Episode 11: The Appointment of Moshe, the Maharal's Grandson, as Head of the Poznan Community

00:02 In our discussion of the history and development of Chassidus and Chabad Chassidus, we are now looking at the descendants of the Maharal of Prague. Generations later, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, known as the Alter Rebbe, was born from this family. He founded Chabad Chassidus within the broader Chassidic movement. Right now we are discussing the life of the Maharal’s grandson, Reb Moishe, whose father was Rabbi Yehudah Leib. As we know, Rabbi Yehudah Leib moved to the city of Poznań at his teacher’s instruction, married there, and had a son named Moishe. Poznań was then a center of Torah learning. Rabbi Yehudah Leib found many scholars there with whom he could discuss Torah, and he particularly enjoyed debating with the students of Rabbi Yitzchak Klover[?], the Maharshal’s teacher. They were great scholars of both the revealed Torah and Kabbalah. One native of Poznań was the great scholar Rabbi Shmuel Eliezer Halevi Eidels, known as the Maharsha. He served as rabbi in Tiktin and later in Ostroh, and became known for his distinguished yeshiva, which produced many great Torah scholars. At the time, however, the Maharsha opposed Kabbalah, and many of his students who were natives of Poznań opposed it as well. Thus, a large group opposed to the study of Kabbalah formed in Poznań. Opposition to Kabbalah there intensified after the tragic events involving Shabbetai Tzvi, the false messiah. Many believed that this sad development was the fault of studying Kabbalah: in their view, without it, matters would never have deteriorated so far. Well, that was their opinion. The struggle between supporters and opponents of studying Kabbalah lasted twenty years. Unfortunately, those were the very twenty years in which Rabbi Yehudah Leib’s son Reb Moishe was growing up and his character was taking shape. For that reason, Reb Moishe was educated only in the revealed Torah. He had extensive knowledge of halachah and philosophical inquiry, but not of Kabbalah. When Reb Moishe was seventeen, his father arranged a match for him

03:19 with Sarah, the orphaned daughter of a Jew named Schneur Zalman. Schneur Zalman was a descendant of Rabbi Yitzchak Katz, the Maharal’s son-in-law. In this way, the two branches of the Maharal’s family—the descendants of his only son and the descendants of his daughter—were joined. This Rabbi Schneur Zalman was a dealer in diamonds and precious stones. Although his daughter was very young when her father passed away, she took over his business and was very successful, accumulating considerable wealth in addition to her inheritance. Years later, Rabbi Moishe, Sarah’s husband, was appointed head of the Poznań community. This was in 5452, exactly one hundred years after the Maharal’s visit to Poznań. Reb Moishe and Sarah named their son Schneur Zalman after her father. This Schneur Zalman was the grandfather of Rabbi Schneur Zalman, the founder of Chabad Chassidus. Reb Moishe was twenty-two when his son was born, and three years later he was appointed head of the Poznań community, a position no one so young had ever held. This was not because of Reb Moishe’s lineage, scholarship, or wealth, but chiefly because of his exceptional qualities and abilities. Even at a young age, he had shown the special gifts for leadership that make a person fit to lead the Jewish people. Let’s go back a little in time—actually, quite a bit: a hundred years, to the Maharal’s visit to Poznań. As we said, that was exactly a hundred years before his grandson Reb Moishe became head of the community there, and we want to understand why the Maharal visited Poznań. Here is the story. When Reb Moishe was chosen in 5452, as we said, to lead the highly respected Jewish community of Poznań, exactly one hundred years had passed since the event that had forced his ancestor, the Maharal, to spend a full year in that city. It happened when the Maharal was compelled to leave

06:18 Prague, the city where he served as rabbi and was admired by Jews and non-Jews alike. Here is how the circumstances that led the Maharal to leave Prague unfolded. Rudolf II sat on the throne in Prague at the time. Rudolf was a free thinker and was therefore little influenced by the priests. He showed particular friendship toward the Jews and was an ardent admirer of the Maharal of Prague. The doors of his palace were open to the Maharal, and the king would spend long hours enjoying the Maharal’s wisdom and knowledge. Their conversations were wide-ranging discussions of weighty matters, including religion and science. The priests attributed the king’s indifference toward Christianity to his friendship with the Maharal, so they appealed to the pope to bring the king closer to the Christian church. In 5352, the pope sent three cardinals to Prague. They were his three most distinguished cardinals. Their task was to rebuke King Rudolf for his heretical views and stir greater enthusiasm for Christianity in him. They were also to find a way to distance the king from the Maharal, whose influence on him had been reported to the pope as harmful. Among other things, the cardinals were instructed to arrange a public debate with the Maharal at the royal palace. During it, they were to humiliate him before the king and the public. How? By demonstrating, no less, the Maharal’s supposed ignorance of science and the Christian religion. The pope was certain that the three cardinals he had sent would win the proposed debate. When the cardinals arrived, King Rudolf listened to the pope’s emissaries’ demand with a smile. He was certain the Maharal would demolish all their arguments, so he immediately and gladly agreed to the public debate. He hoped that the outcome would instead bring public humiliation upon the cardinals. For that reason, Rudolf wanted to bring as many

08:59 thousands of spectators as possible to the debate, especially the most prominent people in the country. He sent messengers throughout the country and invited the leading figures of the church and nobility. If there was to be a public debate, it should make an impression that would be remembered for a long time. With the agreement of both sides, secretaries were appointed to record every detail of the proceedings, so that no disputes would arise afterward about what was said or how it was said. The debate lasted ten days. Throughout it, the cardinals bombarded the Maharal with questions, and he gave a decisive answer to every one. At the end of the ten days, the Maharal’s overwhelming victory was clear to everyone. The cardinals were prepared to swallow the bitter humiliation in silence. King Rudolf, however, insisted that the transcript, which the secretaries had kept with great precision, be approved with the signatures of both sides. Well, what could the cardinals do? They agreed because they had no choice. Every word spoken by either side appeared in the transcript, making the Maharal’s victory plain to every reader. The cardinals had to sign it, and so did the Maharal. The king then placed the royal seal on the document. News of the Maharal’s great victory spread quickly throughout the country and beyond, reaching even the pope in Rome. The most senior of the three cardinals, on whom the pope had particularly pinned his hopes of defeating the Jewish leader, took the failure deeply to heart. He saw it as a personal failure as well as an insult to Christianity, and could not bring himself to face the pope. So he shut himself—he shut himself away in a private room in the church and allowed no one to enter. A short time later, he was found hanging in his room. He had taken his own life out of shame and anguish. This gave the debate far greater significance. The priests were deeply dejected, while King Rudolf went about

11:46 With quiet satisfaction. But the Maharal did not feel happy at all. He feared that his victory would have a harmful effect on the Jews’ situation. He knew full well that the priests would not forgive him for his victory. They resented him and would look for any way to take revenge on him and, through him, on other Jews. So the Maharal decided to leave Prague until the incident was forgotten. He spent three years away, including one year, 5452, in Posen. While the Maharal was away from Prague, he left his son Rabbi Betzalel to take his place. The Maharal told him that if a difficult halachic question arose, he should consult his learned mother, Perl. This shows how highly the Maharal regarded his wife and her scholarship. During his stay in Posen, the Maharal founded a society for the daily study of Mishnayos. He kept a register in which he recorded the society’s rules and the names of its members. Since then, Jewish communities have had the custom of studying Mishnayos in dedicated groups. So that is the background to the Maharal’s stay in Posen, a hundred years before his grandson Rabbi Moishe became head of the community there. Now, on the hundredth anniversary of the Maharal’s stay in Posen, the community celebrated the occasion with all its rabbis, heads of yeshivos, and dignitaries, under the leadership of Rabbi Moishe, who had been chosen at that time to head the community. Let’s return to Rabbi Moishe’s son, Rabbi Schneur Zalman. From early childhood, Rabbi Schneur Zalman showed great ability. His grandfather, Rabbi Yehuda Leib, was his teacher and studied Torah with him for years. In particular, he studied mussar with him. Rabbi Yehuda Leib passed away in 5464 at the age of ninety-three. When Rabbi Schneur Zalman turned sixteen, he traveled to Horodna in Lithuania to study at the local yeshiva. He spent five years there. From there he went to the yeshiva in Prague, where he studied for two years. In 5472 he married Rachel, the

14:38 learned daughter of a Jew named Rabbi Baruch Batlan, whom we have already met.