Today's minor irreverancy

Think about it... he didn't like the mainstream way of doing things... he made up his own approach.. he denounced the old ways... he recruited followers... the extablishment attacked him... he attacked back... he knew dope spooky magic... who am I talking about?

Voldermort? Or the Bal Shem Tov?

Relevance: The Bal Shem Tov's yartzeit (death day) is Thursday. For your additional consideration, I give you an excerpt from Alan Nadler's recent Forward article:

...we get a glimmer of the Besht’s own views in a letter he wrote to his brother-in-law — the most important text known today that has been authenticated as the Besht’s own. In it, the Besht describes one of his many heavenly ascents, in which he encounters the messiah:

Finally I rose and arrived at the actual Palace of the King Messiah and I actually saw [him] face to face, and great untold mysteries were revealed to me…. and there was in heaven much happiness and rejoicing; so I decided to ask him, ‘When, my Lord, will you be arriving?’ But the answer from his Eminence was, ‘This cannot be revealed, but by this shall you know: When your [the Besht’s] learning becomes publicly known and your teachings shall be spread across the world… then shall evil be broken and it will be the time of favor and salvation. And I worried about this and it greatly pained me on account of the very long time this would take.

Everyone get that? In a letter, the Bal Shem Tov claimed to have risen into heaven, and to have encountered the Messiah. Tomorrow, I plan to make the same claim. If you don't believe me, or suggest I need stronger meds, please expect to be called a Hassid basher. --after all, who but a Hassid basher would doubt such a reasonable and eminently believable claim? Right?