DAVID BIRNBAUM METAPHYSICS
DAVID BIRNBAUM PHILOSOPHY
BASIC IDEAS OF HASIDISM
Creator and Universe
“‘The hasidic leader R. Menahem Mendel of Lubavich observes (Derekh Mitzvotekha (1911), 123) that the disciples of the Ba’al Shem Tov gave the “very profound” turn to the doctrine of the oneness of God so that it means not alone that He is unique, as the medieval thinkers said, but that He is all that is:…there is no other existence whatsoever apart from His existence, blessed be He. This is true unification…just as there was no existence apart from Him before the world was created so it is even now.” …as a corollary of hasidic pantheism (more correctly, panentheism)…’”b
(author’s note: there are no extant writings of the Besht)
*b As noted in Encyclopaedia Judaica on Baal Shem Tov {1997} [CD-ROM]