Talk:Yaakov Yitzchak of Lublin

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Out of curiosity, what exactly is the place he was born in? The article mentions some place named Shbarshin, though it is most certainly not a Polish name. It seems like a Polish name translated to Yiddish, then to Hebrew and then transliterated to English. Might it be Zbąszyn? Halibu tt 11:30, May 25, 2005 (UTC)

I deleted the reference to Shbarshin. As Halibutt noted, Shbarshin is clearly an attempt at an anglicized adaptation of a Polish city, particlularly in that there is not sh digraph in the Polish language. Perhaps it is Szczebrzeszyn, which is Shebershin in Yiddish? A google search of Shbarshin only resulted in articles that referred back to Yaakaov Yitzchak. All of these articles were identicle in text and none of them appeared to be independently researched, but rather cut and pasted from the same source. I also checked the Polish version of the page, which simply lists him as being born in Poland. A further search of web pages in the Polish language for (Jakub Icchak Horowic" urodzony) and (Jakub Icchak Horowic" ur.) provided no other conclusive results.

According to Elie Wiesel's book "Four Hasidic Masters", Rebbe Yaakov-Yitzhak Horowitz was born in a village near Tarnigrod in Poland. It appears that a more common name for Tarnigrod is Tarnogrod which is the name of a town in the Bilgoraj District, Lublin Province (Source: JewishGen.Org)

New Book Reveals Darker Chapters In Hasidic History

http://www.forward.com/articles/new-book-reveals-darker-chapters-in-hasidic-histor/

Allan Nadler

“Neehaz ba-Svakh: Pirkei Mashber u-Mevucha be-Toldot ha-Hasidut” (“Caught in the Thicket: Chapters of Crisis and Discontent in the History of Hasidism”), written by David Assaf, chair of Tel Aviv University’s Jewish history department, appeared in Israel just three months ago, but it has already generated fierce controversy. Indeed, although the book, which is in Hebrew, can be ordered from the publisher, it cannot be easily obtained in bookstores. ..

The purpose of Assaf’s book is to revisit and clarify some of the most shocking episodes in the history of Hasidism, events that have been deliberately suppressed or extensively distorted for apologetic purposes by Hasidic historiography. ..

While the story of Rabbi Moshe’s apostasy may be the lightning rod for much of the indignation provoked among Chabad apologists, the most vulgar document published by Assaf is quite clearly the tale recounting the “fall” of the famed founder of Polish Hasidism, Rabbi Yaakov Yitzhak Horowitz (1745-1815), popularly known as the khoyze, or seer, of Lublin. What is known is that sometime during the celebration of Simchat Torah in 1814, the severely inebriated seer fell, or more likely jumped, out the second-story window of his room above the Hasidic shtibl where he held court. Like the affair of Rabbi Moshe’s conversion to Christianity, Hasidic hagiography has managed to transform what was either a drunken mishap or a deliberate suicide attempt into a mystical affair signifying a failed attempt to hasten the messiah’s arrival. ..

... Assaf judiciously rejects both the apologetic, messianic explanation of the Hasidim and the satirical, polemical misuse of the khoyze’s drunken fall by the Maskilim. Instead, he proposes that this was the second suicide attempt by Rabbi Horowitz, who was famously prone to long periods of depression. Based on clearly authentic Hasidic sources, Assaf reveals that many years before his 1814 window jump, the khoyze tried to throw himself off a mountaintop near the town of Lizensk and was saved from certain death only when his hiking companion, Rabbi Zelke of Grodzitsk, grasped his gartel in the nick of time. ..

I'm checking back....

and if I don't see a citation for the quote below, I'm going to delete it since... well, since it isn't true.

" Before Rabbi Ezriel died, he regretted opposing the Chozeh and not getting to know him better."

I mean, REALLY.... that couldn't be true! No one speaks like that! With attribution, however, I'll submit.... (Paleocon44 (talk) 06:09, 10 May 2010 (UTC))[reply]