Chapter 45: Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem's Conquest of the City of Pinsk

00:02 Among the stories about Rabbi Avraham the gardener[?], we are telling the story of the city of Pinsk, because Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem of Worms, the great Kabbalist, eventually came there. As we have related, Pinsk was a city opposed to Kabbalah in general. Along the way, we are telling the story of three famous yeshivos in Pinsk. The third was the yeshiva named for Goldaleh, known as “the grandmother,” and we continue her story. Women would bring her large sums of money, but Goldaleh refused to accept even a penny from them, despite all their urging. They begged her to give them the pleasure of accepting their gifts, but she would not agree. She would say that the fulfillment of their hearts’ wishes came to them from the open, generous hand of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and that He alone was the one they should thank. Some clever women would therefore press coins into her hand and reply, “Then take it for Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” In such cases, she would give the money to charity to provide for the needs of the sick. Much of the money that accumulated in her charity fund she passed on to the needs of the new yeshiva founded in Pinsk. The two earlier yeshivos were intended mainly for married young men who had left their homes or were supported by their fathers-in-law. The new yeshiva was intended for unmarried students, and because it was new, it had no real source of funding. Goldaleh thus appeared like a saving angel to sustain it. Meanwhile, the sums that women brought her grew, and as her reputation spread, the donations she received multiplied. Goldaleh did not benefit by so much as a penny from that money. She ran her household very frugally on her modest wages as a midwife and her husband’s earnings as a tailor. As a midwife, she accepted payment only from those who could afford it; she took no money at all from the poor. Since she passed most of the donations on to the yeshiva, it developed day by day, growing in both quality and size until it attained a

02:55 respected place among the yeshivos. People everywhere began calling it by the name of the righteous woman who supported it: Grandmother Goldaleh’s yeshiva. In the year 5375—that is, 1615 by their reckoning—the great Torah scholar Rabbi Zundel was appointed head of Grandmother Goldaleh’s yeshiva. Rabbi Zundel opposed Kabbalah and the approach of the hidden tzaddikim, and in this he was like the leaders of Pinsk’s other yeshivos. Pinsk thus became a center of opposition to Kabbalah and influenced other cities in that direction. Pinsk was a major Jewish center, and through its three large yeshivos, whose young scholars dispersed throughout the surrounding area and other Jewish communities, its influence grew from day to day. A yeshiva has always held an important place in Jewish life. When two or three yeshivos in one city taught and operated according to the same approach, that approach gained considerable power to spread. In this case, it spread and strengthened the opposition to Kabbalah. The Kabbalists and hidden tzaddikim realized that Pinsk was a major obstacle to the spread of their holy path, and that overcoming the opposition meant overcoming Pinsk. The period when Pinsk’s three yeshivos held such a central and influential position was the period in which Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem lived and worked. He had been first in Worms and later in Prague, and was the father of the movement of Kabbalists and hidden tzaddikim that preceded and laid the foundation for the Chassidic movement established by the Baal Shem Tov. Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem understood that for the path of Kabbalah to take root in Lithuania or Poland, he would first have to win over Pinsk and its yeshivos. This was no easy task. Those yeshivos were under the influence of great and renowned Torah scholars who held stubbornly to their opposition to Kabbalah. Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem therefore decided to come to Pinsk in person. When he decided to go there to open the way for the study of Kabbalah, and thereby prepare

05:57 the ground for the emergence of Chassidus that would follow, this righteous Kabbalist was seventy years old. Traveling from Prague to Pinsk was no easy task for a man of his age, but Rabbi Eliyahu—the Baal Shem of Worms, as he was called after the city where he first became known—was undeterred and set out. He arrived in Pinsk as an ordinary visitor, like one of the many wanderers of that time. He went to stay at the communal lodging house, where poor travelers stayed, and revealed his name to no one. But while Rabbi Eliyahu managed to conceal his name and identity, he could not conceal the dignity of his face or his manner. One look was enough to see that behind the plain clothes and the effort not to stand out was no ordinary man. Some of the other guests sensed that he was a person of distinction. At that time, there were many hidden tzaddikim and Torah scholars who traveled in self-imposed exile. They did not reveal their identities, even after people recognized their greatness. In many cases, when a visitor proved to be learned, he was welcomed according to the extent of his learning. At any rate, he would not be left in the communal lodging house, but given accommodations befitting him. In other cases, a visitor wanted to remain hidden at all costs, and even when people discussed Torah with him, he would pretend not to understand. In Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem’s case, the people at the lodging house informed the community leaders that an elderly Jew who appeared to be a great Torah scholar was staying there. Rabbi Naftali Katz, who, as we have related, was the city’s rabbi, was told about him and chose two young scholars to discuss Torah with the visitor and assess his learning. When the two approached Rabbi Eliyahu and began discussing Torah with him, he made no attempt to hide his greatness in Torah. The emissaries immediately realized that before them

08:46 stood no ordinary scholar, but one of the great Torah scholars of the generation. They did not press the visitor to reveal his identity, but hurried to report their findings to the city’s rabbi. A very special reception was then arranged in honor of this remarkable, unidentified visitor. The city’s rabbi and Pinsk’s leading scholars held an extensive Torah discussion with him, and their admiration for his brilliance grew greatly. The visitor, Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem, was invited to give a lesson in each of Pinsk’s three distinguished yeshivos, which we have already described. Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem agreed on condition that the heads of the yeshivos give their own lessons first, so that he could become familiar with their approach to Torah study. When they had finished, the Baal Shem delivered an intricate discourse on the same subject and in the same style. Rabbi Eliyahu’s Torah insights made a powerful impression. All the students were deeply impressed. Rabbi Eliyahu was given lodgings in the home of one of Pinsk’s prominent residents, and the house was constantly filled with visitors, older and younger scholars who took great pleasure in the Baal Shem’s Torah, rich in breadth and acuity. No one asked the visitor his name, and no one discovered his identity except the city’s rabbi, Rabbi Naftali Katz. Three weeks passed. During that time, Rabbi Eliyahu gained many students who became devoted to him and regarded him as their teacher and rebbe. They would not leave his side even briefly. Rabbi Eliyahu, for his part, wanted students and gave them a lesson every day. After a short while, he rented a place of his own, where he received students and admirers and delivered his lessons. Before long, it became clear that this visiting Torah scholar followed the path of Kabbalah. All his students, graduates of the very yeshivos that had fought against that path, became enthusiastic admirers of the study of Kabbalah. And then, suddenly, the heads of the yeshivos and the scholars of Pinsk realized,

11:43 The leaders of those opposed to Kabbalah saw one of the great Kabbalists enter their stronghold and draw many of the city’s finest Torah scholars to his side. This infuriated them. They had fought Kabbalah all their lives and were certain it would never gain a foothold in Pinsk. Now they realized the ground was slipping from beneath their feet. The heads of the yeshivos met to discuss what to do, how to stop the spread of Kabbalah study. But in truth, there was little they could do. The angrier they grew, the more students from all three of Pinsk’s yeshivos went over to Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem, becoming his admirers and followers. Rabbi Eliyahu was no longer alone. To wage open war against him would mean waging war against many of Pinsk’s finest Torah scholars, who stood with him. Needless to say, peace did not prevail in Pinsk. Heated arguments went on there constantly. Facing the opponents, whose voices could still be heard, stood a substantial group with firm convictions and strength.