Letter from the Archive: Woody Allen's Hasidic Tales: The New Yorker One of the great accomplishments of Martin Buber, the great theologian and philosopher, was to bring traditional eighteenth-century Hasidic tales to the modern reader, collecting them and re-telling them. These are the fervent, allegorical tales of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism; Rabbi Nachman of Breslov; Baruch of Mezbizh; Levi Yitzkhak of Berditchev; and many others. Buber has been criticized for romanticizing Hasidism, for failing to confront what critics see as its obscurantism, but his service to the literature is immense. Also, his scholarly work led to a sublime bit of parody: Woody Allen's re-telling and parody of those knotty, earthy, enigmatic stories - "Hassidic Tales, With a Guide to Their Interpretation by the Noted Scholar" - was engaged with their zaniness and the deadpan tone of interpretation. His piece first appeared in these pages in June, 1970, and then, the next year, in his classic collection, "Getting Even." Enjoy, and l'shana tova - Happy New Year. P.S. As an added treat, here is Woody, five years before, as a standup comedian. The "Tales" are the apples; this is the honey.