Chapter 64: Dovid Leib, the Yellow Kohen, and Shmerl Pihuk

00:01 Avraham Yitzchak, Mordechai the miller’s third son-in-law, is speaking with Shlomo the baker. Meanwhile, we are tracing Avraham Yitzchak’s life, and we learn that his father’s name was Dovid Leib. So we are also looking at Dovid Leib’s life. At first, his father-in-law and mother-in-law were not particularly concerned. But as time went on, they began to worry. His mother-in-law tried now and then to catch her son-in-law for a conversation, hinting that it was time he began looking for a suitable rabbinic position. Dovid Leib just shrugged and said he had no intention of becoming a rabbi. “Then what do you want to do?” his mother-in-law asked. “I still have three years of support at your table,” Dovid Leib replied. This answer greatly angered her, and she began making life difficult for him. Dovid Leib now felt uncomfortable. They had not yet been blessed with children, either, and because he felt that, from their point of view, his in-laws were not entirely wrong, he once explained that if they believed they had made a mistake in choosing him, he might give his wife a divorce if she herself asked for one. But his wife refused even to hear of it. She was attached to him and admired him. Her parents could not put their minds at ease and continued to torment their son-in-law with their words. Still, they made little headway. In the seventh year of their marriage, a daughter was born to them, and a year later their son Avraham Yitzchak, whom we are speaking about here, was born. By the time his in-laws’ period of supporting their daughter and son-in-law was coming to an end, Dovid Leib was the father of two children. Both his father-in-law and his mother-in-law pressed him harder and harder to find a source of income. His father-in-law also told him that once the agreed period was over, he would not give him a single penny to live on. Dovid Leib was not frightened by the threats. It turned out that he

02:12 had trained for a trade that came as an enormous surprise to both his father-in-law and mother-in-law, and to the whole family. Dovid Leib had learned shoemaking. He rented a home on the edge of town, moved there with his family, and began taking in shoes for repair. His in-laws were stunned. His mother-in-law made an uproar. Was this why they had spent so much money supporting him at their table for eight years—so that he would become a shoemaker in the end? “If we had wanted a shoemaker for a son-in-law,” she said, “the whole business would have cost us much less.” She insisted that their daughter divorce Dovid Leib and thus erase the disgrace he had brought upon them. But his wife would not even hear of it. When her mother saw that she was powerless, she came up with an original plan. With her husband’s agreement, she summoned Rabbi Tzvi Aryeh the dayan, Dovid Leib’s father, from Minsk, hoping he would persuade his son to give up shoemaking and accept a rabbinic position. Word then spread through Vitebsk that Chaim, the father-in-law, had invited his son-in-law’s father, Rabbi Tzvi Aryeh the dayan, from Minsk. Everyone knew the visitor’s stature and prepared a fitting welcome. The rabbis and Torah scholars of Vitebsk held a meeting and decided to send a delegation to greet him on the road and escort him into town. When Dovid Leib learned that his father was on his way to Vitebsk, he traveled to Ostrovna to meet him en route. He knew very well why his father had been invited to Vitebsk and decided to make sure his father heard his side of the situation beforehand. In the eight years since Dovid Leib had last seen his father, his appearance had changed greatly. When he approached his father in Ostrovna, he did not reveal who he was right away. The dayan looked at him with the vague sense that he was familiar, but could not remember who he was. After

04:37 spending a full day in Ostrovna, Rabbi Tzvi Aryeh the dayan was about to leave for Vitebsk so that he would arrive at dawn. Dovid Leib urged him to stay in Ostrovna, saying he had something important to tell him. When the dayan agreed and was ready to receive him, Dovid Leib revealed that he was his son and told him why his in-laws had invited him. Father and son then spent the entire night discussing Torah. Rabbi Tzvi Aryeh the dayan discovered that his son was a great Torah scholar, for Dovid Leib did not conceal his learning from his father. Dovid Leib explained why he had taken up shoemaking, and why he had decided to live by the work of his hands and follow the path of a hidden tzaddik. Early the next morning, after davening, Rabbi Tzvi Aryeh the dayan set out for Vitebsk. Dovid Leib accompanied him only a short way, then parted from him so he could arrive in Vitebsk first, without anyone learning of their meeting. Before they parted, he asked his father not to hint to anyone about his Torah scholarship or his hidden path. When the dayan arrived in Vitebsk, he was received with great honor. The delegation that had gone out to meet him beyond the town escorted him in. After the formal welcome, he was brought to his son’s in-laws’ home, where the town’s leading citizens had gathered. Once the honors were over and Rabbi Tzvi Aryeh the dayan had shared words of Torah, the crowd dispersed. Only Tzvi Aryeh, Dovid Leib and the in-laws remained in the house. Now the in-laws poured out their hearts to the dayan about the disgrace and humiliation their son-in-law had brought upon them by becoming a shoemaker. As night had fallen, Rabbi Tzvi Aryeh, who had listened calmly to them, said, “Night is not a fitting time for judgment. Let us put off the verdict until tomorrow.” He then sat down to study Torah. The next day, the in-laws came to him again, expecting him to rebuke his son. Instead, he stood by his decision and asked them, “Why are you so upset[?] that my son works at a trade? An explicit Mishnah

07:04 says, ‘Love work and hate the rabbinate.’” The dayan explained to them the value of work, bringing many proofs from the words of our Sages. He also cited the Midrash’s teaching, “Work is more precious than the merit of the forefathers,” and more. The in-laws had great difficulty taking in the dayan’s words in defense of his son. They could not come to terms with the idea of their son-in-law being a shoemaker. Rabbi Tzvi Aryeh stayed in Vitebsk for another five weeks. The in-laws did not bring up the matter for which they had summoned him again, realizing it would do no good. Dovid Leib, for his part, devoted his nights to Torah study and took advantage of his father’s stay in Vitebsk to study works of Jewish philosophy with him. Once, a Jew came to Dovid Leib’s home and brought him shoes to repair. Dovid Leib noticed that the man was a stranger in Vitebsk. In conversation, he learned that the man lived in the village of Atenka, near Klisk. The man suggested that Dovid Leib move to Atenka, where, on the contrary, he could make a good living. Dovid Leib liked the idea. He later discussed it with his wife and said, “I think it suits us in every way. In particular, I’ll be able to feel free there, since no one knows me. And your parents won’t be so distressed on my account, since I’ll be out of sight.” His wife agreed at once, and they moved to Atenka. Dovid Leib opened a workshop there and began earning his living as a shoemaker. No one there watched his every move. It never occurred to anyone that this shoemaker was actually a hidden tzaddik who studied Torah at night. In the beis midrash, he sat with the simple people and listened to a class in Ein Yaakov and Midrash, as though he were incapable of anything beyond that. Five years passed this way, with Dovid Leib content with his lot. Everything was going just as he wished, with no one seeing him as anything more than he appeared to be on the outside

09:13 On the outside, a simple shoemaker. At the same time, Dovid Leib kept a watchful eye on other people. He wanted to know whether there was anyone in the village who could conceal himself as he did, and he paid particular attention to travelers, in case any of them were hidden tzaddikim. It was the way of these hidden tzaddikim to visit remote Jewish villages and towns, precisely where the Jews lived in poor and difficult circumstances. They would try, in their own way, to influence them toward good deeds and learning, and to awaken in each person a desire to study Torah according to his abilities. Dovid Leib wanted to get to know these wandering hidden tzaddikim, to draw close to them and learn from their ways. So he opened his home to guests and observed each one, wondering whether he might be a hidden tzaddik. If he heard even a single word from a guest that suggested wisdom or knowledge, he would not let him go. He would shower him with questions and challenges until the hidden tzaddik was forced to reveal himself. Sometimes such a guest would strike up a conversation with the village Jews in the beis midrash or in the street. Using very simple words, he would try to awaken in their hearts a longing for Torah and good deeds. Dovid Leib would immediately grasp the meaning of what he said. To make sure of the man’s true character, he would put a question to him and give him a searching look, from which the man understood that he was suspected of being a hidden tzaddik. The guest would then pretend to be a simple fellow who had not understood the question at all. But to Dovid Leib, that very pretense confirmed that he had a hidden tzaddik before him, and he would not leave the guest alone until he revealed himself. At times, when Dovid Leib asked a hidden tzaddik a question, the man would scratch his head in puzzlement and say, “What does this Jew want from me? Why doesn’t he ask someone wiser and more learned than I am?” Those present

11:30 would burst out laughing and say, “The shoemaker drove the nail into the wrong place.” But Dovid Leib already knew whether he had driven the nail into the right place or not. In this way, he became acquainted with many hidden tzaddikim. Among the visitors who came to Atinka from time to time was a Jew with yellow hair and a yellow beard, whom the people of Atinka called the Yellow Kohen, for he was a kohen. He was a cheerful, warmhearted Jew. Some called him “Cheerful Guts,” because he always had jokes and witty sayings on his lips that gladdened people’s hearts. The Yellow Kohen was especially fond of children. He would play with them and give them nuts and apples, insisting that they recite the blessings before and after eating. He taught them to say the blessings aloud so that those listening could answer amen. As he did so, he would talk with them about what they were learning in cheder and test them. He stirred their desire to learn by telling them stories about Torah scholars and tzaddikim, inspiring the children to want to be like them and follow in their ways. No one in Atinka knew anything about him. They did not even know for certain what his name was, where he came from, why he wandered, or what had brought him to Atinka. No one had answers to these questions. Dovid Leib tried to follow him and watch his every step. He thought he might notice something the man did that would show he was a hidden tzaddik, but all his efforts came to nothing. Dovid Leib listened closely to the Yellow Kohen’s words, hoping to glean something he could go on. The Yellow Kohen often spoke about Ahavas Yisroel and was always telling stories and teachings of our Sages on that subject. It was clear that he wanted to instill love for the Jewish people and show how essential it was, since there was a danger that Jews might, G-d forbid, begin to hate one another and lose sight of their own worth.

13:37 Simple people smiled as they listened to the Yellow Kohen. Others greeted his words with mockery. After all, who was he to speak about such matters? Perhaps what the visitor said was beyond their grasp, even though he spoke simply and clearly. To Dovid Leib, the Yellow Kohen’s words showed that he was no ordinary visitor. Dovid Leib was particularly struck by the way the Yellow Kohen would gather the little children around him in the beis midrash, begin singing to them, and encourage them to join in. Together they would sing with enthusiasm and joy; afterward, he would even dance with them, and the atmosphere would be full of cheer. Still, Dovid Leib found it puzzling that he had never heard a word of Torah from the Yellow Kohen. Perhaps that itself was proof that he was a hidden tzaddik. Dovid Leib also noticed that the Yellow Kohen spent time with someone it seemed impossible to think well of: Shmerl, the son of Nochum Itzik. Shmerl was regarded as the greatest ignoramus in town, and, besides that, as a good-for-nothing and a lazy man. Dovid Leib therefore wondered whether to keep paying attention to the Yellow Kohen or give up the idea that he was one of the hidden tzaddikim. That same Shmerl—the son of Nochum Itzik just mentioned—had been given three nicknames in town: Shmerl the Idler, Shmerl the Stargazer, and Shmerl the Yawner. Shmerl had earned all three. He was called the Idler because he spent the whole day wandering around the village, chatting with women and children and telling them stories. He earned the name Stargazer because he liked to sit outside his house and look up at the sky: at night, at the moon and stars, and by day, at the clouds. He was especially fond of the clouds, which took on new shapes every moment—here the shapes of people, there of birds or animals, and elsewhere

15:53 all sorts of strange creatures. Shmerl would speak to these figures and tell passersby that a person, too, is like a cloud and changes from time to time. Sometimes he changes from a beast into a human being, and sometimes from a human being into a beast of prey. Why was he called Shmerl the Yawner? Because his yawns were famous throughout the town. He was always yawning: he would say a few words and yawn again, as though he had not slept for nights on end. What is more, his yawns were very long and accompanied by such a frightening noise that people could hear from a distance that Shmerl was coming. At first glance, Shmerl seemed indifferent by nature, a man barely capable of opening his mouth. But once he began talking, especially about people’s good and bad character traits, he would grow animated and speak in a torrent. Then the words poured from his mouth until he even forgot to yawn.