Yaakov Yosef of Ostroha
Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Ostroha (c. 1738–1791) was a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezeritch, and a close friend of Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz.
Life
Rabbi Yaakov Yosef was born around 1738 in Ostroha to his father, the tzaddik Rabbi Yehuda Leib, who served as maggid meyshоrim (preacher of uprightness) and moreh tzedek (rabbinic decisor) in Ostroha.[1] For eighteen generations preceding him, his ancestors had been possessed of genuine ruach hakodesh — a divinely granted spirit of prophetic insight.
Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz also lived in Ostroha for a time.[2]
When his father passed away on 25 Tishrei 5525 (1764)[3], Rabbi Yaakov Yosef was still a young man of about twenty-seven. The community leaders of Ostroha invited the Maggid of Mezeritch to fill his father's place, but the Maggid instead appointed Rabbi Yaakov Yosef himself, declaring that it was fitting for the son to succeed his father — despite his youth.
In his early years he had merited to know the Baal Shem Tov, whose inner circle had included his father Rabbi Yehuda Leib. He later became a disciple of the Maggid of Mezeritch, and also received Torah from Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polonne. Rabbi Baruch of Mezhybizh held him in the highest regard; after Rabbi Yaakov Yosef delivered a teaching in Tulchin, Rabbi Baruch's home city, Rabbi Baruch declared: "For my own part, the words of Rabbi Yaakov Yosef are sufficient for me, even were the prohibition not grounded in halacha — since they issued from his holy mouth, one must stand in awe of transgressing them."[4]
All the tzaddikim of his generation testified that he could perceive with ruach hakodesh four hundred parsaos in every direction, as clearly as one sees what lies on one's own table. The holy Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heshel of Apt, the Ohev Yisrael, testified of him[5] that "he possesses a great awareness within the Heavenly Assembly."
He was a towering gaon, and through the power of his Torah learning he silenced those who opposed the path of Chassidus. He stepped forward publicly in defense of the Toldos Yaakov Yosef — the landmark Chassidic work by Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polonne — against the Mitnagdim in Brody, and through his efforts the storm of controversy that had erupted was quieted.
Throughout his life he was unceasing in his words of tochecha — moral rebuke — on the prohibition against speaking during prayer in the synagogue.
His wife was herself a great tzaddekes. It is told that once, while sweeping the house, she suddenly set down the broom, saying that she could hear the angels reciting Kedushah at that very moment.
Rabbi Yaakov Yosef passed away on 20 Tishrei 5551 (1791), on the ushpizin day of Yosef Hatzaddik — Joseph the Righteous — whose name he bore.
His Teaching
In his work Rav Yeivi, in the portion of Vayeishev, on the verse V'Yosef hurad Mitzraimah ("And Joseph was brought down to Egypt"), he cites in the name of the Baal Shem Tov that within the Sheva Mitzvos Bnei Noach — the seven Noahide commandments — the Jewish people bear areivus, mutual responsibility, on behalf of the nations of the world.
His Work
Rav Yeivi — an acronym of Yaakov Yosef Ben Yehuda — on the Torah and on fifty-three chapters of Tehillim, corresponding to the fifty-three years of his life. The work also includes novellae on the following tractates: Shabbos, Beitzah, Megillah, Kesubos, Sotah, Gittin, Kiddushin, Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia, Sanhedrin, Shevuos, Avodah Zarah, Zevachim, Chullin, Kerisus, and Niddah.
Descendants
- Rabbi Elyakim Getz. He succeeded his father as maggid meyshоrim in Ostroha, and was counted among the tzaddikim of Volhynia. He served as the gabai — administrator — for charitable collections on behalf of Eretz HaKodesh.[6] He wrote the introduction to his father's work. He passed away on 26 Elul 5586 (1826).
- Rabbi Pinchas of Ostroha. Several tzaddikim of the generation testified that he experienced Giluy Eliyahu — a revelation of the prophet Elijah — on multiple occasions. He passed away in his youth on 22 Kislev 5566 (1805).
- Rabbi Yehuda Leib Yevin[7] of Berdichev. He was known as well for his great wealth.
- His daughter Yenta, wife of R' Avraham, son of the holy R' Tzvi of Pavolovitch. R' Avraham passed away on 20 Cheshvan 5572 (1811).
Notes
- ↑ He sat day and night in the beis medrash, immersed in Torah study and divine service with extraordinary self-sacrifice, in the midst of great poverty.
- ↑ He had fled Koritz following the outbreak of a plague and arrived in Ostroha, but the lord of the city refused to allow him and his family entry, fearing the spread of illness. They were forced to wait outside the city gates. When Rabbi Yaakov Yosef learned of this, he went to the lord and pledged that as long as Rabbi Pinchas remained in the city, no harm would befall it — and so it was: the plague never reached Ostroha at all.
- ↑ Rav Yeivi, 126a.
- ↑ Or Yekarot, vol. 1, p. 433.
- ↑ This occurred after his passing, at a time when his son R' Y.L. was in need of great salvation from a difficult legal proceeding. The son's wife prayed fervently at his graveside, and when she afterward arrived at her brother-in-law R' A.G. — son of Rabbi Yaakov Yosef — he showed her a letter written in his father's own hand, composed just then (after his passing), stating that the son would be vindicated in the judgment (Sefer Emunos Tzaddikim, §72).
- ↑ A letter from him on this matter was printed in the journal Beis Aharon V'Yisrael, year 19, issue 4 (112), p. 173 (5655).
- ↑ From him branch the Yevin family lines.