Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowicz

Who was Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowicz?

Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowicz, also known as the Yid Hakodosh, was the founder of the Peshischa sect of Hasidism in Przysucha, Poland, which was "an elitist, rationalistic Hasidism that centered on Talmudic study and formed a counterpoint to the miracle-centered Hasidism of Lublin." He held court in the grand synagogue of Przysucha.

A disciple of The Seer of Lublin, from whom he broke, and the teacher of Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa, to whom was passed the helm of his yeshiva, he was also the patriarch of the Biala Hasidic dynasty. His break from The Seer is dramatically recounted in Martin Buber's Gug Und Magog, published in English as For the Sake of Heaven.

His teachings are documented in the post-humous work, Wonders of the Holy Jew.

Peshischa Hasidism transmogrified into both Izhbitz and Ger Hasidism, the latter being one of the world's largest contemporary Hasidic sects.