Chapter 173 - The Story of Rabbi Yitzchok Eizik's Uncle

00:00 Rabbi Yitzchak Aizik continues telling the story of his life. “All my days, ever since I was little, I longed to travel to one of the yeshivos famous throughout the region at that time: for example, the yeshiva in Homel with the gaon Rabbi Akiva Eliezer; in Smila with the gaon Rabbi Yaakov Yerucham; in Smorgon with the gaon Rabbi Eliezer Zelig; and in Kokhnov[?] with the gaon Rabbi Chaim Tuvya. And then there was mighty Minsk, which had several yeshivos—several yeshivos. But my father, the gaon, refused to send me to a yeshiva. Many times I asked him to send me to one, but he would not even answer me. I spoke with my mother, the Rebbetzin. I pleaded with her at length and explained the great benefit of learning in a yeshiva: our Sages said, ‘Exile yourself to a place of Torah,’ and learning alongside friends would increase my diligence. But my mother, the Rebbetzin, treated my father with extraordinary respect. She never sat in his presence except during meals, and listened intently to every sound that came from his mouth. My father spoke little. Even during meals he was occupied with Torah, reciting words of Torah by heart, and when he spoke with someone, he did not raise his eyes. Even when he spoke with my mother, the Rebbetzin, his eyes were lowered. Once I pleaded with my mother at length to speak to my father and ask him to send me to one of the yeshivos. My mother answered, ‘My dear son, you know that your father is a great gaon, G-d-fearing, and truly wants what is best for you. If he knew that this was good for you, he would certainly do it. But since he does not wish it, surely what is best for you is to learn at home, under his supervision.’ Now, however, after my father passed away, my mother’s circumstances forced her to send me to one of the centers of Torah learning. She chose to send me to my uncle, the gaon Rabbi Zalmele. At the beginning of Tammuz 5542, that is, 1782, I arrived at

02:47 my uncle, the gaon Rabbi Zalmele. He welcomed me warmly. I also brought a fine gift from my mother, the Rebbetzin, for her sister, my aunt, as well as cash to pay for my food in my uncle and aunt’s home. I rested for about a week after the exertions of the journey. I was utterly exhausted and broken in spirit by the deaths of my father and brother, and by being separated from my mother’s home. I found myself in a strange household, where at first every step reminded me that I was an orphan and my mother’s only remaining child of the four she had borne. But when my uncle, Rabbi Zalmele, began testing me in my studies to determine a course of learning for me, my sadness and dejection lifted. It was as though all my ailments had been healed at once, and I took heart. Over the next few days, my uncle arranged a schedule of study for me. He chose one of the most outstanding young married scholars in Kabilink[?] as my study partner, and twice a week, sometimes three times, my uncle would deliver a pilpul to us on the topics we were studying. Who was my uncle, the gaon Rabbi Zalmele? He was born in Stotzk, a Jewish settlement in a village about ten parasangs from Minsk. Until the age of thirteen he studied in the village. Then he went to a yeshiva in Minsk, where he learned with tremendous diligence for about five years, after which he was admitted to the yeshiva of the gaon Rabbi Yechiel, the head of the rabbinical court and author of Seder Hadoros. Rabbi Yechiel’s yeshiva had three groups of students, each with its own rosh yeshiva. The gaon Rabbi Betzalel HaKohen Rabba was in charge of the first group; the gaon Rabbi Pesach Uri Chassida, the second; and the gaon Rabbi Shalom Yehuda, the prodigy from Smila, the third. Once a week, Rabbi Yechiel himself would deliver a sharp pilpul, displaying astonishing breadth of knowledge, to each group separately. When he delivered his pilpul, the leading gaonim of Minsk, among the most distinguished of their generation, would come to hear it. After a thorough examination

05:30 my uncle, the gaon Rabbi Zalmele, tells me, ‘I was admitted’—yes, it was my uncle who was admitted—‘to the second group, under the gaon Rabbi Pesach Uri Chassida. He was sharp and erudite, and I studied with great diligence.’ Rabbi Pesach Uri Chassida’s own practice was never to speak loudly about worldly matters. When speaking with a person, he would not look up or gaze beyond his immediate surroundings. He fasted frequently and was careful even about eating onions, for fear of worms. He would recite Vidui and Al Cheit three times every day, and his recitation of Selichos and the prayers of Yom Kippur Katan would pierce the listener’s heart. ‘I spent a full year,’ my uncle tells me, ‘in Rabbi Pesach Uri Chassida’s group, studying with great diligence. With Hashem’s help, I gained extensive knowledge of the two orders Nashim and Nezikin. I also developed novel Torah insights that Rabbi Pesach Uri Chassida enjoyed. Once I succeeded in resolving a question that Rabbi Yechiel, the head of the rabbinical court, had raised in his pilpul on a vow of naziriteship in the first chapter of tractate Nedarim. One day,’ my uncle tells me, ‘I was summoned to Rabbi Pesach Uri Chassida. When he sensed that I had entered his room, he asked, “Who has come in?” For he always avoided looking beyond his immediate surroundings or gazing at anyone’s face, so when he sensed someone entering his room, he would ask who it was. I said, “It is the student Zamil from Stotzk.” “Welcome,” said Rabbi Pesach Uri Chassida, “a diligent student with a fine Torah insight.” As I came closer, I found him bent over, sitting and studying Shaarei Teshuvah by Rabbeinu Yonah, with tears streaming from his eyes. I was frightened. “My dear son, my beloved student,” Rabbi Pesach Uri Chassida said to me, “I know, my son, I know that I have sinned. I am guilty of a terrible sin.” And he wept aloud. “G-d forbid, G-d

08:07 forbid—the curse I have brought upon you. Though I too say, with real tears, that I did it neither in defiance nor through betrayal, but unwittingly. I did not know that you, my beloved student, had already passed the age of eighteen and had transgressed the teaching of our Sages: ‘At eighteen, one should marry.’” When I saw how distressed he was,’ my uncle told me, ‘I said, “It is true that I am nineteen years old today, but my soul yearns for Torah.” My teacher, the gaon, would not hear of it. He instructed me to travel home to my parents and gave me a letter in which he praised me and spoke highly of my knowledge of Torah. I returned home and spent about a month there. One day a letter arrived from Rabbi Eliyahu Feivish, one of the judges. Writing on behalf of the gaon Rabbi Yechiel, he told my righteous father that one of the respected householders in the city, who cherished and honored Torah scholars, wished to arrange a match and take me as a husband for his daughter. He undertook to support me for ten years, along with any children we might have, so that I could devote myself to Torah.’ The uncle continues telling Rabbi Yitzchak Aizik: ‘My righteous father and mother traveled with me to Minsk. The tena’im were arranged on the very day we arrived, and about three months later the wedding took place. After the wedding I was again admitted to the yeshiva of the gaon Rabbi Yechiel, but this time I joined the third group of students, under Rabbi Shalom Yehuda, the prodigy from Smila. Who was the righteous gaon Rabbi Shalom Yehuda, the prodigy from Smila? He was a student of the formidable gaon and profoundly righteous Kabbalist Rabbi Ephraim Fishel Kadosh, who had served as rabbi in Minsk. The gaon Rabbi Yechiel, author of Seder Hadoros, was his student and successor. “Ruach hakodesh was present,” the righteous gaon Rabbi Shalom Yehuda of Smila told my uncle, the gaon Rabbi Zamir of Stotzk[?], “ruach hakodesh was truly present in the beis midrash of Rabbi Ephraim Fishel Kadosh. And in the merit of the divine service of my holy ancestors,” Rabbi Shalom Yehuda relates, “my righteous father

10:58 From the age of six until his last day, he sat in his room and in the beis midrash, studying in holiness and purity. When he was fourteen, his father—my grandfather, the gaon and tzaddik—married him to my righteous mother, who was an orphan. Her father was a tzaddik and a man of G-d, and I bear his holy name. A year after the wedding, I was born. Through the great merit and righteousness of my parents and holy ancestors, I was fortunate that the head of the community took an interest in me and placed me with good teachers and instructors. By the age of thirteen, I was already at the second table of my teacher and Rebbe, the gaon and tzaddik Rabbi Azriel Zevulun, head of the yeshiva in Smila. When I was fifteen, my teacher and Rebbe, Rabbi Azriel Zevulun, told me that I should go to the beis midrash of the awe-inspiring tzaddik, my holy teacher and Rebbe, and gave me a letter of recommendation. My teacher and Rebbe examined me for two weeks. The gaon Rabbi Shalom Yehuda continues his account. Shalom Yehuda of Smila, from the town of Smila, is the one telling this story. Yes, and he’s telling all this to Yitzchak Aizik’s uncle, who is now telling it to Yitzchak Aizik himself. It’s a complicated story, but we’ll try to follow the details. Rabbi Shalom Yehuda relates: When I came to Minsk, I saw the light of Torah shining throughout the city, from end to end. There were many yeshivos, Torah scholars, tzaddikim, great scholars, and men who had withdrawn from worldly affairs. Above them all was the yeshiva of the gaon and mekubal Rabbi Ephraim Fishel Kadosh. From all the yeshiva students in Minsk, the gaon and mekubal Rabbi Ephraim Fishel selected 120 students and divided them into five groups, each at its own table: four groups of twenty-five students and one group of twenty. All the students were exceptionally gifted and studied with tremendous diligence. They were meticulous in their observance of mitzvos and had yiras Shamayim. Even the students at the first table were proficient in Gemara with Rashi and Tosafos, and each table rose to a higher level of holiness, up to the fifth table, which our teacher called

13:33 the pure golden table of Torah. The course of study followed the arrangement of the tables. Our teacher taught the students at the first four tables twice a week. Among the twenty students in the fifth group, there were three divisions: ten students at the golden table; ten outstanding students among them, whom our teacher called the pure table; and two whom our teacher chose to sit with him and discuss the Torah insights that arose in his holy mind, which he revealed to no one else. Our teacher called that table the table of Torah. I was examined there, Rabbi Shalom Yehuda relates, Rabbi...