מרדכי מלעכוויטש

Rav Mordechai Yaffe of Lechovitch (5502/1742–13 Shevat 5570/1810) was a talmid of Rav Shlomo of Karlin and the founder of the chassidut of Lechovitch, from which the courts of Kobrin, Slonim, Koidanov and Novominsk branched out. He was born in Nesvizh to Rav Noach, the parnas of the town, and was orphaned of him as a child. In his early years he traveled to Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, who once said of him that a third of the world rests upon him, and afterwards attached himself to the rebbe he took as his own, Rav Shlomo of Karlin; together with his friend Rav Asher of Stolin he also traveled to Rav Baruch of Mezhibuzh.

After his marriage he stayed on in Nesvizh until his rebbe was niftar on 22 Tammuz 5552/1792, and then began to lead a kehillah in Lechovitch, in Lita under Russian rule and today in Belarus; his chassidim were counted in the thousands. In 1799 the Russian authorities arrested him together with Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi and Rav Asher of Stolin, and he was freed later that year. He was close to Rav Avraham of Kalisk although the two never met face to face, and it was Rav Avraham who set him at the head of the Kupat Maot Eretz HaKodesh on behalf of Kollel Reisin; in that office he worked for the support of the chassidic yishuv in Eretz Yisrael and traveled himself to raise the money.

Following the way of Karlin, he taught the weight of a tefillah said with fire, and pressed his chassidim toward simple emunah by having them say over the thirteen ikkarim aloud. He read the words of Yirmiyahu — emunah is lost, it is cut off from their mouth — to mean that emunah is lost from the heart for the very reason that it is cut off from the mouth, since a man does not repeat it aloud; and the words of Tehillim, that I had emunah when I spoke, to mean that speech engraves emunah in the heart. His divrei Torah are printed in Divrei Shalom and Mishmeret Shalom of his grandson Rav Shalom of Koidanov, and in Or Yesharim, Torat Avot and Mira Dachya. He was niftar in Stolin, where he had come for the wedding of his grandson Rav Shlomo Chaim Perlov, and his son Rav Noach took his place both in the leadership of the chassidut and at the head of the Eretz Yisrael fund.