Rabbi Avraham HaMalach רבי אברהם המלאך
the Maggid's son, who declined his place; grandfather of Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin
The only son of the Maggid of Mezeritch. His father set him to study in a pair with Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi: the son taught him kabbalah, and he taught the son Talmud. So Chabad remembers its beginning, and the Alter Rebbe called him his teacher in the hidden Torah.
Detachment. The name "HaMalach", the angel, was given for a life that had almost no body in it: fasts, night vigils, silence. Chasidim relate that he did not know his own children by sight. After the Maggid's death in 1772 the disciples expected the son to sit in his place—he declined and went to Fastov.
He died there on 12 Tishrei 1776, aged thirty-seven. His teachings were published by great-grandsons seventy-five years later under the title Chesed le-Avraham.
Lineage. His son was Rabbi Shalom Shachna of Prohobisht; his grandson Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin. The Ruzhin court traces itself to the Maggid through him, and so the royal dignity by which Ruzhin held itself is called "the inheritance of the Maggid's house".
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Chesed le-Avraham (1851) — his teachings, published by great-grandsons
- The Chabad tradition on the study-pair with the Alter Rebbe — who taught whom what
Scholarship
- Jewish Encyclopedia (1906): Abraham ben Dob of Mezhirich — the dates, Fastov, the refusal of his father's place
Basis: documents and evidence.