His father Yaakov, who died when he was two, was the son of Mordechai of Sekul, a descendant of Rabbi Saul Wahl.
[3] On the day after Simchat Torah of that year, Leiner left Kotzk with many of his followers to form his own hasidic circle.
[note 1] Here Leiner expressed the doctrine that all events, including human actions, are absolutely under God's control, or as Rabbinic discourse would phrase it, by "hashgacha pratis."
He presents defenses of various Biblical sins, such as Korach's rebellion, Zimri during the Heresy of Peor, and Judah's incident with Tamar.
Leiner's thought continued to have influence in the twentieth century, especially on Neo-Hasidism, and the teachings of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.
He is quoted as saying that after initially being perplexed as to the peculiar nature of the teachings he quickly realized that in it lay the "secret for turning Jews on to the deeper meanings of Judaism".