Rav Yaakov Yitzchok Rabinowitz of Peshischa

Early years

Rav Yaakov Yitzchok Rabinowitz of Peshischa zy"a was born in 5526 (1766), the son of Rav Asher Rabinowitz, the Maggid Mesharim (preacher) of Pshedburz and Rav of Grodzhizsk, who came from a distinguished rabbinic family. Known as a child prodigy, he was nicknamed Charif (sharp). He learned in the yeshivah of Rav Aryeh Leib Halperin and then served as Rav of Pshedburz.

He learned together with Rav Yehudah, Av Beis Din of Yanov and author of Kol Yehudah, and with Rav Yeshaya of Pshedburz. In private, he took upon himself stringencies in every area of kedushah. As he grew in Torah, he moved to the yeshivah of Rav Dovid Tawil, the Rav of Lisa and author of Nefesh Dovid.

Rav Yaakov Yitzchok then went to Apta, where his early teacher, Rav Aryeh Leib, had become the Rav. In Apta he married the daughter of one of the wealthy men of the town and continued learning, at first with all his needs provided, and later in poverty and hardship that he could bear only because of his unusual physical strength, which amazed those who saw it. When Rav Aryeh Leib left for Sokatchov, he was appointed rosh yeshivah in Apta, which gave his family a decent income.

In those years he withdrew from worldly matters, fasted for long periods and prayed with ecstatic fervor, and these weakened his body. At first he tried to hide his spiritual qualities and his acts of charity. He gave money freely to the poor, his own fortune declined, and he was forced to work as a village schoolteacher.

Torah and leadership

In those years Chassidus was spreading from Galicia into Poland itself. One tradition holds that Rav Moshe Leib of Sassov came to the area where Rav Yaakov Yitzchok lived, seeking new adherents, and that his magnetic personality won many noble hearts, among them Rav Yaakov Yitzchok. Another tradition holds that while he was learning with Rav Yeshaya in Pshedburz, Rav Dovid of Lelov sent for them and drew them toward Chassidus and the guidance of the Chozeh of Lublin. From Rav Dovid he gained a deeper understanding of the obligation to love every Jew.

Once he became a chassid, he left his position as rosh yeshivah and began a period of hisbodedus (secluded devotion), refining his character through self-denial. He immersed in freezing mikvaos and wandered in self-imposed exile. He became known as a great Torah scholar and a man of intense avodah. He would say that if a sword were stuck into the body of a person who was davening and he felt pain, his tefillah was not real.

A turning point came when he met the Chozeh of Lublin, Rav Yaakov Yitzchok ben Devora Matil, and became his closest talmid. Among the elite talmidim of the Chozeh, in the greatest center of Chassidus in Poland, he earned the title Yid Hakadosh, the Holy Jew, for his lofty stature. The Chozeh admired him and appointed him spiritual guide of the young scholars. He taught them to cast off pride and any sense of their own worth, and said that a tzaddik always sees his friends' virtues and his own lowliness.

The Chassidim give many explanations for the name Yid Hakadosh, each of them held to be true. He shared the name of his rebbe, and a talmid may not call his rebbe by name. He once saw Eliyahu Hanavi in the form of a farmer holding his horse, and was told, "Here is a Yid. Why do you reveal everything that you see?" He never said his chiddushim in his own name, but would say, "I heard it from a certain Jew, a Yid." Every day he grew so much in avodas Hashem that it was as if he were a non-Jew becoming a Yid that day. His soul was a gilgul (reincarnation) of Mordechai Hayehudi, who was called Yehudi because he rejected avodah zarah, as the Gemara in Megillah 11a teaches, and all who firmly reject avodah zarah are called Yehudi. He himself noted that Mordechai's father was from Binyamin and his mother from Yehudah, as was true of him too. Finally, some stress the word Hakadosh, because he never put his hand below his belt, as did Rabbeinu Hakadosh, Rav Yehudah Hanasi, who was also called Hakadosh for this reason.

Rav Yitzchak Meir of Ger, the author of Chiddushei Harim, said, "Until the Yid Hakadosh appeared, Chassidus was a commentary explaining the Torah path and the ways of the Baal Shem Tov. From the Yid Hakadosh onward, Chassidus became a commentary on Peshischa. The Yehudi Hakadosh is a pure Yid, who has not one negative trait resembling those of the gentiles."

Whatever the reason for the name, all agreed that his holiness was beyond the natural. He testified of himself, "From the day I became aware of myself, I have never stopped gazing at the four-letter Name of Hashem. It has not left from before me even for a moment." There is a tradition in Peshischa that the Chozeh once spoke of a revelation from Heaven that a talmid bearing his full name would one day come and succeed him. Rav Mordechai of Neshchiz, one of the elder chassidim of that generation, said, "I am not jealous of the Chozeh of Lublin except in one thing, that he merited such a talmid as the Yid Hakadosh."

The way of Peshischa

The Yid Hakadosh was not satisfied with the popular approach to Chassidus then found in Lublin. He gathered an elite circle of close talmidim who strove for deeper introspection, self-refinement and diligence in Torah, with less emphasis on wonder-working, blessings, miraculous cures and simple faith. Rav Uri of Strelisk called it a new path in Chassidus, the service of Hashem through Torah study together with tefillah. He opposed wonder-workers and tzaddikim who busied themselves with material matters, and said that anyone who has reached a certain spiritual level can do wonders, while it is harder to simply fulfill one's obligations honestly as a Jew. "Wonders and miracles are no wonder at all," he said. "The true wondrous miracle is to be a Yid, a real Jew." He also said that even a hairsbreadth of good is enough, if it is offered in truth and wholeheartedly. His own integrity earned him the nickname Shibbolet Zahav, a golden ear of grain, since he was golden to the very kernel.

Like Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi, he looked for a more intellectual approach to Chassidus, with an emphasis on Chassidic philosophy and in-depth Torah study. Chabad focused on meditation on Hashem's immanence and transcendence, and on understanding that leads to feeling. The Peshischa path was marked more by self-examination. A Peshischa chassid had to ask himself why: why am I about to do this, and afterward, why did I do it. Peshischa also sought to bring the heart under the control of the mind, with an emphasis on mussar, self-criticism and a carefully considered approach to Yiddishkeit.

This required long preparation, including mikveh, teshuvah, meditation, Torah study and mussar, to prepare a person to perform a mitzvah wholeheartedly. The act itself almost became secondary to the thought and preparation before it, and woe to the one who acts without thought. For this reason, his talmidim often davened well past the set times for tefillah, explaining that the spiritual preparation was more important than davening itself.

Opposition and the rift

This approach brought opposition. Chief among his opponents were two prominent Chassidim of the Chozeh, named Ber and Yekusiel. The Yid Hakadosh would say that the pasuk "Ish baar lo yeda, uchesil lo yavin es zos" applied to them, with baar (ignoramus) hinting at Ber and kesil (fool) at Yekusiel, whose Yiddish nickname was Kesiel. He said of them, "The yetzer hara kept them from any sin for forty years. He did this only so that they would be so lofty and holy that when they spoke lashon hara and slandered me falsely to the Chozeh, he would accept their testimony, and they would be lost forever."

Most of the tzaddikim in Galicia also opposed his new path. One of his few defenders was Rav Yisroel, the Kozhnitzer Maggid, but he alone could not close the growing gap. Eager for peace, the Yid Hakadosh traveled to Rav Menachem Mendel of Rimanov to ask for his help. Wherever he went he was received with honor, as thousands of chassidim came out to greet him. Rav Aharon Marcus writes that the welcome was so electrifying that the Rimanover's grandson innocently asked him, "Zeide, has Moshiach come?" But the Rimanover could not heal the rift between the Yid and his rebbe, the Chozeh.

Despite his growing court, the Yid remained a loyal chassid and kept visiting his rebbe in Lublin, while his opponents did their best to turn the Chozeh against him, saying that he was acting presumptuously as a rebbe and winning the hearts of the young chassidim. At last he had to stop going, and the rift was never fully healed. Polish Chassidus was divided from then on between the older Galician way and the new way of Peshischa, which later branched into Kotzk, Vorke, Ger, Amshinov, Alexander, Izhbitz-Radzin and many others.

In his last years, events after the Napoleonic wars, which some tzaddikim saw as the war of Gog and Magog, raised new hopes of redemption. Some of the tzaddikim tried to bring Moshiach through mystical means on the night of the Pesach seder, but the Yid Hakadosh refused to take part.

Teachings and seforim

His divrei Torah were collected mainly in Tiferes Hayehudi, Niflaos Hayehudi, Kesser Hayehudi and Kedushas Hayehudi.

Later years and passing

His davening was marked by fire and flame, excitement and loud cries. On the third day of Chol Hamoed Sukkos, 19 Tishrei 5574 (1813), at the age of forty-eight, he was so enraptured in dveikus that his soul left his holy body in the middle of davening, never to return.

His son, Rav Yehoshua Asher, always waited for his father to finish davening so that he could call to him and bring him back. On that day he was delayed, and by the time he arrived it was too late. His father was in such a deep and elevated state of dveikus that as he left this world he kept repeating certain phrases, among them the last words of the Baal Shem Tov, "Let me not be arrogant and vain with pride," and "Ein od milvado," there is nothing but Hashem. Rav Shlomo Hakohen of Radomsk, the author of Tiferes Shlomo, said in awe, "See how it ended. His soul left him in the middle of mesiras nefesh, while davening."

Legacy

His sons were also Rebbes: Rav Yerachmiel, who succeeded him in Peshischa, Rav Yehoshua Asher of Zelichov, and Rav Nechemiah Yechiel of Bichov. His sons-in-law were Rav Moshe of Lelov and Rav Shmuel Rephaels, who was the father-in-law of Rav Avraham Moshe of Peshischa. Most of the chassidim accepted the leadership of his main talmid, Rav Simcha Bunim of Peshischa. His other talmidim included many who became leaders of Polish Chassidus, among them Rav Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, Rav Chanoch of Alexander, Rav Yitzchak of Vorke and Rav Dov Ber of Radoshitz.

Rav Yitzchak Meir Alter of Ger used to say that simply mentioning the kedushah of the Yid Hakadosh is a segulah for yiras Shomayim and can bring fear of Heaven into a person's heart.