probably more like 1700.

If he is really the son of the Shach then his sister was born around 1649 so I would assume he was born between 1650 to 1680. But since he is not mentioned anywhere as being a Cohen my theory is that the Shach was not his father but rather the father of his wife!

Then it switches to Hebrew, to say no ‘Ephraim Kitover’ has been mentioned as being a son of the SHACH previously:

על פי ספר כתר כהונה (תודות רבנו הש”ך) לשבתי הכהן כץ היו 2 בנים ו-2 בנות. בעמוד 27 לספר נאמר כי שמות 2 חתניו היו מנחם (התחתן עם אסתר) ואהרון (שהתחתן עם טויבה).שמות בניו היו: הבכור משה והקטן מאיר.
בכל מקרה לא היה לו בן או חתן בשם אפרים ובכל הספר לא מוזכר השם הרב אפרים מברודי, כך שאפשר למחוק את השם הזה מתולדות הרב ש”ך.

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There’s a lot more interesting discussion at that link, go take a look.

Long story short… it’s a whole, hot mess.

It’s touching directly on so much of what we’ve been talking about here for years, re: the SHACH – SHABTAI TZVI connection (where you could have more kids from the SHACH, but be unable to ‘attribute them’ correctly, if they were born while he’d already gone bonkers and become ‘SHABTAI TZVI’, the false messiah).

And then, you have this question of transmission of ‘secret writings’ that seem to be mamash what was also in the possession of the Sabbateans and ‘practical kabbalists’ to the Baal Shem Tov – who tried to break the chain of transmission, tried to hide the book for future generations, and tried to create a ‘new path’ to avoid the problem from occurring again.

Except… it failed. Jacob Frank showed up at exactly this time, the Frankists converted out causing the BESHT to die from a ‘hole in the heart’, as described by none other than Rebbe Nachman in Likutey Moharan.

And the battle passed down to the next generation, where it was taken up by Rebbe Nachman, against the latest incarnation of ‘false messiahs’ and black magick working spiritual charlatans in the Jewish community.

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But thanks to the Rav, at least now we have the real identity of ADAM BAAL SHEM.

(Or possibly, the son of Adam Baal Shem, who was said to have died as soon as he passed on the teachings to the BESHT – exactly as Ephraim Fishel passed away after making his ‘shidduch’.)

We just don’t have a real identify for EPHRAIM FISHEL HAKOHEN KITOVER of Brody.

At least, not yet.