Episode 93: Stories About Chassidim in the Town of Harki

00:01 We begin hearing about the chassidim and Chassidus in the town of Harki: how the chassidim gradually extended their influence over all the Jews in the area. There are several very interesting stories about this, which we’ll tell now. Moshe Leib now understood why Reb Nissan, Yitzchak Shaul’s father, had not revealed that he was a chossid when he came to his son’s wedding in Dober Misl[?]. Moshe Leib recalled: “He shared Torah thoughts and left no doubt about his scholarship, but gave no hint that he was a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov.” The reason, Yitzchak Shaul explained, was that a chossid does not speak about Chassidus with someone who is not ready for it. Chassidus, he said, requires proper preparation. Yitzchak Shaul then began telling interesting stories about the lives of the chassidim in Harki. This is what he related: Years ago, before Chassidus and chassidim were known in the surrounding towns, the rabbi of Harki was Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak. He was renowned for his brilliance and also headed a yeshiva with twenty students who were exceptionally talented and diligent in their studies. Among them was a student named Lipa Baruch. Lipa Baruch knew several tractates of Gemara by heart, together with Rashi and Tosafos, and was considered G-d-fearing as well. He studied in Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak’s yeshiva until it was time for him to marry. The rabbi of Harki, Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak himself, arranged Lipa Baruch’s match. Lipa Baruch became the son-in-law of a Jew named Tzadok Hillel. Tzadok Hillel was a wealthy estate leaseholder who, among other properties, leased the large nobleman’s estate in Rotovka. He was known as a learned man, but his good deeds surpassed even his Torah knowledge. Besides the estate in Rotovka, he held other estates, and he in turn leased out the rivers, fishponds, tavern stations, flour mills, and taverns

03:04 scattered across the estates to Jews, providing a livelihood for many families. He never demanded high rent from his subtenants, and for those in difficult circumstances he waived it altogether. Everyone blessed Tzadok Hillel for his kind heart, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu blessed him not only with wealth but also with successful sons and daughters. A generous giver of tzedakah who esteemed Torah scholars, Tzadok Hillel supported the yeshiva in Harki liberally and was therefore held in high regard by Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak, its head. So when Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak chose Lipa Baruch as a match for Tzadok Hillel’s family, it was because he considered him worthy of becoming the son-in-law of such a respected and wealthy Jew. In fact, Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak arranged suitable matches for all the leaseholder’s children; Tzadok Hillel consulted him at every step. At Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak’s suggestion, Tzadok Hillel promised to support Lipa Baruch for six years. During those years Lipa Baruch lived on the estate in Otshka[?] and studied diligently. At the same time, he mixed freely with people. He was a handsome, kindhearted young married man and became a delight to everyone who came to the estate. Learned visitors, too, enjoyed discussing Torah with him. His father-in-law and mother-in-law, his wife, and his brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law all took great pleasure in Lipa Baruch. On top of all his other qualities, he had a pleasant voice and a gift for singing, and his songs won people’s hearts. Yet alongside those qualities, Lipa Baruch had some very negative traits. Two of them were envy and a craving for honor. These traits did drive him to study harder, so that he would rise above everyone else, with no one better than he was, and so that his fame would grow. But of course, they badly damaged his character and spiritual life. While Lipa Baruch occupied himself with Torah study, his brothers-in-law helped

05:42 their father with his business. The eldest son traveled to the noblemen’s estates to settle accounts for the extensive business conducted there, and generally served as his father’s representative with the noblemen. Lipa Baruch envied him for having access to their circles. Then, when Lipa Baruch’s six years of support at the table of his father-in-law, Tzadok Hillel, came to an end, the rabbi of Harki, Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak, advised him to accept a rabbinic position. Indeed, several towns offered him the rabbi’s seat. His father-in-law, Tzadok Hillel, on the other hand, wanted him to continue studying Torah and promised to support him for additional years. To their surprise, however, Lipa Baruch decided to pursue his ambition and devote himself specifically to commerce. He asked Tzadok Hillel to place one of his estates in his hands or give him a suitable role in his business. Tzadok Hillel chose one of the leased estates and handed it over to his son-in-law. Lipa Baruch immediately showed his business ability and achieved great success. He learned the non-Jews’ language, gained access to the noblemen, and became a regular guest in their homes. They, too, were frequent visitors to his home. Since several Jews worked on Lipa Baruch’s estate and he also had Jewish neighbors, he built a beis midrash there, which he often entered to study. The moral state of the noblemen at that time was extremely low. Young and old alike spent their days and nights in revelry, drunkenness, and card games. Lipa Baruch’s singing ability, together with his outgoing manner and desire to please others, led the noblemen to invite him frequently to their parties to enjoy his pleasant voice. They also came to his home to pass the time and hear him sing. As time went on, Lipa Baruch added more and more non-Jewish melodies to his repertoire, and eventually he also

08:23 even learned to play the violin. This gave him still greater access to the noblemen’s courts and parties. Spending time among those revelers gradually began to affect Lipa Baruch. He adopted their ways and began to decline spiritually and morally, until his corruption showed in his actions. At the same time, everything he touched in commerce and business seemed to prosper. His wealth grew from year to year. Over time, his wealth and frequent contact with the noblemen made him increasingly like them. Now that he resembled them, envy burned within him at full force, along with a desire to stand out. Why shouldn’t he live like a nobleman? Why not live even better than a nobleman? His carriage surpassed those of the wealthiest noblemen in beauty and splendor. His clothes, too, were more magnificent and polished than theirs. His home and courtyard became a nobleman’s estate in every respect, until his behavior, too, was that of a nobleman in every way. Throughout the area, it was already known that Lipa Baruch had strayed from the right path. People said he committed every sin imaginable, not to mention how his obsessive ostentation was an affront to the non-Jews. Word of this also reached Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak, the rabbi and head of the yeshiva in Harki. It disturbed him deeply, for he felt partly responsible for his beloved student’s departure from the right path: he was the one who had arranged for him to become Reb Tzadok Hillel’s son-in-law. Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak, the rabbi of Harki, sent a messenger asking Lipa Baruch to come to him. In response, Lipa Baruch sent the rabbi a special messenger with a carriage drawn by powerful horses, along with a letter inviting him to come to his estate. The letter was written with reverence and expressions of respect for his former teacher. At the same time, it firmly insisted that the rabbi come to him, rather than he to his teacher. For this reason

11:22 Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak hesitated over whether to accept the invitation. Lipa Baruch’s messenger stayed at the rabbi’s home for three days, until, after much thought and consultation, the rabbi finally decided to travel to Lipa Baruch. He hoped he might be able to influence him to return to the right path. Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak did not travel alone. He took a minyan of students with him so he could daven with a minyan during his stay at Lipa Baruch’s estate. In this way, the rabbi also meant to hint to his former student how far he had strayed from his former path. Nothing remained of the minyan Lipa Baruch had once maintained on his estate, apart from the empty, locked beis midrash where they had once davened together three times a day. Not only Lipa Baruch, but all the other Jews on the estate, except for three or four elderly men, had stopped davening and observing the ways of the Torah. When Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak arrived at the estate, Lipa Baruch received him with great honor and began showing his teacher the extent of his wealth and boasting of its splendor. The rabbi of Harki, Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak, burst into bitter tears. “Such wealth,” he said through his tears, “and such spiritual poverty.” Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak began reproving his student and trying to influence him to do teshuvah. Lipa Baruch listened with a mocking smile, as though to say, “Rabbi, all your words are in vain. I will not do teshuvah.” When Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak saw that he had no influence over him, he returned home brokenhearted. The visit of his teacher, the gaon Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak, the rabbi and head of the yeshivah in Harki, left no impression whatsoever on Lipa Baruch. In fact, after the visit the wealthy merchant strayed even further from the ways of Judaism. Although he did not actually convert to another religion, in practice he severed all connection with Judaism. The G-d-fearing Jews in the area were deeply distressed by this.

14:01 Some of them even tried in various ways to influence Lipa Baruch to change his ways, but their efforts came to nothing, and everyone considered him lost. Years passed, and Lipa Baruch sank deeper and deeper into the forty-nine gates of impurity. The fact that Lipa Baruch, his fine student, had gone astray caused Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak profound sorrow and pain: all his efforts to bring him back had been in vain, and, above all, the many hopes he had placed in him had been dashed. For this reason, the rabbi of Harki would say Tehillim for Lipa Baruch every day at a set time. Brokenhearted and weeping, he would pray to Hakadosh Boruch Hu to grant him the desire to do teshuvah. Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak still hoped his student would change his ways. Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak’s practice was to go to the beis midrash every night to recite Tikkun Chatzos. He would remain there davening and learning Torah until the afternoon, returning home after the early Mincha until Maariv. He set aside the time before the early Mincha to say his daily Tehillim for Lipa Baruch, while he was still wearing his tallis and tefillin. Once, as he was saying his customary Tehillim, wrapped in his tallis and wearing his tefillin, with tears streaming down his face, a visitor entered the beis midrash. The visitor sat down in a corner and watched the gaon. As he listened to him say Tehillim, he was deeply moved, and tears flowed from his eyes. He waited until Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak had finished, then approached him and said in a broken voice, “Good morning, Rabbi.” The gaon looked at him and asked, “Who are you, my son?” “Don’t you recognize me, Rabbi? I am Lipa Baruch, your former student,” the visitor said, bursting into tears. He told his teacher, “For several months now, I have regretted my past and resolved to do complete teshuvah and change my ways from now on. Some time ago, I left the estate

17:01 and went into exile. Now I have come to you, Rabbi, so that you can guide me in how to conduct myself from now on.” Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak was filled with joy and said, “All along I felt that you were not yet completely lost.” He told his former student to come back in three days, when he would be ready to lay out a way of life for him. Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak summoned his friend Reb Nissan, the teacher from Harki, the father of Yitzchak Shaul, the blacksmith’s son-in-law in Dobromysl. Reb Nissan belonged to the group of hidden chassidim in Harki, as we related before the group became known publicly. Rabbi Nachman Yitzchak learned that Reb Nissan knew all about how Lipa Baruch had come to do teshuvah, because it had happened through the hidden chassidim of Harki, acting on the direct instructions of their teacher, Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem Tov. This is what happened. The previous leader of the chassidim in Harki, before Reb Nissan, was Azriel Yosef, who often traveled to the Baal Shem Tov in Mezhibuzh with his friend Avraham Mendel, also a hidden chossid. On a recent visit to the Baal Shem Tov, he had given both of them important missions. Azriel Yosef was tasked with bringing Lipa Baruch to do teshuvah. Avraham Mendel was tasked with drawing a Jew named Chaim Shmuel, who lived in a nearby village, closer to Chassidus. As soon as Azriel Yosef returned from Mezhibuzh, he began thinking about how to get into Lipa Baruch’s nobleman-like estate, twenty versts from Harki. Lipa Baruch lived and conducted himself like a nobleman and associated only with the nobility. Azriel Yosef knew that he could not establish contact with Lipa Baruch directly, much less gain any influence over him. On the other hand, the Baal Shem Tov had given him a mission, and he had to find a way to carry it out. Azriel Yosef was a great Torah scholar and a G-d-fearing man, knowledgeable in Kabbalah and wise in the ways

19:35 of the world. At the same time, he earned his living through manual labor, taking whatever work came his way so that he would not have to depend on others. Azriel Yosef therefore decided to hire himself out as a day laborer on the estate. Once he was hired, he worked conscientiously, all the while keeping an eye on the landowner, as they called Lipa Baruch, the estate owner’s son. In various ways, he managed to draw the landowner’s attention to himself as if by chance, though it was not easy. Both the estate manager and Lipa Baruch himself noticed something unusual: a man who clearly looked like a Torah scholar was doing backbreaking work to earn his bread and firmly refusing any assistance or favors offered to him at work. Lipa Baruch, a former scholar who had gone astray, could recognize a Torah scholar. He noticed more than just Azriel Yosef’s scholarship.