Yisrael of Polotsk

Rabbi Yisrael of Polotsk was a disciple of the Maggid of Mezeritch, a partner to the Alter Rebbe and Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk in leading the Chassidic movement in Lithuania, and an outstanding preacher and orator with remarkable organizational talents.

Life

In 5537 (1777), he emigrated to the Holy Land together with Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, and assumed leadership of the Chassidic community in Tzfat (Safed).

During those years he also came to the defense of his colleague and teacher, the Alter Rebbe, and of Chabad.

Due to the dire material circumstances of the immigrant community, he was compelled to travel abroad to collect funds and establish reliable, ongoing sources of income for the Chassidic settlers. Rabbi Yisrael succeeded in his mission. His first stop was Constantinople, where he was received with great honor by the leaders of the community, from where he sent sums of money back to the Land.

From Constantinople he traveled to Russia. Through wide-ranging activity — in writing and in person — he succeeded in enlisting a considerable number of rabbis and dedicated charity collectors, headed by prominent tzaddikim. Across the breadth of the country he founded and organized ma'amados — standing charitable funds of great importance for the Chassidic community in Eretz Yisrael.

His intention had been to consolidate this work abroad and then return to the Holy Land, but it was not to be. He fell suddenly ill and passed away in 5540 (1780) in the town of Fastov, where he was buried alongside the grave of Rabbi Avraham the Angel.

Sources

• Some of the information in this article is based on Sefer HaChassidus, 5707 (1947).