Episode 129: Moshe's Ties with the Hidden Chassidim and with His Grandchildren

00:00 We continue with the life of the Maharal of Prague. His grandson, or perhaps his great-grandson, Rabbi Moshe, as we have mentioned several times, was a prominent communal activist. Among other things, he went to the Vatican, where he had all the adventures we have described, including his meeting with Gedalia Moshe Gordon and the remarkable story of Avraham the convert, who had been the monk de Laciata. After that episode, Rabbi Moshe founded a special association devoted to explaining Judaism. He placed Gedalia Moshe Gordon at its head. Gordon had been offered a professorship at the Sorbonne University in Paris, but turned it down so that he could serve the needs of the Jewish people. Moshe felt duty-bound to help him in this work, not only because he wanted it to succeed, but also out of a personal sense of responsibility toward the young man whom he himself had brought back to Judaism when he stood on the brink of conversion. For this reason, Moshe remained in London for an extended period, laying the groundwork for the association headed by Professor Gordon. Gordon, for his part, settled in London for this purpose, and Jewish leaders in a number of countries immediately recognized the association’s importance. Moshe and Gedalia Moshe Gordon were both pleasantly surprised to receive a letter from Avraham the convert, the former Christian cleric de Laciata whom we told you about. In it, Avraham congratulated them on founding the association and said that he himself was working energetically to spread the Jewish faith as best he could, despite his advanced age and poor health. He told people his life story, the prominent position he had held in the Christian Church and his debates with Jews, until he came to recognize the truth of Judaism. He also told them that he had dared to declare that conviction to the Pope himself. It is quite possible that Moshe would have

02:50 devoted himself entirely to the association’s work of strengthening and spreading the Jewish faith, but he began receiving worrying letters from his family in Poznań. Catholic persecution of the Jews was intensifying, and Jews began fleeing the city. One day, a pogrom was carried out against the Jews of Poznań, just as their rabbi had warned them, and the exodus from the city grew many times over. Moshe’s family moved to Prague, where he had established a means of livelihood long before. Moshe also traveled to Prague to join them and resumed his extensive business dealings, as always, with the help of his sons and sons-in-law. Only his youngest son, Rabbi Schneur Zalman, the gaon, did not want to go into business and devoted himself to teaching. Moshe felt, however, that Prague was not an ideal refuge for his large family either, and decided to travel to Poland to look for a suitable place for them to settle. After extensive travels and a long search, he concluded that Minsk was the right city to move the entire family to. At first, though, he had considered making Krakow his home. He liked the city because of its distinctly Torah-oriented character and its particular communal arrangements. The Jews of Krakow were organized into associations by occupation, so that they could strengthen one another in Torah study and proper observance of the mitzvos. There were associations of fur merchants, wool merchants, timber merchants and grain merchants, as well as craftsmen grouped by trade. Each association was headed by a communal leader whose role was to oversee its members’ Torah study and mitzvah observance. Moshe was deeply impressed by the fact that every Jew in the city, rich or poor, made every effort to have his daughter marry a Torah scholar. As a result, the city was full of young Torah scholars who sat and studied throughout the years they lived at their fathers-in-law’s tables. Krakow was truly a center of Torah, and Moshe was greatly impressed by it,

05:40 but in the end he decided not to settle there. Why? He discovered that the city’s Jews and scholars also studied Kabbalah. Since, as we already know, Moshe was strongly opposed to the study of Kabbalah, he preferred to settle in Minsk. It, too, was a city of Torah, but Kabbalah was not studied there. His whole family moved with him to Minsk except for his son Schneur Zalman, who, as we related, moved to Vitebsk because most of his students’ parents had moved there. Thus Moshe’s family was split between the two cities. In Minsk, Moshe stopped involving himself in communal affairs. He devoted his free time to Torah study and, separately, to furthering his knowledge of the sciences, especially by learning additional languages. This made him unusual in Minsk. The city had outstanding Torah scholars, but no one there was also knowledgeable in the sciences. The residents and scholars of Minsk admired Moshe not only for his Torah greatness and his distinguished lineage as a descendant of the Maharal of Prague, but also for his broad scientific knowledge. Even so, Moshe could not find anyone in Minsk with whom he could also discuss general intellectual matters. At first, this caused him pain and dissatisfaction. He felt lonely and out of place despite living in a city of Torah and Jewish life, a major Jewish center like Minsk. So Moshe traveled abroad frequently, to countries such as Italy, France and England. The trips were generally connected to his business, but an even stronger reason for making them was his need to meet educated Jews and discuss scientific subjects with them. His frequent travels also enabled him to acquire books and manuscripts that interested him greatly and gave him much satisfaction. Moshe also used his trips abroad to meet with Professor Gordon, who had meanwhile moved his residence to Minsk and had become very well known.

08:18 Even between visits, they corresponded frequently, and their bond remained very strong. Rabbi Moshe greatly valued beauty, which he regarded as having a place in Torah, based on the teaching, “Beautify yourself before Him through mitzvos.” He even considered beautiful handwriting valuable. He said that not only should what was written be beautiful, but the script should be as well. A fine manuscript was worth a great deal to him. Another reason for his appreciation of beauty was that he dealt in decorative objects and antique works of art. Rabbi Moshe was also an artist by nature. Moshe’s home in Minsk naturally became a gathering place for scholars. Besides his scholarship and knowledge, he was wealthy and a generous giver of tzedakah, so many people came to visit him from near and far. Moshe welcomed them all warmly and was especially attentive to the poor and needy, encouraging them. Moshe’s wife was herself a generous giver of tzedakah and was especially devoted to meeting the needs of poor yeshiva students. Fifteen to twenty yeshiva students ate at her home every day, and more came on Shabbos and Yom Tov. Rabbi Moshe and his wife employed people specifically to help with this. When Moshe reached the age of seventy-five, he stopped traveling abroad. Over time, he grew accustomed to life in Minsk. Still, it pained him that the hidden chassidim in the city, secret disciples of Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem Tov, had begun to look on him unfavorably and even distance themselves from him. Minsk was, in fact, a city of misnagdim, and Moshe lived in peace and friendship with most of its residents and scholars, who were, of course, opposed to the study of Kabbalah, as we know. His scholarship and good deeds endeared him to everyone. At first, the hidden chassidim, led by Moshe Nissan the teacher and Avraham Abba the doctor, had also befriended him. These men

10:58 And their companions were the Baal Shem Tov’s secret shluchim in Minsk, carrying out various secret missions in the city and its surroundings. From time to time, they were also assigned missions on the Baal Shem Tov’s behalf elsewhere. In those cases, they would disappear from the city for a while and return later. Only a select few knew about their activities and their ties to the Baal Shem Tov. At the same time, everyone knew them as Torah scholars, G-d-fearing men of good character. Naturally, they were initially friendly with Moshe, especially after learning that he was descended from the Maharal of Prague. The Maharal of Prague was revered by the hidden Kabbalists and the Baal Shem Tov’s disciples. Everyone knew that the Baal Shem Tov held the Maharal in great esteem, and at his instruction the chassidim studied the Maharal’s books. This gave the hidden chassidim of Minsk, led by Rabbi Moshe Nissan and Rabbi Avraham Abba, another reason to strengthen their friendship with Rabbi Moshe. They often visited his home and discussed Torah with him. They hoped to learn from his conversations what he thought of Kabbalah and its ways, and secretly hoped to discover that Rabbi Moshe himself belonged to the circle of hidden Kabbalists. But the truth, as we know, was that Moshe opposed Kabbalah. He avoided expressing his views on the subject, so the chassidim’s efforts to discover his position were unsuccessful. After a long time and much effort, however, they learned to their bitter disappointment that Moshe was utterly opposed to the study of Kabbalah. In his view, there was a danger that those who studied it would be influenced by remnants of the Shabbetai Tzvi sect. Naturally, the chassidim, who had been guided by the Baal Shem Tov along a very different path, were pained and saddened by Moshe’s opposition to the study of Kabbalah, especially since they knew he was a disciple of the Maharal of Prague. Slowly, though

13:25 steadily, they began to distance themselves from Rabbi Moshe. In time, they stopped coming to his home or maintaining any contact with him. Some of the chassidim whose sons, yeshivah students, ate at Rabbi Moshe’s table instructed them to stop dining there, for fear that his views would influence them. And so, after a while, Rabbi Moshe realized, much to his sorrow, that a fairly large group of his friends and visitors were distancing themselves from him. The elderly, learned scholar was deeply saddened. Now let us look at Rabbi Moshe’s relationship with his grandchildren, Baruch and Devorah Leah—or Devorah Leah and Baruch—the children of Schneur Zalman and Rachel. Schneur Zalman, as we know, was Rabbi Moshe’s son. Many must have wondered at the estrangement between Moshe, the former head of the Poznań community who now held a respected position in Minsk, and his grandchildren Devorah Leah and Baruch, the children of Schneur Zalman and Rachel. Their distance from him was especially puzzling because both grandchildren had lost their father and mother while still young. It was not that their grandfather Moshe was unwilling to take them in. We know that Schneur Zalman did not want to go into business as his brothers had. He preferred to work as a teacher. As a result, while his father and the rest of the family lived in Minsk, he moved with his children to Vitebsk. There he lived a life of suffering and eventually passed away, as did his learned wife, Rachel. Devorah Leah, who had been raised by her mother and influenced by her father as well, wanted from the outset to support herself through her own work. As we already know, she began sewing in her early youth. That alone could have been reason enough for her not to travel to her grandfather Moshe’s home in Minsk after her father’s passing. Her grandfather hoped to raise her and provide for all her needs, and, when the time came, to arrange her marriage and support her

15:58 and her future husband at his table. Even when Devorah Leah moved into her uncle and aunt’s home in Vitebsk, she made it a condition that she would continue sewing and cover her living expenses with her earnings. She did so until she married Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, the prodigy from Shari[?], and afterward as well. Another reason Devorah Leah did not want to leave Vitebsk was her wish to remain where her parents were buried, so she could visit the cemetery often and pray at their graves. Her younger brother Baruch—who would become the father of Rabbi Schneur Zalman, author of the Tanya and founder of Chabad Chassidus—left Vitebsk as a young boy, shortly after their parents’ passing. He too resolved to follow his own path, devote himself to Torah and the service of Hashem, and live simply on what he earned by his own labor. Baruch even kept his distance from his sister and did not see her, including when his travels brought him to Vitebsk. For the same reason, he avoided visiting Minsk: he did not want to meet his grandfather and then feel obliged, as it were, to benefit from his wealth. In addition, Baruch was searching for a path and an approach to Judaism and the service of the Creator that he wanted to find for himself. He therefore feared that, if they met, his grandfather Moshe would try to persuade him to follow his own path. So the grandchildren grew distant from their distinguished grandfather. They hardly knew him and knew little of his stature. Only later did they begin to learn of Rabbi Moshe’s standing in Minsk. But Devorah Leah and Baruch each had their own reasons to question whether they should draw closer to their grandfather, Rabbi Moshe. Devorah Leah first heard details about her grandfather and his importance from the man she was destined to marry, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, the prodigy from Shari[?]. The prodigy from Shari[?], as we know, was a hidden chossid, a disciple and admirer of the Baal Shem Tov. He had come to Vitebsk from Minsk, the city where

18:38 he had grown up, and he knew Rabbi Moshe well. Yet while he was in Minsk, it never occurred to him that he would one day be matched with Rabbi Moshe’s granddaughter—and at whose instruction? At the instruction of the Baal Shem Tov himself. As we recall, the hidden chassidim in Minsk, including Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, were initially friendly with Rabbi Moshe. They hoped that, because he was descended from the Maharal of Prague, whom the chassidim revered, he would be close to the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings. But as we have already learned, when they discovered that Rabbi Moshe opposed the study of Kabbalah, they gradually began to distance themselves from him. Devorah Leah, who shared her husband’s admiration for the Baal Shem Tov and followed his ways, felt an inner resistance toward her grandfather. There were even moments when she feared that her husband might see her being the granddaughter of someone so opposed to the study of Kabbalah as a fault. In any event, even after she married Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, she had no desire to get to know her grandfather in Minsk.