Person · 5500–5570 AM · 1740 CE — 1810 CE
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev רבי לוי יצחק מברדיטשוב
disciple of the Maggid, «defender of Israel», author of Kedushat Levi
Levi Yitzchak studied with the Maggid of Mezritch and served as rabbi in Ryczywół, Pinsk and, from 5545, in Berditchev. He was among those who brought Hasidism into communities that met it with hostility, and he did not answer in kind.
His book Kedushat Levi is a commentary on the Torah by weekly portion. But popular memory kept not the book so much as the image of the advocate: many tales survive of how he found a defence for the simplest Jew and addressed God in Yiddish, as one speaks to someone close. These tales were handed down orally and written later, so their details vary.
§Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- “Kedushat Levi”
Scholarship
- chasidic traditions on Rabbi Levi Itzchake
Basis: tradition.