LEVI YITZCHAK OF BERDICHEV. Kedushath Levi

(CHASSIDISM)

Menachem M. Finklestein

Hrubieszowa

1818

With previous owner’s marks, including the Chassidic Rabbi Yehuda Leib son of R. Mordechai Dov of Hornosteipel, plus an older stamp of Yoseph Yaakov Kronn (?) of Poltava

Vinograd, Hrubieszowa 15

R. Levi Yitzchak (1740-1810) was one of the most beloved personalities within Chassidism. In addition to his scholarly achievements, he is known from the many tales told about him as the “Melitz Yosher” of the Jewish nation; a defender par excellence - with boundless compassion even for the most blatant transgressors. The Munkatch 1939 edition of the Kedushath Levi states on the title page: “All the holy sages of past generations bore witness that the presence of a Kedushath Levi in a home is a certain “segulah” to protect and rescue it from “Dinim” [harsh judgments]. See Tz.M. Rabinowicz, The Encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), pp. 285-6; S.H. Dresner, The World of a Hasidic Master: Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev (1986)