Chapter 46: Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem Tov Triumphs Over Pinsk and Returns to Prague

00:01 We are in the midst of Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem’s fascinating struggle to spread the study of Kabbalah in the city of Pinsk. He is gaining more and more students who want to follow his path. Two years passed, and a large yeshiva of Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem had taken shape in Pinsk, drawing many students. Despite the opposition and the fierce campaign against Rabbi Eliyahu and his approach, the number of students and admirers who followed his path and heeded his instructions continued to grow. Rabbi Eliyahu’s name became widely known and praised. In time, Rabbi Eliyahu chose fifty of his finest students and prepared them to spread and teach Kabbalah themselves. They, in turn, taught hundreds of students of their own who followed the same path. One of the learned opponents in Pinsk, named Rabbi Gavriel, was not only a great scholar but also a large, tall man of considerable physical strength. He was also an excellent speaker, and he decided to wage war against the path of Kabbalah. He delivered impassioned sermons without letup, calling on young and old to wage a holy war against Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem and his followers. Rabbi Eliyahu, however, instructed his students to remain calm and not be drawn into arguments or confrontations. The opponents of Kabbalah, stirred up by Rabbi Gavriel, would leap up in anger and make a loud commotion. The Baal Shem’s followers, on the other hand, would hear themselves insulted and keep their mouths shut, as though it had nothing to do with them. This silence on the part of Rabbi Eliyahu’s chassidim angered their opponents even more. They saw it as a sign of contempt and a refusal to acknowledge their existence or importance, and interpreted the students’ conduct as insolence. In their zeal, the opponents went so far as to attack and beat several of the Baal Shem’s students. When the Baal Shem’s followers did not respond in kind, they grew even more violent. The city of Pinsk was in turmoil. The opponents of Kabbalah, of course, justified the violent attackers, but

02:56 Rabbi Eliyahu’s admirers felt this was an outrage that could not be allowed to pass in silence. His students therefore decided not to let it go—not to strike back, but to summon the attackers to a din Torah. The attackers, whose identities were known, contemptuously threw aside the summons they received and said they were unwilling to face the people they had injured in a din Torah. Those people had gotten what they deserved, they claimed. Rabbi Eliyahu’s students threatened to declare a cherem against the opponents, as is done to those who refuse to appear before a beis din. By then, many of Pinsk’s scholars and respected citizens were among Rabbi Eliyahu’s students, so the opponents could not simply ignore their demand. Had the Baal Shem’s instruction to refrain from violence not been binding on the students of Kabbalah, Rabbi Eliyahu’s students would have repaid their opponents in kind, and the opponents would have come away battered. But because of Rabbi Eliyahu’s instruction, they refrained from all violence. The question at hand was bringing the opponents before a beis din. At that point, Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem of Worms felt that he had won a victory in Pinsk. The walls of the opponents’ stronghold had been breached; Pinsk was no longer under the sway of the opponents who held the reins. Rabbi Eliyahu had achieved the purpose of his visit to Pinsk, and he could now return to Prague. He told his followers of his plan. Pinsk was in the midst of a dispute over the opponents’ violent attack on Rabbi Eliyahu’s students. As we said, those who had been attacked summoned their attackers to a din Torah, and the attackers evaded it. Rabbi Eliyahu gathered his students and told them that he did not want them to repay their attackers with violence, or even with personal insults. He advised any students who felt unable to withstand the attacks to accompany him to Prague, where he would admit them to his yeshiva and provide for all their needs. This announcement by Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem made a deep impression

05:43 in Pinsk. Most of the city’s residents held the Baal Shem in deep esteem. This elderly, distinguished scholar, with his dignified appearance, exceptionally fine character, kind heart, pleasant manner and generous charity, was widely respected. Many who could not discern the differences between the various views on the need to study Kabbalah nevertheless admired Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem for the remedies and healing he provided to the sick. For that reason, most residents—apart from the opponents, of course—did not want the Baal Shem to leave Pinsk. Appeals for Rabbi Eliyahu to stay came from every quarter, but he did not heed their pleas. He left Pinsk and returned to Prague. Twenty of his students went with him, and many of Pinsk’s scholars and respected citizens, who had become admirers of the Baal Shem over time, accompanied him and the students who were joining him, warmly and with great honor, wishing them a safe journey. Naturally, Pinsk’s opponents were pleased that Rabbi Eliyahu had left the city, and that dozens of his students had gone with him. Of course, they were distressed that many students of Kabbalah remained in Pinsk. What particularly pained them was the growing number of the Baal Shem’s chassidim among the younger generation. Many young married men and yeshiva students had absorbed the spirit of Kabbalah and brought it into the yeshivas. At first, many of those influenced by it studied Kabbalah in secret. Gradually, though, their numbers grew, and the study of Kabbalah gained a foothold even in yeshivas whose heads opposed it. More years passed, and the study of Kabbalah spread further and further in Pinsk. In time, the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Zundel, passed away, and the learned Rabbi Gavriel was appointed in his place—the same Rabbi Gavriel who had previously fought against Kabbalah. Now that he was head of the yeshiva, he could not remain silent in the face of his students’ devotion

08:25 to the path of Kabbalah, and he launched an all-out campaign against them. Rabbi Gavriel had a loyal student, a brilliant scholar named Rabbi Avraham Zev, who followed his teacher’s path and joined his campaign against the students of Kabbalah. Rabbi Gavriel arranged a marriage between his student Rabbi Avraham Zev and the daughter of one of the city’s leading citizens, Rabbi Shneurkovitz[?]. Rabbi Avraham—Rabbi Avraham Zev—moved to Bishenkovitz and opened a yeshiva there that was meant to raise staunch opponents of Kabbalah, but he did not succeed. Followers of the new approach to studying Kabbalah had reached every part of the Jewish community, and everywhere there were two opposing groups. This same Rabbi Avraham Zev later became the teacher of Rabbi Avraham the gardener, whom we have already spoken about. Rabbi Avraham the gardener’s daughter married Rabbi Baruch, the father of Rabbi Schneur Zalman, the founder of Chabad, making Rabbi Avraham the gardener Rabbi Schneur Zalman’s grandfather. This family history, everything we have just related, was, as we already know, passed on by Rabbi Avraham the gardener himself to Baruch’s family when he came to Vitebsk to meet them. The following details are also important for learning more about Rabbi Avraham the gardener’s past. His teacher, Rabbi Avraham Zev, had a friend who was also a student of Rabbi Gavriel. His name was Yisroel Yitzchak. Yisroel Yitzchak was physically frail by nature, but kindhearted. He married, but sadly, none of the children born to him and his wife Rachel survived, rachmana litzlan, and he was left with only one daughter, named Sarah. Rabbi Avraham Zev chose this Sarah as a bride for Rabbi Avraham the gardener. Rabbi Avraham’s father-in-law promised to support the couple at his table, but Avraham the gardener preferred to earn a living by his own work and became a gardener, and his wife Sarah

11:16 She helped him with this. Sarah herself was the daughter of a great Torah scholar, Yisroel Yitzchak, as we said, right? But she was raised in such a way that she could barely read or understand a commentary on Chumash. Still, she had a heart of gold. She was devoted to tzedakah and acts of kindness, thanks to the upbringing she received from her mother, Rachel. From childhood, her mother taught her to devote herself to helping the poor, but Sarah went even further than her mother in her acts of kindness. Rachel, Sarah’s mother, gave Sarah her jewelry before she married, and Sarah pawned it without her mother’s knowledge. She distributed the money she received to the poor. Only after she married did she redeem the jewelry. As we said, Sarah helped her husband, Avraham the gardener, as much as she could. Besides running her home and raising her children, she also looked after the fruits and vegetables and supervised the work in the orchards her husband leased from the landowners. Both Rabbi Avraham the gardener and his wife Sarah gave generously to tzedakah and welcomed guests, and in time they also became very wealthy. But to them, their true wealth was the children with whom they were blessed: four sons and two daughters. Their eldest son was Shimon, the second was Daniel, followed by their daughter Rivkah, who, as we know, later married Rabbi Baruch. After her came Meir, Rachel, and the youngest son, Yisroel Yitzchak. Despite Rabbi Avraham the gardener’s efforts, his sons did not grow into the great Torah scholars he had hoped they would be. The daughters were raised in the ordinary way of those who believed that women did not need to study Torah. At the same time, Avraham and Sarah taught their daughters good character traits. Rivkah grew up with exceptionally fine character, and her parents were proud of her. Rabbi Avraham wanted to have nachas from his accomplished daughter by choosing a husband for her who was great in Torah and fear of Heaven. That is why Baruch, who, as we will learn later, worked for Rabbi Avraham the gardener, seemed to Rabbi Avraham an excellent match for his daughter Rivkah. Baruch, however,

14:09 was far from making decisions about practical matters such as whether Rivkah was the right wife for him. He left the decision to his sister Devorah Leah and her husband, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, the prodigy from [unclear]. So his sister Devorah Leah and his brother-in-law Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak gave their blessing to the match, never even dreaming that it would bring forth someone who would leave his mark on the course of Jewish life by establishing a new approach to serving the Creator: the approach of Chochmah, Binah, and Daas, as established by the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the son of Baruch and Rivkah. We will return later to the story of Baruch’s youth.