Rabbi Baruch of Mezhbizh רבי ברוך ממעזשביזש
the Besht's grandson; the first court kept in royal style—and the first quarrels between courts
The son of Adel, the Besht's daughter. The sources give his birth year anywhere from 1750 to 1757; we set 1753. He remembered his grandfather as a child—the Besht died when the grandson was about seven. Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz raised him.
The court. From the 1780s he sat in Mezhbizh, in his grandfather's house, and carried himself as heir by blood: with honour, with a rich table, with a retinue. Before him the tzaddikim lived as teachers; he was the first to keep a house as Ruzhin and Sadigura would keep theirs later. Some saw in this the royal dignity of Torah, others pride, and that argument is older than the court of Ruzhin itself.
Quarrels. With Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev and with Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi relations were hard. The meeting with the Alter Rebbe in Tulchin in 1810 ended in a breach; what exactly was said, the traditions of the two courts tell differently, and we retell neither version as fact.
Hershele Ostropoler—the one from the folk tales—lived at his court as jester and, it is said, was the only one permitted to make him laugh.
He died on 18 Kislev 1811. His teachings are gathered in Butzina di-Nehora.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Butzina di-Nehora—the collection of his teachings — his word
- The Chabad tradition on the Tulchin meeting, 1810 — one of the two versions of the breach
Scholarship
- Jewish Encyclopedia (1906): Baruch of Medzhibozh — the dates, the court, Hershele Ostropoler
Basis: documents and evidence.