Rabbi Meshulam Feivush Heller—the Yosher Divrei Emet רבי משולם פייבוש הלר
the first to set out hasidic teaching in writing—in two letters from Zbarazh
He was born about 1742 at Zbarazh in Galicia, lived there almost all his life and is buried there; his father served at Sniatyn. He studied under the Maggid of Zlotchov, whom he calls his chief teacher, and also under the Maggid of Mezritch and Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Premishlan—he quotes all three in his writings.
The Yosher Divrei Emet is two notebooks of letters: the first written in 1777, the second, the Kuntres Derech Emet, after 1781. They were written not as a book but as letters to a friend, and so they explain what was usually assumed to be known: what devekut is, why the tzaddik is needed, how true service is told from a counterfeit. Before them hasidic teaching passed by word of mouth and by parable; here it is set out consecutively and with argument, with references to the Talmud and the poskim.
He died in 1794, a little past fifty. Among those who learned from him was the founder of the Vizhnitz court. The year of birth is approximate in the sources.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- The Yosher Divrei Emet—two notebooks of letters — the content and the years the notebooks were written
Scholarship
- The standard reference works and encyclopedias — Zbarazh, the Maggid of Zlotchov, the Maggid of Mezritch, Menachem Mendel of Premishlan; the year of birth is approximate
Basis: documents and evidence.