ברוך ממז'יבוז'

Rebbe Boruch of Mezhibuzh (5517/1757–18 Kislev 5572/1811), the Rebbe Reb Boruch’l, was a grandson of the Baal Shem Tov — son of Adel, the Baal Shem Tov’s only daughter, and Rabbi Yechiel Ashkenazi — and the first rebbe to hold court in his grandfather’s town and beit medrash in Mezhibuzh. He spent his first years in his grandfather’s home, and after the Baal Shem Tov’s passing was raised on the knees of the movement’s founders: the Maggid of Mezritch, Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz, and Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye. Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz and the Toldot testified that the Baal Shem Tov had designated his grandson to carry his crown when he grew.

Around 5540 he accepted the leadership of chassidim in Tulchin, his father’s town, and in 5548 moved his court to Mezhibuzh, where he conducted himself in the derech of malchut — royalty — receiving pidyonot from his chassidim, part of which he sent to strengthen the chassidic yishuv in Eretz Yisrael. The great figures of the generation passed through his court, and the famous Hershele of Ostropoli sat at his table. Most of the Jews of Podolia accepted his leadership, and his strong sense of his inheritance brought him, at times, into machloket with other leaders of the movement, among them his own nephew, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov.

His teachings were gathered by talmidim and printed in Butzina D’Nehora and scattered through the early sefarim of chassidut. Among his remembered sayings: the greatness of Eliyahu at Carmel was not the fire from Heaven, but that the people did not speak of the wonder — they cried out “Hashem, He is the G-d.” He rests beside his grandfather in Mezhibuzh (Ukraine).