Episode 109: Rochel Tells Her Daughter Devorah Leah About the Incident with the Spirits in Poznan

00:01 We are now telling one of the most fascinating stories in the history of Chassidus—at least for its sheer drama and adventure. In the city of Poznań stood the home of Avigdor Tuvia the goldsmith and his wife, Sarah Gittel. After they died, evil spirits of various kinds took over the house and terrified everyone in the area. Everyone fled the house itself, but there was real unease all around it as well. Then Reb Baruch Batlan, a chossid of Rabbi Yoel of Zamoshtsh, received instructions on how to solve the problem. Now they were on their way to the house with Torah scrolls. When the minyan carrying the Torah scrolls reached the entrance, the noise and commotion inside grew frighteningly loud. Bloodcurdling screams came from within, along with wild laughter, dogs barking, roosters crowing, cats yowling, frogs croaking, horses neighing, and all sorts of other strange sounds. Great fear fell upon the people accompanying them, but Reb Baruch Batlan and the nine students of the Baal Shem remained calm. They felt protected by the power of Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem. Three times, the ten men called on the spirits to leave. The noise inside did not stop, so the two Jews at the front kicked the door with all their strength and opened it. Six Jews then entered with the three Torah scrolls. The moment the men carrying the Torah scrolls crossed the threshold, they heard glass shattering. Every windowpane broke, and through the windows rushed hordes of strange creatures whose appearance alone struck fear into those who saw them. They looked gripped by mortal terror as they hurried to escape, as though their lives were in danger. The house was completely cleansed, but the strange creatures left behind a stench and suffocating smoke. All of that passed as soon as the minyan began to daven. All of Poznań immediately heard what had happened and that it had all been accomplished through the power of the Baal Shem of Zamoshtsh. The city’s governor and the bishop also heard

03:00 about the wonder and spoke admiringly of the tzaddik of Zamoshtsh. One might have expected admiration for Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem to grow in Poznań, and for those who opposed the path of the hidden tzaddikim and kabbalists to fall silent and end their fight against the Baal Shem and his approach. But that is not what happened. His opponents remained bitterly hostile. In fact, they intensified their opposition. They wanted to prevent the incident with the evil spirits from giving the path of the hidden tzaddikim and kabbalists a stronger foothold in Poznań, and from there in other Jewish cities and towns. The most outspoken opponent of Rabbi Yoel and his students was a Jew named Shlomo Moshe, who had a reputation in Poznań as a learned man. Shlomo Moshe himself was one of the neighbors of the house where the incident had taken place. He knew all the details of the evil spirits’ hold on the house, and seemingly he, more than anyone else, should have recognized the great success of the Baal Shem of Zamoshtsh. But Reb Shlomo Moshe dismissed it all with contempt. He claimed that it was not the Baal Shem’s power that had brought about the change; the time ordained from Heaven for the house to be cleansed had simply arrived. The fact that the house had become a beis midrash had helped. And so debates broke out in Poznań over whether the Baal Shem of Zamoshtsh had set things right or not. Then six weeks passed. Suddenly, whistling and dogs barking could once again be heard in the house. The sounds came from the cellar, where firewood was stored. It turned out that the evil spirits had settled in the cellar. It emerged that when the heir transferred the house to the community for use as a beis midrash, he had not included the cellar. The community leaders hurried to have him sign a document transferring the cellar as well. That did not help. The spirits continued their mischief. Renewed panic seized the neighborhood. Everyone was saying that the evil spirits had taken over the building again and, apart from the beis midrash, were doing as they pleased throughout the building, especially in the cellar,

05:26 as though it were their own. Shlomo Moshe now felt triumphant. To him, the return of the evil spirits was conclusive proof that it had not been the Baal Shem and his powers that had driven them away before. This gave Shlomo Moshe grounds to step up his opposition to the Baal Shem and his chassidim. The other opponents, too, now felt more confident in their opposition. The students of Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem dearly wanted everyone to see their teacher’s power. They resolved to do everything they could to persuade Rabbi Yoel to come to Poznań himself and demonstrate his powers, leaving his opponents no reason to dispute him. When word spread that they wanted to bring Rabbi Yoel to Poznań, the opponents of the hidden tzaddikim raised an outcry. What did they argue? They said that the Baal Shem must not be allowed to come to Poznań, because it would lead to a chillul Hashem and invite ridicule and scorn. And in any case, they said, authentic Judaism has nothing to do with battling evil spirits. They remained opposed to the Baal Shem’s visit. This opposition to Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem of Zamoshtsh coming to Poznań to drive the evil spirits out of the cellar also affected Reb Baruch Batlan and the Baal Shem’s other admirers, who did want him to visit. They feared that the fierce opposition might lead to an affront to the Baal Shem’s honor. Why, then, trouble the tzaddik and bring him there? While Reb Baruch and his friends were weighing the matter, something happened that shook all of Poznań. Shlomo Moshe—the leader of the opponents, who had fought furiously against the plan to bring Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem and against the belief that the Baal Shem had driven out the spirits before and could do so again—was a leather merchant. He kept his merchandise in the cellar of the goldsmith Avigdor

08:03 Tuvia’s house, the very cellar where the evil spirits had settled after being driven out of the house itself. From time to time, a merchant would come to town to buy the stock Shlomo Moshe had accumulated. This time, when the merchant arrived, Shlomo Moshe sent his son Menashe to take him down to the cellar so he could choose the goods he needed. While they were in the cellar, the door to one of the storage compartments opened. In the doorway stood a tiny figure with the body of a baby, the legs of a bird, a head as large as a donkey’s, eagle’s wings, a rabbit’s tail, and a face black as coal. The strange creature opened its mouth and thrust out a long tongue, red as blood, revealing a horse’s teeth. It growled like a lion and twisted its face into all sorts of bizarre expressions. The merchant and Menashe, Shlomo Moshe’s son, were overcome with terrible fear. Both fled outside screaming. When they reached the courtyard, they collapsed and fainted. It took great effort to revive them: blood was let, and various remedies were tried. The merchant remained unable to speak for a long time, his face contorted. Menashe, Shlomo Moshe’s son, lost his mind. He raved, struck people wildly until they were afraid to approach him, and eventually had to be tied up with ropes. In these circumstances, when the idea of bringing Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem of Zamoshtsh to Poznań to drive out the evil spirits came up again, Shlomo Moshe did not dare oppose it. The other opponents also fell silent. Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem then arrived in Poznań, and he chose to stay in the very house where the evil spirits had run wild—in the beis midrash that had once been the home of Avigdor Tuvia the goldsmith. The Baal Shem then began a thorough investigation of the whole matter. It was a Wednesday when the Baal Shem summoned the beis din of

10:51 Poznan. Rabbi Yoel asked the dayanim to undertake a fast in preparation for a din Torah. His listeners stood astonished. What din Torah? But the Baal Shem immediately said that the din Torah would be between himself, the Baal Shem, and the evil spirits. It was to take place in that very beis midrash. The dayanim were amazed by this strange request, but agreed to do it. At Minchah they undertook the fast, and the next day, Thursday, after davening, they sat down ready to hear the claims. The Baal Shem stood and called to the harmful spirits, informing them that he was summoning them to a din Torah. At the same time, he made them swear not to harm anyone, either on their way in or on their way out. The crowd waited with bated breath. The evil spirits immediately appeared before the beis din. The Baal Shem stood and declared, “Evil spirits, I am bringing a claim against you because you crossed the boundary that Hakadosh Boruch Hu set for you and entered a place where people live, a place where you have no permission to be.” The evil spirits made strange sounds, but no one could make out anything clearly. Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem turned to the head of the dayanim and asked him to declare, by the power of the holy Torah and of the beis din, that one of the spirits must speak and make its words clearly heard. The head of the beis din rose and made the declaration. At once a clear voice was heard answering the Baal Shem’s claim. It said that they had crossed their assigned boundary on the instructions of Ashmedai, who was in charge of them. Rabbi Yoel said, “Even Ashmedai has no permission to send you among people. Your only place is in the desolate wilderness.” A voice came from the evil spirits again. “The permission we were given rests on the fact that we have taken what is rightfully ours. We are descendants of the couple who owned the house, Avigdor Tuvia and his wife Sarah Gittel, born as a result

13:35 of Avigdor Tuvia’s evil thoughts and deeds and the curses that were always on Sarah Gittel’s lips. Therefore, according to Torah law, the house belongs to us.” Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem replied, “The evil spirits are not entitled to be considered lawful heirs of the goldsmith and his wife, however they came into being. Just as the good angels created by a person’s good deeds do not inherit from him but are only his advocates, so too the destructive angels created by a person’s sins are only his accusers after his hundred and twenty years. They are in no way his heirs.” The evil spirits’ representative would not give in. He said, “We will not leave the cellar, because Ashmedai ordered us to be here, and we answer only to him. We left the rooms upstairs because of the great light there after the Torah scrolls were brought in and it became a beis midrash. We will not leave the cellar.” When he finished speaking, he began to croak and shriek, as though signaling the whole gang. Worms of different colors—green, red and black—appeared on the floor and walls. Frogs began to crawl, and cockroaches of various sizes and colors appeared in the air around them. Suddenly there was the buzzing of bees, the croaking of frogs, and all sorts of strange sounds. Various figures darted through the air, small, black and shriveled, with tails and wings. Fear and terror gripped everyone gathered in the beis midrash. Their teeth chattered with dread. The only one who remained calm and composed was the Baal Shem. “I make you, demons and spirits, swear, and I decree upon you by the power of the Name derived from the verse, ‘A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; it will not approach you,’ that you be silent at once and hide from human sight. Listen to the ruling of the beis din tzedek and be ready to carry it out in full. Do not harm anyone, and do not give off a foul smell that will foul the air.” Silence fell over the beis midrash. All the strange creatures vanished from the floor and the walls. The strange figures

16:15 were no longer seen. The dayanim and the crowd breathed a sigh of relief. The beis din now conferred. A short time later, it issued a clear and decisive ruling: the evil spirits had no share in the inheritance of the goldsmith and his wife. As soon as the ruling left the dayanim’s lips, quiet weeping spread through the air. Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem turned to the evil spirits and said, “Now that you have heard the ruling, you must leave the entire house immediately, without causing anyone any harm.” Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem instructed them to recite the passage of the ketores and daven Minchah. From then on, the evil spirits disappeared and were never seen again. After the wondrous expulsion of the evil spirits, Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem of Zamość remained in Poznan for another week. Everyone—men, women and children, admirers and former opponents alike—hurried to him to ask for his blessing. Among those he healed were the leather merchant and Menashe, the son of Rabbi Shlomo Moshe, who had been stricken by their fear of the evil spirits. Rabbi Baruch Batlan, leader of the group of the Baal Shem’s chassidim in Poznan, also came, of course, to receive Rabbi Yoel’s blessing. He brought Rachel and Binyamin, the two of his nine children who had survived. Rachel later told her daughter Devorah Leah that all she remembered of her visit to Rabbi Yoel was that her father, Rabbi Baruch Batlan, had asked him to bless his two children, Rachel and Binyamin, with long lives, and the Baal Shem had indeed blessed them. Their father, Rabbi Baruch Batlan, and their mother were overjoyed, and the exceptionally long lives that Rachel and Binyamin went on to enjoy showed that Rabbi Yoel’s blessing had indeed been fulfilled. Rachel told all this to her daughter Devorah Leah while teaching her Torah and explaining why she had not taught her until then. In telling her daughter about it, Rachel explained the difference between

19:04 those who followed the way of the Kabbalists and their opponents in their approach to educating girls.