11 Menachem Av marks the yahrtzeit of the renowed chossid Reb Hillel Paritcher, who was a chossid of three Rabbeim, but was also known as ‘half a Rebbe’.

11 Menachem Av is the yahrtzeit of Reb Hillel Paritcher, the great chossid of the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, and the Tzemach Tzedek.

Reb Hillel was niskarev to Chassidus Chabad through hearing the chossid Reb Zalman Zezmer chazzer a ma’amar of the Alter Rebbe. While he tried to meet the Alter Rebbe, he never merited to see him.

He was a great Lamdan and Mekubal and would be very stringent when it comes to Mitzvos. He was appointed by the Mitteler Rebbe as a Shadar, to travel to the small towns and villages and collect money for pidyon shvu’im and to teach Chassidus.

Rebbetzin Rivka related in the name of the Tzemach Tzedek that he had 2 and a half Chassidim: since Reb Hillel, who was one of them, was a “half Rebbe.” 

His writings on Chassidus are recorded in the seforim Pelach HaRimon, published by Kehos.

He passed away on this day in 5624/1864, 157 years ago, and was buried in Cherson.

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Reb Zalman Posner once met an old Yid in Nashville who saw Reb Hillel when he was a 8 year old child. That Yid said a brochoh with uncharacteristic concentration, for someone of his caliber. When Reb Zalman asked him about it the man told him the following:

“When I was eight years old Reb Hillel Paritcher came to our town. He gave me an apple and told me to make a brochoh, and I made a loud brochoh, as pure and innocent children do. When I finished making the brochoh Reb Hillel told me to always make such nice brochos!”

The man had gone through much in life, including leaving Russia and coming to the United States. This was also some 80 plus years later, and the man still made brochos the way Reb Hillel told him to!

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A rare personal account of his remarkable personality and activities was preserved in an old Yiddish newspaper. The account gives us an intimate window into Reb Hillel’s activities in the Cherson region, and the incredible respect the Chassidim had for him.

The author, Shmuel Shimon Frug, was born in 5620 (1860) in the small farming town of Bobrovy-Kut, in the Cherson district. Frug notes with regret that he doesn’t remember Reb Hillel personally, as he was just a child of four years old when Reb Hillel passed away, but he records the story as he heard it later from his parent.

Read the full account here.

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LISTEN

Niggun of Reb Hillel:

Niggun of Reb Hillel: