Dov Ber of Mezeritch - The Appointment of His Disciples To Spread The Movement

The Appointment of His Disciples To Spread The Movement

Rabbi Dovber was intimately familiar with the different natures of his scholarly and saintly followers, and chose their future roles accordingly. To each leading disciple, Dovber appointed a future territory of influence across Eastern Europe, where they dispersed after the death of the Maggid in 1772. Under the Baal Shem Tov and then the Maggid, Hasidism had flourished in Podolia and Volynia (present day Ukraine). After 1772, under the third generation of leadership, it rapidly spread far and wide, from Galicia and Poland to White Russia (Belarus) in the north. The disciples of the Maggid took different interpretations and qualities of their Master's teachings. This, combined with the new dispersal of their locations, meant that after the Maggid, the Hasidic movement avoided appointing one unifying leader to succeed Dovber.

Read more about this topic:  Dov Ber Of Mezeritch

Famous quotes containing the words appointment, disciples, spread and/or movement:

    Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
    Bible: New Testament, Matthew 28:19,20.

    A little quaker, the whole body of him trembling,
    His absurd whiskers sticking out like a cartoon-mouse,
    His feet like small leaves,
    Little lizard-feet,
    Whitish and spread wide when he tried to struggle away,
    Theodore Roethke (1908–1963)

    Prostration is our natural position. A wormlike movement from a spot of sunlight to a spot of shade, and back, is the type of movement that is natural to men.
    Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)