Medzhybizh מז'יבוז'
A town in Podolia where the Baal Shem Tov lived his last twenty years and where he is buried. From here Chassidism went out into the world.
Around 1740 Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov came here and stayed until his death in 1760—the last twenty years of his life. The community supported him as a "baal shem"—healer and intercessor; here came to him those who later carried his teaching on: Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye, the Maggid of Mezritch, Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz.
The Baal Shem Tov's grave in the old cemetery of Medzhybizh is among the most visited Jewish graves in the world. Beside him lies his grandson Rabbi Baruch, and his great-grandson—Rabbi Nachman of Breslov—was born here, in his grandfather's house.
Jewish Medzhybizh perished in 1942. Today the town lives by pilgrims: people come to the Baal Shem Tov's grave all year, and above all on his yahrzeit, 6 Sivan.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Shivchei HaBesht—the tales of the Baal Shem Tov, set down in Medzhybizh — the Baal Shem Tov in Medzhybizh by the accounts of the first generation
Scholarship
- The standard reference works and encyclopedias — the Baal Shem Tov's arrival c. 1740, death 1760, the grave, the destruction of the community in 1942
Basis: documents and evidence.