Background
He was born in the village of Lukach in Volhynia.
He was born in the village of Lukach in Volhynia.
His father was too poor to provide for his son’s education, but the local rabbi was impressed with the boy’s gifts and took him into his academy. The boy’s learning was so great that he soon outgrew the local academy and was sent to the yeshiva at Lvov, where he studied for a number of years.
Dov Ber became a teacher in a small village and, influenced by the surroundings of nature, immersed himself in mystical studies. He also began a program of self-mortification, sometimes fasting for several days. He took up the life of an itinerant preacher (maggidin Hebrew), and was noted for his oratory and imaginative use of parables.
Dov Ber came to be known as Ha-Maggid (i.e., the preacher, par excellence).
His penances and fastings affected his health and seeking a cure, he was advised to turn to the charismatic Baal Shem Tov who had a reputation for working wonders. On hearing Dov Ber expound a kabbalistic passage, Baal Shem Tov told him, “Your interpretations are accurate — but they lack soul.” Dov Ber remained as a devoted disciple and he claimed that the Baal Shem Tov, “revealed to me the language of the birds and the trees, the secrets of the saints and of holy incantations; he showed me the writing of angels and explained the significance of the letters of the alphabet.” Before long it was obvious, that he would be the successor of the Baal Shem Tov whose life was coming to an end. After his death, Dov Ber was accepted as the leader of Hasidism which he organized into a movement. Because he did not want to remain in the Baal Shem Tov’s town of Medzibozh and made his home and center in the village of Mezhirich.
Dov Ber’s talents as thinker, teacher, and organizer were responsible for the establishment of Hasidism as a movement. After his death, it branched out in various directions and only the Baal Shem Tov and Dov Ber in their lifetimes enjoyed complete authority over the movement as a whole.
In his later years, some of his teachings proved controversial. There were those who detected elements of pantheism while others criticized his neglect of traditional rabbinic scholarship and his adoption of a Sephardi version of the prayers.
Dov Ber himself left no writings, but his doctrines were gathered and committed to writing by his disciples. He was famous for his table teachings, infused with mystical doctrines. In particular he emphasized the attainment of ecstatic joy and the transcendence of everyday concerns by cleaving to the Divine. God fills all space and man is called on to penetrate the material cloak to find the underlying spiritual content. The highest degree of spiritual perfection can only be attained by the tzaddik, the righteous Hasidic leader who mediates between man and God.
Quotations:
Learn the ten principles of service from a little child and a thief.
From the child, learn: To be merry for no particular reason; never to be idle; and when you need something, demand it vigorously.
The thief can show you seven things: Do your service by night; what you do not finish one night, conclude the next; love those who work with you; risk your life for slight gains; what you take should be so worthless that you are willing to surrender it for a pittance; do not be put off by blows and hardships; enjoy your occupation to the extent that you would not change it for another.