<<Avraham Dov-Baer Auerbach of Ovrutch.>> Bath Ayin [Chassidic homilies to the Chumash and Festivals].

<<The First Chassidic Text Printed in Jerusalem.>> A greatly venerated work, replete with lyrical hymns in praise of. the Holy Land and the spiritual heights attainable upon residing there. Although the author had already written most of this work in Europe, he delayed its publication until his arrival in Eretz Israel, so that it might be enhanced by its exposure to the spiritually sweetened air of the Holy Land. A colleague of both R. Zushye of Annapoli and R. Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev, R. Avraham Dov Baer of Ovruch (1765-1841) was a disciple of R. Nachum of Chernobyl. In 1830 he migrated to Safed where in time he rose to be regarded as the spiritual leader of all the Chassidim resident in the Holy Land. In Safed today, a plaque commemorates the site at which he and his followers were miraculously saved from falling debris during the 1837 earthquake. The following year, he was kidnapped by a band of marauding Druze, escaping by the skin of his teeth. See T.M. Rabinowicz, The Encyclopedia of Hasidism (1998) p. 5.