יחיאל מיכל מזלוטשוב

Rav Yechiel Michel of Zlotshov (5486/1726–25 Elul 5541/1781), known as the Maggid of Zlotchov, was among the talmidim of both the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezritch. He was born in Brody in Galicia to Rav Yitzchak of Drohobitch, who at first opposed the Baal Shem Tov but became his admirer and sent his young son to him; the boy became the Besht’s talmid and attended him for several years. His yichus ran deep: his grandfather was Rav Yosef of Pistyn, called “Rav Yosef Ish Emet,” his grandmother Yenta was called “the prophetess,” and through his mother Feiga he descended from Rav Meir Poppers, of the great spreaders of the kabbalah of the Arizal. His talmid Rav Meshulam Feivush Heller called him “a son of holy ones, a tzaddik the son of a tzaddik.”

After the petirah of the Baal Shem Tov he began to lead a community, and journeyed several times to the Maggid of Mezritch. He served as maggid meisharim in Brody, Kalk, Zlotshov, and Yampol, and his name went out through his derashot: he would tell, through ruach hakodesh, the sins of those sitting before him — even those done in secret or in thought — and so move the community to teshuvah. He conducted himself in great kedushah and prishut, and would daven late into the night, saying that like shevet Dan, who marched at the rear of the camp of Yisrael and gathered up the lost objects, he gathered the tefillot said without kavanah and raised them to their source. This practice drew opposition, above all from the Noda BiYehudah during his Yampol years — yet the Maggid bore him no grudge.

He wrote no sefarim, but his sons and talmidim cite his torah throughout their works, and generations later Rav Nosson Nota Donner gathered his teachings into the sefer Mayim Rabbim. He composed nigunim, the most famous of them “Hitorerut Rachamim Rabbim”; chassidim tell that at the time of the Baal Shem Tov’s petirah the Besht asked his talmidim to sing this nigun, and promised that whoever sings it with an arousal of teshuvah, he would join in the singing with his soul and arouse great mercy upon him before Hashem. In his last years Rav Michel attained wealth, and said that wealth broadens a man’s mind for avodat Hashem.

Among his talmidim were Rav Yissachar Ber of Zlotshov, Rav Chaim Tirer, Rav Avraham Mordechai of Pintchov, Rav Meshulam Feivush Heller, Rav David Shlomo Eibeschutz, and Rav Mordechai of Neshchiz. Of his five sons the chassidim said: “five cedars, goodly plantings which he planted, and they gave light in all the world — corresponding to the five Chumashim of the Torah”: Rav Yosef of Yampol, Rav Yitzchak of Radvil, author of Or Yitzchak, Rav Zev Wolf of Zbaraz, Rav Moshe of Zvhil, founder of the Zvhil dynasty, and Rav Mordechai of Kremenets. He was niftar on Shabbat, 25 Elul, at the hour of minchah, and was buried in Yampol.