These twenty captivating stories about the founder of the Hasidic faith Israel ben Eliezer called the Baal-Shem or Master of God's Name, provide a profound and charming account of the genesis of Hasidism, still Judaism's most important religious movement. As a delicate and moving portrayal not only of the power of the Baal-Shem's mystical faith, but also of Eastern European Jewish daily life, The Legend of the Baal-Shem is an ideal introduction to Hasidic religious thought, and to Martin Buber's own influential philosophy of love and mutual human understanding.

In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov is the first complete English translation of the tales surrounding the Besht, a rabbi and kabbalistic practitioner whose teachings bolstered the growing Hasidic movement in the eighteenth century. An important source on the life, philosophy, and mystical works of the Besht, In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov also reveals the daily life and concerns of eastern European Hasidic Jews in the late 1700s.