Chapter 40: The Jews Leave Poznan, and Baruch's Acquaintance with His Family

00:01 We continue the story of Rabbi Moshe, a grandson of the Maharal and the grandfather of Rabbi Schneur Zalman, the founder of Chabad Chassidus. His life is interesting in its own right, and also because he forms a link in the chain of generations leading from the Maharal of Prague to Rabbi Schneur Zalman. At this point, Rabbi Moshe is the head of the community in Poznań. In the previous episode, we told how the Catholic priests were beginning to cause serious trouble for the Jews there, and Rabbi Moshe decided that the time had come for the Jews to leave the city. Under his leadership, the Jewish community of Poznań was wonderfully organized. The principle that all Jews are responsible for one another was the foundation of every regulation Rabbi Moshe established as head of the community. In good times and in more difficult times, G-d forbid, they strictly upheld the principle that the needs of the community came before the private interests of any individual. To that end, they maintained strict discipline. Now that hard times had come upon the Jews of Poznań, and it had become clear that their best course was to leave the city and find somewhere else to live, they had to make sure there would be no panicked flight that could cause great harm. The plan had to be kept secret from the authorities and the non-Jewish population, so the departure had to be gradual and go unnoticed. If the Jews’ enemies learned of the decision, they would try to seize their assets and property on various pretexts. A procedure was therefore set for small, scattered groups to leave in stages, with their order determined by lottery. Those selected in the lottery had the right to leave the city immediately, provided their departure went unnoticed. Anyone leaving had to offer an explanation the townspeople would accept, such as a business or livelihood need, or some family reason. At the same time, provision was made for the community’s poor, and for this purpose

03:01 it was decided that every family with means would set aside a quarter of its property for the community and the poor. When Rabbi Moshe’s own turn came, he decided to move to Minsk. After setting aside a quarter of his property, he left for Minsk, a city of Torah and wisdom that was also a center of commerce. Rabbi Moshe left in 5480. His descendants were married, and not all of them joined him. His son Rabbi Schneur Zalman, who, as you may recall, refused to go into business, decided to settle in Vitebsk with his learned wife, Rachel. Rabbi Schneur Zalman was physically frail, but he was a very successful teacher. He taught without charging tuition. Nor did he take money from his father. He lived on the money his father had given him after his marriage. From that money he set aside a quarter for the needs of the Poznań community. To avoid even a remote concern of interest, he did not use his money, as others did, to make loans under business arrangements. He therefore had to live frugally on the principal he had received from his father. Rabbi Kaddish, Rabbi Schneur Zalman’s brother-in-law, who, as we know, had married Schneur Zalman’s sister Freida, joined him on the journey to Vitebsk. Rabbi Kaddish was very close to Schneur Zalman. As we remember from earlier episodes, Kaddish had suffered a serious illness that caused him to forget what he had learned. It took years for him to acquire his Torah knowledge anew, though he never regained his former sharpness. Rabbi Schneur Zalman remained very close to him and studied with him, so Kaddish was bound to him heart and soul. On the other hand, although the illness had also affected Kaddish’s physical condition somewhat, he was able to devote himself to business and was financially well off. This whole story, with all its many details, now became known to Baruch, Schneur Zalman’s son. He learned the details

06:04 from his friend Yitzchak Shaul, the son-in-law of the blacksmith from [unclear]. In this way, Baruch gained a clear picture of his grandfather Rabbi Moshe, his uncles and aunts, and his father Schneur Zalman. He began to understand his sister Devorah Leah better. As we recall, she was betrothed to the prodigy from [unclear], the brilliant rosh yeshivah Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak. At the time, after becoming bar mitzvah and losing his parents, Baruch had left Vitebsk. He had felt no emotional connection to his older sister and had never listened to or understood her. He preferred to wander the world and seek his own path in serving Hashem. Baruch remembered that after their mother’s passing, his sister Devorah Leah had given him a manuscript she had written herself. She had told him, “Read what I’ve written here in the spoken language, based on what I heard from our mother, of blessed memory, who was a very learned woman. She knew our family’s entire lineage. I wrote down everything she told me. When you read it, you’ll learn a great deal.” Had Baruch been wise enough to listen to his sister, he would have immediately learned things that became known to him only many years later. He might then have developed a different attitude toward her and, through her, toward his whole family. It is even possible that he would not have left Vitebsk and would have spared himself years of wandering. But Baruch felt a certain distance from his sister. For one thing, he assumed she understood very little, since she was a woman. Besides, the bond between them had ceased to exist after their parents died. And on top of that, Baruch told himself, the pages his sister wanted to give him were written in the spoken language. So he returned the manuscript to her and said that stories written in Yiddish were meant only for women. Men, he told her, study Gemara and other sacred texts.

08:43 In this way, Baruch cut himself off from a life-giving source that would have opened his eyes. He would have come to know a succession of great figures across several generations—his grandfathers and their forebears, going back hundreds of years. He would have learned not only about their lives but also about their ideas and ways of thinking, and he would surely have found answers to many questions that troubled him. But the One who orchestrates all causes brought it about that Baruch would wander through cities and towns, and in the city of [unclear] he would hear from Yitzchak Shaul, the young chossid who was the blacksmith’s son-in-law, things that led him to his grandfather Rabbi Moshe, who was still living in Minsk. Baruch therefore began thinking about visiting Minsk to meet his grandfather. The sense of estrangement he felt toward his relatives began to fade, replaced by a feeling of closeness and a desire to know his family better. By then Baruch was no longer a bar mitzvah boy but a grown young man of marriageable age. Yitzchak Shaul thought of arranging a match between Baruch and his sister, and wrote about it to his father, who, as you may recall, was one of the first chassidim of Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov. But since Yitzchak Shaul had not yet received an answer from his father, he did not want to raise the matter with Baruch. Yitzchak Shaul did not know, however, that Baruch had already reached a point where other marriage proposals were no longer relevant. Avraham the gardener, for whom Baruch had worked for a time guarding his orchards, had spoken to Baruch about arranging a match with his daughter Rivkah. When Avraham visited Vitebsk, he inquired into Baruch’s background and found that, in terms of family lineage, Baruch was a suitable match for Rivkah. Knowing that Baruch made his decisions independently, based solely on his own judgment, Avraham had discussed the proposal with him. To Avraham’s great surprise, Baruch replied that in this case he did not want to rely on

11:20 his own judgment and wanted his married sister Devorah Leah to give her opinion on the matter. Avraham the gardener was certainly willing to speak about it with Devorah Leah and her husband, the prodigy from [unclear], about whom he had heard many good things. He assumed they would reach an agreement in conversation. But then Baruch disappeared. Avraham the gardener knew that Baruch wandered from place to place, staying for a while in each one and diligently occupying himself with Torah study and serving Hashem, but there was no fixed place where he could be found. Still, Rabbi Avraham was confident that he would find Baruch sooner or later.