Rav Yaakov Yitzchok Rabinowitz of Peshischa zt"l
הרב יעקב יצחק בן אשר מפשיסחא זצ"ל
Tishrei 19 , 5574
Rav Yaakov Yitzchok Rabinowitz of Peshischa zt"l
Rav Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowitz of Peshischa was born in the year 5526 (1766) in Peshischa. He was the son of Rav Asher Rabinowitz, the Maggid Mesharim of Pshedburz and the Rav of Grodzhizsk.
Nicknamed Charif, he was famed as a child prodigy and studied in the yeshiva of Rav Aryeh Leib Halperin, afterward serving as Rav of Pshedburz. He studied together with Rav Yehudah, Av Beis Din of Yanov and author of Kol Yehudah, and Rav Yeshaya of Pshedburz. He sanctified himself with stringencies in all manners of kedushah, which he accepted upon himself in private. As he grew in Torah, he moved to the yeshiva of Rav Dovid Tawil, the Rav of Lisa and author of Nefesh Dovid.
From there, Rav Yaakov Yitzchak moved to Apt, where his early rav and mentor, Rav Aryeh Leib, had become the chief rabbi. In Apt, he married the daughter of one of the wealthy gevirim and continued his studies, at first with all of his material needs provided for, and later in poverty and deprivation that he was able to withstand only because of his strong physical constitution. Tradition has it that Rav Yaakov Yitzchak’s strength was a source of amazement to others. He was eventually appointed as rosh yeshiva in Apta, filling the position left vacant by Rav Aryeh Leib, who moved to Sokatchov, and which then provided his family with a decent income.
This was the period in which the relatively young movement of Chassidus began to spread beyond Galicia and make inroads in Poland proper (Congress Poland). According to some traditions, it was Rav Moshe Leib of Sassov who arrived in the area where Rav Yaakov Yitzchak lived and began searching for new adherents to convert to the way of Chassidus. His mesmerizing personality captured many noble hearts and souls, among them Rav Yaakov Yitzchak.
After becoming a chassid, he left his position as rosh yeshiva and began a period of secluded devotion (hisbodedus), and practices of character refinement by way of self-affliction. He began immersing in freezing cold mikvaos and wandered in self-imposed exile (galus).
According to other traditions, Rav Yaakov Yitzchak was introduced to the Chassidus when, while studying with Rav Yeshaya in Pshedburz, Rav Dovid of Lelov sent for them and drew them close to Chassidus and to the spiritual guidance of the Chozeh of Lublin. (See entry on Rav Yeshaya of Pshedburzh for details.)
It was there, among the elite disciples of the Chozeh, the greatest bastion of Chassidus in Poland, that Rav Yaakov Yitzchak earned himself the sobriquet, ‘Yid HaKadosh’ (Holy Jew), due to his lofty stature.
There are a number traditional explanations, all essentially true, why he was called the Yid HaKadosh:
- Because he shared the same name as his rebbe, Yaakov Yitzchak ben Devora Matil, and it is forbidden for a talmid to call his rebbe by name, neither during his lifetime nor after. Even calling others with the same name, not referring to the rebbe, should be avoided.
- Because he once saw Eliyahu HaNavi in the persona of a farmer holding his horse. He said to his servant: “Look! There is Eliyahu HaNavi!” The prophet, Eliyahu, turned to him and said: “Look! Here is a Yid! Why do you reveal everything that you see?” then promptly vanished.
- He never said any of his chiddushim in his own name, saying instead: “I heard from a certain Jew – a Yid.”
- Because each and every day he underwent such a radical transformation in his growth in avodas Hashem, that it was on par with a ger converting from a non-Jew into a Yid!
- Because his soul was the reincarnation of Mordechai HaYehudi. And why was Mordechai called ‘HaYehudi’? The Gemara (Megillah 11a) says that because he rebuffed avodah zara (idolatry), he was called a Yehudi. Likewise, all who fervently spurn avodah zara are called Yehudi (Yid).
- Rav Yitzchak Meir, author of Chiddushei HaRim and first Gerrer Rebbe, said: “Until the Yid HaKadosh appeared, chassidus was a commentary to explain the Torah derech and the ways of the Baal Shem Tov. From the Yid HaKadosh on, chassidus became a commentary on Peshischa. The Yehudi, the Yid HaKadosh, is a pure ‘Yid’ who has not one negative trait that in any way resembles those of the gentiles.”
- The Yid HaKadosh said about himself: Mordechai HaYehudi’s father was from the tribe of Binyamin and his mother was from the tribe of Yehudah, and so too it is with me!
- Whereas the other reasons place the emphasis on the word ‘Yid’, the following places it on ‘HaKadosh’ because he never placed his hand below his belt. Just like the Tanna, Rav Yehuda HaNasi, who was called Rabbeinu HaKadosh because he, too, followed this practice, Rav Yaakov Yitzchak was called the Yid HaKadosh.
Whatever the source of his appellation, everyone agrees that Rav Yaakov Yitzchak’s sanctity and holiness were supernatural. He testified regarding himself: “From the day I was aware of myself I have never stopped gazing at the four-letter name of Hashem; it has never departed from before me for even a moment!
There is a tradition in Peshischa that the Chozeh himself once testified to a revelation from Heaven that one day a disciple bearing his same full name would arrive and succeed him.
Rav Mordechai of Neshchiz, one of the elder chassidim of that generation, testified: “I am not jealous of the Chozeh of Lublin except over for one thing, that he merited such a disciple as the Yid HaKadosh.”
As is well known, the Yid HaKadosh was dissatisfied with the populist approach to Chassidus then offered in Lublin. He surrounded himself with an elite circle of close disciples, who strove for the higher ideals of more personal introspection, self-refinement and diligence in Torah study, with less emphasis on wonderworking, bestowing berachos, miraculous cures and simple faith (emuna peshuta).
This approach earned the Yid HaKadosh opponents and detractors. Chief among them were two prominent Chassidim of the Chozeh named Ber and Yekusiel, regarding whom the Yid HaKadosh would quip that the pasuk “איש בער לא ידע וכסיל לא יבין את זאת”( Ish be’er lo yodeah v’kasil lo yavin es zos, --“An ignoramus doesn’t know and a fool doesn’t understand this”) applied to them. The name of the first, Ber (spelled בער in Yiddish), was alluded to by the word in the verse, בער (ignoramus), and the word כסיל (fool) alluding to Yekusiel, who in Yiddish is nicknamed Kesiel. The Yid HaKadosh testified on these nemeses: “The evil one (yetzer hara) guarded them from any sin or transgression, safeguarding them for forty years. The yetzer only did this so they would be so lofty and holy that when they spoke lashon hara and slandered me falsely to the Chozeh, he accepted their testimony and they [their souls] were lost forever.” Most of the tzaddikim in Galicia also opposed the Yid HaKadosh’s new derech. One of his few defenders was Rav Yisrael, the Kozhnitzer Maggid, but he alone was unable to bridge the growing gap and stem the machlokes (strife).
The Yid HaKadosh travelled to Rav Menachem Mendel of Rimanov to try and garner his support. Everywhere Rav Yaakov Yisrael went, he was met with honor and fanfare as thousands of chassidim came out to greet the renowned tzaddik. The entourage and welcome were so electrifying that Rav Aharon Marcus writes that the Rimanover’s grandson innocently asked him: ‘Zeida, has Mashiach arrived?’ However, this gambit too did not succeed and the Rimanover was unable to heal the rift between the Yid and his rebbe, the Chozeh.
Despite his growing court and assemblage of followers, the Yid remained a faithful chassid, constantly visiting his rebbe, the Chozeh in Lublin even while his opponents did their best to malign him to the Chozeh with reports of how he was impudently acting as rebbe and stealing the limelight and the hearts of all the new young Chassidim. Eventually he had no choice but to stop coming to Lublin, and the rift was complete and never fully healed. Polish chassidus had split forever between the traditional Galicianer derech and the new way of Peshischa, which would later branch off into the likes of Kotzk, Vorke, Ger, Amshinov, Alexander, Izhbitz-Radzin and many others.
The new Peshischa derech continued to grow and find new adherents, its opposition growing along with it. Chassidim of the Yid HaKadosh, in defense of their new, and what they felt superior, derech, would scorn and belittle the other Chassidim and their ways and beliefs. The Yid’s disciples often davened very late, well past the set time for zman tefillah, justifying their behavior with the explanation that the lengthy, necessary spiritual preparations for davening far outweighed in importance the mere act of davening itself.
Another characteristic of the new Peshischa derech was that, similar to Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi (author of the Tanya and founder of Chabad chassidus), the Yid also sought a more intellectual and cerebral approach to chassidus via emphasis on Chassidic philosophy and in-depth Torah study. The point where the Peshischa approach parted ways with Chabad was that while Chabad focused on meditation on Hashem’s Immanence and Transcendence, and hisbonenus leading to emotional hispa’alus, the Peshischa approach was characterized more by introspection. A Peshischa chassid always needed to ask himself ‘Why?’, questioning and purifying his motivations. Why is he going to do this, before he acts – and why did he do this, after he acted? Similar to Chabad, Peshischa sought to subjugate the heart to the mind, but to this end, Peshischa emphasized mussar, self-criticism, and a well thought out approach to Yiddishkeit.
This approach required lengthy preparation. Introspection and preparation before action characterized Peshischa, including intense preparations before performing mitzvos. Mikvah, teshuvah, meditation, Torah study, mussar and much more were tools used to hone and prepare a person for performing a mitzvah wholeheartedly and thus properly. The act itself, the maaseh mitzvah, became almost secondary in importance to the thought and preparation that preceded it. Action is necessary, but woe to he who acts without advance preparation and thought. Performing supernatural ‘wonders’ was given little weight in Peshischa. The Yid HaKadosh used to say, “Wonders and miracles are no wonder at all! The true wondrous miracle is to be a Yid, to be a real Jew!”
Rav Yaakov Yitzchak’s davening was characterized by fire and flame, excitement and loud cries and shouts. He would become so enraptured in dveikus that on the third day of Chol Hamoed Sukkos, 5574 (1813), at the age of forty-eight, his soul took leave of his holy body in the midst of davening, never to return.
His son, Rav Yehoshua Asher, who always waited for his father to finish davening so he could call to him and revive his soul, was delayed on that fateful day, and when he finally arrived it was too late. His holy father was in such a deep and elevated state of dveikus that as he departed from the world, he kept repeating certain phrases over and over again, such as the Baal Shem Tov’s last words: “Let me not by arrogant and vain with pride,” and “Ain Od Milvado – There is nothing but Hashem!”
Rav Shlomo HaKohen of Radomsk, author of Tiferes Shlomo, testified in awe: “See what happened in the end, his soul expired while in the midst of mesirus nefesh, davening his tefillos!”
His sons were also rebbes: Rav Yerachmiel, who succeeded him in Peshischa, Rav Yehoshua Asher of Zelichov and Rav Nechemiah Yechiel of Bichov. His sons-in-law were Rav Moshe of Lelov and Rav Shmuel Rephaels, the father-in-law of Rav Avraham Moshe of Peshischa.
His primary successor was Rav Simcha Bunim of Peshischa. Among his other disciples were:
Rav Abba of Neustadt, Rav Isamar of Konskowala, Rav Binyamin of Lublin, Rav Dov Ber of Radoshitz, Rav Dovid Yitzchak Charif of Pietrokov, Rav Zelig of Saransk, Rav Henoch of Alexander, Rav Chaim Meir Yechiel of Chaim Meir Yechiel of Mogolinitza, Rav Yechezekel of Kuzmir, Rav Yaakov Aharon of Alexander, author of Beis Yaakov, Rav Yitzchak of Vorke, Rav Yaakov Dovid of Vishigrod, Rav Yom Tov Netel Bronshpigel of Tshechiyov, author of Tohar Rayonim, Rav Leibush of Shidlavitsa, Rav Leibush of Ozhrov, Rav Leibush of Kuzmir, Rav Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, Rav Moshe of Rozhvadov, Rav Moshe Aharon of Kutna, Rav Moshe Dovid of Lida, Rav Moshe Yechiel of Biala, Rav Peretz of Peshischa, Rav Shlomo Leib of Lentshena, Rav Shmuel Shmarya of Osrovtza and Rav Shimshon of Zhvolin.
His Divrei Torah were primarily collected and printed in the collections: Tiferes HaYehudi, Niflaos HaYehudi, Kesser HaYehudi and Kedushas HaYehudi.
Stories of Rav Yaakov Yitzchok Rabinowitz of Peshischa zt"l
My rebbe from Peshischa said that everyone needs to have two rebbes, one from this world and one from supernal worlds up above – Olam Ha’elyon. I understood that he was referring to the Maharal because he was telling us just then how he had been to his kever in Prague. He said that he had studied the Maharal’s sefarim before davening and that his tefillah that day was especially fluent and fluid. I heard that when he was at the Maharal’s kever in Prague, he asked for three things and promised that if they were fulfilled he would publicize the great value of the Maharal’s sefarim (Ramasayim Tzofim on Tana Devei Eliyahu Chap 18, cited in Gevuras Ari p10, footnote #24).
They say that the Yid HaKodosh of Peshis’cha was called by this name, the “Holy Jew”, because he rose to such spiritual heights that every day of his life, it was as if he had transformed himself from the level of a non-Jew to that of a Jew. (Sfas Emes, Bamidbar)
The Yid HaKodosh used to say that in Tehillim (147:3) it says that Hashem heals the brokenhearted. The Yid asked, “Why does a broken heart need to be healed? Isn’t it a positive thing to broken-hearted (because it allows you to strive to better serve Hashem) as it says (Tehillim 34:19): “Hashem is close to the broken-hearted”?
The Yid HaKodosh answered that although being broken-hearted is indeed positive, this holds true only as long as it is accompanied by happiness and not by depression. This is what the pasuk means: “Hashem heals the broken-hearted and bandages their sadness”. Hashem does not heal them of their broken-heartedness, only that it should not be in sadness, Heaven forbid. This is their cure: they are healed by being happy and joyful while broken-hearted. Therefore the pasuk stresses that Hashem cures their sadness, and leaves their positive broken hearts with simcha. (Siach Sarfei Kodesh #7; Shoshanim LeDovid on Sefer Tehillim p. 334, see also a letter by Rav Luria regarding this pasuk in correspondence below)
The Yid HaKodosh said regarding the teaching of Chazal (Berochos 32b): “All gates have been locked except the gates of tears”, that the reason that the gates of tears remain unlocked is because if they were locked then, Heaven forbid, our tears could not enter. Tears most often are cried from sadness and therefore they have a difficult time entering if the gates are locked. However, through simcha, kennen mir lecheren di farshlissener toyeren – “with joy we can bore a hole and break through all locked gates!” (Tiferes HaYehudi #107)
Divrei Torah of Rav Yaakov Yitzchok Rabinowitz of Peshischa zt"l
chew it up
The Yid HaKodosh had a unique interpretation of the Gemora in Pesochim (115b), which rules bola moror lo yotza – that if you swallow the moror (bitter herbs) at the Pesach Seder, then you do not fulfill your obligation. The Yid taught that the underlying message is if you swallow the moror you have not fulfilled your duty. If you have a bitter experience in Avodas Hashem, if it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, do not swallow it! Rather you need to chew it up really well. If you swallow it without chewing it up you have not fulfilled your obligation. (Tiferes HaYehudi #108)
Segulos of Rav Yaakov Yitzchok Rabinowitz of Peshischa zt"l
Rav Yitzchak Meir Alter of Ger, the genius of Chassidus, used to say: “Mere mention of the kedushah and sanctity of the holy Yid HaKadosh is itself a segulah for yiras Shamayim and can cause the awe of Heaven to enter into the heart of man.”