There are various versions of how the Baal Shem won [Rabbi Jacob Joseph of Polnoye] over, but they all have two traits in common: he does not reveal himself directly, but manifests himself through his particular manner of concealment, and he tells him stories (he always likes to tell stories) which stir the hearer just because of their primitive character and apparent lack of intellectual quality, and finally make him see and accept them as a reference to his own secret needs.
Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, Schocken Books, 1947, 38.
Image: “Hanukkah, 18th century,” Anonymous, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Matters of Interpretation 