Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowicz was born in 1766 in
Przedbórz, Poland. His father
Asher Rabinowicz of Przedbórz was a
maggid and the
Av Beit Din of Przedbórz. His father was the great-grandson of
Isaac HaLevi Segal, who was in part, the great-grandson of
Eliezer Treves of Frankfurt who was a descendant of
Rashi. In his early years, he studied under David Tevele of Lissa and Aryeh Leib Halperin whom he followed to
Opatów, where he was introduced to Hasidism by
Moses Leib of Sasov. He spent several years teaching in the local
yeshivot and married Braindel Koppel, the daughter of the wealthy innkeeper Jacob Koppel of Opatów. Following this, he became a disciple of
David of Lelov who convinced the Yehudi to travel to the Hasidic court of
Yaakov Yitzchak Horowitz (the Seer) in
Lublin. During his time in Lublin, the Yehudi soon becoming the leading disciple of the Seer, who affectionally called him the "Yehudi" so that he would not be called by his rebbe's name. As the Seer became preoccupied with the responsibilities of mass movement he began directing newly arrived young scholars visiting Lublin into the care of the Yehudi. However, over time, the Yehudi began to greatly resent the atmosphere in Lublin. In the court of the Seer, the rebbe served as the impetus of
God and worked within a
mystical and
kabbalistic framework. The Yehudi began to detest the all-encompassing role in which the Seer played within his follower's lives, and so he founded his own religious movement based in
Przysucha (Peshischa). Several of the Seer's most distinguished disciples followed the Yehudi to Przysucha, such as
Simcha Bunim of Peshischa and
Menahem Mendel of Kotsk. This break from the Seer was dramatically recounted in
Martin Buber's "
Gog Und Magog"
. == Rabbinic position ==