Rabbi Leib Ba'al HaYisurim

Rabbi Leib of Terekesh-Mahilov, known as Rabbi Leib Ba'al HaYisurim (the Master of Sufferings), was one of the greatest disciples of the Baal HaTanya (Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi) and one of the founders of the Chabad community in Hebron. His figure is shrouded in mystery, and many details of his person, deeds, and work are unknown. The name Ba'al HaYisurim clung to him because of the many sufferings he endured. One tradition relates that he took the sufferings upon himself because he had spoken disparagingly of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. Rabbi Leib was among the first Chabad Hasidim to settle in Hebron, and in his old age he moved to live in the city of Safed. It is told that when the people of Terekesh-Mohilov asked the Baal HaTanya to appoint Rabbi Leib as leader of the community in their vicinity, he refused, because a leader must also know about mundane matters, whereas Rabbi Leib was entirely abstracted from the matters and desires of this world. In the end, the Baal HaTanya appointed him to guide and manage the young married students. The book Sha'arei Yerushalayim relates of him: The beginning of Ashkenazi settlement was by the famous pious rabbi, our teacher Rabbi Leib of blessed memory, one of the people of Chabad, called Rabbi Leib'li of Hebron and also Rabbi Leib Ba'al Yisurin. This man was great in Torah and exceedingly God-fearing, and at the end of his days he traveled to the holy city of Safed, and died there old and full of days, and commanded before his death that anyone who has a time of trouble, Heaven forbid, should prostrate himself on his grave and be helped, and so they do to this day.

Rabbi Leib Ba'al HaYisurim was known as great in Torah and God-fearing, and is considered one of the founding figures of the Chabad settlement in Hebron. According to tradition, before his passing he promised to help anyone in need of salvation who prostrates himself on his grave and recites the entire Book of Psalms in sequence on the eve of Shabbat after midnight. As a result, hundreds visit his grave throughout the year, and especially on Fridays and on the day of his passing. Likewise, the author of the Beit Yisrael of Gur instructed that it is proper to visit his grave. In 2013 the tombstone was restored and a partition was placed there.