The Mystery of the Baal Shem Tov’s Birthplace

Nearly every detail about the life of Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism, is the subject of debate among historians and chroniclers. Even the question of where he was born remains unresolved.

The village’s name is known — it appears clearly in early sources, but its exact location has never been conclusively identified.

The Village of Okop

At the beginning of Shivchei HaBesht (The Praises of the Baal Shem Tov), it is written that the Baal Shem Tov’s family lived in the region of Wallachia, near the border, in a small village called Okop.

It was there that the Baal Shem Tov was born and later orphaned. Before his death, his father, Rabbi Eliezer, left a spiritual will for his young son: “I see that you will one day be my light. Though I will not merit to raise you, my beloved son, remember always that God is with you. Therefore, fear no creature in the world — fear only the Almighty Himself.”

After his parents’ passing, the townspeople of Okop took pity on the orphan and placed him under the care of the village’s melamed (teacher), who became his guardian.

The boy later served as a helper in the cheder, responsible for bringing the children to class and returning them home safely — a duty he performed faithfully and with affection.

From Caretaker to Saint

With time, he became the caretaker of the local study hall, a role that allowed him to pray and meditate through the quiet of the night.
There he advanced in holiness and spiritual purity.

At that time, a hidden tzaddik named Rabbi Adam Baal Shem lived in the same town. He possessed mystical writings discovered in a cave, and before his death, he instructed his son to deliver them to a certain young man — Yisrael, son of Rabbi Eliezer, from Okop.

After observing the young Yisrael in the study hall, the son of Rabbi Adam became convinced that this was the person his father had spoken of. He handed the manuscripts to him, and together they studied the esoteric secrets contained within.

Later, however, the young man (Rabbi Adam’s son) died tragically, and Rabbi Yisrael left the town, wandering through the Ukrainian countryside until he eventually settled in Tluste and later in Mezhibuzh, where he passed away.

Where Is Okop?

While Mezhibuzh is well-known and visited to this day, and Tluste (modern-day Tovste) is also easily identified on the Galician border, the village of Okop remains elusive.

No such settlement appears in other historical sources or maps from that period. This led some Hasidic traditions to suggest that “Okop” was not a literal place name, but an acronym for “Ish Kadosh Ve’Oseh Pele” — “A holy man and worker of wonders”—referring allegorically to the Baal Shem Tov himself.

Possible Locations

Over the years, several sites have been proposed as possible identifications:

• Various small villages called Okopy in eastern Ukraine.

• A location near Kolomyya, according to local Jewish tradition, which claims the village later became part of the expanding city and was eventually destroyed during the Holocaust. The area later became the Jewish cemetery of Kolomyya, which was razed by the Nazis and today serves as a public park.

The name Okopy in Ukrainian means “moat” or “water trench”, so any village surrounded by water channels might have been referred to by that name.

Rabbi Yosef Lewenstein, rabbi of Sarotzk, suggested (as quoted in Nachalat Tzvi vol. 14) that “Okop” referred to a district or neighborhood within Tluste, enclosed by a moat or wall — a view that was also echoed by Lubavitch tradition. The Lubavitcher Rebbe himself once mentioned this interpretation in his writings.

Another theory identifies Okop as a fortified settlement on the Dniester River, near the Moldovan-Podolian border, established in 1702 as a defensive outpost against the Ottoman Turks. Located exactly along the river marking the boundary between Moldavia and Poland, it later became a civilian village.

This matches well with the descriptions in Shivchei HaBesht and other early Hasidic sources, which place the Baal Shem Tov’s birthplace on the Dniester River, near the region of Wallachia (the old term for Moldavia and Romania).