Baal Shem of London
Portrait of Falk by John Singleton Copley
Personal
Born
Hayyim Samuel Jacob Falk

1708
Fürth or Pidhaytsi
Died17 April 1782 (aged 73–74)
London, Great Britain
ReligionJudaism
BuriedAlderney Road Jewish Cemetery, London

Hayyim Samuel Jacob Falk (Hebrew: חיים שמואל יעקב דפאלק מרדיולה לנידו; 1708 – 17 April 1782), also known as the Baal Shem of London and Doctor Falckon, was a rabbi, a Baal Shem, a kabbalist and alchemist.

Biography

Falk was born in either Furth in Bavaria or Pidhaytsi in Podolia. After having narrowly escaped being burnt at the stake by the authorities in Westphalia who had charged him with sorcery, the German Count Alexander Leopold Anton von Rantzau secretly gave him refuge in Holzminden. During this stay there in 1736, Falk made impressive kabbalistic performances in Rantzau's castle, witnessed by noblemen and the Count's son Georg Ludwig Albrecht. The latter's memoirs contain a detailed account of these mystical demonstrations.[1] Sometime after 1736, Falk arrived in London. He lived at 35 Prescott Street, London, United Kingdom and at Wellclose Square, London until his death. He was a neighbour of Emanuel Swedenborg and there is some evidence that he had a significant influence on him.[2]

Rabbi Jacob Emden accused him of being a Sabbatean, as he invited Moses David of Podhayce, a known supporter of Sabbatai Zevi with connections to Jonathan Eibeschutz, to his home.[3]

He died on 17 April 1782 and was buried in Alderney Road Cemetery, Mile End, London.[4] Falk bequeathed in his will an annual sum of 100 pounds to the Great Synagogue of London as well as some Sifrei Torah.

Folklore

Many stories exist regarding Falk's extraordinary powers. According to one account, Falk made secretive visits to Epping Forest in his carriage, where he was said to have buried some treasure. On one of these occasions a wheel came loose from the vehicle on the Whitechapel Road, but followed the carriage all the way to the forest. When Falk ran short of coal, he was said to have performed a magical feat involving three shirts and a ram's horn.[5] Falk was also able to keep candles burning miraculously, and to transport objects from one place to another.

Some claimed that he had saved the Great Synagogue from fire by writing something in Hebrew on the pillars of the door.

Diary

Falk kept a diary containing records of dreams and the Kabbalistic names of angels. This can be found in the library of the United Synagogue in London. In 2002 Michal Oron published the diary and a biography of Falk.[6] The diary is written in Hebrew and is very cryptic. The diary was published together with the diary of Falk's assistant, Tsvee Hirsch of Kalish.

Notes

1.^ Variations of this portrait, originally subtitled "Baal Shem", are sometimes erroneously used to represent the Baal Shem Tov.[7]

References

  • Picciotto, James. Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History. London: Soncino Press, 1956.
  • Katz, David S. (1997). The Jews in the History of England, 1485–1850. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-820667-5.
  • Godwin, Joscelyn (1995). The Theosophical Enlightenment. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-2151-2.
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Joseph Jacobs and Hermann Adler (1901–1906). "Falk, Ḥayyim Samuel Jacob". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
  • Rantzow, George Louis Albert (Georg Ludwig Albrecht von Rantzau). Mémoires du comte de Rantzow, vol. 1, Pierre Mortier Amsterdam (1741). First translation ever published by Renate Ricarda Timmermann: Die Memoiren des Grafen von Rantzau, vol. 1, Profund-Verlag (2015), ISBN 978-3-932651-14-4

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Rantzow, George Louis Albert. "Mémoires du comte de Rantzow" p. 2 and pp. 197-223, Oxford Univ.; German translation: "Die Memoiren des Grafen von Rantzau" p. 1 and pp. 70-79
  2. ↑ Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. "Review:Emanuel Swedenborg, Secret Agent on Earth and in Heaven: Jacobites, Jews, and Freemasons in Early Modern Sweden".
  3. ↑ Grözinger, Karl-Erich; Dan, Joseph (1991). Mysticism, Magic and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-013744-6.
  4. ↑ "Alderney Road Cemetery, Mile End". Jewish East End of London.
  5. ↑ Isaacs, Hyam (1850). Ceremonies, Customs, Rites, and Traditions of the Jews. William Buck. pp. 355–356.
  6. ↑ Oron, Michal (2002). Samuel Falk, The Baal Shem of London מ'בעל שד' ל'בעל שם'. Bialik Institute. ISBN 978-965-342-850-8.
  7. ↑ "Ba'al Shem Tov". tovste.info. Retrieved 28 October 2014;"The Ba'al Shem Tov". onthemainline. 15 March 2006. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
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