Episode 118: The Discovery of the Prodigy of Seltz, Who Would Later Become the Gaon of Vilna

00:01 In the story we are about to tell, we want to describe something of the general situation of the Jews of Poland, Lithuania, and the surrounding region. It was against this backdrop that the Chassidic movement and the hidden tzaddikim emerged—and, sadly, so did the movement opposing Chassidus. Through these stories we will also learn about the life of the gaon Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna, known as the Vilna Gaon, whom the opponents of Chassidus unfortunately enlisted in their cause. So, to understand the background, we will tell the following story. The Jews of Poland at that time were not badly off. Materially, they were in a very good position. They faced no interference in spiritual matters either, not from the government or from the general population; everyone treated them well. But the ill winds blowing from Rome—the same forces that had brought the scourge of the Inquisition to Spain and Portugal—reached Poland and Lithuania too, and the priests began to assert themselves. The rabbis and Jewish leaders began discussing how to meet the anticipated danger and decided to create a central body that would unite all the communities and work to protect the Jews both spiritually and materially. Until then, each community had relied on the services of various advocates, some officially appointed and some not. The advocates were not always successful, and informers also multiplied, causing the communities terrible trouble. Every concession the advocates secured involved large bribes. Sigismund I was king of Poland at the time. When he ascended the throne, the government’s finances were in dire straits. Expenses were enormous, while revenues were scarcely coming in. The Jews were the only ones who paid their taxes on time. The rest of the population made arrangements with the tax collectors through bribes. The Jews’ upright conduct earned King Sigismund’s respect. He summoned their leaders and promised that no harm would come to them. But this only intensified the incitement

02:56 by the priests and various politicians, who began demanding that the Jews be expelled from Poland, as they had been from Spain and Portugal. Those spreading the accusations also circulated various false allegations about the Jews, arguing that expelling them would allow their property to be confiscated and thus fill the government’s empty coffers. Against this backdrop, a struggle broke out between the king and his advisers and priests, who pressed him constantly to issue decrees against the Jews and impose heavy taxes on them. The community leaders called a large assembly of representatives from all the communities to prepare the Jews for the danger facing them. At that assembly, they decided to establish a united council of the Jews of Poland and Lithuania to defend the rights of the Jews in both lands, which were under a single government. A small team was formed and immediately began working to obtain a license and government recognition for the united representative body. In the year 5280, King Sigismund permitted the Jews to establish a representative body elected by all the Jewish communities throughout the kingdom. This body was granted full authority over matters concerning Judaism and Jews, and the Jews thus gained autonomy in practice in Poland and Lithuania. A special large assembly created the means to put that autonomy into effect. The new representative body was called the Council of the Lands and was given oversight of all the spiritual and economic affairs of the Jews of those lands. The Council of the Lands was based in Krakow. Its general assemblies were held at the places and times of the great fairs, where community leaders and rabbis gathered. This continued for 103 years, and in the year 5293—apparently corresponding to 1533—the leading Torah scholars of Brisk, Vilna, Grodno, Slutsk, and Pinsk convened and concluded that, since the Council of the Lands could not address the problems and needs of every community, a separate council should be created for the communities of Lithuania. This council was very successful in its work and existed for about a hundred years. Through its efforts, large yeshivos were established in a number of

05:41 Lithuanian cities, such as Vitebsk, Beshankovitz [?], Polotsk, and Minsk. Minsk was already a center of Torah learning at the time. Its influence grew with the founding of the new yeshivos, since the Torah scholars of Minsk taught in them. Because this would bring more visitors to Vitebsk, a hospitality building was established there, with both storage facilities and a dining hall for guests. Special rooms were set aside in it for visiting Torah scholars. In Minsk too, it was decided to establish a similar hospitality building, with particular attention given to learned guests, who were received with the respect due to them. One reason for that decision was a certain incident involving a young man who, as it later emerged, would become the Vilna Gaon. In any case, the establishment of the Lithuanian council helped turn Lithuania into a place of Torah learning, chiefly by founding yeshivos in its cities and towns. This new Lithuanian council recognized that the yeshiva had been a firm foundation of Jewish life throughout the generations and was the only way to educate young people in Torah. Therefore, every community of fifty families or more made an effort to support a yeshiva. It was stipulated that a portion of all community revenues be set aside to support its students. Whenever an opportunity arose—at a bris, a bar mitzvah celebration, a wedding, a birth, or a funeral—funds were collected for the yeshiva. Fifty of these families also undertook to feed at least three students from nearby settlements. The students ate their meals in host families’ homes, and from this developed the well-known practice of “eating days,” meaning taking turns eating in different homes: particular days were assigned to each student on which he would dine in one home or another. The women of those households were charged with ensuring that the yeshiva students were served good, satisfying food. The women themselves sometimes went hungry so the young men could eat well. The arrangement among the families was that a student ate four weekdays in one home and two weekdays and Shabbos in another.

08:33 The hosts generally treated the young men with affection, as though they were their own children, and in this way a love of Torah was planted in the hearts of Jews, men and women alike. This also influenced the young: children saw the special regard their parents had for the yeshiva students, and as a result, they too were filled with a desire to study Torah and developed an affection for Torah scholars. It was also decided at the time that each yeshiva student would be entrusted with two local children, whom he would educate in Torah and good character. And in the yeshivos themselves, the students learned not only Torah but also yiras Shamayim and good character. One of the leading yeshiva figures of that time was the gaon Rabbi Yechiel Halperin of Slutsk. He founded a yeshiva made up of outstanding students, and it earned a fine reputation. The leading Torah scholars of Minsk were envious of Slutsk and decided to invite Rabbi Halperin to their city, not only to head all its yeshivos but also to serve as head of its beis din. In honor of Rabbi Yechiel Halperin’s arrival in Minsk to serve as their rabbi and head of the yeshivos, the Minsk community held a great celebration. The leaders of the Council of the Lands and representatives of all the important communities in Poland and Lithuania were invited. The gathering of these Torah giants also drew hundreds of householders to Minsk from near and far. The celebrations honoring the Torah and Rabbi Yechiel’s appointment lasted seven days. Throughout that time, Rabbi Yechiel delivered intricate Torah discourses that amazed his listeners. The people of Minsk received their many distinguished guests with great honor. Three committees saw to all the visitors’ needs and provided them with respectable accommodations. The addresses by the leading Torah scholars reflected the two approaches that then divided the world of Torah study: the method of pilpul, spread in Poland by the gaon Rabbi Yaakov Pollak, the former rabbi of Prague, and the method of logical reasoning, spread by the gaon Rabbi Shalom Shachna

11:13 From Lublin. Rabbi Yechiel Halperin himself used to deliver a special pilpul twice a year, once in winter and once in summer, to a select few. Being permitted to attend was taken as recognition of one’s brilliance. Now, one day before Rabbi Yechiel was due to deliver his semiannual lesson, a young boy of fifteen arrived at the beis midrash. He had come to the city with a group of wandering beggars who traveled from town to town, and like the others, he stayed at the public lodging house set aside for them. When the young boy learned that Rabbi Yechiel would deliver his pilpul the next day, he asked to be allowed into the lesson. Of course, his request was refused, with astonishment that he had even asked. The boy pleaded to be allowed at least to stand in a far corner. Well, even that was denied him. Nevertheless, he found a way to slip into the beis midrash and hide behind the stove, where he listened to the Torah discussion. In his teaching, Rabbi Yechiel Halperin raised two enormous contradictions in the Gemara. Through a lengthy, incisive pilpul, he tried to suggest possible ways of resolving them, but rejected each solution in turn, and in the end the contradictions remained unresolved. The next day, this unknown young boy wrote brief answers to those contradictions and gave them to Rabbi Moshe, Rabbi Yechiel’s son, who was a brilliant scholar in his own right. Then the boy disappeared from the beis midrash. Before Reb Moshe, Rabbi Yechiel Halperin’s son, had a chance to examine the note the boy had given him, a merchant from Vilna who was passing through Minsk entered the beis midrash. Breathlessly, he told them that on his way in he had seen the famous prodigy from Seltz leaving the beis midrash—that was how the Vilna Gaon was known in his youth. He had wanted to stop him, but the boy had slipped away. Reb Moshe, Rabbi Yechiel Halperin’s son, realized that this was the same boy who had given him

13:42 the answers to his father’s contradictions, and immediately showed the note to his father. Both were amazed by the brilliance it revealed. It was clear to everyone that the prodigy from Seltz, who later became famous as the Vilna Gaon, had indeed been there. They immediately began searching for him throughout Minsk, in the batei midrash and the lodging houses, but he was nowhere to be found. They learned that he had left the city with a group of beggars heading toward Brisk. The great Rabbi Yechiel ordered a carriage to be harnessed, and he and his son Reb Moshe set out on the road to Brisk to catch up with the young prodigy from Seltz. Around noon, deep in the forest, they came upon the beggars sitting on the grass and eating their meager bread. The young prodigy was not among them. The beggars told them that the boy traveled with their group, but whenever they sat down to rest and eat, he would go off by himself and return only when they were ready to continue. They did not know why, nor had they asked. “Besides, he hardly ever speaks,” they said, “so no one really talks to him.” Rabbi Yechiel and his son Moshe went deeper into the forest to look for him. From a distance they saw something that deeply impressed them and filled them with awe. The young prodigy was sitting on an anthill. Ants crawled over his body and bit his skin. His eyes were closed, and he was quietly speaking words of Torah. Rabbi Yechiel wanted to attract the boy’s attention, so he began walking on broken branches to make a noise. The boy opened his eyes and, to his great astonishment, saw who was standing before him. He realized that his secret had been discovered. Rabbi Yechiel then insisted that he return with him to Minsk, while the prodigy from Seltz pleaded with him to leave him alone and let him continue on his own path. An argument developed between them, and in the end the Vilna Gaon had to

16:05 give in and return to Minsk, where a grand welcome awaited him. The prodigy from Seltz was very distressed by this new turn of events. He regretted answering Rabbi Yechiel’s questions and thereby revealing his identity. They would no longer let him stay at the public lodging house, either: they had prepared a fine apartment and new clothes for him. In the middle of the night, he locked the door and climbed out through the window. So when the community leaders came the next morning to invite him to join them for the first minyan, the door was locked. They thought he was asleep and waited outside for him to wake up. When a considerable time had passed and he had not emerged, they knocked once, twice, and a third time. One of them went to look through the window, and they discovered that the prodigy from Seltz was no longer there. All this time, the city’s dignitaries and leading Torah scholars, headed by Rabbi Yechiel, had been waiting in the beis midrash to honor the prodigy from Seltz as he deserved. Then the delegation sent to bring him returned and reported that he had disappeared. This made a great impression on those present, and from then on a rule was established to check travelers carefully in case there was a Torah scholar among them who deserved honor. The new rabbi of Minsk, the great Rabbi Yechiel Halperin, called a special meeting of the city’s leading Torah scholars. At that meeting, they decided to send a delegation of the city’s foremost scholars to Vilna to visit the prodigy from Seltz and honor him properly. The delegation consisted of three men, among them Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, that prodigy from Shary[?], son of Rabbi Yaakov Karpil. Rabbi Yaakov Karpil, as we recall, was the former ignoramus who had become a hidden tzaddik and a chossid of the Baal Shem Tov. The three-man delegation arrived in Vilna, but the prodigy from Seltz had still not returned from his travels. They stayed in Vilna a while longer, hoping he would arrive in the meantime, but

18:39 he was nowhere in sight. There was no point in waiting any longer, and the disappointed members of the delegation returned to Minsk. For Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, the disappointment was greater still. It was as though his heart told him that the prodigy from Seltz would later become a fierce opponent of the path of his teacher, the Baal Shem Tov—something that might have been prevented had he met him. Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, the uncle of the future founder of Chabad Chassidus, was already deeply steeped in Chassidus, as we recall, though he kept it secret.