The family of
Rav Dov Ber the Magid of Mezritch had a Megilas Yuchasin, a family tree
linking them back all the way to Rav Hai Gaon. When a fire totally
destroyed the family's home and all their possessions went up in
flames, Rav Ber's mother cried over the loss of their treasured Megilas
Yuchasin. Rav Dov Ber consoled her and told her that a new family tree
will one day start from him. Indeed it did, for the successor to
the Baal Shem Tov, and the single undisputed leader of the second
generation Chasidim.
Rav Dov Ber was born around the year 1704. His
early Rebbi was his father Reb Shlomo the Av Bais Din of the town. He
later went on to learn in the Yeshiva of the famed gaon the Pnei
Yehoshua in Lvov. The Pnei Yehoshua considered Rav Dov Ber a
Talmid-Chaver, a student and peer. Although his scholarship was
worthy of the most prestigious rabbinical positions he chose to become
a Magid and held that position in number of cities including Koritz,
Dubno, and Rovna.
With a
lame left foot and failing health due to his ascetic lifestyle, no less
than his Rebbi the Pnei Yehoshua, urged him to seek out the Baal Shem
in hopes of meriting a cure from the tzaddik. After a rough start when
he almost went home after hearing only simple stories from the Baal
Shem, the Baal Shem then explained to him a difficult piece of Kabala.
From that day on the Magid was bound heart and soul to his Rebbi the
Baal Shem. After the petira of the Baal Shem in 1760, although the
Baal Shem had many outstanding personalities among his chasidim, they
all accepted the Magid of Mezritch as their undisputed leader.
While
the Baal Shem catered to the masses, the Magid was more of a Rebbe's
Rebbe, attracting the leading minds of the generation and converting
them to Chassidus. He sowed the seeds of Chasidus with these talmidim
who eventually became great Rebbes in their own right and spread the
light of chasidus across Europe. Among them were counted the Baal
HaTanya, Reb Elimelech MiLizhensk and his brother Reb Zusya MiAnipoli,
Reb Shmelke MiNicholsburg and his brother Rav Pinchos Horowitz (the
Baal HaFlaah and rebbi of the Chasam Sofer), Rav Menachem Nochum
MiChernobyl, and the Kozhnitzer Magid. His son was the Rav Avrohom the
Malach from whom descended the Ruzhiner dynasty.
It was during
the leadership of the Magid that the famous Cherem, ban against
chasidim was signed in Vilna by the Vilna Gaon and the entire Vilna
Bais Din in 1772. Under the strain of the backlash against chasidus
and his failing health, the Magid was Niftar less than six months of
this terrible blow.
The Magid was the last universally accepted
leader of the Chasidim. After his death Chasidus became a more local
affair with various leaders each holding their own court in their own
territory. The Magid defined and clarified most of the eventual
chasidic thought and grew it from a local phenomenon into a world wide
force. Yehi Zichro Boruch!
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