"The Judaism we practice today is, in so many ways, sourced in the theological revolution of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Chasidus. Now, Rabbi Burt Jacobson leads us into the profound psycho-spiritual teachings of the Baal Shem, which are centered in the love of God, and shows us how they can become the communal and personal animating principles of our lives. Such brilliant scholarship and depth of soul!" -Rabbi Wayne Dosick, PhD, author of Living Judaism and Radical Loving

"Burt has striven his entire life to hand over the legacy of Hasidism and of my father to generations to come. Let us listen to his voice in the pages of this book so that we may be enriched by our Hasidic inheritance and offer that heritage as a great fire of passionate devotion to God, to one another, to our fragile earth to generations to come." --Susannah Heschel, Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College

"Rabbi Burt Jacobson has given us the work of a lifetime--a treasury of stories, practices, and scholarship--bringing to life a Tzadik with the power to awaken our capacity for direct mystical experience. Living in the Presence is an important book for all spiritual seekers bearing much needed medicine for our troubled modern souls." --Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, PhD, author of Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma

"We step into the Besht's transformative presence. Rabbi Burt brings us with him on a journey of deep reflection. Though based on a lifetime of dedication to his subject and meticulous scholarship, this is not an academic book but a practical one that speaks to the relevance of the Besht's wisdom to issues that have always been central to the spiritual quest--the meaning of suffering and trauma, the lessons of justice and injustice, and the path to communion with the divine." --Kenneth Cohen, author of Honoring the Medicine: The Essential Guide to Native American Healing

"A masterpiece of profound insight, powerful love, and intimate longing. Rabbi Jacobson has opened us to a vast stream of timeless Wisdom, illuminated by his own deeply personal journey into Mystery and ultimate meaning. I am so grateful to Burt for his penetrating honesty, and for connecting me to this lineage of Love." --Rabbi Shefa Gold, author of Torah Journeys: The Inner Path to the Promised Land

"This unique memoir recounts the author's lifelong search for truth, healing, and spiritual awakening. Jacobson shares his intimate struggles with faith and how he eventually found a way to integrate his universal aspirations as a child of the Sixties with the radical wisdom teachings of Hasidism. This is not just another book on Kabbalah and Hasidism, but a masterpiece crafted over many decades of deep contemplation of the mystical teachings and life of the author's spirit guide, the Baal Shem Tov." --Estelle Frankel, psychotherapist, spiritual director, and teacher of Jewish mysticism; author of Sacred Therapy and The Wisdom of Not Knowing

"This deeply profound and personal work transcends genres--memoir, history, mystery, theology, text study, spiritual practice--and is an indispensable guidebook for those looking to find modern meaning in ancestral wisdom." --Zvika Krieger, spiritual leader, Chochmat HaLev; former director of responsible innovation, Facebook/Meta

"Burt Jacobson has had front-row seats if not leadership positions in the hottest epicenters of American neo-Hasidism, from Heschel's classrooms to Havurat Shalom, from the House of Love and Prayer to the Aquarian Minyan and, ultimately, his own revolutionary Kehilla Community Synagogue. At once personal memoir, mystical meditation, and