Chapter 177 - The Haskalah Movement Attempts to Destroy the Foundations of Torah, the Alter Rebbe Works with the Jews of Russia

00:00 We’re continuing the story of how the Haskalah movement gradually took hold of Jewish life. It began, surprisingly, with the gaon Rabbi Eliyahu, who gave a certain approval to studying other fields of knowledge in addition to Torah, and to copying books on grammar and other subjects. Little by little, it spread. Year after year, more young Jews traveled to Germany to study medicine, astronomy, rhetoric and public speaking, music, linguistics, and other subjects at various schools. Most were highly talented, applied themselves diligently, and acquired extensive knowledge of theoretical sciences. Some so impressed the scholars at those schools that they were offered well-paid teaching positions. The others returned to their homelands. These students came back crowned with the crown of Haskalah—not the crown of Torah at this point, but the crown of Haskalah in the sciences and other fields of knowledge. A few remained steadfast in their observance of Torah and mitzvos, but Haskalah robbed most of them of their fear of Heaven. They began to be lenient about practical mitzvos, and some strayed badly by the standards of that time. The doctors found good positions in various provincial towns and cities. Most of those trained in other fields settled in the larger cities and devoted themselves to poisoning young Jews with the seeds of Haskalah. To carry out their work in secret, they cloaked themselves in the appearance of fear of Heaven. Most chose to become teachers, and because they were accustomed to German manners and ways, they found favor with parents and pupils alike. At that time, two developments in Germany had a major influence in Poland and Lithuania on education in general, and particularly on the growing desire among young people to study the Holy Tongue. First, the writer and grammarian Naftali Herz Wessely drew up a school curriculum for children, on the basis of which several schools were established in Germany and Austria. Second, an association of Jewish lawyers, doctors, engineers, and technicians born in Berlin decided

02:59 to study, write, and speak in what they called the Hebrew language, which was in fact based on the Holy Tongue. We need to understand that the founders of the Haskalah movement intended to draw Jews away from Torah study and mitzvah observance altogether. They did this gradually, presenting their ideas in a very intellectual way, and slowly infiltrated the ranks of Torah scholars. From 5534 to 5537—that is, roughly 1774 to nineteen hundred… 1777—the maskilim waged an aggressive campaign against the leaders of Chassidus in Galicia, Poland, Volhynia, Ukraine, and Lithuania, using slanderous denunciations and defamatory writings. The Chabad chassidim and their Rebbeim suffered twice as much as the leaders of the other Chassidic groups, because they faced both the maskilim and the opponents of Chassidus. The hair of anyone reading the writings of the maskilim and of the opponents would stand on end. Much of the latter was written by maskilim who hated the Jewish religion, denied the sanctity of the Torah, and denied the existence of the Creator, blessed be He. Historians, too, when they come to the history of Chassidus from the Baal Shem Tov to the most recent generation, betray truth and integrity. There is a saying that even thieves and murderers in the underworld have their own code of honesty. Yet these historians, with their pens, turn black into white and white into black as they please, according to their mood, all while claiming to base everything on documents—documents supposedly as solid as flint. The father of these historians, Graetz, who denied the sanctity of the Torah and profaned the purity of prophecy, dismissed Kabbalah and Chassidus entirely. Like a venomous snake, he placed his hidden poison and deadly toxin in the short passage about Kabbalah and Chassidus at the end of his book. He was rightly nicknamed “Kretz,” meaning “leprosy,” because his work is a malignant leprosy upon Jewish scholarship. The historian Dubnow, who scrutinizes documents and rummages through the maskilim’s archives, likewise betrays his hatred of Chassidus and chassidim in every

06:17 single line. He begins his account of the life of our teacher the Baal Shem Tov in a kind of haze of wonder tales and clouds of glorious praise. One could almost say that he has invented a man who never existed, a figment of the imagination. But Dubnow says, to his dismay, that he must believe there really was a man named Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem Tov, because, much to his displeasure, the writer and scholar Shlomo Maimon, who was also his contemporary… attests that he existed. So there was a Baal Shem Tov; he cannot say he did not exist. All the Jewish writers who were students of the maskilim, and their students after them, relish every opportunity to diminish the standing of Chassidus and its Rebbeim, and to point to what they claim was their limited contribution to the Jewish people’s moral and economic welfare. With furious anger, Meir Balaban cries out at the top of his voice that the Baal Shem Tov did not take part in the disputation with the Frankists. He tries to prove it with arguments as flimsy as cobwebs and empty sophistry. What is all this for? To diminish the honor of the Baal Shem Tov and suggest that his contemporaries did not think him important enough to invite him to a disputation concerning the very foundations of Jewish faith and Torah. Would that be a great disgrace for a sage like him? Did Balaban not know that all the participants in the disputation, foremost among them the gaon Rabbi Chaim Rappaport, were close followers of our teacher the Baal Shem Tov? It is nothing but hatred of Chassidus and chassidim, he concludes, speaking through Dubnow’s throat. When honest people examine the writings of the maskilim, those writers will be held in everlasting shame and disgrace for their lies and slanders. For about 125 years, the Chabad Rebbeim stood at the forefront of the struggle against the maskilim. For roughly 75 of those years, they fought on two fronts, against both the maskilim and the opponents of Chassidus. The Chabad Rebbeim acted with wisdom and understanding until they overcame their enemies and opponents, bringing them to bow before the approach of Chassidus. The branches

09:21 of the Baal Shem Tov’s tree of life in general, and the Chabad approach to Chassidus in particular. The Frierdiker Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, writes that by the end of this process, for some 35 or 40 years, Jewish writers of various kinds had begun taking an interest in Chassidus. Some even sang its praises and those of the Rebbeim. The first of the Chabad Rebbeim was, of course, the Alter Rebbe. Even as a child, the idea of working the land took root in him. Apparently this came from the close relationship he formed with the refugees from [unclear] who had settled on his father Rabbi Baruch’s estate and near the White Spring in the vicinity of Liozna. The Alter Rebbe encouraged them to earn their living by the labor of their hands in fields and gardens, and urged his honored father to help them. When the Alter Rebbe reached marriageable age, he agreed to marry the daughter of the wealthy Rabbi Yehuda Leib Segal of Vitebsk, on condition that the 5,000 gold coins promised as a dowry be placed at his disposal, to use as he wished without any interference from his father-in-law. In the first year after his wedding, in 5508, with the consent of his wife, the esteemed Rebbetzin Sterna, he gave his entire fortune of 5,000 gold coins to a group of families who wanted to establish themselves as farmers. The money enabled them to buy land, livestock, tools, mills, wool-spinning facilities, and barns. Large settlements were then established near Vitebsk, along the Dvina River, with the Alter Rebbe’s money. From time to time, the Alter Rebbe spoke publicly about leaving behind the pursuit of profits in the markets and taking up farming. He also visited the people in these settlements and urged them to set aside regular times for Torah study—Chumash, Midrash, and Aggadah—for the benefit of ordinary people who could not follow Mishnah and Gemara. At that time, King Poniatowski decreed that any Jewish man or woman who registered to take up farming would be exempt from the poll tax. This made a great impression on Jewish communities everywhere, and many people took up farming. Most Jewish communal activity at the time was local work in the cities of

12:24 The province and the district intervened only in general matters affecting the Jewish community as a whole, such as communal regulations or the imposition of taxes and levies. In those cases, they intervened on a countrywide basis. When the Alter Rebbe was in Mezritch for the first time and learned of the approach of our teacher the Baal Shem Tov—that Jews should earn their livelihood through farming and village industries, growing gardens and raising poultry and livestock, fishing and spinning wool—he returned from Mezritch to his home, stopping along the way to encourage this approach wherever Jews had established themselves in agricultural work. In the settlements he passed through, he took an interest in their spiritual and Torah life and in the education of their children. Here and there, he urged Torah scholars and learned people to devote themselves to helping the simple folk. In various settlements, the Torah scholars were students of the great scholars among the misnagdim, who were hostile to the simple folk and called them ignoramuses. The Alter Rebbe would argue with them, though he managed to change the attitude of only a very few. In such cases, besides encouraging the simple folk and breathing new life into them, lifting them out of their lowly state, he would try to send a learned person there—naturally, from among the chassidim—who would take an interest in them and treat them well. Over several years, this bore fruit: many of the simple folk became knowledgeable in Torah, studying a page of Gemara with Rashi and Tosafos. Russia maintained a special guard along its border with Poland. It was only in 5488 that it opened its gates to merchants from Poland and Germany, allowing them to bring their goods at set times, on fair days, to exchange them for Russian goods. Those who wished only to sell their goods were not permitted to take out silver or gold coins, while government banknotes were worth only about a third as much as silver coins: one silver ruble was worth three paper rubles. From 5502, the Russian government set the fair periods at twice a year, two months in winter and two months in summer. When those periods ended, the border was placed under

15:16 strict guard. The nobles of Russia and Ruthenia were utterly ignorant of scholarship and science. Some could not read or write at all and signed contracts and documents with a cross. But they were good, kindhearted people who loved their fellow man. They had no idea how their officials treated the peasants. The landowners lived in the big cities, spending all their days enjoying life’s luxuries. When they came to their estates for a short time, they were busy hunting animals, a pastime they loved, and paid no attention even to the business dealings carried out by their officials. When they finally learned how badly their officials treated the workers and villagers, they punished the officials and removed them from their posts. The nobles traded at the fairs and bought large quantities of the most expensive goods: precious stones, pearls, pottery, gold vessels, glassware, and woven and embroidered goods. For the most part, these trades were in Jewish hands, and the Jews were the finest craftsmen in those fields. The nobles offered merchants and artisans skilled in silverwork, goldwork, woodwork, and stonework, as well as those skilled in weaving and embroidering with silk and gold and silver threads, and silversmiths and goldsmiths, the chance to remain in Russia. They paid them well for their goods. In this way, several dozen Jewish families settled in Russia each year, most of them in the cities. Little by little, they grew distant from Torah study and a life of yiras Shamayim. Although the border between Russia and Poland was well guarded for most of the year, as we said, Jewish families nevertheless crossed it with the border guards’ approval in return for a small gift, or even free of charge. Why? Because the Russians were kindhearted and had compassion for the poor and those struggling to make a living. In this way, a number of Jewish families moved from the cities of Poland to Russian cities in the provinces of Smolensk, Oryol, and Tula. Most were craftsmen—shoemakers, tailors, metalworkers,

17:53 tinsmiths, and blacksmiths—and within a short time they had settled into a good life financially. Their spiritual state, however, declined over time because they were far from Jewish centers. When these simple people had lived in Poland, they had various societies and associations, such as the Poalei Tzedek Society, the Early Risers’ Society, and the Tehillim Society. In the large cities, each society had its own shul: the Zevchei Tzedek Shul, the tailors’ shul, the bakers’ shul, the shoemakers’ shul. Each person belonged to one of the societies and came to daven with a minyan three times a day. He would hear a lesson in Aggadah between Minchah and Maariv, and a lesson on the weekly parsha and Midrash on Shabbos. Though their Torah knowledge was limited, they feared G-d and observed the mitzvos. But when they moved to the cities of inner Russia, their groups broke apart. In many places, only a few Jewish families lived among hundreds or thousands of non-Jewish families. Slowly, they declined morally, began to be lax in observing mitzvos, and adopted the ways of the non-Jews. Their sons and daughters born in Russia almost blended into the non-Jewish population, with no one to guide or educate them. In the large cities there were still shuls, rabbis, and teachers. But in the small towns, where they had only a shochet and bodek, he was also the chazzan, the Torah reader, and the teacher. So the boys grew up without Torah, and often boys who had reached bar mitzvah recited the blessings for tefillin and for Torah study by heart because they could not read from a siddur. The first to take an interest in the spiritual state of the Jews in the cities of inner Russia was the Alter Rebbe. He sent special emissaries to visit the Jews of Russia, arrange public classes for the adults in Scripture, Mishnah, Gemara, Midrash, and Aggadah, and establish chadarim for the young children. The border between Russia and Poland was at the village of Lulya Kvina[?], about fifteen parsaos from the city of Rudnya. From the village inward lay Poland; beyond the village, along the main road

20:27 leading to Smolensk, lay Russia. At that time, most Jews lived in Poland and a smaller number in Lithuania. But in inner Russia, and particularly in Smolensk, there were only a few isolated Jewish families. Most were unlearned people who worked as blacksmiths and in similar trades connected with farming, and they were village folk. Even the townspeople in that region lived a village way of life then. One of the Alter Rebbe’s chassidim, Rabbi Yochanan Zev of Horodok, was an exceptional man, a distinguished scholar who knew several tractates of Gemara by heart with Rashi and Tosafos. He had a broad understanding of Chassidus and, even more than that, was devoted to avodas Hashem and possessed fine character traits. He was a peddler in the villages and in the courtyards of the landowners’ estates, earned a comfortable living, and set aside large sums for tzedakah. Once, the Alter Rebbe told Rabbi Yochanan Zev to take his business travels across the border into the Smolensk province of Russia. Every Jew in Poland knew that Russia in general was a coarse country, and the Smolensk province in particular was populated mostly by non-Jews. Only a few isolated Jewish families lived there, and even those Jews had become so coarse that one could hardly recognize them as Jews; in every respect, they resembled the non-Jews. The chossid Rabbi Yochanan Zev did as the Alter Rebbe instructed, but this route saddened him greatly. When he traveled through the villages around Vitebsk and Horodok, he would find many Jews in the villages and inns at the crossroads. He would stay with them and study Torah, and sometimes he would meet scholars and fellow chassidim of his own circle. Usually, he would return home for Shabbos or spend it in one of the nearby towns among fellow chassidim. But on this journey he was away for about five months, and he celebrated Shavuos in Smolensk with uneducated people and ignoramuses. When he returned to the Alter Rebbe in Elul, he brought with him a bundle of money, a large sum he had set aside for tzedakah from what

23:07 What he earned on this route was five times or more what he had earned on his previous routes. But he was deeply distressed by his situation, and he wept bitterly before the Alter Rebbe over being in the company of ignorant people. He pleaded to be released from this work and allowed to trade as before, in an area where there were Jews. The Alter Rebbe told him, “A man’s steps are established by Hashem, and He desires his way.” That is what is written. Hashem directs a person’s path according to where Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants him to be, so that the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu can be put into practice. And who is a person to say, “I do not want this, and I do not want that”? After Sukkos, the chossid Reb Yochanan Zev again made his journey across the border as before. Because there was heavy snow and bitter cold, he had to stay in several places for two weeks or more. The Jews with whom he stayed were free from their work, and he took it upon himself to speak with them and their families, teach them [unclear] from the Torah, and inspire them to develop good character traits. Hashem granted him success, and over the winter he had already brought several people to teshuvah. When he came to the Alter Rebbe at the beginning of Nissan, he was happy and glad-hearted over the great work in which he had succeeded. The Alter Rebbe used the portion of his earnings that he brought for tzedakah to cover the costs of teachers for those places in the Russian interior. After Pesach, the Alter Rebbe summoned several people and sent them to the towns and villages of the Smolensk province, following the directions given by the chossid Reb Yochanan Zev. Within three years, organized communities had been established there, with rabbis, shochatim and bodkim, teachers, synagogues and, lehavdil, mikvaos and charitable institutions. About twenty years passed in this way. When the Russian government opened the borders of its interior in 5554, after the partition of Poland, when all of Lithuania, Volhynia and Podolia were annexed to Russia, hundreds of families, among them many great Torah scholars, moved to the cities of

25:44 the Russian interior. Everyone was amazed by the high moral standing of the small communities, which maintained synagogues, rabbis of outstanding Torah scholarship, and expert teachers.