Rabbi Nachman of Horodenka רבי נחמן מהורודנקה
one of the first at the Besht's side; went up to Tiberias before the great chasidic aliyah; grandfather of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov
The sources give no year of birth, and we set none. It is known that he came to the Besht already a formed man: before that he kept to severe fasts and immersions, and it is told that the Besht taught him otherwise—joy rather than severity.
The Land of Israel. He had tried to go up earlier, and in 1764 he left together with Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Premishlan and settled in Tiberias. This was the first chasidic group in the Land of Israel—thirteen years before the aliyah of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, which is usually counted the first. He died in Tiberias in 1765, a year after arriving.
Lineage. His son Simcha married Feiga, the Besht's granddaughter; their son was Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, named after his grandfather. So two lines met in one man—the Besht's and that of his first circle.
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Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Shivchei HaBesht—the tales of the Besht and his circle — how he came to the Besht
- Chayei Moharan—the Breslov tradition on Rabbi Nachman's lineage — the grandfather after whom the grandson was named
Scholarship
- Jewish Encyclopedia (1906): Nahman of Horodenka — the aliyah of 1764 and the death in Tiberias
Basis: documents and evidence.