Admor Moses of Zvil & Zloczew

Zvhil Hasidic Dynasty is the name of a Hasidic dynasty which originated with Rabbi Moshe of Zvhil, the son of Rabbi Yechiel Michel, the Magid (Preacher) of Zlotshev.

Moshe of Zvhil was also the grandson of Rabbi Yitzchok of Drubitsh and Rabbi Aharon of Karlin. As in several inter-related Hasidic dynasties, family tradition held that Rabbi Moshe was a descendant of King David.

Rabbi Moshe died in 1831 and was succeeded by his son Rabbi Yechiel Michl Goldman of Zvhil. The last rebbe to reside in Zvhil was Grand Rabbi Yaakov Yisroel. Rabbi Yaakov Yisroel was also the Tsar-appointed Chief Rabbi of the Ukraine.

R' Moshe of Zvhil - The First Zvhiller Rebbe

A Davidic descendant, R' Moshe was the great grandson of R' Menachem Nochum of Tschernobl (the first Maggid of Tschernobl) and R' Aharon of Karlin.

R' Moshe was the grandson of R' Mordechai of Tschernobl (The Maggid of Tschernobl) and R' Yitzchok of Drovitch, and the son of R' Yechiel Michel, the Zlotschover Maggid.

R' Moshe of Zvhil at first refused to serve as an Admor after his father's death, and opened a store. Although his unique conduct marked him as a tzaddik, he rebuffed the attempts of all who tried to draw close to him, and, as directed by his father, cleaved to his saintly Rav of Berditchev.

In the end the Rav of Naski instructed him to preside in Zvhil, which was in the center of Vohlin. Like his saintly fathers, he spread Torah and kedusha (sanctity) in the surrounding settlements, and was considered one of the outstanding tzadikim of his time.

Upon his death in 1831, he was replaced by his son, R' Yechiel Michel of Zvhil, who also conducted himself humbly and drew people closer to Torah and yiras shomayim (awe of heaven) in his unique and inimitable way.

He died on the twelfth of Tishrei 5617 (1856), leaving behind a son, the first R' Mordechai of Zvhil, who became known for his unique conduct.

• Zvhil Yizkor Book

Note: This is the son of R' Michel of Zlotchov. The comment below about him being the *son of the Baal Shem Tov's great grandson* doesn't make sense as he lived just one generation after the Baal Shem Tov.

Rabbi Moshe of Zvhil [died 10 Iyar 5591 (1831)]. After his father’s death, Moshe refused to succeed him as Admor and later did so only because of the urgings of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev and Rabbi Mordechai of Naskiz. When Moshe became an Admor, he had a large following. He was the son-in-law of David Zak, head of the Rabbinic Court of Gravovitz.

Researched on behalf of Paul Gass by Shalom Bronstein, 1995

Paul Gass hired genealogist Miriam Wiener to research metrical records for the Jewish community of Novograd Volynsk (Zvhil) in the Zhitomir Archives and ZAGS. These records showed that Rabbi Moshe Goldman of Zvhil had children by two different wives: The first documented wife was Chava, who was born in 1766, and was the mother of Yehiel Michal and the other children born in the early 1800s. Late in life, Rabbi Moshe Goldman took a much younger woman for his wife: Necha, who was born in 1794. Necha gave him two children born in the 1820s.

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The Zlotchover maggid was the scion of an illustrious family of rabbis and kabbalists from Galicia who lived and operated in the town of Brody and its environs; the maggid’s great-grandfather was R. Moshe of Zvirsh, who died as a martyr without suffering at all by virtue of his communion with God. His son, R. Joseph Spravidliver, was called a “man of truth,” and his wife, “Yenta the Prophet.”

Their son,R. Isaac of Derhovitch, the father of the Zlotchover maggid, was one of the scholars at the Beit Midrash (study hall) of R. Yozfa in Ostrog and a maggid in the community of Horhov.  Traditions preserved in In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov portray him as a man of intimidating wizardry, endowed with a prophetic spirit and expertise in the Divine names, who did not flinch from a head-on confrontation with R. Isaac Hamburger and his associate, R. Ezekiel Landa, author of Noda Bi-Yehuda.

Already during the lifetime of the Zlotchover maggid his origins gained special notice, and one of his most prominent disciple, R. Meshullam Feibush Heller, referred to him as the “son of holy ones, a Tzaddik the son of a Tzaddik.”

Like his forefathers, the Zlotchover maggid was also gifted with extraordinary spiritual abilities.  According to his disciple, R. Abraham Joshua of Apta, he was capable of conducting ascents of the soul at will or when so directed from Heaven: “For his Holy Rabbi our Rabbi Yehiel Mikhal of Zlotchov would sleep... either when he wanted to ascend to Heaven, or when Heaven called him to ascend.” 

Such ability was ascribed to only two people at the outset of Hasidism, the Ba’al Shem Tov and the Zlotchover maggid.  Similarly, two of his sons - the first-born, R. Joseph of Yampela and the second, Isaac of Radvil - were also blessed with spiritual powers, and their ascents of the soul were widely recognized.

R. Joseph of Yampela is quoted to the effect that the Divine spirit had been present in their forefathers’ line for 72 generations. 

Admittedly, of the Zlotchover maggid’s five sons, whom he termed the five books of the Torah, only the fourth son, R. Moshe of Zweihil, established a Hasidic court.  However, the rabbis of the Zweihil dynasty, who live in Jerusalem, are known to this day as the “preservers of the holy covenant,”[28] meaning those who preserve the sanctity of the covenantal organ.  This sobriquet is a reminder of the tradition whereby the Tzaddikim of the Zlotchov dynasty have the capacity to correct the sexual transgressions of their fellows, such as the spilling of seed.  In Lurianic kabbalah this sin is deemed to delay the redemption, a misdeed which only the Messiah can correct.

The appellation of the rabbis of the house of Zweihil, therefore, alludes to the special supernatural status ascribed for over two hundred years to descendants of the house of Zlotchov.

The Zlotchover maggid was born in Brody in around the year 1726.  The first position he held was that of maggid in the town of Kluk, and according to In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov during this period he was a disciple of the Besht.  From Kluk he accepted the nomination of maggid in the town of Zlotchov, where he grew famous. 

At the end of his life he was “received” in Yampela, a small town in the Ukraine, which surely did not befit his intellectual prowess or stature in the view of his disciples. The reasons for this descent have never been completely clarified, but his son, R. Isaac of Radvil, hints that his father was so embittered that he sought to take leave of the world.

Throughout the years of his wandering the Zlotchover maggid’s activity was centered in Brody, the town of his birth, in eastern Galicia on the Ukrainian border.  Brody was a major Jewish hub in economic and cultural terms, and won repute as a town of Talmudic scholars and Jewish legal experts.  It was also known as a center of kabbalistic study by virtue of the members in its “Kloize”, who adopted kabbalistic customs. The reputation garnered by the Kloize reflected the considerable interest in kabbalah among all the towns of Eastern Galicia and the Ukraine. Read complete article

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R' Yechiel Michel - The Zlotschover Maggid FAMILY TREE

Ancestors

The family were decendants of the famous Chayut family.  The Zlotchover Maggid's

• Father:  R'  Yitzchok M'Drohobic 
• Grandfather:  R' Yoseph Sproidlyer of Pistin (died in Israel), 
• Great Grandfather: R'  Moshe of Zvirech,
• GG Grandfather was R Yitzchak Chayut (d.1585)*  (R Yitzchak Chayut's father-in-law was also the father-in-law of the Maharal of Prague.  This account is from the book "Otzar Harabanim" by Friedman. 

Descendants

R Yechiel Michel had 5 sons, and at least 1 daughter.
His daughter married R' David of Stefan, a descendant of the "Taz", R' David Segel.  R David of Stefan was himself a Rebbe.  
R Yechiel Michel used to call his 5 sons his 5 books of Torah.   The Zlotschover Maggid, R' Yechiel Michel, had five sons (whom he referred to as "my chamisha chumshai Torah" (my five Books of the Torah) who were replete with Torah and chassidus, each of whom became Rebbe in a different place. They were:

• 1. R' Yosef of Yampola,
• 2. R' Mordechai of Kremnitz,
• 3. R' Yitzchok of Radvil,
• 4. R' Binyomin of Zbariz
• 5. R' Moshe of Zvhil, the first Zvhiller Rebbe.

 Source  

• Zlotshov Hasidic Dynasty

רבי משה גולדמן מזווהיל, מייסד החסידות בעיר זו, היה בנו השלישי של רבי יחיאל מיכל מזלוטשוב, תלמיד הבעל שם טוב והמגיד ממעזריטש. בהתחלה סירב לשמש כאדמו"ר אך נעתר ללחצם של רבי לוי יצחק מברדיטשוב ורבי מרדכי מנישכיז. היה חתנו של הרב דוד זק אב"ד גראבוביץ. נפטר בי' באייר תקצ"א (1831).

זהו כנראה בן נינם של רבי יחיאל אשכנזי ואודל, בתו של הבעש"ט. ידוע שלזוג היה בן, רבי אפרים, אשר נולד במז'יבוז' ולו היה בן ששמו משה חיים אפרים מסאדילקוב

משה חיים חי בשנים 1742-1800 והוא כנראה סבו של משה אשכנזי זה והאם זהו אותו משה המכונה משה מזוויהיל

היחיד מבין חמשת בניו של ר' יחיאל מיכל, שייסד חצר חסידית,

אדמו"רי שושלת זוויהיל (משפחת גולדמן), שמרכזה בירושלים, מכונים עד היום 'שומרי ברית קודש', כלומר מי ששומרים על טוהרתו של איבר הברית. כינוי זה הוא זכר למסורת, שלפיה יש ביכולתם של הצדיקים לבית זלוטשוב לתקן את החטאים המיניים של זולתם, כגון הוצאת זרע לבטלה, הנחשב בקבלת האר"י לחטא, שיתוקן בידי המשיח. כינוי האדמו"רים לבית זוויהיל 'שומרי ברית קודש', מרמז אפוא על המעמד המיוחד, מעין מעמדו של המשיח, המיוחס זה למעלה ממאתיים שנים לצאצאי בית זלוטשוב.

האופי האזוטרי והמופנם של חסידי זוויהיל בא לביטוי באורח החיים של העדה בירושלים. זוהי עדה קטנה ומסוגרת, שאינה נוטה להתרחב ולקלוט חסידים חדשים. צאצאי בני היישוב הישן בירושלים מספרים, כי חסידי זוויהיל מצניעים עצמם ואינם מתבלטים בין חצרות החסידים השונות, ואף רואים עצמם נמוכים מכל השאר, באומרם שהם השורש.