Yisroel Ber Odesser

Yisroel Ber Odesser was born in 1888 in Tiberias

Odesser was born in Tiberias, under Ottoman rule, to a family of Karliner Hasidim. His father was Isaac Solomon Odesser. As a young man he followed the Karlin path but felt it did not satisfy him.

While studying at a yeshiva in Tiberias, he found a coverless book in the garbage and began to study it. It was Hishtafchut HaNefesh, a Breslov work on prayer and meditation. He later met Rabbi Yisroel Karduner, who became his teacher, and his father threw him out of the house.

He married Esther Mindel. After Karduner died in 1918, he served Rabbi Solomon Eliezer Alfandari for a time and then studied with Breslov elders in Jerusalem.

In 1957 he met Zalman Shazar in Meron and began a long correspondence with him. Shazar later published the letters in the book Ibay Ha-Nachal. In his old age Odesser made public a note bearing the phrase Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman, and the established Breslov community opposed his path.

He died on 23 October 1994 and was buried at Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem. In 1999 some of his followers founded the settlement of Avnei Hefetz, named Avi HaNachal, in his name.