אברהם יהושע השיל מאפטא

Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heshel of Apt (5508/1748–5 Nissan 5585/1825), called by chasidim the Apter Rov and known for all generations as the Ohev Yisrael after his sefer, was among the foremost rebbes of Poland and the father of the Apta–Zinkov (Mezhbizh) and Kopyczynitz dynasties. He was a scion of great rabbinic families, his lineage traced back to the Maharam Padua and to Shaul Wahl. While still young he was known as a master of Talmud and poskim; in avodat Hashem and in the inner Torah he was formed under the Rebbe Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk and Rav Yechiel Michel of Zlotshov. He began his rabbanut in the town of Kolbuszowa, and in 5560/1800 accepted the rabbanut of Apta — Opatów — the town whose name stayed on him through every later position he held.

In 5568/1808 he was called to Iasi, the capital of Moldavia, at the invitation of the chasidic banker Yechiel Daniel. His standing among the chasidic leadership of the generation was among the highest; he set himself against the printing and spreading of the Zohar to the wider public, out of concern that the secrets of the Torah would be handed over in a shallow way. In 5576/1816, after the passing of the Rebbe Reb Baruch of Mezhbizh and after strife in the kehillah of Iasi, he left and settled in Mezhbizh — the town of the Baal Shem Tov and the cradle of chasidut — where many chasidim gathered around him.

He wrote two sefarim: Torat Emet (Lvov, 5611) and Ohev Yisrael (Zhitomir, 5625), his teachings arranged on the weekly parshiyot, carrying divrei chasidut and kabbalah in which love and compassion for a fellow Yid run through every page — and it is by that sefer’s name that he is called. In his later years he was the elder of the tzaddikim of his generation, and most of the rebbes who came after him were his talmidim: among them Rav Kalonymus Kalman HaLevi of Cracow, author of the Maor VaShemesh; Rav Naftali Tzvi of Ropshitz; Rav Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov; Rav Simcha Bunim of Peshischa; Rav Shalom of Belz; Rav Yisrael of Ruzhin; Rav Chaim of Sanz; and the Chidushei HaRim of Ger.

On his deathbed he wept over the length of the galut, and told how Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev had given his word that once he came into the World to Come he would take neither rest nor seat until Mashiach arrived — only that they drew his attention away with lofty and hidden matters until the promise slipped from him. “But I assure you, I will not forget.” His resting place is in Mezhbizh, close to the kever of the Baal Shem Tov, where an ornate stone ohel marks it; chasidic tradition tells that angels bore his body to Eretz Yisrael, and a stone stands in his honor in the beit hakevarot of Teveria. His descendants took the family name Heshel after him, and a shul in Iasi carries his name.