Rabbi Lazer Brody's Yichus

Rabbi Lazer Brody wrote a great post today about the hometown of his grandfather: Pictorial Essay: Yanov, a world that was

Reading it, I picked up on some interesting facts, which I confirmed through Rabbi Brody himself. Although he doesn't speak about it, he himself has some very great yichus. (See here for the real usefulness of yichus, which it seems Rabbi Brody uses very well.) He is a descendant of Reb Yitzchok of Drohbitch, a talmid of the Baal Shem Tov and father of R' Yechiel Michel of Zlotchov. R' Yitzchok's father was R' Yosef "Ish Emes" of Pistin, a friend of the Baal Shem Tov. Their lineage extends back to Dovid HaMelech. R’ Yitzchok’s daughter Bessal’e married R’ Nachman Litvak of Radvil; Rabbi Brody is a 7th generation descendant of theirs.

Interestingly, the sister of R’ Yitzchok of Drohbitich married R’ Nachman Horedenker, the grandfather of R’ Nachman of Breslov, so it turns out that Rabbi Brody shares a common grandfather with R’ Nachman of Breslov. And, as mentioned in the post, Rabbi Brody’s great-grandfather was also a Breslover Chosid. Besides the fact that I’m very interested in Rabbinic genealogy, I find this fascinating since Rabbi Brody spends his life spreading the teachings of R’ Nachman of Breslov and other talmidei Baal Shem Tov, via books, CD’s, lectures, Lazer Beams, etc… There are no coincidences.

As Rabbi Brody says at the end of his post:
“North American assimilation murdered many of my relatives' souls even after they escaped from the Cossacks and from Hitler. Yet, despite it all, here we are back in Yanov, wiping away the break of two generations that slid away from Yiddishkeit, looking, dressing, and acting just like my great grandfather Chatzkel, a Breslover chossid and descendant of Rebbe Itzikel Drovitcher zatza'l. We are certainly the winners, and we shall continue to overcome, by clinging to our unwavering emuna, amen.”