Yissachar Dov Ber Horowitz, known as Berish Bal-tshuve of Kraków (רבי בעריש'ל בעל תשובה מקראקא) (1931–1870) was a religious leader associated with

Hasidic Judaism Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a Spirituality, spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Based in the

Kazimierz Kazimierz (; ; ) is a historical district of Kraków and Kraków Old Town, Poland. From its inception in the 14th century to the early 19th century, Kazimierz was an independent city, a royal city of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom, located sou ...

district of

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, Berish Bal-tshuva served as a popular Hasidic leader, or ''

rebbe A Rebbe () or Admor () is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties.Heilman, Samuel"The Rebbe and the Resurgence of Orthodox Judaism."''Religion and Spirituality (Audio)''. UCTV, 20 Oct 2011. web. ...

''. His moniker, "''bal-tshuva''" ("the penitent") referred to his joining the Hasidic movement at a young age. In his typology of Hasidic rebbes,

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi Meshullam Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (August 28, 1924 – July 3, 2014), commonly called "Reb Zalman" (full Hebrew name: ), was an American Rabbi, writer, and activist, and one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement and an innovator in ecu ...

viewed Berish Bal-Tshuve as representative of the type of Hasidic leader known as the ''Guter Yid'' ("Good Jew"), and who may be viewed in the legacy of saintly Talmudic figures such as

Honi HaMe'agel Honi HaMe'agel () was a 1st-century BCE Jewish scholar prior to the age of the '' tannaim'', the scholars from whose teachings the Mishnah was derived. During this period, a variety of religious movements and splinter groups developed amongst the ...

. These popular religious figures may be viewed as enjoying God's favor and whose legacies spoke to the conditions of struggling Hasidim.

References

1870 births 1931 deaths Hasidic rabbis People from Kraków {{rabbi-stub