Before the Baal Shem Tov, people thought of G‑d as the One who directs all things from above and beyond. The Baal Shem Tov taught that the vital force of each thing, from which comes its personality, its experience of pain and pleasure, its growth and life—that itself is G‑d. Not that this is all of G‑d. It is less than a glimmer of G‑d, because He is entirely beyond all such...