Episode 103: Baruch of Vyazin Gets Married, Establishes a Home, and Also Opens a Yeshivah

00:01 The story of Baruch of Vaizin continues. As we recall, Baruch had finished his time at Rabbi Shlomo’s home, where Rabbi Shlomo had also studied a great deal with him, and returned to his routine of study and work. After the holiday, Baruch also had to look for a way to earn his bread. Several times a week he would go to the market for a few hours and offer to haul loads or do any other hard labor. At the same time, he studied in the yeshiva with even greater diligence, and in secret he pursued the studies Rabbi Shlomo had taught him. Baruch devoted himself especially to Kabbalah. So that no one would know about it, he decided to stop sleeping in the yeshiva’s beis midrash, where people might notice what he was doing. Instead, he rented a room of his own and studied the hidden teachings there at night. His room was in the attic. He was sure no one would see him there, and that people would assume he slept at night, when in fact he sat studying Kabbalah. Most of the winter passed this way. But in Adar, something unusual happened. What happened? Another yeshiva student rented a room in the same house where Baruch had rented the attic. Baruch knew nothing about it. One night, very late, while Baruch was absorbed as usual in a book of Kabbalah, he suddenly sensed that he was not alone in the room. He looked up and saw one of the yeshiva students standing before him—his new neighbor. The student stared at him in astonishment. He had discovered Baruch’s secret. Baruch was stunned. He quickly shut the book he was studying and pretended nothing had happened, but it was too late. Realizing what had happened, Baruch began pleading with the young man to promise not to tell anyone what he had learned. But the young man told him he could not

02:50 make that promise: he had been watching Baruch on behalf of the other students, and that was why he had rented a room in the house where Baruch lived. It turned out that ever since Baruch had left the beis midrash where he used to sleep and rented an attic room, the students had been saying there must be some secret. They decided among themselves to find out what Baruch was doing in private. They drew lots, and this young man was chosen to follow him. For that purpose, he rented a room in Baruch’s building and made the landlord promise not to tell Baruch that a yeshiva student had moved in next door. Well, Baruch saw that the young man really had no choice: he had to report the results of his mission to his friends. So Baruch asked him only to delay his report for three days, to give Baruch time to consider what to do next. Baruch wanted to consult Rabbi Shlomo. Of course, no one knew about his close connection with the head of the yeshiva, and Baruch had certainly not begun studying Kabbalah on his own initiative, but at Rabbi Shlomo’s instruction. The young man agreed to the delay, and Baruch found an opportunity to speak with Rabbi Shlomo. Rabbi Shlomo said that the time had indeed come for Baruch to leave Minsk. And so another period of wandering began for Baruch. For weeks, even months, he walked from town to town and village to village. Wherever he arrived, he stayed for a while and found manual work to support himself. Alongside that, he continued his studies energetically, both the revealed Torah and Kabbalah. During his travels, Baruch met many great scholars and tzaddikim, as well as hidden tzaddikim who had gone into exile. In fact, Baruch himself was worthy of their company, since he too was

05:30 a hidden tzaddik. After many wanderings, Baruch reached the town of Smila[?], where he made his lodging in the local beis midrash. He studied and slept there, living on the money he had left from what he had earned on the way to Smila[?]. There was another guest in that beis midrash. This guest supported himself by going from door to door collecting alms. Baruch’s attention was drawn to him, for he sensed that this was no ordinary wanderer. To establish a livelihood, Baruch bought himself a cart, a saw and an ax. He would go out to the forest, cut down trees, bring the wood into town and sell it for firewood. Since it was summer, there was little demand for his goods, but for the time being Baruch made do with what he earned. He stored the extra wood in a shed beside the beis midrash, so that in winter he would have a large supply ready to sell. Then, late one winter night, that wanderer, Baruch’s fellow lodger, came into their lodging in the beis midrash, withdrew to his corner and burst into tears, which was quite unlike him. Baruch went over and asked what was troubling him. The man replied that Rabbi Yosef Avraham, a stove maker in the town, had passed away that day. He had been a hidden tzaddik, a man of great righteousness, and a great Kabbalist as well. He never kept a penny overnight. Before going to sleep, he would give all his remaining earnings to tzedakah. He was only fifty-eight when he passed away. He left behind a wife and daughter, and their home was in a state of terrible neglect and poverty. The windows were broken; there was no money to buy firewood, not even a piece of bread in the house. No one in town would look after them, because no one had appreciated the deceased man at all. Baruch realized that this wanderer belonged to the circle of hidden tzaddikim. He decided to test him. He asked his name, and the man said it was Nachum Aharon the tailor. Baruch then mentioned a difficulty he had with a certain passage

08:30 in the holy Zohar, which he had come across in his studies and struggled to understand. Quite naturally, Nachum Aharon began explaining the passage to him at length, clearly and insightfully. Baruch was deeply impressed. He saw that before him stood a great Kabbalist. Baruch immediately offered to help provide firewood. “Let’s go warm the house,” he said. They each shouldered a bundle of wood and went to the deceased man’s home. It was a house on the verge of collapse, where Rabbi Yosef Avraham had lived for some thirty years. Throughout the seven days of shivah, Nachum Aharon and Baruch went to the house every day to daven and study. With great effort, they managed to gather a minyan for communal prayers and the recitation of Kaddish. Local residents avoided joining the minyan because they looked down on Yosef Avraham, the stove maker. A close friendship developed between Baruch and Nachum Aharon, the hidden tailor. They arranged to study together in secret, and continued their sessions throughout the winter. Once, as they sat together, Nachum Aharon turned to Baruch and said, “Yosef Avraham’s orphaned daughter needs a match, and I think you would be a suitable husband for her.” Baruch agreed, and before long the wedding was celebrated quietly. Baruch moved with his wife and mother-in-law to a nearby village, where he found a place to live and a livelihood without any difficulty. After spending a long time cutting down trees and selling the wood, Baruch now began trading in timber on a substantial scale, and did very well. He bought tracts of forest and marketed the wood widely. In time, he also began leasing fields and entire forests and selling their produce. Baruch became wealthy and gave a great deal of tzedakah. Baruch of Vizhnitz arranged for other Jews to settle in the village and provided them with livelihoods. He also looked after their spiritual needs by giving them Torah classes. After some time, he built a beis midrash, where he supported ten men who devoted themselves full-time to Torah study, along with their families,

11:17 And so the village became a place of Torah. In the meantime, word of Baruch’s kindness and scholarship spread, against his wishes. The fact that he was a kabbalist who studied Kabbalah, however, remained a secret. Thus Baruch—or Reb Baruch, as people now called him—was the only one of the hidden tzaddikim who was also very wealthy. Baruch of Vizhnitz built a large guesthouse, and many of the hidden tzaddikim stayed there. Some came to him on special missions, knowing that despite his fame, he was in truth one of them. At that time, Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem of Zamosc, a student and successor of Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem of Worms, became known throughout the Jewish world. Nachum Aharon the tailor, a hidden tzaddik who was naturally a frequent and welcome guest in Baruch’s home, was close to Rabbi Yoel of Zamosc. He told Baruch a great deal about his teacher. Baruch therefore resolved to travel to Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem, get to know him personally, and learn from his teachings and conduct. He began preparing for the journey, and when he arrived in Zamosc, Reb Baruch of Vizhnitz stayed there for six months. When he returned to his estate, everyone noticed that he was radiant with happiness. It was clear that he was deeply pleased with his visit to Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem. Reb Baruch of Vizhnitz devoted himself even more to the study of Kabbalah and also introduced the ten scholars he supported in the study hall on his estate to its teachings. Ten years passed after Reb Baruch of Vizhnitz made his first journey to the Baal Shem of Zamosc. Throughout those years, he maintained constant contact with the Baal Shem’s students, who traveled as hidden tzaddikim through cities and towns. In time, Reb Baruch became known as a great Torah scholar and kabbalist. Then, suddenly, Baruch of Vizhnitz announced that he intended to leave the estate where he had lived for fifteen years and where he had built

14:11 a Jewish settlement. He sold his lands and gave homes and gardens to the ten scholars of his study hall. He also made large donations to important Jewish institutions in the nearby city of Smila. Once everything was arranged, he and his family left. Where did Reb Baruch go? He settled on an estate he had purchased ten versts from the city of Slutsk. Here, too, he built himself a study hall and a guesthouse. Within a few months, he had ten scholars in this study hall as well, providing for all their needs so they could study Torah in peace, free of worry. In his new home near Slutsk, Baruch told no one where he had come from. All people knew was that he was a great Torah scholar and a great tzaddik. For some time, Baruch had wanted to teach Torah lessons to a select group of students. Now he decided the time had come, and he established a yeshivah on his estate. But this yeshivah had a new and different character. Students had to have exceptional ability and be at least fifteen years old, but no older than sixteen. Every student had to commit to staying in the yeshivah for no less than six years. During those six years, he would not leave it even for a single day. The students also had to commit to sitting and studying diligently, without paying attention to anything outside their studies. Baruch, for his part, undertook to provide them generously with food, clothing, and shoes. Of the ten scholars at his former estate near Smila, Baruch brought with him a Jew named Menashe Yisroel, a great Torah scholar who was also a close friend and trusted confidant of Reb Baruch of Vizhnitz. Menashe Yisroel, too, was among the foremost students of Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem of Zamosc, and his sons had also studied for many years in the yeshivah of Rabbi

17:00 Yoel Baal Shem. Menashe Yisroel had three sons. They had returned from the Baal Shem’s yeshivah G-d-fearing and accomplished, great scholars of both the revealed and hidden dimensions of Torah. Reb Baruch entrusted the running of his yeshivah to Menashe Yisroel and his three sons. He himself, Reb Baruch of Vizhnitz, limited his role to delivering lessons to the students. Twenty-six young men were chosen to study in Reb Baruch’s yeshivah in its first year, and signs of the yeshivah’s positive influence were already evident in them. The young men conducted themselves as Reb Baruch wished, which made him very happy. The following year, Reb Baruch admitted a similar number of students, and he continued to do so over the next six years. The yeshivah thus grew from year to year. After six years, twenty-six of the first students returned home. The number of students in the yeshivah then remained the same as it had been in the sixth year, and continued to do so afterward.