Episode 85: The History of Moshe Leib, Son-in-Law of Eliezer Reuven

00:01 Young Baruch, while in Dobromysl [?], continued to absorb the spirit of Chassidus and Yitzchak Shaul’s stories, and to explore Chassidus. Besides the fact that Chassidus offered a new path in serving Hashem, Baruch came to see that its teachings gave a person the strength to control himself. More than once, Baruch witnessed arguments between the two brothers-in-law, Yitzchak Shaul and Moshe Leib. Both would become heated, but Moshe Leib quickly grew angry. Yitzchak Shaul, despite being hot-tempered by nature, would catch himself the moment he was about to give way to anger, and become calm and composed again. “My father told me in the name of the Baal Shem Tov,” Yitzchak Shaul explained when asked how he managed to restrain his anger, “that anger is abhorrent, even when it arises from a concern for serving Hashem. So my father taught me that the moment I’m about to become angry, I must simply stop myself, put a bridle on my mouth, and not say a word.” Baruch was deeply impressed and felt he was looking at an extraordinary man. For that reason, he decided to investigate the two brothers-in-law more closely: Yitzchak Shaul and Shlomo Leib, who followed two different, opposing paths—the very paths that were then beginning to divide the Jewish community in two. Baruch knew a great deal about Yitzchak Shaul, but who was Moshe Leib? Yes, not Shlomo Leib, but Moshe Leib. As Baruch was able to discover, Moshe Leib was a man of distinguished lineage. He was born in Loflo, a suburb of Mogilev on the Dnieper River. Moshe Leib was the tenth generation of a remarkable family that originated in Castile, Spain. From there the family migrated to Tuscany, and then from city to city until it reached Mogilev. The first ancestor in Castile, ten generations earlier, was named Rabbi Yitzchak. He was

03:02 a student—he was a student of renowned Torah scholars of his time, and it was also said that he had studied under the great scholar and tzaddik Rabbi Shem Tov. According to family tradition, Yitzchak was a great Torah scholar. While his father was a wealthy merchant, Yitzchak devoted himself chiefly to Torah study, though he also helped his father in business. Rabbi Yitzchak arrived in Mogilev with his son Rabbi Nosson and his grandson Rabbi Nachman. They immediately began trading with the local nobility, and their business spread throughout the surrounding area. After they arrived in Mogilev, Nachman’s wife died without leaving him children, and he married the daughter of a Minsk householder as his second wife. Time passed, and she too had no children. On his grandfather’s advice [?], he vowed that if he was blessed with a child, he would devote him entirely to Torah. Years later his wife bore him a son, who was named Chaim Yehoshua. The father kept his vow, and Chaim Yehoshua devoted himself to Torah and serving Hashem. Chaim Yehoshua’s son, Reb Moshe, went further and withdrew completely from worldly affairs. He had been married for only a year when his wife bore him a son, and thus the family line continued. Reb Moshe’s grandson was named Nosson Neta. He was Moshe Leib’s grandfather. Nosson Neta was the maggid of Loflo and became known as an outstanding preacher of rebuke. He took on this role after his grandfather Reb Moshe appeared to him in a dream and instructed him to do so. That maggid’s son was Yosef Akiva, Moshe Leib’s father. By the age of thirteen, Yosef Akiva knew the entire Gemara and was known to everyone as the prodigy of Loflo. At eighteen, he married the daughter of one of Mogilev’s prominent citizens. Yosef Akiva then lived at his father-in-law’s expense and studied Torah diligently. But they had no children, and Yosef Akiva’s wife passed away.

05:37 His father-in-law persuaded him to marry her younger sister. They too had no children, and after six years she also passed away. Yosef Akiva then no longer wanted to remain in Mogilev. A special emissary came to him from Smilovitch to invite him to become the tenth student in a remarkable yeshivah that had been established there at the time. The emissary was Menachem Shlomo. He had been sent by Reb Leibele, a wealthy man from Smilovitch who funded the yeshivah, which was headed by his son-in-law. Yosef Akiva’s reputation had reached them, and they wanted him to join their yeshivah. Reb Leibele was born in Prague and had settled in Smilovitch decades earlier. As soon as he arrived, he built a beis midrash at his own expense, supporting ten Torah scholars who sat and studied there constantly. Leibele had sons and daughters. When his eldest daughter reached marriageable age, he sent one of those ten scholars to Vilna to choose a husband for her. The scholar chose Moshe Leib, who had become known as the prodigy from Troki, a town not far from Vilna. Moshe Leib spent twenty years studying Torah while supported by his father-in-law. Then Leibele conceived the idea of founding a yeshivah for outstanding scholars, headed by his brilliant son-in-law Moshe Leib. To that end, he chose Menachem Shlomo and appointed him to travel from city to city in search of accomplished scholars to join the yeshivah. Menachem Shlomo was himself a great scholar, qualified to judge another person’s learning, and it was he who proposed that Yosef Akiva join. In fact, Yosef Akiva was not very eager to accept the offer and travel to Smilovitch. For one thing, he loved solitude; for another, he had little faith in the scholarship of Leibele’s son-in-law Moshe Leib. Even the Torah insights that the emissary Menachem Shlomo related in Moshe Leib’s name did not make much of an impression on him.

08:15 But Yosef Akiva was then despondent over the death of his second wife and the fact that he had no children, so in the end he decided to go to Smilovitch. The procedure for admission to the new yeshivah was as follows: each student had to prepare a pilpul and deliver it after giving three days’ advance notice of the subject. This gave the listeners time to prepare thoroughly and study the subject in depth. The student delivered his pilpul in the beis midrash before all the scholars of the town, who then discussed it with him. After each of the ten students delivered his pilpul, Moshe Leib, the head of the new yeshivah, presented his own insights on the same subject, addressing both the student’s pilpul and the listeners’ comments. Yosef Akiva chose to speak about a tevul yom and a mechusar kippurim in the chapter Kol Hazevachim of Tractate Zevachim, page 17. After all ten students had delivered their pilpulim on different subjects, Moshe Leib stood up and, with extraordinary brilliance, connected all ten arguments, first refuting them and then rebuilding them. Yosef Akiva then realized that Moshe Leib was indeed a very great scholar. Yosef Akiva studied at that yeshivah for three years. What was their daily schedule? Listen to this. None of the students ever spoke about mundane matters. They rose at midnight and recited Tikkun Chatzos together. Then they studied Torah without interruption, apart from a one-hour break for Shacharis, until the time of Minchah Gedolah—around twelve-thirty or one in the afternoon—when they davened Minchah. Afterward they ate a light meal, rested for an hour, and returned to their studies until Maariv. After Maariv they ate a second meal and lay down to sleep for four hours, until they rose again for Tikkun Chatzos. Even in this yeshivah, where they truly

10:45 He was immersed in learning, but Yosef Akiva found no relief there for his aching soul and decided to leave Seminovitch. But where would he go? He did not know. One thing he did know: he wanted to leave. Then one night he saw his father in a dream. His father rebuked him sharply for his lack of bitachon and instructed him to travel to a town called Kroshtat, where he would finally find peace. But he also charged him with correcting his failing before leaving Seminovitch by fasting forty days, in addition to his Monday and Thursday fasts. Since it was then the middle of the days of the Omer, this continued until the end of Tammuz, when he completed his fasts. In the middle of Menachem Av, Yosef Akiva left Seminovitch and traveled from town to town and village to village until he reached Kroshtat. He arrived a few days before Selichos. Before entering the town, he stopped at a small village a few versts [unclear] away and stayed in the home of a local Jew. While there, he heard that a communal fast had been proclaimed in Kroshtat for the following day, for all the Jews of the town and surrounding area. Everyone was required to gather in the beis midrash to hear the rabbi’s words of rebuke in preparation for Selichos. Yosef Akiva joined his village hosts on their way to Kroshtat. They arrived at the beis midrash in time to hear the rabbi’s sermon and daven Minchah and Maariv with the congregation. Yosef Akiva was greatly surprised when, immediately after Maariv, the rabbi approached him and extended his hand in greeting. The gabbaim and the other worshippers did the same. Then he saw that, instead of going home, the congregation remained while the shamash brought out a record book and prepared slips for a lottery. What was going on? The lottery would determine at whose home the guest—Yosef Akiva—would eat supper, and at whose home

13:21 he would stay for as long as he was in Kroshtat. When Yosef Akiva expressed his surprise, they explained that this was the town’s established custom. Everyone was eager to fulfill the mitzvah of hachnasas orchim, welcoming guests. Unlike other places, where each person left that responsibility to someone else, in Kroshtat they vied for the privilege. To ensure that no one took this mitzvah away from another, they had established a rule: whenever a guest came to town, they held a lottery, and the winner welcomed the guest into his home. Whoever won was excluded from the next lottery, giving everyone in town a chance to fulfill the mitzvah. This time the winner was the town butcher, Shloyme. Shloyme was overjoyed; his face shone as though he had found a precious gem. The rabbi and the rest of the community wished him mazel tov as though he had won a fortune. This made a deep impression on Yosef Akiva. For his part, he felt obliged to tell them, regretfully, that all this effort was unnecessary: he asked nothing of anyone and did not want anyone to trouble himself on his behalf. The butcher and the whole congregation were disappointed. The rabbi began to reason with Yosef Akiva, explaining that it was no trouble at all, but a great mitzvah. In truth, just as every Jew has a mitzvah to welcome guests, a guest has a mitzvah to allow a Jew to fulfill it through him. That way, they share in the mitzvah. Well, Yosef Akiva was persuaded and accompanied Reb Shloyme home. At Reb Shloyme’s house, they received him with great honor and set a table laden with good things. But Yosef Akiva told them that he did not eat meat on weekdays and, in general, made do with very little. Shloyme’s family was deeply disappointed, because each

15:31 of them wanted the guest to enjoy everything they could offer. The Jewish community of Kroshtat consisted of thirty-five families. Nearly all made their living from their fields and vegetable gardens, though there were also craftsmen there: wool knitters, weavers, tailors, and shoemakers. They all knew how to learn Torah, and many were quite accomplished. All were G-d-fearing people of good character. They were very particular about davening with a minyan, and on days when they could not reach the beis midrash, they gathered in a field and davened together under the open sky. A special area there was fenced off for prayer. Yosef Akiva stayed at Shloyme’s home for four days, including Shabbos. Meanwhile, the townspeople realized that he was no ordinary guest and decided to provide him with lodgings befitting him. In Kroshtat, the community as a whole was responsible for welcoming guests and meeting their needs. If, for example, the winner of the lottery could not afford to put up a guest, he received assistance from the communal fund. So the community rented a room for Yosef Akiva at the home of Elyakim Shmuel the chazzan, and communal funds paid him to provide for the guest and all his needs in a manner befitting him. During the Ten Days of Teshuvah, the rabbi asked Yosef Akiva to give a public Torah lesson. The entire community saw how learned he was and, in light of that, decided to open a yeshivah there with Yosef Akiva at its head. When the rabbi learned that he was a widower, he suggested a match with his sister, who was also widowed. Yosef Akiva agreed, and they married. Four years later they had a son, whom they named Moishele Leib after the brilliant scholar from Turki whose yeshivah Yosef Akiva had attended. That Moishele Leib is the one we are speaking about here, the son-in-law of Eliezer Reuven the blacksmith in Dobromysl. Five years later, Yosef Akiva was appointed

18:12 head of the yeshivah in Bishenkovitch. Yosef Akiva himself was quiet by nature and liked to be alone. When he finished his lessons, he would usually sit in a corner of the beis midrash and learn quietly. He never sat down at a table to chat with anyone or take part in any celebration, even a celebration of a mitzvah. No one ever saw him smile or laugh. When Moishele Leib reached the age of bar mitzvah, there was no celebration for him. Moishele Leib delivered his drashah in the yeshivah, and his mother brought drinks and treats there. Yosef Akiva paid no attention to any of it. Reb Wolf the shamash distributed the drinks and delicacies to everyone. This Reb Wolf, the shamash of Bishenkovitch, was an interesting character in his own right. He had a son named Gronem Eliyahu, who was Moishele Leib’s friend. Moishele Leib learned from Gronem Eliyahu that his father, Reb Wolf, associated with distinguished travelers, some of whom were hidden tzaddikim and Kabbalists, and several of whom had merited a revelation of Eliyahu. This greatly interested Moishele Leib.