The “Toldos Yaacov Yosef” and Shargorod, Ukraine

Editor's note: Our dear friend Vladimir Melnik is a tour guide who lives in the town of Breslev in the Ukraine. He is also the caretaker of Rebbe Natan's holy gravesite.

Shargorod (circled in the left side of the above map) is a town in the Podolia district of south central Ukraine about 80 km southwest of Vinnitza and about 45 km due west of Breslev. The town was founded in 1579 by Polish-Lithuanian nobleman Jan Zamoyshi.

The famous synagogue of Shargorod (image below), where Rebbe Yaacov Yosef of Polonne (aka "Toldos Yaacov Yosef") officiated, was built in 1589.

The "Toldos" was already an accomplished scholar and Kabbalist when he became connected to the Baal Shem Tov. His becoming a "Hassid" created much resistance by the fierce opponents of the Hassidim known as "Misnagdim", who were the controlling majority at that time, in the mid-18^th century in the Ukraine. As such, when the "Toldos" had been the rabbi of Shargorod for several years already, and he was brutally expelled from his position on a Friday afternoon in 1748. In several of his response, which he wrote in Rashkov where he took up residence after his banishment from Sharogrod, he reveals the suffering which he had undergone. Later, he was appointed rabbi in Nemirov, later to become a center of Hsaidim where both Rebbe Natan and Rebbe Naftali (Rebbe Nachman's two main students) were born.

One of the foremost sources of the Baal Shem Tov's teachings, the book "Toldos Yaacov Yosef" repeats the phrase "I have heard from my teacher", 249 times. 

I would love to show you around historic Breslev and the Ukraine.

If anyone comes to Breslev, I will be happy to guide you. Call me at +380639818990. If you come to Breslev on your own, you can find me for my house is the first one after the cemetery on the mountain. Your friend, Vladi