Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritch, known as the Maggid of Mezritch, was the greatest disciple of the Ba’al Shem Tov. He was born in Lukatch, Ukraine. His father, Rabbi Avraham, was descended from the Mishnaic sage, Rabbi Yochanan HaSandlar, and generations before, from King David. As a child, Rabbi Dov Ber was obviously brilliant, and his father sent him to study Torah in the yeshivah of the Pnei Yehoshua (Rabbi Yaakov Yehosuha Falk) in Levov. After his marriage, he was a teacher in Tultshin and began learning Kabbalah. Later, he was a maggid (a preacher) in a number of villages.
As soon as Rabbi Dov Ber came to the Ba’al Shem Tov, he became his principal disciple. After the Ba’al She Tov’s passing, the Ba’al Shem Tov’s son, Rabbi Tzvi, was appointed to lead the chasidim. A year later, during the festive Shavu’ot meal on the first anniversary of the Ba’al Shem Tov’s passing, Rabbi Tzvi announced that his father had appeared to him and instructed him to transfer the leadership position to Rabbi Dov Ber. Rabbi Tzvi rose from his place and gave the Maggid his topcoat, which had belonged to the Ba’al Shem Tov, and then the Maggid sat in Rabbi Tzvi’s place and began to teach Torah.
Unlike his teacher, the Ba’al Shem Tov, who would travel from place to place, the Maggid stayed in Mezritch and from there sent his students to teach Torah and establish centers of chasidic life throughout Russia, Poland, and even Germany. A few months before he passed away, the Maggid moved to Anapoli due to a plague that had broken out in Mezritch. He passed away on 19 Kislev 5633 (1872) and is buried in Anapoli. The great chasidic aliyah to the Land of Israel came from the Maggid’s study hall, led by his disciple, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk who made aliyah in 1777. Among the Maggid’s other famous disciples were his son, Rabbi Avraham the Angel, the Alter Rebbe of Chabad, the brothers, Rabbi Zusha of Anapoli and Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk, Rabbi Aharon the Great of Karlin, the brothers Rabbi Pinchas Ba’al HaHafla’ah and Rabbi Shmelke of Nikolsburg, Rabbi Yehudah Leib HaKohen, Rabbi Ze’ev of Zhitomer and many more.
Once, on a Shabbat night, the holy disciples of the great Maggid of Mezritch, of blessed memory, sat together, reviewing their Rebbe's teachings. The holy Rabbi Aharon of Karlin, of blessed memory, who was one of the Maggid's greatest disciples, sat alone in his room, whispering something to himself. Suddenly, a knock was heard at the door. It was the voice of the Maggid's attendant: "Where is Rabbi Aharon? Our Rebbe has instructed that he should stop reciting the Song of Songs. His recitation is causing an uproar in the supernal worlds, and our Rebbe cannot sleep because of it." When the righteous Rabbi Hillel of Paritsch, of blessed memory, retold this story, his eyes welled up with tears, and he said: "From this, we can glimpse the tiniest fraction of the Maggid's greatness. For even though Rabbi Aharon of Karlin's recitation of the Song of Songs was causing an uproar in the worlds, nevertheless, the Maggid's sleep was more precious.”
It is told of the holy Ari that once he dozed off a bit, as was his custom, on Shabbat afternoon. When he awoke, he said: “If I were to speak for eighty consecutive years, it would not be long enough to convey the secrets of the Torah that were revealed to me in my sleep.” If the Maggid's sleep was more precious than Rabbi Aharon of Karlin's recitation of the Song of Songs, surely he too, like our master the Ari, had lofty secrets revealed to him then. However, a characteristic saying of the Maggid can shed additional light on the nature of his learning during sleep:
There is a mishnah in Avot that teaches: "One who walks on the road while reviewing his studies, and interrupts his review and says, 'How beautiful is this tree...' the verse considers it as if he bears guilt for his soul." The Maggid notes that in other places, the tree is a metaphor for a Torah scholar, so according to this interpretation, a person who interrupts his studies is not marveling at the beautiful scenery but at himself: “How beautiful is the tree that I am....” With this thought, the scholar "interrupts his studies," meaning he interrupts his cleaving to God, because of and due to his learning and his pride in it.
Indeed, the Maggid himself walked all his days in intense devotion to God. His disciple, Rabbi Ze'ev Wolf, testified about him that if he feared his state of cleaving to God had weakened for a moment, he would stop speaking in the middle of a matter, contemplate briefly, and then resume speaking from a state of cleaving to God.
A true tzaddik serves God even during sleep, and certainly the Maggid's eternal cleaving to God did not cease then. We can even say that the cleaving during sleep was more elevated, because sleep removes our regular consciousness. For a tzaddik like the Maggid of Mezritch, such a lack of consciousness means an ascent to the root of the soul, "beyond reason and knowledge." To complete the picture, we will bring another famous story, which adds a special hue to the first story:
Before becoming a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov, the Maggid was a genius in both the revealed and hidden aspects of Torah and would pray with the kavanot (holy intentions) of the Arizal. He had a friend who also engaged in these matters. After the Maggid became a Rebbe, it happened that they met, and when they stood to pray, his friend finished his prayer a considerable time before the Maggid. His friend asked him about this, saying: "We used to pray together and finish at the same time. What has changed now?"
The Maggid's friend studied Torah most of the year, while his wife managed their business. Once a year, he would interrupt his studies for a few weeks to travel to Leipzig for the fair to buy merchandise, after which he would return home and continue his Torah study. The Maggid asked him: "Why do you need to waste time traveling to Leipzig? Wouldn't it be better to contemplate the journey, thinking that today you are here, tomorrow you are there, until you think you are in Leipzig, and then contemplate the return journey home, thus making the trip in a very short time?"
When the friend heard this, he looked at him in astonishment and said: "Reb Ber, I didn't know you were such an idler! What good will my thoughts do? I need to be in Leipzig to actually bring back the merchandise!"
The Maggid answered him: "So it is regarding the matter of kavanot in prayer. It is not enough to just think and intend 'now I am in the World of Asiyah or the World of Yetzirah. One needs to actually be there; to bring back the 'merchandise,' and for this, more time is required..."
This is another facet of the cleaving to God that characterized the Maggid: complete and conscious presence in every detail he contemplated and learned. Returning back to the testimony given by his disciple Ze’ev Wolf, the Maggid is present even in his own sleep experience - he is aware of the elevated nature of his sleep, teaches others about it, and essentially holds both extremes simultaneously: presence and awareness during a time of being "beyond reason and knowledge."
The ability to sleep in such a manner is particularly connected to the month in which the Maggid passed away, the month of Kislev. In Sefer Yetzirah, each month of the year is associated with a special sense. Remarkably, the sense of the month of Kislev is the sense of sleep! Before passing, on the 19th day of Kislev, he summoned his favorite disciple, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi and said to him, “Zalmale, today is our Yom tov.” Completing his mission in this world in the month of Kislev was for him a festival, illustrating how deeply he was connected to serving God even while sleeping.
