Yisrael Kazik
Rabbi Yisrael Kazik was the son-in-law of Rabbi Yisrael Baruch, the father of the Alter Rebbe. His wife was Marat Leah[1] Kazik, a sister of the Alter Rebbe.
Life[edit | edit source]
During the Alter Rebbe's Arrest[edit | edit source]
When the Alter Rebbe was arrested by the Tsarist government in 1798 (5559), Yisrael Kazik happened to be staying in the Alter Rebbe's home. He approached the Alter Rebbe and asked what he should do in those urgent circumstances. The Alter Rebbe instructed him to travel to St. Petersburg to appear before the government authorities and work to have the charges — which had been brought by informers — overturned. He was also to send a separate messenger to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev.[2]
Rabbi Yisrael remained in St. Petersburg throughout the ordeal. While the Alter Rebbe was held in the Peter and Paul Fortress, he found a way to send word that he was alive: he slipped a note inside a watermelon, which the prison warden then delivered into Rabbi Yisrael's hands.
Devotion to the Alter Rebbe[edit | edit source]
Rabbi Yisrael gave himself over entirely in his devotion to the Alter Rebbe. On one occasion, a Cossack struck him so severely that his skull was split in two. He ran to the Alter Rebbe's room, and the Alter Rebbe held the two halves of his head together with both hands. Through an open miracle, the two parts fused, leaving only a scar.
Rabbi Yisrael outlived the Alter Rebbe by many years. He settled in Lubavitch, where he is buried.[3]
Further Reading[edit | edit source]
- Beis Rebbi — Chapter 24 [Reprint], Feldman-Mondshine Teshura, 5783, p. 20.
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ See The Imprisonment and Liberation of the Mitteler Rebbe, p. 23 and footnote 35 there.
- ↑ Beis Rebbi, p. 56.
- ↑ Beis Rebbi, p. 49.