Another hot-bed of the Tzaddik cult was Podolia, the cradle of Hasidism.  In the old residence of Besht, [1] in Medzhibozh, the sceptre was held by Rabbi Joshua Heshel Apter, who succeeded Besht’s grandson, Rabbi Borukh of Tulchyn. [2] For a number of years, between 1810 and 1830, the aged Joshua Heshel was revered as the nestor of Tzaddikism, the haughty Israel of Ruzhin being the only one who refused to acknowledge his supremacy.  Heshel’s successor was Rabbi Moyshe Savranski, who established a regular hasidic “court,” after the pattern of Chernobyl and Ruzhin.

[Footnote 1:  See Vol.  I, p. 222 et seq.]

[Footnote 2:  See Vol.  I, p. 384.]

The only Tzaddik to whom it was not given to be the founder of a dynasty was the somewhat eccentric Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav, [1] a great-grandson of Besht.  After his death, the Bratzlav Hasidim, who followed the lead of his disciple Rabbi Nathan, suffered cruel persecutions at the hands of the other hasidic factions.  The “Bratzlavers” adopted the custom of visiting once a year, during the High Holidays, the grave of their founder in the city of Uman, in the government of Kiev, and subsequently erected a house of prayer near his tomb.  During these pilgrimages they were often the target of the local Hasidim who reviled and often maltreated them.  The “Bratzlavers” were the Cinderella among the Hasidim, lacking the powerful patronage of a living Tzaddik.  Their heavenly patron, Rabbi Nahman, could not hold his own against his living rivals, the earthly Tzaddiks—­all too earthly perhaps, in spite of their saintliness.

[Footnote 1:  A town in Podolia.  See Vol.  I, p. 382 et seq.]

The Tzaddik cult was equally diffused in the Kingdom of Poland.  The place of Rabbi Israel of Kozhenitz and Rabbi Jacob-Isaac of Lublin, who together marshalled the hasidic forces during the time of the Varsovian duchy, was taken by founders and representatives of new Tzaddik dynasties.  The most popular among these were the dynasty of Kotzk, [1] established by Rabbi Mendel Kotzker (1827-1859), and that of Goora Kalvaria, [2] or Gher, [3] founded by Rabbi Isaac Meier Alter [4] (about 1830-1866).  The former reigned supreme in the provinces, the latter in the capital of Poland, in Warsaw, which down to this day has remained loyal to the Gher dynasty.

[Footnote 1:  A town not far from Warsaw.  Comp.  Vol.  I, p. 303, n. 1.]

[Footnote 2:  In Polish, Gora Kalwarya, a town on the left bank of the Vistula, not far from Warsaw.]

[Footnote 3:  This form of the name is used by the Jews.]

[Footnote 4:  Called popularly in Poland Reb Itche Meier, a name still frequently found among the Jews of Warsaw, who to a large extent are adherents of the “Gher dynasty.”]

The Polish “Rebbes” [1] resembled by the character of their activity the type of the Northern, or Habad, Tzaddiks rather than those of the Ukraina.  They did not keep luxurious “courts,” did not hanker so greedily after donations, and laid greater emphasis on talmudic scholarship.