זאב וולף קיציס

Rav Ze’ev Wolf Kitzes (born about 1695–12 Cheshvan 5549/1788), whose family name is spelled Kitzes or Kitzis, was one of the close talmidim and constant companions of the Baal Shem Tov. He was a son of Rav Yitzchak and the Rebbetzin Esther, and was known as a gaon fluent in every part of Torah as well as in the other branches of wisdom. He served as rav of the kehillah of Tulchin, and later moved to Medzhibozh, where his father-in-law Rav Naftali then held the rabbanut, and where he and Rav David Purkes stood at the head of the chaburah of chassidim who conducted themselves in exceptional kedushah and perishut.

When the Baal Shem Tov came to Medzhibozh, Rav Ze’ev and Rav David did not at first hold him in esteem — the very name Baal Shem Tov, they felt, did not befit a tzaddik — but once an incident showed them his greatness they drew near and became his close talmidim. Rav Yitzchak Alfasi writes that Rav Ze’ev was the Besht’s right hand and even lived in his house; in one of the best-known chassidic accounts he served as baal tokea in the Besht’s beit midrash on Rosh Hashanah. More than once he stood for his rebbe in the disputes with those who opposed him: when the rabbanim of Brody sought to place a cherem on the Besht, he prevailed upon the rav of Lvov, who forbade them to do so. The Besht said of him that between the two of them there was no more than a hairsbreadth — but that thread he would never be able to cross.

Rav Yitzchak of Radvil, son of Rav Yechiel Michel of Zlotchov, wrote that he was famous for his tzidkut and his exactness in mitzvot, to the point that he would toivel even a needle; he took upon himself not to eat meat that had not been made kosher in his presence, even where his rebbe the Besht did eat of it. Many stories about him are brought in Shivchei HaBesht. Like his rebbe he longed to go up to Eretz Yisrael and set out on the journey, but turned back. He was niftar on 12 Cheshvan and is buried in the ohel of the Baal Shem Tov in Medzhibozh, alongside the Besht’s grandsons Rav Baruch of Medzhibozh and the author of Degel Machaneh Efraim, both of whom were his talmidim, and the Ohev Yisrael of Apta.