Dov Ber of Mezritch
Eighteenth-century Hasidic leader, the Maggid of Mezritch, who founded the first Hasidic court (died 1772)
- Not to be confused with Dovber Schneuri (Dov Ber of Lubavitch), the second Chabad Rebbe.
| Dov Ber of Mezritch
| |
|---|---|
| Born | 1704 (Mintz) |
| Died | 1772 |
| Occupation | Maggid (preacher); Hasidic leader |
| Known for | First Hasidic court; teacher of Shneur Zalman of Liadi |
Dov Ber of Mezritch (also Dov Baer of Mezhirech), known as the Maggid ("preacher") of Mezritch, was an eighteenth-century Hasidic leader in Volhynia who established the first Hasidic court and was the teacher of Shneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of Chabad.[1][2] Jerome Mintz gives his dates as 1704–1772 and calls him "the learned and charismatic Maggid (Preacher) of Mezritch, a town in Volhynia".[3] Etkes also gives 1772 as the year of his death.[4]
Relationship to the Baal Shem Tov
Mintz calls Dov Ber "the Baal Shem Tov's chief disciple".[3] Etkes writes that he "was not the Besht's heir but rather one of the Hasidic leaders active after the Besht's death", though "the most prominent Hasidic leader after the death of the Besht". Following the Baal Shem Tov, Etkes says, the Maggid "was an original mystic and teacher of the way to worship God" who "developed the Besht's approach in his own way", but "did not engage in magic, did not perform wonders, and did not take care of the worldly troubles of the people".[5] Elior writes that Dov Ber "was more expansive" than other editors of the Besht's teachings "and aimed at a more spirited interpretation of the Ba'al Shem Tov's mystical teachings".[6]
The first Hasidic court
Etkes writes that "around the mid-1760s Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch, established the first Hasidic court, and within a few years his disciples had founded more courts in the same pattern", and that these courts "served as centers for conversion to Hasidism".[1] Mintz quotes the philosopher Solomon Maimon's account of a Sabbath meal at the Maggid's court, at which "the great man appeared, his awe-inspiring figure clothed in white satin", called each newcomer by name and wove the verses they recited into a single sermon.[3] According to Mintz, Hasidic teachings were then carried across Eastern and Central Europe by disciples "who had witnessed the new ways and the new miracles at first hand at the court of Dov Ber and later at the courts of other Rebbes".[7]
Teachings
Elior writes that the Maggid, like the Baal Shem Tov, delivered his teachings orally and did not write them down.[8] His disciple Solomon of Lutsk set up a printing press in Korets to publish them, and Magid devarav leya'akov, the second work of Hasidic homiletics to be published, was by the Maggid; Elior says that Levi Isaac of Berdichev played a major role in writing and editing it.[9]
Disciples
Most of the Hasidic leaders of the 1780s were his disciples, according to Etkes, including Shneur Zalman of Liadi, "the youngest student of Rabbi Dov Ber".[1][10] Etkes says that some of the Maggid's disciples led communities while he was alive, and others, including Shneur Zalman, only after his death.[4] For Shneur Zalman, Etkes writes, the Maggid's model of leadership "was probably the most important", since "the Besht was a mythological figure for Shneur Zalman, whereas the Maggid had been his teacher and rabbi".[2] Chabad celebrates 19 Kislev as the anniversary of Shneur Zalman's release from prison in 1798. Samuel Heilman and Menachem Friedman write that the date is also the birthday of the Maggid, "the most prominent disciple of the Ba'al Shem Tov".[11]
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Immanuel Etkes, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady: The Origins of Chabad Hasidism, trans. Jeffrey M. Green (Brandeis University Press, 2015), Introduction, p. 1.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Etkes, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady, chapter 2, "A Leader of Hasidim", p. 22.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Jerome R. Mintz, Hasidic People: A Place in the New World (Harvard University Press, 1992), chapter 1, "The Dynasty of Reb Dov Ber: From Mezritch to East Broadway", p. 9.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Etkes, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady, chapter 2, p. 26.
- ↑ Etkes, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady, chapter 2, p. 25.
- ↑ Rachel Elior, The Mystical Origins of Hasidism, trans. Shalom Carmy (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2006), p. 14.
- ↑ Mintz, Hasidic People, chapter 1, p. 10.
- ↑ Elior, The Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 12.
- ↑ Elior, The Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 13.
- ↑ Etkes, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady, chapter 1, "Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady's Rise to Leadership", p. 9.
- ↑ Samuel C. Heilman and Menachem Friedman, The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson (Princeton University Press, 2010), chapter 2, p. 43.