Episode 92: Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem of Zamoshch

00:01 Young Baruch hears from Yitzchak Shaul, the blacksmith’s son-in-law, [unclear] the history and development of Chassidus. Baruch has already heard the fascinating story of Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem of Worms, who founded the fellowship of hidden tzaddikim to travel throughout the Jewish world and uplift the spiritual condition of the Jews. Yitzchak Shaul now continues to trace the thread of history for him and introduces him to another fascinating figure: Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem of Zamość, a student of Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem. We have already told of the campaign waged by Rabbi Pinchas Zelig, the gaon of [unclear], against the Baal Shem of Worms, and of Pinchas Zelig’s ban on studying the Zohar and Kabbalah. He demanded that Rabbi Eliyahu leave Worms and Germany altogether. Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem was neither impressed nor shaken. He remained where he was and continued his work of spreading the teachings of Kabbalah. The number of his students grew, and the teachings of Kabbalah spread further and further. Students who, because of the ban, could not study Kabbalah openly did so in secret. That very fact gave the students an added impetus to organize themselves into a fellowship that would follow their teacher’s guidance and a definite plan, traveling from city to city and country to country to spread Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem’s teachings and his approach to serving Hashem. In this way, Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem’s students brought the teachings of Kabbalah to Bohemia and Poland, where they spread widely. Rabbi Eliyahu lived in Worms for thirty years, maintaining a yeshivah there whose students included great Torah scholars. In 5384 or 5385—that is, 1624 or 1625 by the secular calendar—Rabbi Eliyahu left Worms and settled in Prague, taking his yeshivah with him. One of Rabbi Eliyahu’s great students was the gaon Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller, known as the author of the Tosafos Yom Tov. He was already forty

02:51 years old when he came to Rabbi Eliyahu’s yeshivah, first in Worms, where he spent three years, and afterward in Prague. Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann studied the teachings of Kabbalah with Rabbi Eliyahu. Later, he became the rabbi of Prague and the leading rabbi of Bohemia, as well as one of the foremost figures spreading the study of Kabbalah. In 5389, however—that is, 1629 by the secular calendar—he was forced to leave Bohemia because of an informer. He then moved to Krakow, Poland, and in doing so brought the spread of Kabbalah to that country. The gaon and Kabbalist Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe, known as the author of the Levushim, also lived in that generation. Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe maintained his own yeshivah in Grodno. Alongside the revealed teachings of Torah, the hidden teachings were studied there as well. Later, Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe moved his yeshivah to Poznań. One of his students there was Rabbi Yisroel Yosef, who was exceptionally sharp, learned, and G-d-fearing, but studied only the revealed teachings. Rabbi Yisroel Yosef did not want to study the hidden teachings, despite his great admiration for his teacher, Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe, and he explained his reasons. At the same time, Rabbi Yisroel Yosef suffered the anguish of losing his children. All his children, may we be spared, died in childhood. More than once, he confided his sorrow to his teacher, who encouraged and blessed him. In the winter of 5372—that is, 1612 by the secular calendar—Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe fell ill. Sensing that his end was near, he summoned his foremost and most beloved students and blessed each of them according to his needs and wishes. Rabbi Yisroel Yosef was among them. The gaon and Kabbalist Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe turned to him and said, “For you to be blessed with a son, you must undertake to study the teachings of Kabbalah. You must also vow that the son born to you will be dedicated to Torah study, and when he turns twenty, you must send him to study

05:42 Kabbalah with an outstanding teacher of that discipline.” On Tuesday, 3 Adar II 5372, Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe passed away at the age of eighty-two. His students dispersed, each to his own place, and Rabbi Yisroel Yosef moved to Zamość. There he devoted himself to studying Kabbalah, as his teacher had instructed him. In the second year, a son was born to him, and he named him Yoel. Yoel was a healthy and very gifted child who excelled in his studies. In time, his father arranged a match for him with a girl his age. When he reached twenty, his father decided to send him to study the teachings of Kabbalah, but he struggled greatly with the question of whom to send him to. He did not consider himself qualified, and his teacher, Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe, had instructed him to send his son to an outstanding teacher. Rabbi Yisroel Yosef was distressed. He undertook fasts and acts of self-denial, and once he fell asleep and saw his teacher, Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe, in a dream. His teacher told him, “Do not be distressed. Send your son to Prague, to Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem.” When Rabbi Yisroel Yosef awoke, he felt greatly relieved. He called his son, told him about his vow and his dream, and instructed him to travel to Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem in Prague. This was at a time when Rabbi Yoel had just returned from Rabbi Yoel Sirkis’s yeshivah in Brisk. He had studied there for five years and had excelled greatly. He returned with letters attesting to this young married man’s exceptional greatness. The rosh yeshivah, Rabbi Yoel Sirkis, had been a student of Rabbi Shlomo Leibush, a colleague of Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem of Worms. Rabbi Yoel Sirkis first maintained his yeshivah in Lublin and later moved it to Brisk. Great Torah scholars emerged from that yeshivah and became known for their sharp minds and powers of Talmudic analysis. Young Rabbi Yoel knew that his teacher, Rabbi Yoel Sirkis, was

08:17 a Kabbalist and that classes in the teachings of Kabbalah were held secretly at the yeshivah. But he had not been permitted to attend because he was both young and unmarried. Now that his father had revealed his intended path and his dream to him for the first time, he was already married, and so he gladly accepted his father’s instruction to travel to Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem in Prague. Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem was already very old, but he nevertheless sat and studied Torah day and night, secluded in a special room in his study hall. The yeshivah was run mainly by his senior students. Even so, he accepted young Rabbi Yoel as a personal student and spent considerable time studying with him individually each day. Young Rabbi Yoel spent five years in the Baal Shem’s yeshivah, and throughout that time Rabbi Eliyahu studied with him individually, as we said. It is not clearly known why Rabbi Yoel found such favor in Rabbi Eliyahu’s eyes, but it is reasonable to assume that his great abilities, righteousness, and tremendous diligence played a part. Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem passed on all his secrets to young Rabbi Yoel, including matters of segulos and remedies to be used for various purposes. Then, on Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem’s instruction, Rabbi Yoel returned to Zamość. On the way, Rabbi Yoel visited his teacher Rabbi Yoel Sirkis, from whom he had previously learned the revealed teachings of Torah. Now, after studying with Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem, he could speak with his teacher about the hidden teachings as well, and young Rabbi Yoel was able to learn a great deal more of them from the elder Rabbi Yoel. When he returned to his city, he was given the title Baal Shem and became renowned as the Baal Shem of Zamość. During the massacres of 5408 and 5409—that is, 1648 and 1649 by the secular calendar—Rabbi Yoel saved many Jewish communities from destruction by using various supernatural means. Thus, for example, in a certain city

11:03 At the Dniester River, the Jews fled from the Haidamaks, who had descended on them to massacre them. A ship was anchored by the shore, and all the Jews of the town hurried aboard. But the ship could not move, and the Haidamaks drew near, about to storm it. Suddenly, the Baal Shem of Zamosc appeared. He wrote a holy Name on a slip of paper and attached it to the stern of the ship. At once the ship moved and began sailing swiftly with the current. The murderers took to boats to pursue it, but the ship sped so far ahead that they were forced to return to shore empty-handed. Thus the Jews of the town were saved through the power of the Baal Shem. Rabbi Yoel, the Baal Shem of Zamosc, became known throughout the Jewish world not only for the wonders he performed, but above all for his many activities, particularly in Torah study. Among other things, he opened a yeshiva in Zamosc that was distinguished by its thorough study of both the revealed and the hidden dimensions of Torah. In the study of the revealed Torah, Rabbi Yoel, the Baal Shem of Zamosc, followed the approach of his teacher, Rabbi Yoel Sirkis, which was based on delving into a passage to understand it on its own terms and in a logical way. He supported most of the students in his yeshiva, and he himself also studied Kabbalah with a select group of them. Rabbi Yoel, the Baal Shem of Zamosc, had a son named Uri who excelled in his studies from early childhood. By the age of twelve, he was already well versed in several tractates of Gemara and possessed many fine qualities. Uri also had a distinguished appearance. The Baal Shem, Rabbi Yoel, fulfilled with him the instruction of our Sages, “Exile yourself to a place of Torah,” and sent him to study at Rabbi Dovid Halevi’s yeshiva in Ostroh. The course of study there was similar to that in Rabbi Yoel’s own yeshiva. When the head of the yeshiva passed away, Uri traveled to study Torah under Rabbi Avraham Abele Gombiner in Kalisz, where they also studied the teachings of

13:34 mussar and good character traits. Uri studied in the yeshiva in Kalisz for six years. When he returned home, he was not only a great scholar but also a man of good character, imbued with the spirit of mussar. His father, Rabbi Yoel, immediately arranged his marriage and appointed him head of the yeshiva for the study of the revealed Torah. The Baal Shem continued to teach the hidden dimension of Torah himself to his select students. At that time, an inclination toward self-mortification began to spread among Torah scholars. Day by day, the number of scholars who afflicted their bodies as part of their service of Hashem grew. These practices took various forms, such as binding the body or parts of it with thin ropes; standing for an entire day and night without sitting or lying down; sleeping only three or four hours over two days and nights; sleeping on the ground with a stone for a pillow; rolling naked in the snow in winter or lying on an anthill for a long time in summer; and, of course, undertaking wandering exile. In this matter of self-mortification, there was little difference between those who studied only the revealed Torah and those who also studied Kabbalah. Torah scholars of both kinds engaged in it. Both renowned scholars who did not study Kabbalah and kabbalists undertook wandering exile from place to place. The difference was only that scholars of the revealed Torah did not conceal their great learning wherever they went; they merely withheld their names. The kabbalists, however, concealed their scholarship and appeared to be ordinary people. They were therefore called the hidden ones. The practice of self-mortification also spread in the yeshiva in Zamosc, which Rabbi Yoel maintained for fifty years. All these things we have recounted so far were being told, as you will recall, by Yitzchak Shaul, the young son-in-law of the blacksmith [unclear], to Baruch [unclear]. When he reached this point, Yitzchak Shaul’s brother-in-law, Moishe Leib, joined the conversation. As we have already related, he had been listening

16:12 very attentively, and he said, “I have never heard of the Baal Shem of Zamosc,” expressing his dismissive attitude. If he had not heard of someone, that was proof the person was unimportant. “There are many great people you have not heard of,” Yitzchak Shaul replied. He went on, “The truth is, you and our brother-in-law Zalman Meir are so [unclear] with pursuits of this kind that matters beyond subjects such as delivering a pilpul do not interest you at all.” Although his words carried a note of rebuke, and even a kind of protest, he said them so gently and smoothly that his brother-in-law Moishele Leib did not feel offended. Instead, he continued the conversation: “Recently, though, I heard about another Baal Shem named Rabbi Yisroel,” Moishele Leib said, wanting to show that he was not entirely ignorant of these matters either. “They say he has many chassidim who wander as hidden ones, like the disciples of Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem of Worms.” Yitzchak Shaul smiled and said, “Apparently, to you these two are one and the same, even though two hundred and fifty years separate the first, Rabbi Eliyahu, from the last, Rabbi Yisroel. Between them were two Baalei Shem. One was Rabbi Yoel, whom we were just discussing, and the other was Rabbi Adam Baal Shem of Ropshitz.” Indeed, Moishele Leib had not heard this, and Baruch, too, did not know the details clearly. Baruch wanted to know whether the four Baalei Shem differed in their approaches, as there are different approaches to Torah study. Yitzchak Shaul said, “At their foundation, their approaches are alike, but there are nevertheless differences in the details of their teachings and their ways.” Baruch sank into thought. Moishele Leib, for his part, began to take an interest. Chassidus and its background, as Rabbi Yitzchak Shaul presented them, were fascinating and gave him much to reflect on. So Moishele Leib began

18:52 to shower him with questions, sincerely wanting to learn as much as possible about Chassidus and those who originated it. “You have asked too many questions for me to answer standing on one foot,” Yitzchak Shaul said in his voice, “and I will answer them in order, first things first and last things last. But to make the matter clearer, it would be better not to begin with direct answers to your questions about Rabbi Adam Baal Shem and Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem and their approaches. I will begin by describing the circumstances that led my hometown, Harki, to become a stronghold of Chassidus. The chassidim there were at first hidden and did not dare reveal themselves publicly. Now they are known throughout the surrounding area for their way and their teachings, and they have no fear of appearing openly as chassidim.” Yitzchak Shaul meant to show how Chassidus was winning over more and more of the minds and hearts of G-d-fearing Jews, gradually and steadily, step by step. “The chassidim in Harki,” Yitzchak Shaul related, “are led by the great scholar Rabbi Azriel Yosef, who heads the local [unclear]. Thirty years ago, Rabbi Azriel Yosef was among the hidden chassidim and wandered across the country with his companions. Twenty years ago, they settled in Harki, but even then they had not yet revealed their new path. They studied and spread the teachings and guidance of Chassidus, but did so secretly. Only when their numbers grew and their influence expanded did they begin to express their approach publicly.