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Spinoff - being descended from important people
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amother
Periwinkle


 

Post Tue, Apr 25 2017, 7:55 pm
Some one wrote on another thread that they are 10th generation from the baal shem tov. As a BT with no yichus at all- wow! What's that like? Is your whole family amazing and kind and holy? Are you close knit? How many people are there who are 10th gen from the Besht? (if everyone has had 10 kids it would be a million )

Please share your yichus stories here.
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amother
Gray


 

Post Tue, Apr 25 2017, 8:00 pm
I married into the baal shem tov family. Funny thing is the family is so not chassidish - the farthest thing you can imagine.
I've seen in the family everyone has to create their own yichus, the most 'holy' in the family comes from BT roots and married in.
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amother
Periwinkle


 

Post Tue, Apr 25 2017, 8:04 pm
Do you mean secular or frum nut not chassidic? Are they amazing people?
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amother
Gray


 

Post Tue, Apr 25 2017, 8:10 pm
amother wrote:
Do you mean secular or frum nut not chassidic? Are they amazing people?


Not chassidish at all. Litivish, yekke - anything but chassidish Smile

I think by seeing the spread of people in the family you see everyone has to make their own self and not rely on yichus.
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amother
Gray


 

Post Tue, Apr 25 2017, 8:16 pm
But it would be cool to see how many people on here are related that many generations back.

On my own side I know nothing about my lineage. Everyone was killed in the war and those that survived were very young. So I know my great grandparents names - but nothing more.
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 25 2017, 8:20 pm
Not everyone had ten kids. Not all kids survived to adulthood. Pogroms, wars, epidemics and poverty decimated populations and something called the Holocaust wiped out all but a small fraction of European Jewry, the BShT's descendants included.

There are maybe
half a million Chassidim worldwide give or take a hundred thousand. Most are not blood descendants of the B ShT but descendants of his followers. If course there are people descended from the BShT who are not chassidish, not religious, and probably not Jewish, just as there are some nonobservant and non Jewish twigs on most family trees.
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amother
Cerise


 

Post Tue, Apr 25 2017, 8:21 pm
Delete

Last edited by amother on Mon, Feb 11 2019, 10:18 pm; edited 1 time in total
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amother
Black


 

Post Tue, Apr 25 2017, 8:25 pm
We're direct descendants from Baal hatanya. Whoopee. Says nothing about anyone in the family. Def not amazing people.
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unexpected




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 25 2017, 8:32 pm
We always felt important growing up and knowing we were from "big ppl" It was a little disappointing to grow up and discover that nobody even heard of our "yichus" That being said, I still tell over stories at the shabbos table and impress upon my children that their grandparents were tzaddikim.
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 25 2017, 8:39 pm
Op, you dont have "no yichus". You just don't know what your yichus is. Many of us don't know what our yichus is , owing to the many devastating upheavals and displacements our people have endured. But we assume that we are all descended ultimately from the Avot even if we can't fill in the blanks between then and now.

By the way I object to your use of the term "important people". My great grandfather was a very important person in his town. He was the town's balegole, or coachman. Anyone who needed to travel or send a parcel to or from the railroad station had to either walk or have the balegole drive him. Without him there was no transport. Socially prominent? No. Wealthy? No. Known beyond the borders of this town? Also not. But important? You betcha.
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amother
Periwinkle


 

Post Tue, Apr 25 2017, 8:41 pm
zaq - I - LOVE - your - post.
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amother
Ruby


 

Post Tue, Apr 25 2017, 9:01 pm
Zaq is on target, as always.

When a relative who's into genealogy said we were descended from the Baal Shem Tov, my Litvak father blurted out, "Don't tell anyone!" So the responses are different.

I know gerim who are descended from European royalty. Is that more or less impressive?

Anyhow, you know the old saying: Yichus is like a carrot. The best part is underground.
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ectomorph




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 25 2017, 9:08 pm
My parents are BTs. Now that is impressive yichus. My parents raised children committed to Torah with no family support.

I can only aspire to improve on my parents the amount they improved on their parents
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amother
Sienna


 

Post Tue, Apr 25 2017, 10:00 pm
To answer your question OP my lineage goes back to Dovid Hamelech

I have a long list of famous Rebbes on my Yichus tree including the one's people go to for yeshuos today including - Rebbe Reb Elimelech, Reb Yeshaya Kerestir, Reb Shalom of Shotz.

I can't speak for my relatives but we are pretty normal folks. As a matter of fact we have difficulties and challenges like the rest of amothers here - sometimes I wonder if I don't have a more than average difficult life.

Anyway having knowing your yichus is like an accessory. some love them. Some hate them. Some discard them.

I don't attach any major importance accept for trying to light a candle in their memory on their yartzeit in the hope of meriting yeshuos for my problems.

Oh and I also try to remember to behave in a manner which would give my ancestors pride. I don't always succeed.
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Iymnok




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 25 2017, 10:28 pm
Dh is a BT. Still, he is a descendant from the daughter of the Baal Shem Tov. Yet his great grandfather stopped being frum and has many non Jewish descendants.

My father's family became reform in Germany over 100 years ago. The neis is that they stayed Jewish till my father became frum.

What is yichus worth anyway?
To know if you are a kohen or Levi is worth knowing.
It's nice to know if you are ben achar ben from Rashi (yeah I know, impossible) or whatever. But it's worthless if you don't make anything out of this knowledge.
Do you use your ancestors as an inspiration to act in a better way?
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Rutabaga




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 26 2017, 1:46 am
OP, you might enjoy this thread:

http://www.imamother.com/forum.....11115
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Raisin




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 26 2017, 1:52 am
amother wrote:
To answer your question OP my lineage goes back to Dovid Hamelech

I have a long list of famous Rebbes on my Yichus tree including the one's people go to for yeshuos today including - Rebbe Reb Elimelech, Reb Yeshaya Kerestir, Reb Shalom of Shotz.

I can't speak for my relatives but we are pretty normal folks. As a matter of fact we have difficulties and challenges like the rest of amothers here - sometimes I wonder if I don't have a more than average difficult life.

Anyway having knowing your yichus is like an accessory. some love them. Some hate them. Some discard them.

I don't attach any major importance accept for trying to light a candle in their memory on their yartzeit in the hope of meriting yeshuos for my problems.

Oh and I also try to remember to behave in a manner which would give my ancestors pride. I don't always succeed.


I think mine might too. Pretty sure most Jews are. (Not descended from any rebbeim but from people who were well off enough to keep family trees..). LOL Ashkenazi Jews are descended from such a tiny goup of people we all probably have a lot of common ancestors like Rashi and the Maharal.
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amother
Powderblue


 

Post Wed, Apr 26 2017, 3:02 am
I am descended from a major 18th century posek. It's definitely something I find cool and I do draw a lot of inspiration from him. I teach my kids about him and one day they're going to study his work his work in school and they'll probably be excited about it. Other than that, I don't see any meaning in it. My father is a BT after several generations. Him, me, and my kids are the only frum descendants (at least on this branch of the family). I have non Jewish cousins. I'm sure he has other living descendants. The 1700s were a long time ago, so the numbers are probably pretty big- though I'm sure many perished in the Holocaust, so there probably aren't as many living descendants as there should be.
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amother
Cobalt


 

Post Wed, Apr 26 2017, 3:14 am
I'm descended from the Baal Shem Tov and I didn't even know until I was a teenager. My entire family is litvish. On my other side there's some big rabbonim and figures as well. Some people are really nice and kind, some are abusive and crazy, most are just normal people struggling with the same things everyone else is. It has no bearing on our lives.
And the people who are amazing and special - they're amazing and special because they worked hard on themselves.

Yichus is one of the most overrated things in the frum world.
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 26 2017, 4:12 am
It has nothing to do with BT or FFB. Some BTs have gadol hador (great) grandparent. Some FFB don't have to their knowledge any such. Nor with everyone being kind and holy, people are people... There are many, many Jews who descend from Rashi (about 90% of Europeans though most don't know how). Puts in perspective.
I'm very proud of my yichus, but people are people.

Yes, anyone from Rashi or the Maharal, is from Dovid hamelech Smile There are also some other ties, like the resh galutas and some other Mizrachi families.Among Sefardim, Abravanel...
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