Episode 2: Pinchas Zelig's War Against Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem

00:01 We continue with the fascinating stories of the history and development of Chassidus. We are now with the holy Rabbi Yosef Yospa the Sephardi, who married the widow. And the story continues. After Rabbi Yosef Yospa the Sephardi married the widow, the community began seeing to the couple’s needs. As long as Rabbi Yosef Yospa had been on his own, he had made do with very little. He slept in the beis midrash and ate only bread and drank only water. But now the couple needed a home, and his wife needed to be able to run a household. In the second year of their marriage, a son was born to them, and he was named Eliyahu after Eliyahu Hanavi. Before the child was even two years old, his father, Rabbi Yosef Yospa, began teaching him Torah, and he continued to do so in the years that followed, because he did not want to rely on other teachers. When little Eliyahu turned seven, his father began taking him along every night for Tikkun Chatzos. Rabbi Yosef Yospa told his son not to speak with anyone, not only about everyday matters but even about Torah. He would bring him into a separate room and study Torah with him in seclusion. Then, two weeks before little Eliyahu was due to reach bar mitzvah, Rabbi Yosef Yospa called his young wife to him and told her that his time had come to return his soul to its Creator. He instructed her not to mourn him for too long, and said to her: “You are still in the prime of your life. If a suitable match comes your way, do not turn it down. Our son Eliyahu will soon decide, after his bar mitzvah, to travel far away. Do not refuse him, for you should know that Eliyahu’s soul descended into this world for a holy purpose: to carry out a great mission for the benefit of the community. For with him, with Eliyahu, begins a chain of generations whose descendants will play an important part in the path toward the coming of Moshiach. Know that all this time he has studied Torah from Eliyahu Hanavi, who prepared him for the mission entrusted

03:20 to him in this lower world.” During their conversation, Rabbi Yosef Yospa told his wife that immediately after her first husband was killed, he had been informed from Heaven that the heavenly court had ruled that he should marry, so that they would have a son with a very lofty soul, destined to bring a tikkun to the world. After this conversation, Rabbi Yosef Yospa summoned the leaders of the Krakow community and thanked them for the kindness they had shown him, his wife and his son. He asked them to continue looking after his wife and son after his passing. He blessed the community leaders and passed away immediately afterward. Little Eliyahu said Kaddish and taught Mishnayos in public for the elevation of his father’s soul. For the first time, the community saw him at prayer and in his studies. Everyone saw that despite his young age, his righteousness was very great and his Torah knowledge was boundless. Meanwhile, the time came to celebrate his bar mitzvah, and the whole city took part in the joy. A few weeks later, Eliyahu told his mother that he had decided to leave Krakow and travel far away. His mother, who had known about this in advance, raised no objection and gave him a heartfelt mother’s blessing. Where did Eliyahu go? What did he do during the forty years from 5310, when he left Krakow, until 5350, when he suddenly appeared in Worms, Germany? We do not know. But by the time he became known in Worms, he was already called Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem. He did not come to Worms alone, but with his wife. It became known that they also had a son and two daughters, all married and living in different places. Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem immediately became known as a wonder-worker who healed the sick and helped childless women conceive. His home was open to all, and anyone with a request could come to him. Indeed, crowds came to him from near and far. He also maintained a yeshiva at his own expense. The poor, in particular, were members of his household. They came from all corners of the world and stayed with him for weeks and even

06:17 months. And so Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem lived in Worms for about ten years, and his fame grew from year to year. Hundreds of miles away, people spoke with wonder of the miracles he performed. At that time, a great Torah scholar and tzaddik named Rabbi Pinchas Zelig Shapira also became well known. He was kindhearted and friendly, very humble and patient. At the same time, he had an exceptionally strong will that could not be swayed. When stories of Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem’s wonders reached Rabbi Pinchas Zelig Shapira, he chose three of his finest students and sent them to Worms to find out for themselves what Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem was like and whether the stories circulating about him were true. Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem received these emissaries warmly and in a friendly manner. They stayed in his home for ten days. During that time, Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem discussed Torah with them, revealed secrets of Kabbalah to them and taught them the holy Zohar. I’ll repeat that passage: Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem received these emissaries warmly and in a friendly manner. They stayed in his home for ten days. During that time, he discussed Torah with them, revealed secrets of Kabbalah to them and taught them the holy Zohar. Rabbi Pinchas Zelig’s students were deeply impressed by Rabbi Eliyahu’s Torah scholarship and righteousness. They also watched him treat the many sick people who came to him from near and far, all of whom recovered. The remedies he gave the sick included baked goods made with honey or oil, cloves dipped in honey, honey water, wine, raisins and beer. The emissaries of Rabbi Shapira could hardly believe their eyes when they saw patients who had been unable to stand on their feet recover completely within a day or two of receiving the remedies Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem gave them. Many patients received no remedy at all. Instead, Rabbi Eliyahu brought them into a separate room and spoke to them words of rebuke

08:59 and inspiration to do teshuvah. These patients burst into tears from the depths of their hearts, did teshuvah, and within a few days they too recovered. The emissaries returned to Rabbi Pinchas Zelig and reported how deeply impressed they were by everything they had seen and heard at the home of Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem of Worms. They had no doubt that all the stories told about him were true. They also told him about what they had studied with Rabbi Eliyahu, mentioning, among other things, Kabbalah and the Zohar—a book Rabbi Eliyahu held very holy and which, he said, contained the secrets of the Torah. This detail, the study of the Zohar, greatly angered Rabbi Shapira[?]. Why? Because Rabbi Pinchas Zelig had long been waging a campaign against Kabbalah, and against the Zohar in particular. From the first day the Zohar reached the rabbis of Germany after it was printed in Italy, Rabbi Pinchas Zelig spoke out sharply against it, even though he was still young at the time. The Zohar was first printed in 5318 in Mantua and Cremona, Italy. Italy’s renowned Torah scholars of that time, Rabbi Azriel Trevito, head of the yeshiva in Ascola, and Rabbi Yosef Itling, head of the yeshiva in Cremona, sent the Zohar to the great Torah scholar and Kabbalist Rabbi Eliezer, rabbi of Frankfurt am Main. Through him, the leading Torah scholars of Germany at the time became acquainted with the Zohar and endorsed it enthusiastically. But Rabbi Pinchas Zelig, though still young, initiated opposition to the Zohar and to Kabbalah as well. Before long, he had won supporters for his position. Together they declared war on the Zohar, on Kabbalah and on those who studied them, and this struggle had already been going on for thirty years. And now Rabbi Pinchas Zelig heard from his emissaries that Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem was a Kabbalist and regarded the Zohar as a principal source for the secrets of the Torah. This incensed him, and he immediately called for a session of a special, expanded beis din

11:46 to consider measures against the Baal Shem of Worms. Renowned Torah scholars were invited to the gathering, and Rabbi Pinchas Zelig stirred those assembled with a speech in which he declared that Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem, however great a Torah scholar he might be, had embarked on a dangerous path by teaching Kabbalah and explaining the Zohar in his own way. After lengthy deliberations, the beis din decided to select a new delegation, made up of the leading Torah scholars of the generation, to travel to Worms and warn Rabbi Eliyahu that he must abandon his new path: refrain from using holy Names to heal the sick and help childless women conceive, stop teaching Kabbalah, and stop offering interpretations of the Zohar. The warning would conclude that if he did not change his ways, he would be required to leave Germany, for this new approach would not be allowed a foothold there.