Episode 152: The Alter Rebbe Visits the City of Shklov on a Mission from the Maggid

00:00 The life of the Alter Rebbe. In the year 5530, around 1770 by their calendar, great unrest arose among the opponents of Chassidus. Irresponsible people brought slander before the Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna, claiming that the Maggid and his students did not follow the way of the Torah. Witnesses whom Rabbi Eliyahu considered trustworthy testified to this. They swore that they had seen with their own eyes chassidim eating meat and drinking wine on Tisha B’Av. They simply neglected to mention that it was Tisha B’Av that fell on Shabbos. There were other such claims and lies as well. But this act of the Satan succeeded. Rabbi Eliyahu, in his innocence, did not investigate the facts. He accepted the claims at face value and ordered people to distance themselves from the chassidim in every possible way. He said they belonged to the sect of Shabbtai Tzvi, may their names be erased, that they came from kelipas nogah, and that they were reincarnations of the generation of the Tower of Babel. That year, 5530, something happened that served, in a sense, as a cause or catalyst for the dispute. This is what happened. The tzaddik Rabbi Avraham of Kalisk, one of the students of the Maggid of Mezritch, was an intensely passionate man. When he returned from Mezritch, he gathered young married men and studied with them the teachings of his teacher, the Maggid. He established a form of avodah for them that included fervor in prayer, but also self-effacement. He studied with his students for about two years, and a central part of his teaching was that they should humble and demean themselves and “walk modestly,” dressing like ordinary people. During prayer they would dance and shout. By 5530 they had become a group of thirty-five men—keen-minded, stouthearted, and highly gifted—but all their efforts to stir hearts toward fear of Heaven were carried out wildly. They also deliberately affronted the Torah scholars who opposed them, disparaging and humiliating them to show them their coarseness and self-importance [unclear]. One of these outstanding, fervent young men came to Shklov as a traveler and asked the local rabbi for permission to deliver a public address.

02:57 The rabbi and the community leaders examined the visitor and saw that he was thoroughly versed in the Talmud and halachic authorities, Midrash and Aggadah. They decided to allow him to speak publicly. At the appointed time a large crowd gathered, including the community leaders. The speaker delivered an address, expounding several teachings of our Sages in a wonderful way for over an hour. He stirred the listeners’ hearts, and everyone enjoyed it. But a few moments before finishing, he turned to the large audience gathered in the synagogue and said, “I see, thank G-d, that I have found favor in your eyes and that you are enjoying my address. I want to tell you that I did not come to you as a maggid or preacher seeking payment. I came to open your eyes to the truth and stir your hearts to serve the blessed Creator. Here is your proof: I will explain one more teaching of our Sages to you, and then I will step down from the platform without asking for any payment for the address I have delivered.” The young man chose a teaching of our Sages about a wicked, arrogant person and began speaking about those renowned for their greatness and glory—apparently the Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu and other famous rabbis. He began to put them down and disparage them, using sharp, cutting remarks that lodged in his listeners’ memories. In the shock and astonishment that fell over the audience, he managed to escape before they tore him to pieces. The city was in an uproar. On the one hand, the people of Shklov were impressed by his sharpness and breadth of knowledge, his gift for speaking, the force of his message, and the awakening he had inspired. On the other hand, they were appalled by his extraordinary brazenness in disparaging Torah scholars. The first committee to coordinate a campaign against the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and his student, the Maggid of Mezritch, was then established in Shklov. Its members traveled to Minsk and Vilna to consult about organizing the opposition. When word reached our teacher, the Maggid of Mezritch, he called a meeting of most of his saintly students, who were already in various places in Volhynia. They unanimously decided to summon Rabbi Avraham of Kalisk and rebuke him for his conduct.

05:39 Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev and Rabbi Meshulam Zusha of Anipoli tried to persuade their fellow students to temper the judgment. They repeatedly asked Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Horodok to persuade the others to find grounds in Rabbi Avraham of Kalisk’s favor. Their efforts bore fruit, and the judgment against Rabbi Avraham was softened somewhat. The group discussed the matter at length and in every detail, and Rabbi Avraham of Kalisk undertook to correct his methods of guidance. All the students then looked to their colleague, the Alter Rebbe, to speak on Rabbi Avraham’s behalf. At the meeting they resolved to uproot the practice of avodah marked by emotional excess and wildness. In 5531, when the Maggid rebuked Rabbi Avraham of Kalisk for introducing outward displays of self-effacement, such as publicly demeaning himself by rolling about and the like, the Maggid entrusted the Alter Rebbe with overall leadership in White Russia. Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Horodok and Rabbi Yitzchak Dov of Lubavitch [unclear] saw this as an instruction from their teacher for the future as well. In those days, the Maggid sent his student, the Alter Rebbe, on secret missions to centers of opposition to Chassidus. The following story is told about the Alter Rebbe’s secret visit to Shklov. It was one evening in Cheshvan 5531, in the city of Shklov. Outside, the weather was very bad. In the synagogue of the perushim, the Gaon Rabbi Yosef Kolbo [unclear] was studying in depth the passage, “If he placed it on top of a tree, above ten handbreadths.” For several hours he examined the positions of Rabbi and the Sages, carefully analyzing Rashi’s wording with great depth. The Gaon Rabbi Yosef Kolbo [unclear] was already famous throughout Lithuania and in Minsk, and even in Vilna. He had been accorded the title “Moreinu VeRabbeinu” when people referred to him in his absence. His extraordinary genius was already known among the leading Torah scholars in Germany, though he was still young and had not yet reached forty. Rabbi Yosef Kolbo [unclear] was forceful by nature, broad-minded, and aware of his own stature. He made sure others sensed it too.

08:30 He was very careful to uphold the honor of the Torah, down to the smallest detail. Everyone knew Rabbi Yosef Kolbo’s rule: while he was studying, no one was to ask him anything. Once he finished, or even if he himself paused in the middle of his studies, they could ask whatever they wished. Rabbi Yosef Kolbo was accustomed to studying aloud and with great intensity, as was his nature. When studying by himself, he spoke in a loud voice as though studying with someone else. He would translate every passage in the Gemara, Rashi, and Tosafos into Yiddish. When studying Rashi or Tosafos, he would often say, “But Rashi, here is a difficulty with what you say. How can you explain this statement that way? That would contradict this point or that one. Rather, what you mean is such and such.” He studied Tosafos, the Rif, and the Rosh in the same way, with the fervor of a man conscious of his own exceptional stature. And so, as Rabbi Yosef Kolbo sat studying in the synagogue of the perushim that evening, a young man entered. He had a sack on his shoulder and went straight to the warm stove to heat himself. It was clear that he was very cold and exhausted from the journey. After a short while, Rabbi Yerucham Dov the fish seller approached the young man, greeted him with “Shalom Aleichem,” and asked whether he had anything to eat. He also tested his Torah knowledge. Rabbi Yerucham Dov was a great scholar and exceptionally hospitable. He had a special room in his home for a visiting Torah scholar. This Rabbi Yerucham Dov was occupied with his fish business two days a week, Wednesday and Thursday. When he was younger, and his sons Rabbi Gedaliah Fishel and Rabbi Tuviah were still young and studying in yeshivos, he himself, Yerucham Dov, would go together with the non-Jews

10:46 to the rivers to catch fish, and as he walked with them, he would review the tractates of Seder Nashim by heart. Later, when his sons became his partners, they began going to the river to fish, and Rabbi Yerucham Dov was occupied with the business only two days a week. In his free time, he sat and learned with great diligence. Over twenty years of diligent study, Rabbi Yerucham Dov became well versed in many pages of Gemara. For the past few days, he had been troubled by Rashi’s explanation of the statement “I saw impurity for two days” on page 17, in the chapter Ein Ne’erachin. He had already asked several great scholars about it, but had not received a satisfactory answer. Rabbi Yerucham Dov had great respect for the gaon Rabbi Yosef Kolbo, and honored him greatly, but he did not want to bring his question to him. So it was with this Rashi that Rabbi Yerucham Dov tested the young man who had just entered the beis midrash. Rabbi Yerucham Dov began telling him that he was studying the Gemara in Tractate Arachin, the Mishnah “For a woman who has lost count, the minimum opening is seven days,” and so on, and that he was troubled by Rashi’s explanation of the statement “I saw impurity for two days.” The young man did not wait to hear what troubled him. He immediately began reciting the Mishnah and Rashi’s wording, then the Gemara with Rashi’s wording, aloud and with a melody, word for word as though reading from a book, translating everything into Yiddish. Rabbi Yerucham Dov was deeply impressed by the young man’s knowledge and straightforward way of learning. He saw for himself that, as this young man learned the Rashi, the matter was clear and presented no difficulty at all. Rabbi Yerucham Dov asked the young man to take his bundle and come home with him, where he would honor him as a Torah scholar deserved. The young man told him that he had to leave early in the morning. He would spend the night in the beis midrash, daven at daybreak, and set out on his way. A stir arose in the beis midrash. Rabbi

13:18 Yerucham Dov told them that none of the answers offered by Rabbi Shmuel Nachum the porush, the elderly Rabbi Zalman Yechiel, who taught the daily Gemara page, Rabbi Pesach Ber the diligent scholar, and other students had satisfied him. But this visitor had recited the Mishnah, Gemara, and Rashi’s commentary to himself from memory with such clarity that his question was no question at all. Everyone listening in the beis midrash was amazed. Meanwhile, Rabbi Pesach Ber the diligent scholar and several other learned men came in, and Rabbi Yerucham Dov told them the whole story again. Rabbi Pesach Ber immediately went over to greet the visitor, followed by several other students, and a Torah discussion began among them. The gaon Rabbi Yosef Kolbo saw a group of people standing by the stove, listening intently to someone speaking, and wanted to know what was being discussed. He went over and saw that the young traveler was speaking and everyone was listening. As he listened, he heard them discussing the sugya of torbatz ha-veshet at the beginning of the chapter Eilu Tereifos. The Torah discussion continued for many hours, and all who listened, with the gaon Rabbi Yosef Kolbo at their head, enjoyed it immensely. At that time, the small beis midrash of the perushim had two groups. One was a group of late-night learners [?], who regularly stayed in the beis midrash studying until midnight. The other was a group of early risers, who regularly came to the beis midrash at three in the morning to study. Besides them, there were several minyanim of perushim who studied from midnight until dawn. I, relates the chossid Rabbi Pinchas Reizes, son of the gaon Rabbi Henoch Schick, belonged to the early-risers group. When I arrived at the beis midrash that night to study my regular lessons, I found a large crowd there. Around the table by the southern wall of the beis midrash sat the gaon Rabbi Yosef Kolbo, Rabbi Zalman Yechiel, who taught the shiur, Rabbi Pesach Ber the diligent scholar, Rabbi

15:40 Shmuel Nachum the porush, Rabbi Yerucham Dov the fisherman, and Rabbi Avraham Shemaya the silent one, as well as nearly everyone in the late-night learners’ group. A stranger I did not know sat at the table, listening to Rabbi Zalman Yechiel, who taught the shiur. Rabbi Zalman Yechiel was teaching Tractate Bava Kamma. He taught that page to young men who were already accomplished Torah scholars and able to develop their own novel insights, and at every shiur they would produce new Torah insights. Rabbi Zalman Yechiel taught this page twice a week, on Monday and Thursday. That Monday he had taught the sugya of whether slaughter takes effect only at its conclusion or from beginning to end. Rabbi Zalman Yechiel was accustomed to studying through sharp, profound pilpul. When he reviewed that Monday’s shiur for the visitor, from the Mishnah’s passage “One who slaughters an animal and it is found to be a tereifah” to the end of the Mishnah, the visitor listened intently to Rabbi Zalman Yechiel’s insights. When Rabbi Zalman Yechiel finished, the visitor said that this was a method of sharp pilpul and contained many good insights, but he was accustomed to learning another way. The visitor began reciting Tosafos by heart, beginning with “[unclear] we do not apply ‘and slaughtered it’ to it.” He reviewed the entire sugya of one who stole and slaughtered on Yom Kippur, property inherited from his father, and consecrating it, covering all the details of the laws as they apply in practice. He learned the Tosafos this way for three hours. Everyone was greatly impressed by his manner of learning. The gaon Rabbi Yosef Kolbo could not find words to praise it. He said that this was true learning, which broadens the mind, unlike the method of pilpul, which constricts it. The visitor would not answer any of their questions about where he came from or what he did. When they pressed him, he said

18:00 that he was a scholar devoted to study, but not a rabbi. After he finished davening at sunrise, the visitor prepared to leave, but Rabbi Yerucham Dov pleaded with him to have mercy on him and grant him the mitzvah of welcoming a guest. Rabbi Yerucham Dov said that if, G-d forbid, the visitor refused, it would cause him great distress. At first the visitor declined, but when he saw how much it mattered to Rabbi Yerucham Dov, he agreed. Rabbi Yerucham Dov joyfully led the visitor home and settled him in a room he kept especially for guests who were Torah scholars. The room was full of books. Since it was Wednesday, one of the two days on which Rabbi Yerucham Dov was occupied with his livelihood, the visitor remained there alone. Word quickly spread through the city that a brilliant Torah scholar had arrived at the small beis midrash of the perushim, and that they had discussed Torah with him all night. Rabbi Zalman Yechiel, who taught the shiur, went to Rabbi Shmuel Nachum the porush, Rabbi Pesach Dov the diligent scholar, Rabbi Avraham Shemaya the silent one, and the gaon Rabbi Yosef Kolbo, and word spread that the visitor was now staying with Rabbi Yerucham Dov the fisherman, in his special room for Torah scholars. Rabbi Yerucham Dov’s room for Torah scholars was already well known throughout the city. Everyone knew it had provided lodging for many great Torah scholars. In all the Lithuanian cities and towns in those days, there was tremendous respect for the Torah and for Torah scholars. Shklov was one of Lithuania’s distinguished cities, a city full of great scholars and wealthy men, where Torah and prominence came together. Every aspect of honoring the Torah and its scholars was upheld there with extraordinary care.