Can you be in Two Places at Once?

Dr. Strange, the Flash, and the Besht

Reminder: I have availability as scholar-in-residence for Shabbos August 28/29. It can be anywhere in North America, since I anyway need to fly across the country. Please be in touch if you're interested!

I’ve covered some pretty strange topics in Jewish anti-rationalism over the years, including sentient pigs, karma chameleons, magical artifacts, and eating pulverized pig’s testicles, but this one might just take the cake.

A page circulating from a sefer by R. Yitzchak Meir Morgenstern quotes R. Dov Landau, top rabbi of the Lithuanian - not chassidic - charedi world. R. Landau raises a question regarding a miraculous account regarding the 18th century founder of the chassidic movement, the Baal Shem Tov (BeShT).

The question stems from a story told recounted by a R. Moshe Wolf, which he heard from a very old man, who in turn had heard an account from another person. When this person once passed by the Besht’s house on the way to synagogue, he could see through the window that the Besht was sitting in his house - but when he reached the synagogue he found that the Besht was there! The person went back to the Besht’s house and looked through the window to double-check, and saw that he was also still in his house! He went back to the shul and back to the house three times, and saw that the Besht was unequivocally in two places at once.

You might think that the resulting question would be “since this is not possible, why would people believe such a thing?” But you’d be wrong.