Aside from the original center in Chernobyl, seats of Tzaddiks were established in the townlets of Korostyshev, Cherkassy, Makarov, Turisk, Talno, Skvir and Rakhmistrovka.  This resulted in a disgraceful rivalry among the brothers, and still more so among their hasidic adherents.  Every Hasid was convinced that reverence was due only to his own “Rebbe,” [1] and he brushed aside the claims of the other Tzaddiks.  Whenever the adherents of the various Tzaddiks met, they invariably engaged in passionate “party” quarrels, which on occasions, especially after the customary hasidic drinking bouts, ended in physical violence.

[Footnote 1:  Popular pronunciation of the word “rabbi,” A hasidic Tzaddik is designated as “Rebbe,” in distinction from the rabbi proper, or the Rav (in Russia generally pronounced Rov), who discharges the rabbinical functions within the community.]

The whole Chernobyl dynasty found a dangerous rival in the person of the Tzaddik Israel Ruzhiner (of Ruzhin), the great-grandson of Rabbi Baer, the apostle of Hasidism, known as the “Mezhiricher Maggid.” [1] Rabbi Israel settled in Ruzhin, a townlet in the government of Kiev, about 1815, and rapidly gained fame as a saint and miracle-worker.  His magnificent “court” at Ruzhin was always crowded with throngs of Hasidim.  Their onrush was checked by special “gentlemen in waiting,” the so-called gabba’im, who were very fastidious in admitting the people into the presence of the Tzaddik—­dependent upon the size of the proffered gifts.  Israel drove out in a gorgeous carriage, surrounded by a guard of honor.  The gubernatorial administration of Kiev, presided over by the ferocious Governor-General Bibikov, received intimations to the effect “that the Tzaddik of Ruzhin wielded almost the power of a Tzar” among his adherents, who did not stir with out his advice.  The police began to watch the Tzaddik, and at length found an occasion for a “frame-up.”

[Footnote 1:  On Rabbi Baer see Vol.  I, p. 229 et seq.]

When, in 1838, the Kahal of Ushitza, in the government of Podolia, was implicated in the murder of an informer, [1] Rabbi Israel of Ruzhin was arrested on the charge of abetting the murder.  The hasidic “Tzar” languished in prison for twenty-two months.  He was finally set free and placed under police surveillance.  But he soon escaped to Austria, and settled in 1841 in the Bukovina, in the townlet of Sadagora, near Chernovitz, where he established his new “court.”  Many Hasidim in Russia now made their pilgrimage abroad to their beloved Tzaddik; in addition, new partisans were won among the hasidic masses of Galicia and the Bukovina.  Rabbi Israel died in 1850, but the “Sadagora dynasty” branched out rapidly, and proved a serious handicap to modern progress during the stormy epoch of emancipation which followed in Austria soon afterwards.

[Footnote 1:  See above, p. 84 et seq.]