Background
Born into a noted family of rabbis in Berdychiv, Ukraine, he married a wealthy wife and devoted himself to rabbinic scholarship.
Born into a noted family of rabbis in Berdychiv, Ukraine, he married a wealthy wife and devoted himself to rabbinic scholarship.
However, he was won over to Hasidism and became a close disciple of Dov Ber of Mezhirich and the leadingexponent of his teachings. He was appointed rabbi in Zhelechow, Poland, and Pinsk, Belorussia, but in each case was hounded out of his pulpit by opponents of Hasidism. His house was broken into and his possessions rilled, he was evicted from his home and dismissed from his jobs until he suffered a nervous breakdown. Fortunately, he found peace in the community of Berdichev in the Ukraine where he served for the last twenty-five years of his life.
His major work was the two-part Kedushal Levi (“The Holiness of Levi"), a commentary on the Torah and rabbinic legends. He emphasized humility, which is a religious value that does not consist in ignoring one’s own merits and achievements but in realizing how petty they — and indeed all humankind — arc before the overwhelming presence of the Divine.
It was said that one day he saw a coachman oiling his coach while saying his prayers, leading Levi Isaac to cry aloud “Lord of the universe, see how much your people love and serve you. Even when oiling cartwheels, they pray and serve you. And yet you dare to complain against Israel." In one famous story, he even summoned God to a religious court to account for the sufferings of the Jewish people, challenging him “You are always making demands on your people. Why not help them in their troubles?” At the same time, he rebuked Jews for their wrongdoing. From a rooftop he shouted down to the marketplace, “You people arc forgetting to fear God.”
According to Levi Isaac, God, the Torah, and the Jewish people formed a mysterious trinity for whom the ultimate deliverance wil! come on the day of the Messiah. Throughout his life, he awaited the arrival of the Messiah, who would take the Jews back to the land of their forefathers. Convinced of the inherent goodness of man, he regarded every Jew as holy and blameless, and destined on the day of the Messiah also to be omniscient.
Quotations: “All the worlds above and below, God created only for the sake of Israel"
Quotes from others about the person
The Hasidim of the Ukraine called him “the Defender of Israel” referring both to his disputations with God and his deep devotion to the welfare of every Jew on earth. Discovering the terrible conditions of girls working in the factories for baking rnatzot (unleavened bread), he rebuked his congregation: “The enemies of the Jews accuse us of baking malzoi with the blood of Christians. They are wrong. We are baking them with the blood of Jews.”