Episode 122: The Story of Shmuel Tzaddok and His Sons and Grandsons

00:01 I want to sum up the story we’re telling right now. It’s an amazing, fascinating story, all of it set in the time of the Baal Shem Tov. In 5520, the last year of the Baal Shem Tov’s life in this world, he sent his student Rabbi Moshe Meislish to the city of Lviv with two very important missions. The first was to have a hidden tzaddik named Chaim Yisroel approach Mikolski, the archbishop there—or the bishop, whatever his title was—and warn him to put an immediate stop to the decree banning the Aleinu prayer. Chaim Yisroel went to Mikolski and warned him, but Mikolski ignored the warning. Then, on Sunday, as he was leaving their church, he fell and broke an arm and a leg. While he was writhing in pain, he remembered a similar event in Kamenetz-Podolsk involving an archbishop named Dembovsky. Dembovsky had not merely issued a decree: he had collected all the Jewish books from the entire region to burn them. He made an enormous pile and invited all the non-Jews from the area to come watch the Jewish books being burned. That same Chaim Yisroel who later came to Mikolski had gone to Dembovsky. Mikolski had been there too and had heard what he said. Chaim Yisroel told Dembovsky to cancel the decree immediately or he would die. Dembovsky answered him mockingly. Then, on Sunday, as he walked toward the pile of holy books to set them alight, G-d forbid, he suffered a stroke and died on the spot. Mikolski remembered this as he writhed in pain from his broken arm and leg, and he recalled the warning

02:09 from that same Chaim Yisroel, that hidden tzaddik. He immediately sent word to cancel the decree, and it was canceled in Lviv and throughout the region. So that was Moshe Meislish’s first mission on behalf of the Baal Shem Tov. His second mission was to instruct the gaon Rabbi Chaim HaKohen Rappaport to go out to the forest near the city on a particular day in Tammuz and study four chapters of the Rambam’s Laws of Blessings there. This was an entire mission in itself, and Moshe Meislish carried it out. He went to Rabbi Chaim Rappaport, who went out to that place, sat at the precise spot the Baal Shem Tov had indicated, and studied those four chapters. While he was there, he became thirsty. People found a spring, drew water, and brought him some to drink, and he returned home. All this is a story the Alter Rebbe told his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek—a story from the final year of the Baal Shem Tov’s life in this world. The Alter Rebbe then went on to tell the rest of the story, which we’ll read here. It continues from what happened in the forest with Rabbi Chaim HaKohen Rappaport. Okay. At the beginning of Elul, about a month after Rabbi Chaim Rappaport had been in the forest, the Alter Rebbe told his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek, in the name of his teacher, the Maggid: the one who had actually heard the Baal Shem Tov tell the story of this whole matter was his student, the Maggid. He told it to the Alter Rebbe, and the Alter Rebbe was now telling it to his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek. So at the beginning of Elul, Rabbi Chaim Rappaport came to the Baal Shem Tov in Mezhibuzh. He told the Baal Shem Tov that since carrying out that mission in the forest—studying the four chapters of the Rambam’s Laws of Blessings and davening Minchah there—his eyes had, thank Hashem, been opened in Torah, and his heart had opened to the service of the Creator.

04:29 He therefore offered praise and thanks to Hashem for granting him such a great gift, opening his eyes and heart in Torah and the service of the Creator. He thanked the Baal Shem Tov for choosing him to go there and said he thought he had merited to benefit from the radiance of a holy soul. Then, while Rabbi Chaim HaKohen Rappaport was there with the other students and the Maggid of Mezritch, the Baal Shem Tov told the full story behind this extraordinary mission at the Shabbos meal. And this is what the Baal Shem Tov related: About 160 years earlier, in 5359 or 5360—let’s work that out in the secular calendar: 1599 or 1600—one of the great Torah scholars of Prague, named Shmuel Tzadok, settled in Lviv. Shmuel Tzadok had two sons: the elder, Moshe, and the younger, Yehudah Aryeh. He guided his sons in the ways of Torah through teachers who were great Torah scholars. Shmuel Tzadok himself was a student of the Maharal of Prague and an outstanding Torah scholar. But he strongly opposed the study of mussar and did not even want to read the Maharal’s writings. The Maharal’s works, as we know, were eventually published in twenty-four volumes; at that point they were still manuscripts, not yet in print, and all the Maharal’s students eagerly read and studied them. Shmuel Tzadok, however, opposed this. Instead, he leaned toward the study of secular disciplines, particularly astronomy, because he was a friend of the astronomer and engineer David Gans. Shmuel Tzadok’s teacher, the Maharal of Prague, was deeply pained by his general approach to learning and, in particular, by his inclination toward those disciplines. More than anything, Shmuel Tzadok’s opposition to the study of

07:07 mussar caused the Maharal great pain. Shmuel Tzadok was also among the leading authorities who took a lenient approach to questions of what is permitted and forbidden across all areas of Torah law. In Prague there was a large group of kabbalists, including followers of the approach of the gaon Rabbi Eliyahu, the Baal Shem of Worms, whom we already know. He was a leader in spreading the study of Kabbalah throughout Europe. Shmuel Tzadok also opposed the practices of seclusion and self-denial. He was hostile to the kabbalists and, whenever he had the chance, would insult them and make fun of their ways, mocking their practices. It became a topic of conversation everywhere, and people called him “Rabbi Shmuel Tzadok, opponent of Kabbalah and mussar.” He therefore raised his sons Moshe and Yehudah Aryeh to follow his path, turning their backs on mussar and especially on the teachings of Kabbalah, in which he did not believe. And because Shmuel Tzadok was successful in business—there is, after all, the saying that “the rich man answers boldly”—he spoke freely and at length against all the great Torah scholars who disagreed with his approach. Then something happened. One day, a neighbor of Shmuel Tzadok had a question about the appearance of a stain. Knowing that Shmuel Tzadok was one of the leading Torah scholars, they showed him what they were asking about. Shmuel Tzadok ruled that the appearance was pure. A few days later, for some reason, the woman showed it to another woman, who told her that the ruling in such a case was that it was impure. The woman who had asked was deeply shaken. She told her husband, and they went to the home of the head of the beis din and wept over what had happened. As is known, this is a very serious matter, and they asked to be given a course of teshuvah. When the Maharal heard about it, his patience ran out. He summoned Shmuel Tzadok and challenged him over his ruling. Shmuel Tzadok used his brilliance to demonstrate that the appearance was pure. The Maharal grew angry and said that this was a spark of the student who could declare the impure pure with 150 arguments. After this incident, Shmuel Tzadok left, together with his sons and their households.

09:54 their home in Prague and moved to the city of Lviv. Shmuel Tzadok was already an old man. His son Moshe devoted himself to intellectual pursuits—that is, Torah study and apparently other studies as well. Yehuda Aryeh, the younger son, handled all their business dealings. That was the situation of Shmuel Tzadok’s family after they moved to Lviv. The account continues with a description of Shmuel Tzadok’s sons. The eldest, Moshe, like his father, was drawn to the study of various disciplines and pursued them diligently. At the same time, he was an outstanding Torah scholar, with extensive knowledge of the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, the Rambam, and the Arba’ah Turim. But on every question of halachah, he tended to be lenient, especially when it came to blessings, where he was very lenient. His opposition to the study of Kabbalah and mussar was ten times stronger than that of his father, Shmuel Tzadok. A few years after his father’s passing, he also strayed from the path of Torah. He bought an estate about four parsaos from Lviv, built a house there, and lived there. Among those who visited his home were some of the leading non-Jewish scholars. Moshe would serve them wine and drink with them, descending from one level to the next until he shaved off his beard. He desecrated Shabbos and the festivals, something his wife, who feared G-d and observed the mitzvos, could not bear. From the anguish, she fell ill and died. They had no children, and after his wife died, Moshe’s conduct grew worse. He married a non-Jewish woman. Even then, not only did he not abandon Torah study, he applied himself to it with even greater diligence. He would also develop novel Torah insights and write them down, even on Shabbos and the festivals. Moshe lived on his estate for about thirty years, conducting himself as he pleased, free of all the mitzvos. Not once did he visit the

12:28 synagogue, though he studied Torah diligently. The Jews of Lviv and the surrounding area knew everything that was happening, and not one of them crossed his threshold. But if a visitor happened to come, Moshe would welcome him warmly and give him a generous donation. He would also warn him not to eat anything there, because all the food in his house was treif. If a Torah scholar happened to visit, he would delight in discussing novel Torah insights with him. And so he lived all those years: eating treif and neveilah, drinking non-kosher wine, desecrating Shabbos and the festivals, and studying Torah diligently. Let us turn to his younger brother, Yehuda Aryeh. Yehuda Aryeh was not as great a Torah scholar as his father, Shmuel Tzadok, or his brother Moshe, but he feared G-d. He studied works of mussar and associated with chassidim and men of good deeds even while they were in Prague. In particular, after they moved to Lviv, he became closely connected with chassidim and students of Kabbalah and mussar, and he guided his family along that path as well. When Yehuda Aryeh reached old age, he handed the management of his businesses over to his sons and sons-in-law. He built a synagogue in his courtyard and brought ten batlanim, among the leading Torah scholars of Lviv, to study there. He supported them and their families at his own expense and spent time with them. Yehuda Aryeh suffered greatly because of his brother Moshe’s conduct, so much so that he developed a severe heart ailment. The doctors treating him knew that his illness was caused by his deep anguish over Moshe’s conduct, and told him he needed to leave the area in order to put that anguish behind him. When Yehuda Aryeh’s sons and daughters saw that his heart ailment was growing worse, they told him he had to follow the doctors’ orders and leave his home. Yehuda Aryeh therefore decided to return to Prague, the city of his birth, and took along several of his grandchildren, the children of his sons and daughter, so they could study in Prague’s great yeshivah. And so,

14:57 in the year 5387, which is approximately 1627 by their calendar, Yehuda Aryeh moved back to Prague, the city of his birth. There he found acquaintances from his childhood, and the community welcomed him warmly and appointed him one of its leaders. After settling in Prague, Yehuda Aryeh looked into where his grandchildren should study. He decided to place two of them, Avraham Moshe and Chaim Zelig, in the care of the gaon Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller, known as the author of the Tosafos Yom Tov. This gaon, Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller, the author of the Tosafos Yom Tov, had been a student of the gaon Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem of Worms. He studied under him with tremendous diligence for about three years. When he came to Prague, he continued to study Kabbalah as Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem had instructed him, and he also followed Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem’s approach of reaching out to ordinary Jews. He educated and guided his students Avraham Moshe and Chaim Zelig—the grandchildren of Yehuda Aryeh, as we said—in this same approach. Yehuda Aryeh’s grandchildren—Avraham Moshe and Chaim Zelig, as we said—studied under their teacher, the gaon who authored the Tosafos Yom Tov, for four or five years. During that time, with their parents’ consent, Yehuda Aryeh arranged matches for them with prominent families of Prague, and they continued to study Torah diligently. We are already familiar with Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem of Worms. Now let us consider another aspect of his influence in the Prague area. Even during the lifetime of the Maharal of Prague, Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem of Worms had become well known. This was when there was fierce opposition to him, as we related earlier, from the elderly gaon Pinchas Zelig of Shper[?] and his son, the gaon Shammai Zundel, who traveled through several countries proclaiming, in his father’s name, a ban, excommunication, and cherem against the teachings

17:24 and approach of Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem of Worms. We already remember that opposition. The Maharal and his son, the gaon Rabbi Betzalel, traveled to Worms to find out for themselves what Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem was like. When the Maharal returned to Prague, he published his considered Torah opinion in Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem’s favor. From then on, the number of Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem’s students grew, both in Prague and throughout the region. By the time Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh returned to Prague from Lviv, the head of the community was Rabbi Shmuel, son of Rabbi Betzalel, the Maharal’s only son. Rabbi Shmuel had then been head of the community for about eighteen years, having been chosen to succeed Rabbi Mordechai Meisel. Rabbi Mordechai Meisel passed away in the year 5361—that is, in 1611, 1601. Rabbi Shmuel served as head of the community for about eight years during the lifetime of his grandfather, the Maharal, who passed away at the age of ninety-seven on 18 Elul 5369, 1609. Rabbi Shmuel, the Maharal’s grandson and head of the community, was very wealthy. Every year he contributed to the community fund an amount equal to the combined contributions of all the other members of the community. He also used half his income to pay the taxes of the poor in the community, who, like everyone else, were required to pay three taxes: first, the government tax; second, the city tax; and third, the community tax. Rabbi Shmuel paid these taxes on behalf of the poor. Rabbi Shmuel’s good name spread far and wide. Besides the great charity he gave in Prague, his city of residence, and to all the city’s institutions, and besides helping many individual Jews with substantial support, both openly and discreetly, Rabbi Shmuel also sent large sums to support the yeshivos in Poland and Germany, and supported the yeshivah of the gaon Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem in Worms.

19:56 With a great deal of money. When Rabbi Eliyahu of Worms moved his yeshiva to Grodno, then to Chelm, and then to Lublin, the site of the most famous yeshivas at the time, Rabbi Shmuel supported him from his own pocket with large sums. Why? Because Rabbi Shmuel had heard from his grandfather, the Maharal, that from the yeshivas of Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem, his students, and their students, light would go forth to the Jewish people. When Yehudah Aryeh arrived in Prague, he too helped support Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem’s yeshiva. And when word came in 5384 that Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem was preparing to move one of his yeshivas to Prague, Rabbi Shmuel, the head of the community, and his deputy, Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh, a community leader, sent a special messenger to Rabbi Eliyahu with a bundle of money for his and his students’ travel expenses. Even before they arrived in Prague, Rabbi Shmuel and Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh bought, at their own expense, a large courtyard with buildings so that Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem and his yeshiva could settle there comfortably. The great scholar Rabbi Lipman Heller, author of the Tosafos Yom Tov, as we mentioned earlier, entered Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem’s yeshiva to study, although he was already about fifty years old and renowned for his scholarship. Rabbi Eliyahu spoke highly of his twenty-seven outstanding students, saying that they were the twenty-seven letters with which the Torah was given and with which Hakadosh Boruch Hu created His world. As we know, there are twenty-two regular letters and five additional forms, making twenty-seven in all. Most of those twenty-seven outstanding students established yeshivas for the study of the revealed Torah—or final letters, yes, as... No, not additional forms, but final forms. Rabbi Lipman Heller also guided them in Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem’s approach, and from time to time studied

22:21 Kabbalah with them. Many of them excelled in good character traits, and day by day their yeshivas’ circles grew to include highly talented students. Among the diligent students who excelled in their studies, including the study of Kabbalah and Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem’s approach, was that young man, Avraham Moshe, the grandson of Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh, who, as we mentioned earlier, had brought him to study in these yeshivas. When the author of the Tosafos Yom Tov saw Avraham Moshe’s extraordinary diligence, his great fear of Hashem, his care in observing mitzvos in the most beautiful manner, and his intense desire to study Kabbalah, he set aside special times to study with him and deepen his understanding of Kabbalah. He studied Kabbalistic works with him and explained their profound ideas. The Pardes, by Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, made an especially powerful impression on Avraham Moshe, and he studied it so diligently that he nearly knew it by heart. Avraham Moshe continued this way for years, until he became renowned among the great scholars and Kabbalists, and Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem included him among his leading students.