Stories about the Rybnitser Rebbe: The Structure of the Hagiographic Text in Statu Nascendi

The stories about Chaim-Zanvl Abramovich (1902? - 1995), known as the Rybnitser Rebbe, arose quite recently. At the same time, they have been widely distributed both orally and in book form, and in recent years on electronic media. It is a very interesting phenomenon: the hagiographic tradition at the moment of its formation. Despite the novelty of the tradition, there are so many stories that they already need not only to be studied, but also to be classified.

The veneration of the Rybnitser Rebbe is widespread in several different communities. First of all, there are Jews of the Moldavian city of Rybnitsa, where the rebbe lived as a shoykhet until 1973. Then there are the Jews of Transcarpathia, who were the first to recognize Abramovich as a Hasidic rebbe. In addition, these are his Hasidim in the USA, among whom he spent the last 20 years of his life. Finally, a cult of his miraculous grave has been developed in the last years. Currently it is the most visited grave in the American ultra-orthodox world. Pilgrims to the Rebbe`s grave make up another group of his admirers. Each group of the above has its own collection of hagiographic stories.

The hagiographic substratum is also very significant for the stories about the Rybnitser Rebbe. In this case, it is the hagiographic text "Shivhei Besht" ("Praise of Besht"), which is basic for Hasidism.

Taking into account these parameters, that is, the place of origin and existence, the hagiographic substrate and the so-called “hagiographic coordinate”, i.e. discrete loci in space and time, allows us to build a classification of stories about the Rybnitser Rebbe. This classification, in turn, makes possible the better understanding the genesis and pragmatics of the folklore hagiography, both oral and written.