ר׳ משולם פייבוש הלר

ר׳ משולם פייבוש הלר (c. 1742–1794), known through his concise classic יושר דברי אמת, was an early Galician Hasidic thinker based chiefly in Zbarazh. A descendant of ר׳ יום טוב ליפמן הלר, he belonged to a rabbinic and kabbalistic family but held no securely documented official communal office. His primary teacher was ר׳ יחיאל מיכל מזלוטשוב; he also encountered the circles of ר׳ דוב בער ממזריטש and ר׳ מנחם מנדל מפרמישלן. His close colleague ר׳ חיים טירר cites teachings in his name. יושר דברי אמת consists principally of two epistles explaining Hasidic prayer, devekut, disciplined thought and the role of the tsaddik. The first was written in 1777 and the second after 1781. Both circulated anonymously in ליקוטים יקרים, first printed at Lviv in 1792; his name was not firmly attached to a separate edition until the twentieth century. The work is unusually valuable because it presents early Hasidic practice in analytic rather than legendary form, stressing sincerity, concentration and the transformation of ordinary consciousness. He spent most of his life in Zbarazh, died there on 20 Kislev 5555, and was buried locally.