Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowicz


Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowicz, also known as the Yid Hakudosh, was the founder of the Peshischa sect of Hasidism in Przysucha, Poland, which was "an elitist, rationalistic Hasidism that centered on Talmudic study and formed a counterpoint to the miracle-centered Hasidism of Lublin." He held court in the grand synagogue of Przysucha.

Biography

He was born in 1766. A disciple of The Seer of Lublin, from whom he broke, and the teacher of Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa, to whom was passed the helm of his movement, he was also the ancestor of the Biala Hasidic dynasty. His break from The Seer is dramatically recounted in Martin Buber's Gog Und Magog, published in English as For the Sake of Heaven. He died in 1813.

Legacy

His teachings are documented in the posthumous work, . Peshischa Hasidism continued and transformed itself through many different branches, inter alia: Kotzk, Izhbitza-Radzin, Warka, Ger, Aleksander and many others.