Joel ben Uri Heilprin (Hebrew: יואל בן אורי היילפרין; 1690–1757), also known as Ba'al Shem II (Hebrew: בעל שם השני), was a Galician Jewish thaumaturge in Satanow and Zamość.[1]
Possessed of a fair knowledge of medicine and physics, he claimed to effect cures and perform miracles by means of the Kabbalah and the Holy Name. In 1720 he published anonymously a work entitled Toledot Adam, describing various remedies attributed to prominent Kabbalists.[2] The preface of the work constitutes a continuous panegyric of Heilprin and his miracles.[3] Heilprin had many pupils, who, on the death of their master, "formed a band of charlatans who shamelessly exploited the credulity of their contemporaries."[4]
References
editThis article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Jacobs, Joseph; Broydé, Isaac (1904). "Heilprin, Joel ben Uri (also known as Ba'al Shem II.)". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 324.
- ^ Fuenn, Shmuel Yosef (1886). Knesset Yisrael: zikhronot le-toldot gedole Yisrael ha-nodaʻim la-shem be-toratam, be-ḥokhmatam, uve-maʻasehem [The Assembly of Israel: A Biographical Lexicon of the Great Persons of Israel Known for their Scholarship, Wisdom, and Deeds] (in Hebrew). Warsaw: Boymriter & Gonshor. p. 433.
- ^ Zedner, Joseph (1867). Catalogue of the Hebrew Books in the Library of the British Museum. Trustees of the British Museum. p. 284.
- ^ Katznelson, J. L.; Ginzburg, Baron D., eds. (1910). [Heilprin, Joel ben Uri]. Jewish Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron (in Russian). Vol. 6. St. Petersburg: Brockhaus & Efron. p. 267.
- ^ Jacobs, Joseph; Broydé, Isaac (1904). "Heilprin, Joel ben Uri (also known as Ba'al Shem II.)". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 324.