Episode 125: The History of Reb Moshe, Grandson of the Maharal

00:01 We now return to the Maharal’s family. His grandson, Rabbi Moishe, was in fact the grandfather of the Alter Rebbe, the founder of Chabad Chassidus, and we are now learning more about Rabbi Moishe himself. Rabbi Moishe had a distinguished standing of his own, beyond being a descendant of the Maharal of Prague. The Jewish world knew of his many merits as someone who had sanctified Hashem’s name. Since the time of the Maharal, and even before, Jews in Catholic countries had suffered terribly because of the popes in Rome. Local rulers and priests, too, often mistreated them. To understand the hardships Rabbi Moishe endured at the hands of Catholic authorities, and what forced him to leave the city of Poznań, we need to go back several generations and look at the general situation of Jews under the decrees issued by the popes in Rome to oppress them. In the year 5309, that is, around 1669, Pope Pius V decreed the expulsion of all Jews from the territories under his authority. Jews were permitted to remain only in Rome and Ancona. His successor, Gregory XIII, who became pope after Pius V died in 5332, that is, 1672, allowed Jews to return to their former homes, but imposed harsher decrees concerning Torah study and the observance of mitzvos. Particularly difficult was the decree requiring Jews to come on Shabbos and Yom Tov to hear sermons by priests in places set aside for that purpose. During the twelve years Gregory occupied the papal throne, he devised various ways to force Jews to listen to the priests, hoping that this would make it easier to persuade them to convert. This was especially hard for Jews in small towns and villages, whose small numbers made it impossible for them to evade the priests. The popes who followed Gregory did not insist as strongly on enforcing the decree requiring Jews to attend the priests’ sermons. On the other hand, they gave

03:08 priests a free hand to come among the Jews and tell them about their religion. They delivered especially frequent sermons urging conversion on Christian holidays. Then, suddenly, a new order came from the Vatican. Under this order, senior priests in every country were to arrange public debates from time to time between representatives of the Church and the Jews. These debates could endanger lives, because their character and conduct depended on the particular rulers and priests involved. In Poznań, while Rabbi Moishe served as head of the community, the head of the Catholic Church there was an enemy of the Jews and made Rabbi Moishe’s life miserable. The debates organized in Poznań were directed by Prince Maximilian, who ruled the region. They became a pretext for malicious accusations and incitement, eventually forcing Rabbi Moishe to resign as leader of the community. Poznań itself was renowned for its Jewish scholars. All the Jews there aspired and worked to have sons who were Torah scholars. The gaon Rabbi Yehuda Leib, Rabbi Moishe’s father, who served as head of the city’s beis din, entrusted his son to the finest teachers. Later, he sent him to yeshivos whose heads were outstanding teachers. With his exceptional abilities, Rabbi Moishe excelled in his studies and surpassed all his peers. In general, Rabbi Moishe had many fine qualities: intelligence, moderation, and sound judgment. Even as a very young child, he behaved like an adult. He never lost his temper and never cried. Even when he was hurt while playing, he did not come crying and complaining as children usually do. Nor did he often complain of headaches or stomachaches or demand attention. When Moishe was three, he was sent to cheder. When he grew older, he was sent to Padua, Italy, a center of Torah learning, where he also advanced his secular studies. All that time, he did not waste a single moment. He was always occupied with Torah studies or, to distinguish, secular studies. After Rabbi Moishe married,

06:01 he went into business, while continuing to study a great deal of Torah and various sciences. He was especially fond of the natural sciences and history. He could also speak and read many languages fluently: French, Italian, German, Greek, and Latin. From his grandfather, Rabbi Shmuel, a grandson of the Maharal, he inherited a discerning eye and expertise in jewelry and goldsmithing. Rabbi Moishe traveled to various countries for his business, and wherever he went, he visited libraries and examined their ancient manuscripts. His knowledge of languages enabled him to establish good connections and acquire books, in addition to those he had inherited from his father and grandfather. His library thus became one of the largest and richest. In 5475, after the Catholic priests intensified their pressure and oppression against the Jews of Poznań, he resigned, as mentioned, from his position as head of the community. Later, after consulting his family, he decided to leave Poznań altogether. Rabbi Moishe was careful not to let anyone suspect that he intended to leave. It was said that he was going on business trips. In fact, he planned to move his property gradually to another country and have his family follow him. His possessions included gold objects, diamonds, valuable antiques, a large sum of cash, and promissory notes from noblemen with whom he did business. Over a period of more than half a year, Rabbi Moishe managed to move the bulk of his property and his books out of the country. He first traveled to Prague, where many of his relatives, descendants of the Maharal, lived. Later, his family joined him, and they moved to Poland, eventually settling in Minsk. When Reb Moishe left Prague, he visited Padua, Italy, where he had spent his youth studying Torah and other branches of knowledge. While in Padua, he visited its various yeshivos and engaged in Torah discussions there. He also found himself in debates with scholars among the Jews of Italy who had begun studying Kabbalah, since Reb Moishe was strongly opposed to the study of Kabbalah. From Padua,

08:50 Reb Moishe traveled to other cities in Italy until he reached Rome, where he also visited the Vatican Library. He greatly impressed the library’s director, with whom he spoke at length about various sciences throughout his visits there. The director spoke admiringly of Reb Moishe to the cardinals, and several of them expressed a desire to speak with this remarkable Jew. The director introduced them, and they held lengthy conversations, mainly about Judaism. The cardinals proposed that Reb Moishe hold a public debate with them. Reb Moishe stated his first condition: the icons and statues had to be removed from the walls of the hall where the debate would take place, and the cardinals had to take off their crosses. They became very angry at what they saw as an insult to the Church and its leaders and threatened Reb Moishe in various ways, but he stood firm. Reb Moishe explained that, according to halachah, he was forbidden to show respect to the statues and crosses, and therefore could not conduct a free debate with them before his eyes. Reluctantly, the cardinals agreed to his conditions. The debate between Reb Moishe, former head of the Poznań community, and the cardinals at the Vatican finally took place on his terms. Throughout the debate, the cardinals wore no crosses on their chests, and no crosses or statues were visible on the walls of the hall. On one side were more than thirty cardinals and senior Catholic figures from the Vatican. Reb Moishe stood on the other. Twelve of the thirty were well-known scholars of science. In principle, the rules and procedures of the debate were supposed to give both sides full equality. Reb Moishe had demanded this, and the cardinals had agreed, though with obvious reluctance. Reb Moishe demanded that the debate address not only the Jewish religion, but also, to distinguish,

11:17 about the Christian religion. He also demanded that the debate be conducted in both languages, the Holy Tongue and Latin. The cardinals rejected this demand for the simple reason that only a few of them knew the Holy Tongue. The very fact that he, a Jew, knew their language while they did not know his was uncomfortable for them, and it highlighted the Jew’s superiority. Nevertheless, they refused to accept Reb Moshe’s demand. The debate opened in a hall in one of the Vatican palaces, before a large audience. In addition to the participants in the debate—thirty cardinals on one side and Reb Moshe on the other—a chairman, a secretary, and a panel of judges were chosen to assess the arguments of both sides and determine the outcome [unclear]. The first point up for discussion was the place of faith in human life. The Catholic representative went first, delivering a lengthy address on the subject. When Rabbi Moshe’s turn came, he said that before addressing the substance of the debate, he had to protest the violation of the principle of equality between the sides. And, as we said, in fluent Italian, Moshe began to detail the ways in which this inequality was evident. First, they had set a group of thirty people against him, a single individual. Second, the other side had given itself the right to speak first, when Judaism should have had the first turn because it is older and because Christianity professes to be based on Judaism. Another expression of the inequality was the other side’s refusal to agree that the debate be conducted in two languages. If the debaters on the other side did not know the Holy Tongue, an interpreter could be provided. In conclusion, Reb Moshe said, there is a blatant inequality and injustice here, a situation that gives one side an enormous advantage and reduces the other side’s chances of winning. These words of Rabbi Moshe’s thoroughly embarrassed the Catholics. Some of them expressed outrage and fury, arguing that the Jew should be punished for his audacity. The more moderate among them

13:37 admitted that Rabbi Moshe was right. In any case, the debate session was halted and postponed indefinitely until a decision could be made about how to conduct it. The atmosphere in the Vatican toward Rabbi Moshe was hostile and tense. Even if some of the cardinals and Vatican officials privately thought Rabbi Moshe was right and even felt sympathy for him, they could not show any sign of it outwardly, of course. Among Rabbi Moshe’s secret supporters was the cardinal in charge of the Vatican library. As we related, Moshe had developed a good relationship with him, and it was he who had praised Rabbi Moshe to the cardinals, setting this whole debate in motion. It became clear that although the stated intention was supposedly an academic confrontation between spiritual forces, behind the idea lay a plot to publicly disgrace and humiliate the Jewish religion. These developments caused the cardinal who oversaw the library great distress. As though to compensate Rabbi Moshe for the suffering caused him, he welcomed him even more warmly during his visits to the library. On those visits, Rabbi Moshe continued all the while to search for and examine various manuscripts. By expressing his esteem for Rabbi Moshe, the librarian also wanted to make amends for the fact that it was because of him that Rabbi Moshe had been drawn into the dangerous entanglement of the debate. At the same time, something else troubled Rabbi Moshe. When he delivered his speech during the debate—the speech that had, in fact, brought the debate to a halt—Moshe noticed a face among the listeners that caught his attention because, in his judgment, it was the face of a Jew. It was a young man sitting among the Vatican’s distinguished guests. Moshe did not have a chance to look closely at the man’s face, but it was clear to him that his words had made an impression on him. Moshe wondered how a young Jew had come to be among the Vatican dignitaries. What was he doing there? After

16:19 the session, the young man disappeared, and all Reb Moshe’s questions about his identity were met with vague, evasive answers. Reb Moshe decided to ask the librarian, but the librarian told him that, unfortunately, he could not provide the details he wanted, since the whole matter was a closely guarded secret. Naturally, that answer only increased Reb Moshe’s curiosity. A few days later, however, the cardinal from the library approached Reb Moshe and told him that he had decided to tell him after all. This is what he related: The young man was highly intelligent and learned, and came from Poland. He had gone to Venice to study astronomy and had also become interested in the history and development of various religions, attending lectures on the subject. The professor who taught the course at the University of Venice advised him to travel to Rome and study the various religions at the Vatican, where, he said, he could advance his studies to a particularly high level. The professor’s real intention, however, was to push the gifted young Jew into the clutches of the Catholic soul-hunters at the Vatican. Apparently unaware of the danger, the young Jew accepted the professor’s advice. He had now been there for about half a year, diligently studying religions. As Reb Moshe learned, the young man had initially been meticulous in observing the mitzvos, great and small. But the priests’ influence over him kept growing, and little by little he began to give up observing various mitzvos, though he still kept kosher and observed Shabbos. His teachers hoped that the day was not far off when he would convert to Christianity altogether. May Hashem protect us. Until that goal was achieved, they kept the details about the young man a closely guarded secret, fearing that a Jew might learn of the matter and try to rescue him from the trap laid for him. To them, this young Jew was a prize catch for their desire to convert him to their religion. As soon as

18:40 Reb Moshe heard the story, he felt that he had been given the opportunity to save a Jewish soul from destruction. Until now, Reb Moshe had been filled with sorrow and regret that he had ever come to the Vatican library, setting the whole matter of the debate in motion. Now he understood that Divine Providence had arranged these events for one purpose: to save the young Jew from conversion. Reb Moshe gave praise and thanks to Hashem for granting him such a great opportunity to fulfill the mitzvah of saving a life, and he immediately began thinking deeply about how to extract the learned young man from the trap he was in. After all, he had not even met him. He had no connection to him and no way to reach him. And, he asked himself, who knew whether he could persuade the young man, who stood on the threshold of the gates of impurity? The matter also depended on what the cardinals decided about continuing the debate. Several days passed, and Reb Moshe received word that the Vatican had decided to hold the debate in two weeks. This time, the debate would be between Reb Moshe and just one Vatican representative. The two debaters would choose a third person to serve as judge and decide between them. All this was meant to demonstrate the Vatican’s desire for fairness and equality in the debate. With free time remaining before the debate, Reb Moshe asked his friend the librarian to arrange a meeting with the young Jew who was in danger of conversion, G-d forbid.