The present study proposes to understand R. Israel Baal Shem Tov's approach to cleaving as dealing predominantly with the oral dimension of the letters, namely, with their sounds while they are articulated in recitation of prayer or Torah study. This approach implies a more active type of engagement with the letters than has been assumed in earlier hasidic scholarship, which emphasized cleaving to the visual aspect of the letters. Moreover, according to some teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, a variety of modes of cleaving to letters corresponds to the four cosmic worlds in Kabbalah.
Keywords Hasidism
* The present paper is part of a larger project aiming to re-examine the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov on the basis of as many sources as possible. Parts of it, written during my Fellowship of the 2007-8 Hasidism group at the Hebrew University's Institute of Advanced Studies, appear in my two recent studies of the Besht's approach to prayer, "Tefilah, ekstazah, umahashavot zarot be'olamo hadati shel habesht," in Yashan mipenei hadash: mehkarim betoledot yehudei mizrah eiropah uvetarbutam: shai le'imanu 'el etkes, ed.