Baal Shem Tov, Polish rabbi and author (born 1700)

Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov or BeShT (בעש״ט), was a Jewish mystic and healer who is regarded as the founder of Hasidic Judaism. A baal shem tov is a "Master of the Good Name," that is, one able to work miracles using the secret name of God. Other sources explain his sobriquet as arising from a reputation of being a saintly, or superior, Baal Shem "miracle-worker", hence he was given the nickname Baal Shem Tov, the "good Baal Shem".