Episode 149: The Alter Rebbe and the French Professor

00:01 We heard how the Alter Rebbe, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, married the daughter of Rabbi Yehuda Leib Segal, the wealthy man from Vitebsk, and solved the problem of the sundial at the prince’s home. And we continue. We also heard in the previous story how that French professor, Marseille, mocked the Talmud. His mockery was etched deep in the Alter Rebbe’s heart, and the Alter Rebbe thought about how to counter the harm caused by the French teachers’ influence on government officials, nobles, and estate owners in their attitude toward Jews and their Torah. The Alter Rebbe concluded that if Jews left behind their livelihoods in leasing, brokerage, and market trading and took up working the land, their economic position would become more secure as well. There was another professor named de Lange. Professor de Lange, who headed the faculty at the prince’s academy, heard of the Alter Rebbe’s great knowledge of astronomy and engineering. De Lange himself studied botany, but years earlier, when he was a student at the Sorbonne, a professor of mathematics and engineering had posed an engineering riddle. Ever since, whenever de Lange met engineers, he would show them the riddle as he had written it down then, and no one could solve it. When Professor de Lange heard that the son-in-law of the wealthy Segal of Vitebsk was exceptionally knowledgeable in astronomy and engineering, he traveled to Vitebsk. The arrival of the elderly botany professor made an impression on the scholars at Prince Shchinsky’s [?] academy, and they all came to greet him at the mayor’s home, where he was staying. When Professor Marseille heard why Professor de Lange had come—to seek a solution to the engineering riddle he had asked Marseille about years earlier, and which he

02:51 could not solve—and now heard that de Lange wanted the answer from Yehuda Leib Segal’s son-in-law, he took de Lange to task. He accused him of demeaning the dignity of scholars by going to hear a scientific lesson from a Jew, and a young student at that, whose knowledge was drawn from the Talmud. De Lange knew that Marseille was hostile to Jews, so he paid no attention to what he said. The mayor sent one of his officials to inform the wealthy Segal that the elderly Professor de Lange had come expressly to meet his son-in-law, who was so accomplished in engineering, and to ask when his son-in-law could receive him. But the Alter Rebbe replied that he did not want to trouble the elderly professor and would come to him himself. When they met, the professor put his question in Polish, though his papers with the figures were written in French. The Alter Rebbe studied the question, and on the third day, when the professor came to visit him at his father-in-law’s home, the Alter Rebbe solved the riddle for him. A Jew named Moshe Mendel the Frenchman, who was the bookkeeper at Yehuda Leib Segal’s business, translated the Alter Rebbe’s written solution from Hebrew into French. Professor de Lange was deeply impressed by the solution to an engineering riddle that several leading experts had labored over without success. He then spoke highly of the Alter Rebbe and praised him to all his acquaintances. This greatly helped the campaign the Alter Rebbe was conducting to organize Jews to work the land. When the Alter Rebbe came to Vitebsk to marry and live there, he continued his work of Ahavas Yisroel, drawing ordinary people close, and devoted much effort to helping Jews make a living through farming. As we related, the Alter Rebbe gave all five thousand gold coins

05:49 he had received as a dowry toward enabling Jews to work the land. He bought a tract of land and all the necessary tools. He did this because the scholars in Vitebsk had pushed ordinary people far away, believing that Torah scholars and learned Jews should be separate from the unlearned. “But I,” the Alter Rebbe said, “made a point, as far as I could, of drawing ordinary Jews close, just as I had done before.” He and his wife, Rebbetzin Sterna, lived in his father-in-law’s home. The Alter Rebbe increased his diligence in study to an extraordinary degree, and by the age of eighteen he had completed the entire Talmud with all its commentaries. He left nothing out, great or small, of the works of the Rishonim and Acharonim. He also studied Kabbalah diligently, spent a long time in prayer, and conducted himself according to the works of the holy Shelah. But the Alter Rebbe’s way of life seemed strange both to his father-in-law and to the rest of the household. To them, his conduct made him look like a madman. They told his wife, Rebbetzin Sterna, to accept a divorce from him, but she knew him and firmly refused. So they caused the Alter Rebbe and his wife much suffering and hardship. Several times they gave him no candles, and he studied by moonlight, suffering from the cold on winter nights. Several times they gave him nothing to eat. None of this moved him even a millimeter from his holy work. His wife, too, suffered greatly, accepted it all with a smile, and remained determined not to separate from him. On the first Purim after his wedding, the Alter Rebbe said, “A person is obligated to become intoxicated on Purim until he does not know.” In other words, the “intoxication” of Purim is to know the “not”—to know what is forbidden. Everyone knows how to do what is permitted. And to observe

08:36 everything properly requires understanding all the details. But when it comes to what is forbidden, one needs the knowledge to be especially careful, because the animal soul’s intellect, working through the intellectual soul, comes up with all kinds of rationalizations. So one must know the “not” very, very well. For this purpose, the Alter Rebbe established the approach of Chabad Chassidus. There was another story told by a chossid named Shlomo Lekach-Macher—apparently, he made cakes. When the Alter Rebbe came to Vitebsk as Yehuda Leib Segal’s son-in-law, his scholarship attracted many young married men. People felt it was a special privilege when the Alter Rebbe came to take part in a celebration. They called him “Reb Leibele’s son-in-law.” At such an occasion, they would honor the Alter Rebbe by asking him to present a pilpul, a detailed Talmudic analysis, and he would speak very quickly. They said he could say an enormous number of words in a single moment, all clearly and rapidly. Once, at a wedding, they asked him to present a pilpul. The Alter Rebbe gave a deep, incisive analysis, drawing fine distinctions and offering lofty lines of reasoning. He delivered it at great speed, and everyone who heard him was amazed. The Alter Rebbe then told them that the tongue is, in fact, the pen of the heart. Afterward, they asked him to sing a niggun, because when he studied or prayed, they could not tear themselves away from the sweetness of his melody. The Alter Rebbe sang a niggun for them and then said, “The tongue is indeed the pen of the heart. Song and melody are the pen of the soul.” This was one of the ideas the Alter Rebbe had already grasped before he knew that the Baal Shem Tov existed. That is, no one had yet told the Alter Rebbe about the Baal Shem Tov. Later, when he came to the Maggid of Mezritch in Mezritch, he heard from the Maggid, in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, that melody is indeed one of the paths of avodah in Chassidus. When he came to Vitebsk

11:05 For the first time, the city was full of Torah scholars and sages. Until then, the centers of Torah learning had been places like Minsk, Brisk, Polotsk, and Vilna, while Vitebsk was generally home to ordinary people. But after the expulsion, great Torah scholars settled there, and the city became full of sages and scholars. Their practice at the time was for the young married men to daven early in the morning, at what is called the time of vasikin, and then sit and learn all day. They would recite Tikkun Chatzos with a minyan, and the young men would learn throughout the night. The Alter Rebbe followed this practice for a time as well. Later, he began to daven from the siddur of the holy Shelah, according to Kabbalah. There were kabbalists in Polotsk. Rabbi Azriel of Polotsk, his father, and his grandfather were all kabbalists. They called the Alter Rebbe “the young kabbalist,” because there were many things they had to ask him, and he was still very young. Another story passed down by the elder chassidim concerns an incident from the Alter Rebbe’s younger years. In Vitebsk lived a scholar named Elisha, known as “the genius of geniuses.” He was a close friend of Rabbi Avraham Zev of Pinshkovitz, whom we have already heard was the teacher of Rabbi Avraham the scholar. Rabbi Elisha had a serious question about one of Rashi’s explanations in Tractate Eruvin. All the city’s scholars worked hard to resolve it. Each offered his own reasoning, but when the Alter Rebbe offered his, most of the scholars agreed with him. Elisha was the great-uncle of that Leib Segal whose daughter the Alter Rebbe married, and he was also among those who examined the Alter Rebbe when he was fourteen years old, when Leib Segal—his relative, the wealthy Vitebsk benefactor—wanted to arrange a match with Rabbi Baruch. Rabbi Baruch was then living on his dowry farm near the town of Liozna.

13:28 When the Alter Rebbe was six years old, he was sitting with his brother Rabbi Mordechai in the orchard, studying the verse “These are the sons of Seir the Horite, the inhabitants of the land,” with Rashi’s commentary. Rabbi Mordechai could not understand how one could tell which soil was better for growing particular fruits. The Alter Rebbe explained it to him and gave him a convincing demonstration: “You can hear the springs flowing underground,” he told his brother, “and that is how I know a strong spring runs beneath the white mound of stones.” We have already told this story in a slightly different version; now we are telling it in this version. In time, the spring broke through the white mound of stones and formed a large pool. Several years later, when an epidemic struck the livestock, as we related in an earlier story, this pool brought great blessing and benefit to all the surrounding towns. That is why it was called the White Spring, Bely Ruchek. Later, when the Alter Rebbe became Yehudah Leib Segal’s son-in-law, all the Torah scholars of Vitebsk admired him, with Elisha at their head. That was true, however, only until the incident concerning Rashi in Eruvin. When the scholars of Vitebsk agreed specifically with the Alter Rebbe’s explanation of Rashi, Rabbi Elisha was not at all pleased. Elisha, “the genius of geniuses,” understood the passage differently from Rashi, and he argued that “from the wilderness to Mattanah”—the crown of Torah is given to whoever merits it. Rashi had been a commentator in his generation, while he, Rabbi Elisha, was, as he called himself, an ascetic, a Torah scholar, and a commentator in his own generation. At that time, a chossid of the Baal Shem Tov named Rabbi Ephraim lived in Vitebsk. He was Rabbi Moshe’s brother and the uncle of the author of Pri Haaretz. Rabbi Ephraim was a great Torah scholar. He earned his living from a garden that he tended together with his children. Rabbi Ephraim was knowledgeable and sharp

15:53 in both the revealed Torah and Kabbalah, and was among the leading voices of Vitebsk’s scholars. He was known to be close to the Baal Shem Tov, and even the Baal Shem Tov’s opponents liked him for his honesty. This was the first year after the passing of the Baal Shem Tov, 5521, and Rabbi Elisha expressed his bewilderment to Rabbi Ephraim: Could his explanation really be rejected because Rashi explained it differently? After all, the Tosafos sometimes explain things differently from Rashi, and the Raavad explains things differently from the Rambam. Yet when he, Rabbi Elisha, offered an explanation different from Rashi’s, they would not accept it. Surely the Torah has seventy facets! Rabbi Ephraim, a man of truth, answered him simply: It says in the prophet Yechezkel, “And behold, a flying scroll, written on the front and on the back.” If there is a front, there is also a back. “Rashi,” Rabbi Ephraim told Rabbi Elisha, “and the Tosafos, the Rambam, and the Raavad—their explanations, reasoning, and even their twists are among the seventy facets of the Torah. But your reasoning, explanations, and twists, Rabbi Elisha, turn their back on the Torah.” The scholars of Vitebsk were cool by nature. When the Alter Rebbe arrived in Vitebsk immediately after his wedding and its scholars came to know him, they gave him the title “the young Torah scholar” or “the Torah scholar with the Shelah.” During the first months of his stay in Vitebsk, his great spiritual influence was already felt not only among the young married men, but also among the elder scholars. The Alter Rebbe’s measured avodah, filled with a flame of fire, brought renewed warmth and vitality to Torah and mitzvos. The elders who had known the Alter Rebbe from his first years in Vitebsk would tell various stories and pass on various sayings of his. Among other things, the Alter Rebbe would say then: “When you learn and daven with proper concentration during the six weekdays, Shabbos is pleasant. And when you go through the month of Elul and the days of Selichos as you should, Erev Rosh Hashanah is a sweet beginning to the year.”