Mezhbizh (original) (raw)

Mezhbizh (also spelled as Medzibuz, Mezbuz, Mez'buz, and in various other ways, transcribed from various Yiddish dialects) is the name of the town of Medzhybizh in the present Ukraine which is significant as both the source of a Hasidic dynasty that bears its name and as a symbolic name for the roots of Hasidism. The Mezhbizh dynasty served as the earliest "trunk" of Hasidic Judaism, led by the Baal Shem Tov and his direct descendants.