Rabbi Zusha of Anipoli רבי משולם זושא מאניפולי
brother of Rabbi Elimelech; the one who asked not "why were you not Moses" but "why were you not yourself"
The elder brother of Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk—by most accounts by about a year. Both came to the Maggid of Mezeritch, both became masters, but they went different ways: Elimelech by teaching and by a book, Zusha by being himself.
He is remembered as the holy simpleton, in whom learning left neither arrogance nor armour. The Chassidic stories about him are almost always about accepting misfortune without complaint.
That question. "When I come before the Judgment," he said, "they will not ask me why I was not Moses. They will ask: Zusha, why were you not Zusha?" Its point is that a person is measured not against another's height but against his own unreached one.
He died on 2 Shevat 5560.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Noam Elimelech — his brother's book, where he is named and quoted
Scholarship
- Encyclopaedia Judaica, “Meshullam Zusya of Annopol” — the years, the brotherhood with Rabbi Elimelech, the study under the Maggid
Basis: documents and evidence.