Rabbi Yitzhak was born in 1740 into a distinguished rabbinical family; his father was a rabbi in Hoshakov, Galicia. Levi Yitzhak married into a wealthy family and had settled down to a life of scholarship when he made the acquaintance of the chasid Schmelke of Nickolsburg, who won him over to the camp of the Chasidim.

During the first thirteen years of his career as a Hasidic leader, Levi Yitzhak was driven from one pulpit to the next under attack by the Mitnagdim (non-Hasidics). Eventually he arrived in Berditchev, where things went much better for him. He served there without opposition for the last twenty-five years of his life.

Next to the Besht, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak is one of the most beloved of Hasidic leaders, and the one who appears most frequently in fictional treatments of Chasidism: dozens of plays, stories, and poems exist that feature Levi Yitzhak as their hero. His most characteristic posture in popular memory is that of attorney at the heavenly bar-disputer, bargainer, and pleader with God in the tradition of Abraham, Moses, and Job. He died in 1810.

"Gates to Jewish Heritage- Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev," 5 Nov. 2004 <http://www.jewishgates.com/file.asp?File_ID=280>.