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Case file

Adam Baal Shem

Wikipedia's first sentence called it “rabbi and mystic who first introduced the movement of hasidism”. Today it says “rabbi and mystic who lead a group of hidden tzaddikim called machane yisroel”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “According to Hasidic legend”. It now reads “According to Hasidic legend, Rabbi”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2025 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since. Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now. 1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2025

Adam Baal Shem of Ropczyce ( Hebrew : אָדָם נחום בַּעַל שֵׁם מרוֹפְּשִׁיץ ; 1680 – 1734) was a Rabbi and Mystic who lead a group of Hidden Tzaddikim called Machane Yisroel, started by Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem of Loans . The leadership of the movement was later handed down to Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem , who in turn handed it down to Rabbi Adam Baal Shem, who in turn handed it down to Rabbi Yisrael ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov . According to the Chernobyler chassidic tradition, he was the grandfather of Rabbi Menachem Nochum Twerski of Chernobyl. whose full name was Rabbi Adam nochum Shustak. The exact identity of Rabbi Adam is unknown. Since the name Adam was rare among European Jewry , According to Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan , others identify this Adam with Rabbi David Moshe Abraham (whose initials are Adam) of Troyes or with Adam Zerweiker. Kaplan also writes that it may be an anonym to protect the subject's identity. According to the Shivhei HaBesht , Rabbi Adam found manuscripts in a cave, containing hidden secrets of the Torah . Rabbi Adam asked in a dream to whom should he hand down the manuscripts? He was answered to hand them down to Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer of the city of Okopy . Before his death, he commanded his only son, who was an eminent scholar, to search for the city with that name and hand the manuscripts to Israel ben Eliezer. After Rabbi Adam died, his son traveled until he arrived at Okopy, where he married the daughter of a wealthy man and eventually gave the manuscripts to the Baal Shem Tov . Schneersohn, Yosef Yitzchak . לקוטי דיבורים (in Yiddish). English Rendition by Nissan Mindel (Revised ed.). Dov Baer ben Samuel of Linits (2004) [First published in English in 1970]. In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov ]. Translated and edited by Dan Ben-Amos and Jerome R.

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1269141389.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “rabbi and mystic who first introduced the movement of hasidism”. Today it says “rabbi and mystic who lead a group of hidden tzaddikim called machane yisroel”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “According to Hasidic legend”. It now reads “According to Hasidic legend, Rabbi”. Read the current article and compare.
20152020Oct '232025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.

What Wikipedia says this is

Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2015, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.

Then

rabbi and mystic who first introduced the movement of hasidism

Now

rabbi and mystic who lead a group of hidden tzaddikim called machane yisroel

Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.

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