Notes on Hasidic Tales

Tales of the Hasidim, Martin Buber, p. 59

Tale entitled "The Seventy Languages" in which the Baal Shem Tov speaks to his disciples in ordinary language but they hear or experience other languages: 

"The Baal Shem began to say words of the teaching, but what he said seemed to have nothing to do with the subject of the question, and his disciples could not glean an answer from his words...In the middle of the Baal Shem's address, Rabbi Joseph rapped on the table and called out:  'Turkish!' and after a while:  'Tartar!' and after another interval:  'Greek!' and so on, one language after another.  Gradually his companions understood:  from the master's speech, which was apparently concerned with quite different things, he had come to know the source and the character of every single language-- and he who teaches you the source and character of a language, has taught you the language itself." This experience was enabled in order to answer the question:  What is the meaning of "Gabriel came and taught Joseph seventy languages"? 

This story is so reminiscent of the phenomemon at Pentecost described in the New Testament, in which every man heard the teachings in his own native tongue: 

Complete Jewish Bible, David H. Stern, 

p. 1361 

The Acts of the Emmissaries of Yeshua the Messiah, Chapter 2 Verse 1-8

"The festival of Shavu'ot arrived, and the believers all gathered together in one place. Suddenly there came a sound from the sky like the roar of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting...Now there were staying in Yerushalayim religious Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd gathered; they were confused, because each one heard the believers speaking in his own language. Totally amazed, they asked, 'How is this possible? Aren't all these people who are speaking from the Galil? How is it we hear them speaking in our native languages?'" 

Both of these stories provide a counterpoint to  the story of the Tower of Babel, in which languages became mutually unintelligible as a punishment or antidote imposed by G-d on man for his pride or hubris. 

Complete Jewish Bible: 

B'resheet (Genesis) Chapter 11  from verses 1- 9

"The whole earth used the same language, the same words...[people decided to build a tower in a city and make a name for themselves]...Adonai came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. Adonai said, 'Look, the people are united, they all have a single language, and see what they're starting to do!...Come, let's go down and confuse their language, so that they won't understand each other's speech.'  So from there Adonai scattered them all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. For this reason it is called Bavel [confusion]-- because there Adonai confused the language of the whole earth, and from there Adonai scattered them all over the earth." 

Seems that both the Baal Shem tale and the Acts narrative pose a solution to the divided nature of humanity. By grace, people can understand each other; by grace, unity can come out of multiplicity.