Chapter 166 - The Alter Rebbe Wins the Debate in Minsk

00:01 Yes, we are continuing the remarkable and fascinating story of the debate in Minsk between the opponents of Chassidus and the Alter Rebbe and his chassidim. On the second day, after the early-morning prayers, the three Torah scholars we spoke about gathered to discuss the situation in general and the Alter Rebbe’s questions in particular. Rabbi Zamil[unclear] examined the Alter Rebbe’s questions in depth. After studying them, he sighed and said that their rabbi was exceptionally sharp and had a powerful grasp of reasoning. Rabbi Tzelka[unclear]—Zamil, excuse me—said that he could find no answers to his questions. Meanwhile, messengers from the beis din arrived and said that a rumor had spread through the city that the leader of the group had won. They therefore had to convene before midday and prepare proper answers to all his questions. The scholars gathered and debated among themselves, and in the fourth hour they all went to the place designated for the debate. The beis midrash was already packed. A messenger from the beis din went to invite the Alter Rebbe, whom they called “the rabbi.” When the Alter Rebbe entered, a hush fell over the beis midrash. He conducted himself as he had the day before. When he took his seat, Rabbi Tzelka stood and announced on behalf of the beis din and the assembled scholars: “I hereby demand that the leader of this group give a clear answer, in accordance with the Torah, concerning the new practices he and his associates have introduced. For we suspect that at their root lies a poisonous and bitter influence: Shabbetai Tzvi, may his name be erased.” The Alter Rebbe rose and said: “Under the beis din’s ruling, we agreed that I would first answer the questions put to me by the assembled scholars. Afterward, the scholars would answer my questions. I have answered what I was asked, and I am now ready to hear their answers to my questions. After that, with Hashem’s help, I will give a clear answer to the suspicions against us and, G-d willing, prove from the Torah that our path is true and just. I have fulfilled the beis din’s ruling, and therefore I demand

03:02 in accordance with the Torah, that the other side also uphold the ruling and answer all my questions on matters of Torah.” An uproar broke out among the members of the beis din. Some said they should not debate points of reasoning with him, but should instead investigate the new practices introduced by the chassidim. Others said they must first answer the rabbi’s questions. After a long period of arguing and quarreling, the beis din announced that, according to the Gemara’s principle—according to the Gemara’s principle that a Torah discussion requires a calm mind—this was not the time for it. The beis din therefore decided that the scholars would answer the rabbi’s questions on another occasion, and that they would now examine the objections to the group’s practices. The Alter Rebbe rose and said: “Scholars of Israel, these teachings that you brush aside with a reed shake the rafters, as Rashi explains in Kiddushin. I will tell you the answers. The first time I came to my teacher, the Maggid of Mezritch, I asked him about the matter I have presented to you, and he answered me.” The Alter Rebbe then repeated the Maggid’s answer, with a lengthy explanation that took a great deal of time. The members of the beis din felt affronted, and the scholar Rabbi Shimon Eli[unclear] launched into a long discourse. He explained that studying Kabbalah involves great danger and has brought many people to ruin. Even among the great Tannaim, he said, we find those whose beliefs were nevertheless impaired. According to information received by the beis din, this group was suspected of certain things; therefore, he declared, “In the name of the Torah and the leading Torah scholars of Israel, we proclaim that this group is opposed to the Torah.” At once, the beis midrash became a raging sea, and the noise grew louder and louder. Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac relates: “I saw [unclear] then and pushed my way between the people arguing, but I could not make sense of it. Some were shouting, ‘Why weren’t the claims examined?’ Others were shouting, ‘They are under a ban, and it is forbidden to speak with them!’” It is hard to convey the bad impression this made on the Torah students. Many of the young men present decided to travel to the Alter Rebbe and become attached to him. My teacher, Rabbi

05:59 Zamil, said that the chassidim had been treated unjustly and that he was deeply sorry about it. He saw that many lies had been spread about them. “That was the first time,” says Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac, “that I heard my teacher use the name ‘chassidim.’ He had always called them ‘the group,’ rachmana litzlan.” My teacher Rabbi Zamil spent that Shabbos in Minsk and discussed the matter with the scholar Rabbi Chanoch Henoch Schick[unclear] of Shklov. Both said that the beis din had acted wrongly in making that proclamation. Rabbi Chanoch Henoch Schick told me, “My Pinchas says he is going to travel to the chassidim.” Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac continues: “I remained with my teacher Rabbi Zamil for about another three weeks. Afterward, I told him privately that I intended to travel to Liozna, to the rabbi of the chassidim. Rabbi Zamil was silent and gave me no answer. A few days later, he gave me his consent and blessed me for the journey.” Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac continues his account: “After Sukkos, I arrived in Liozna and found several other young men there whom I had met in Minsk during the debate. Some young men had also come from Shklov, among them Rabbi Pinchas, son of Rabbi Chanoch Henoch Schick. I studied there all winter, unlike the other young men, who studied there for only three months, in keeping with the limit the Alter Rebbe had established.” The scholar Rabbi Yehuda Leib, the Alter Rebbe’s brother, told Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac that on the first day of the debate in Minsk he was very happy: formidable, probing questions had been prepared, and the Alter Rebbe answered them all clearly. On the second day, when the Alter Rebbe returned to his own questions, the opponents became very angry. But when the Alter Rebbe gave them the Maggid of Mezritch’s answer to those questions, they sat down and listened attentively. “It was then,” Rabbi Yehuda Leib relates, “that I first saw the vast breadth of my brother the Alter Rebbe’s knowledge. And my brother Rabbi Mordechai said to me, ‘Had we come only to hear this,

08:32 it would have been enough.’” Let us continue listening to Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac’s account, as he told it to the Rebbe Maharash, of the great debate between the Alter Rebbe and leading Torah scholars from Vilna, Shklov, Brisk, Minsk, and Slutsk. The debate we are discussing took place in the year 5543, 1783. The opponents raised two main arguments against the approach of the Baal Shem Tov and his disciples. The first was that the Baal Shem Tov’s approach required even ordinary people to value their prayers and their recitation of Tehillim, though they did not understand what they were saying. This approach, the opponents argued, fostered arrogance among the unlearned and diminished the honor of Torah scholars. And everyone knew, they said, that every calamity that comes upon the world is because of the unlearned. The opponents raised a second point: the Baal Shem Tov’s approach says that even a great Torah scholar and a tzaddik must engage in the work of teshuvah. This approach, they argued, diminishes the honor of the Torah and of Torah scholars. In both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, we find many teachings that a Torah scholar is a foundation of the world and that Torah scholars increase peace in the world. They, the Torah scholars, are the true builders, yet the Baal Shem Tov’s approach treats them as people who still need to do teshuvah. The debate in Minsk, Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac of Vitebsk related, was divided into two parts. The first was an examination of Torah learning. The opponents said they did not wish to hold any debate with chassidim until they knew that their leader was a learned Torah scholar. Only once they knew that would they present their arguments against Chassidus; that was the second part of the debate. The Alter Rebbe agreed to the opponents’ proposal that the scholars examine his Torah knowledge, on one condition: the chassidim’s side must also be allowed to examine the opponents’ Torah knowledge. The opponents agreed to this as well. The Alter Rebbe’s answers and his manner of expression were clear and precise—his answers to the opponents’ questions. And his own questions

11:12 From the misnagdim, were presented briefly and clearly, and despite the depth of the subjects, everything was understood. This made a great impression on everyone present, from the greatest Torah scholars to someone who studied an ordinary page of Gemara. Everyone enjoyed hearing the Alter Rebbe’s words. The greatest scholars—the elderly Rabbi Aharon Yaakov, head of the Slutsk yeshiva; the elderly Rabbi Zamna Stutskar [unclear]; and the senior head of the yeshiva, the eminent Rabbi Menachem Shlomo—asked the Alter Rebbe to answer their questions. The Alter Rebbe did so. Only two matters remained unanswered: the two main arguments of the misnagdim. The Alter Rebbe answered them: “The foundation of the approach of our teacher the Baal Shem Tov, and of the teachings of my teacher and Rebbe, the Maggid of Mezritch—which illuminate the paths of avodah followed by the Maggid’s students—is based on the first Divine revelation to Moshe Rabbeinu.” The Alter Rebbe related: “My teacher and Rebbe, the Maggid of Mezritch, repeated to me a teaching he had heard from the Baal Shem Tov. It concerns the verse: ‘An angel of Hashem appeared to him in a flame of fire from within the bush. He saw that the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. Moshe said, “Let me turn aside and see this great sight.”’ The Targum renders it, ‘An angel of Hashem was revealed to him in a flame of fire from within the bush.’ ‘Was revealed,’” the Alter Rebbe said, “means revelation. Revelation means that each person can receive the revelation according to his level. It means that the revelation can be received even on the lower levels. That is why the Targum renders the verse ‘And Hashem descended upon Mount Sinai’ as ‘And Hashem was revealed upon Mount Sinai.’ Yet the ordinary translation of ‘descended’ is ‘went down,’ as the Targum says of the verse ‘And Yehudah went down.’ It also renders ‘And the border went down’ as ‘And the border descended.’ Only for the verse ‘I will go down now’ does the Targum say, ‘I will reveal Myself now.’ In other words, the Targum understands the word

14:00 ‘I will go down’ as it understands ‘descended’ at the Giving of the Torah: it means revelation. And as we said, revelation means that this Divine light can be received even on the very lowest levels. That is what happened at the Giving of the Torah: everyone, from the highest level—Moshe Rabbeinu—to the last Jew among the Jewish people received it. That is the meaning of the Targum’s words, ‘An angel of Hashem was revealed.’ This is revelation. That revelation was ‘in a flame of fire.’ Rashi explains: ‘In a flame of fire’ means ‘in the heart of the fire.’ And where did the angel of Hashem appear in the heart of the fire? In the innermost seriousness and sincerity—the ‘flashes of fire, a flame of G-d.’ And where is that heart of the fire? ‘From within the bush.’ Rashi explains: ‘And not in another tree, because “I am with him in distress.”’ What is the distress? It is this world. This world is called ‘distress’ because it is a narrow place. The higher, spiritual worlds, where the infinite light is revealed, are called a spacious place. But this world, where the infinite light of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is clothed within the ways of nature, is a narrow place, and so this world is called ‘distress.’ Hakadosh Boruch Hu intends that, through our avodah in studying Torah and fulfilling mitzvos, we turn distress into a window that illuminates the world—a window that lets in light, illuminating the world with the light of Torah.