אברהם המלאך

Rabbi Avraham, called HaMalach — the angel — and also HaKadosh, was the son and talmid of the Maggid of Mezritch, and was niftar on 12 Tishrei 5537/1776. He was born to the Maggid, Rabbi Dov Ber, and his wife Chavah, daughter of Rabbi Meshullam Feivush Horowitz of Kremenets. He was drawn to kabbalah from a young age. At his father’s request he learned together with Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi: Rabbi Shneur Zalman taught him the revealed Torah, the Gemara with Rashi and Tosafot, and Rabbi Avraham taught him chassidut, so that some counted Rabbi Shneur Zalman a talmid chaver of his. Rabbi Shneur Zalman called him HaKadosh, saying that he was holy from the womb, and by that name he is known in Chabad.

The name HaMalach came from his holiness and his withdrawal from the world. For years he lived alone in the town of Fastov near Kiev, seeing no one, shutting himself in a room with tallit and tefillin and eating very little. Rabbi Yitzchak of Radvil came to him on Tisha B’Av and found him sitting in mourning over the destruction of the two Batei Mikdash and weeping, and returning the next day found him still on the floor. On account of that withdrawal he declined to take his father’s place after him.

He was hesitant to marry because of the physical side of marriage, and his father persuaded him to do so for the holiness of the mitzvah. He was widowed young and married a second time, Gitel, daughter of Rabbi Meshullam Feivush Horowitz of Kremenets, author of Mishnat Chachamim on the mishnayot. As the son of the leader of the chassidic movement he felt the weakening of its idea, and together with his companions among his father’s talmidim developed the conception of the chassidic tzaddik as a channel for drawing down shefa to the many and raising their tefillot, and as a guide in avodah. His sefer Chesed L’Avraham, printed at Chernovitz, is arranged largely as a commentary on the Torah while treating also of Mishnah, Gemara and the yamim tovim, and in it he calls on the people to bind themselves to the tzaddik.

Two of his sons were rebbes: Rabbi Yisrael Chaim of Ludmir and Rabbi Shalom Shachna of Prohobisht, called Rabbi Shalom HaGadol, whose son Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin founded the Ruzhin dynasty. His daughter Devorah was the wife of Rabbi Yechiel Michel of Zvhil.