ר׳ יחיאל מיכל מזלוטשוב

ר׳ יחיאל מיכל מזלוטשוב (c.1726–1786), known as the Maggid of Zlotchov, was an early Hasidic preacher and a link between the circles of ר׳ ישראל בעל שם טוב and ר׳ דוב בער המגיד ממזריטש. Born in Brody to ר׳ יצחק מדרוהוביץ, he grew up within the learned Galician milieu surrounding the Brody kloiz. He became a disciple of ר׳ ישראל בעל שם טוב and, after 1760, accepted the leadership of ר׳ דוב בער ממזריטש. He preached in Brody and then at Zolochiv, the town from which his enduring title derives, before spending his final years in Yampil. His teaching emphasized devekut, ascetic discipline, the purification of physical desire and the preacher’s obligation to admonish himself together with his listeners. Opponents of Hasidism attacked his practices, while disciples remembered an intense devotional and musical personality. He left no book written by his own hand. Sermons and sayings were preserved by pupils in ליקוטים יקרים and later collections, so those publication dates are not treated as dates of residence. His five sons established branches that helped transmit the Zlotchov tradition across Galicia and Ukraine.