The Maggid of Zlotchov—Rabbi Yechiel Michel רבי יחיאל מיכל מזלוטשוב
a disciple of the Besht and of the Maggid; from his sons came the courts of Galicia and Volhynia
The son of Rabbi Yitzchak of Drohobych, a preacher honoured even before Chasidut. The sources give his birth year differently—1721 or 1726; we set the second.
He came to the Besht young and stayed with him until his death, and then with the Maggid of Mezeritch. Few passed through both schools, and his word about the Besht was valued as an eyewitness's.
A maggid, not a rebbe. He preached—in Zlotchov, in Yampol, through the townlets of Galicia—and lived poor, refusing the money brought to him. There was no court under him; there was a circle of disciples, and among them those who would set up courts.
Five sons—and a line from each: Yampol, Sudilkov, Zlotchov, Derazhnia and Zvhil. The Zvhil court, from Rabbi Moshe of Zvhil, reached twentieth-century Jerusalem and lives now.
He died on 25 Elul 1786 in Yampol. His teachings were gathered by descendants into the book Mayim Rabbim, published more than a century after his death.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Mayim Rabbim—teachings gathered by descendants — his word, come down through the family
Documents of the period
- The Zvhil tradition of the five sons and their courts — which line from which son
Scholarship
- Jewish Encyclopedia (1906): Yechiel Michael of Zloczow — the two birth years and the year of death
Basis: documents and evidence.