Jechiel Michael von Zloczow

Jechiel Michael von Zloczów ( Mechel the Holy Magid ; * around 1731 in Brody ; † 1786 in Jampol , today Ukraine ) was a Hasidic rabbi and an early promoter of Hasidism in Galicia .

Life and effect

He was born in Brody as the son of Jizchak von Drohobycz . As a teenager he visited the Baal Shem Tov several times and after his death recognized Dow Baer von Mesritsch as the legitimate successor of the founder of the Hasidic movement. He was first a preacher in Brody, later in Zloczów and towards the end of his life in Jampol in Podolia .

Jechiel was held in high esteem among the Hasidim, who spread miraculous stories about his holiness and his ascetic lifestyle, but was heavily criticized by the Mitnagdim , the opponents of Hasidism. One of his followers reports that "it did not matter whether he was looking at a page from the Gemara or a Kabbalistic text, for Jechiel saw in them only a means to serve God". He considered the Hasidic principle of Dewekut ("surrender" [to God]) to be essential and stated that the way to attain this state is through the negation of reality, i. H. can be achieved through ecstasy .

According to Jechiel, there are two ways of surrendering to God. The positive way is to stand in fear and shame before the greatness of the Creator and to find the state of true love through prayer, study of the scriptures, and good deeds. Conscious and steady practice of these practices ultimately leads to surrender to God. The negative way is to renounce and renounce all physical desires. Jechiel kept talking about the need to eradicate the evil side of character and physical lust. He knew that this is a difficult path, since the human being is different from that of God and therefore man cannot devote himself to God to the same extent. Since the danger of sinking into physicality is to be foreseen for man, God enables him as the source of life with the will to achieve a unity with this source. The task of man is to conquer the material world, but not to see it as a purpose in life, but as a means of discovering divinity, which is reflected in matter and animates it. In this doctrine, Jechiel Dow followed Bär von Mesritsch, but recognized that this path harbors the greatest dangers for the average person. He did not believe that it was possible for everyone to continuously devote themselves to God while exercising physical activities, and therefore advised meditation on the divine Creator before such activities .

He used to begin his sermons with the words: "I command and advise not only you, but also myself ...". According to Jechiel, the true preacher is someone who does not express his own opinions, but feels that he is only a mouthpiece of the Shekhina ("God's presence"). According to statements by his students, his speeches lasted long and he repeated his statements several times. He did not leave any of his own written records. Excerpts from his sermons were published in the anthology Likkute Jekarim in 1872 . He had five sons and was the founder of a dynasty of tzaddikim that spread across Galicia and Ukraine.

literature

• Encyclopedia Judaica . Volume 9, pp. 1314/1315