Person · 5530–5597 AM · 1770 CE — 1837 CE
Rabbi Mordechai of Chernobyl רבי מרדכי טברסקי מטשרנוביל
father of eight sons—and of nearly as many courts
Under the father the court was poor—Nachum lived on alms and gave them away; under Mordechai it became a kingdom: retinue, table, thousands of visitors. That passage from beggar-preacher to tzaddik-sovereign is the turning of all Ukrainian Hasidism, and it shows most clearly in one family.
His teachings are gathered in Likkutei Torah. The sons' courts—Chernobyl, Skver, Rachmastrivka and the rest—are alive to this day, in America and in the Land of Israel.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Likkutei Torah (Chernobyl) — the teachings of the second Chernobyl rebbe
Scholarship
- The standard reference works and the dynastic chronicles — the years, the eight sons and the seven courts
Basis: Talmud and midrash.