Episode 201 - Rabbi Gamliel

00:01 Stories about chassidim of the Alter Rebbe that will give us a sense of the chassidic atmosphere and character. In the last twenty years of the fifth century—I assume we’re talking about around 1740—a Jewish family originally from Prague left Poland and settled in Vitebsk, in White Russia. In those days, surnames were still uncommon among Jews in those places. People were generally called after some event in their lives, their trade or occupation, their physical appearance, or their place of origin. Since this family came from Prague, they were called “the Pragers.” The head of the family was Reb Gamliel, then between sixty and seventy years old. He was a distinguished-looking man, handsome, well-spoken and good-natured. His home was open to guests. He was a Torah scholar who loved Torah students and welcomed them with special warmth. Reb Gamliel’s work was managing the estates of a Polish nobleman near one of the towns in Poland. Then that nobleman inherited an estate from his uncle near Vitebsk. And... the nobleman gave the inherited estate as a gift to his younger son, who was betrothed to the daughter of the lord of Vitebsk. The elder nobleman asked Reb Gamliel to travel with his younger son to Vitebsk and manage the new estates there. Reb Gamliel told him that, although it was difficult to leave the place where he had lived for more than fifty years, he wanted to fulfill the nobleman’s wishes. First, though, he wanted to put the affairs of the elder nobleman’s estate in order and find a trustworthy man to take his place. The nobleman thanked him and revealed that he wanted Reb Gamliel’s eldest son to take his place there. And Reb

02:54 Gamliel had two sons, both already married with families. The elder was named Shlomo Yaakov and worked in commerce. The younger, Aharon Tzvi, sat and devoted himself to Torah study together with young married men his age. Reb Gamliel and his son Shlomo Yaakov decided to accept the nobleman’s proposal. Shlomo Yaakov stayed to manage the nobleman’s affairs there... in Poland, while Reb Gamliel and his younger son Aharon Tzvi, together with their entire families, traveled to Vitebsk, as we said, in White Russia. They let three Torah scholars live in their houses back there completely free of charge. When Reb Gamliel arrived in Vitebsk, the young nobleman introduced him to his father-in-law, the lord of the city, and praised him. The lord of Vitebsk received them warmly and offered Reb Gamliel a choice of homes for himself and his family in one of the four courtyards he owned in the city. Reb Gamliel thanked him for his kindness but said that, for the sake of managing the business, it seemed better to live at first on one of the estates belonging to the young nobleman, his son-in-law. After a year, Reb Gamliel settled in the city itself and built a house and a shul. He supported ten Torah scholars and their families; they sat in his shul and devoted themselves to Torah study. His son Aharon Tzvi gradually took over the management of the estates, while Reb Gamliel himself came only from time to time to visit and oversee things. The prominent Jews of Vitebsk saw how highly the lord of the city and his son-in-law regarded Reb Gamliel, and consequently how highly the other noblemen and officials of the city and district regarded him as well. They appointed him head of the community, and with his good nature, Reb Gamliel showed kindness to everyone. About ten years passed. His son Aharon Tzvi married the daughter of one of Vitebsk’s prominent citizens and also married off his sons and daughters generously. But suddenly, tragedy struck Aharon Tzvi,

05:43 for in the cholera epidemic, may it not befall us, in the summer of 5491—that is, 1731 by their reckoning—his wife died. After three festivals had passed, Aharon Tzvi remarried. His new wife was the daughter of one of Vitebsk’s elder scholars, the gaon Rabbi Shlomo, and the widow of a Jew named Reb Yoel the Diligent. About four years after Aharon Tzvi’s second marriage, his father, Reb Gamliel, passed away with a good name. The city’s great Torah scholars eulogized him, and the entire Jewish community of Vitebsk mourned him. About a year after Reb Gamliel’s passing, Aharon Tzvi had a son from his second marriage and named him Gamliel after his father. The boy Gamliel surpassed all his peers in diligence and good character. His father gave him a fine education, and he excelled in his studies. When he reached marriageable age, a member of one of Vitebsk’s most distinguished families took him as a son-in-law, on condition that he sit and study Torah while his father-in-law provided for all his needs. So the young Reb Gamliel lived in his father-in-law’s home for about nine years, studying Torah and serving Hashem. Remember, we are in Vitebsk. In those days, the brilliant young gaon Rabbi Shneur Zalman had earned a fine reputation among the city’s scholars and great Torah authorities. We already know that this is the Alter Rebbe. Born in the small town of Liozna, he became the son-in-law of the wealthy Reb Yehuda Leib Segal. Many of the outstanding young scholars, Reb Gamliel among them, would turn to Rabbi Shneur Zalman with their questions and uncertainties in Tanach, Mishnah, Gemara, halachah and Aggadah, and they benefited from his answers. So here we see the Alter Rebbe in his youth, now from the perspective of that young man, Reb Gamliel, the son of Aharon Tzvi, as he grows close to the young Alter Rebbe. Some years later, Reb Gamliel’s father-in-law—that is, his wife’s father—passed away. To provide for his household, to earn a living, Reb Gamliel was forced

08:42 to go into commerce, and he took over a large store that his father-in-law had left him. At the same time, he set aside fixed times for Torah study, and from time to time he and some of his fellow Torah scholars would visit the gaon Rabbi Shneur Zalman and delight in his teachings. In those days, the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman, went to Mezritch, as we already know. When he returned to Vitebsk, the city was in an uproar. Because the Alter Rebbe had brought the approach of Chassidus to Vitebsk, the leading scholars of Vitebsk, headed by the elderly Rabbi Shlomo whom we mentioned earlier, demanded that his father-in-law, the wealthy Yehuda Leib Segal, drive him out of his home and that Reb Yehuda Leib Segal’s daughter demand a get, a bill of divorce, from her husband. At the same time, when the Alter Rebbe returned from Mezritch, he informed the Vitebsk beis din that he was prepared to debate the path of the Baal Shem Tov and that of his disciple—who was, in fact, the Alter Rebbe’s own teacher—the Maggid of Mezritch. The Alter Rebbe also told the Vitebsk beis din that the proclamations and bans issued against the Baal Shem Tov and his disciple, the Maggid of Mezritch, in 5517 were contrary to Torah law. The beis din accepted his request. After lengthy discussion involving the city’s other scholars, it was decided to accept the proposal of the man they called “Reb Yehuda Leib Segal’s son-in-law.” That was how opponents of the approach of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezritch referred to the Alter Rebbe. They summoned him to hear what he had to say—what was his position? They also said that he took pride in his Torah learning. A public debate followed, lasting about a week. The Alter Rebbe explained the approach of the Baal Shem Tov and his teacher, the Maggid of Mezritch, and a major dispute arose among Vitebsk’s leading scholars. Some supported the Alter Rebbe’s approach, while others opposed it. Many of the young married scholars, including Reb Gamliel, became attached to the Alter Rebbe and set regular times to study together. But then the parents of those young men, their fathers-in-law, that is,

11:25 The women’s parents and family members began persecuting them in every way they could because they went to the Alter Rebbe to learn the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. None of it helped. The more they harassed them, the more strongly they held to the path of Chassidus. Unfortunately, that wealthy man Aharon Tzvi, Rabbi Gamliel’s father, also opposed the Alter Rebbe. More than once he asked the town’s governor to expel the son-in-law of Yehuda Leib Segal from the town. But as we recall, around that time the Alter Rebbe had solved two major problems there. One was the sundial in the garden of one of the noblemen, or perhaps in the governor’s garden, and the other was the mathematical problem he solved for the elderly French professor. After the Alter Rebbe solved those two well-known problems, the governor’s esteem for him grew, and they could do nothing against him. None of their efforts helped. Then the Alter Rebbe was appointed maggid in the town of Liozna. In other words, the Alter Rebbe returned to his hometown of Liozna. Young Rabbi Gamliel was among the first to go to the Alter Rebbe in Liozna. Once he began going there, his father—Aharon Tzvi, as we recall—his brothers, brothers-in-law, and all his family members began persecuting him in all sorts of ways. They tried to ruin his family life and his finances. But the chossid Rabbi Gamliel persisted on his path and paid no attention to what his father, brothers, and their friends—all opponents of the Alter Rebbe—were doing to him. From time to time, he went to the Alter Rebbe in Liozna. Rabbi Gamliel never complained to the Alter Rebbe about his material circumstances, which were deteriorating day by day because of his family’s persecution. What is more, he continued, as had always been his way, to give generously to all the charitable causes the Alter Rebbe called upon the chassidim to support. These included communal needs, such as supporting our Rebbeim in the Holy Land and redeeming captives, and the like,

14:11 as well as the needs of individuals. At the same time, Rabbi Gamliel and his wife were deeply distressed: some twenty-five years had passed since their wedding, and they still had no children. His mother, sisters, and sisters-in-law also taunted him and his wife, hurling bitter curses at them both. Rabbi Abba, who tells the story, says: “The early chassidim did not trouble the Alter Rebbe with their material concerns, even matters that truly touched their lives, because their sole intention was to seek the truth, not their own interests—even when their lives were at stake. The early chassidim were accustomed to saying: ‘The Jewish people did not believe in Moshe Rabbeinu because of the signs he performed, for one who believes on the strength of signs has doubts in his heart.’” In other words: Is it true? Is it real? Or not? “What made them believe in Moshe Rabbeinu? The revelation at Mount Sinai, where our own eyes saw, and no stranger’s, and our own ears heard, and no one else’s, the fire, the voices, and the flames. The chassidim saw with their own eyes and heard with their own ears the fire, the voices, and the flames when the Alter Rebbe delivered Torah teachings. Through this, they became bound to the Alter Rebbe in a lofty, holy spirit. And the chassidim who also suffered physical pain because they were chassidim accepted that suffering not only with love but with great joy. It was as precious to them as an offering and a sacrifice.” Here Rabbi Avraham Abba, who tells the story of Rabbi Gamliel, gives us a story within a story about the chassidim joyfully accepting suffering. This is what he relates: “The father-in-law of my father-in-law used to say,” the chossid Rabbi Avraham Abba recounted, “that the joy of the chassidim of Vilna amid physical suffering, and their self-sacrifice for Chassidus, made me a chossid. This is how it happened. Once, the father-in-law of my father-in-law related, I was walking through one of the alleys where the poor of Vilna lived. I used to visit them from time to time to fulfill the mitzvah of giving in secret—that is, giving tzedakah

17:03 discreetly. I passed a house whose low windows were at ground level. I heard people singing joyfully. Surely, I thought, there must be a bris or a wedding here, and I went in to join the seudas mitzvah. Inside, I saw about twenty men sitting close together, for the room was very small. On the table lay a loaf of dark bread, a bottle of spirits, and small glasses. Most of those gathered wore tattered clothes. Their faces were gaunt and thin, and they were singing with a joy that touched my heart deeply. Among them sat a tall, very thin man. His face could hardly be seen because it was covered in bandages. From time to time he let out a groan, apparently from the intensity of his pain. Yet his joy was greater than that of all the others. I sat down near the door and asked the man beside me, ‘This must be a seudas mitzvah?’ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘a seudas mitzvah.’ ‘And whose celebration is it?’ I asked. ‘That man sitting at the end of the table,’ he answered, pointing to the man wrapped in bandages. When the singing stopped, they began saying and receiving l’chaim. Then I understood that all these people belonged to the group—that is, they were chassidim. And since I already knew that my brother Rabbi Moshe, whom the chassidim called Rabbi Moshe Vilnaker, had become a fervent chossid devoted to the Alter Rebbe, and I had come to feel great respect for my brother, Rabbi Moshe, I was pleased to have the chance to see the chassidim up close. They offered me a glass of spirits too. I took it, recited the shehakol blessing, and, not knowing what the celebration was for, called out, ‘Mazel tov to the guest of honor! Mazel tov to everyone here!’ ‘May you be blessed,’ the others answered, as did the guest of honor, and they broke into song. When they finished singing, I said I would like to take part in the seudas mitzvah and offered a few coins to buy

19:43 some sweets or perhaps a turnip. But they refused, saying that if they accepted anything from me, they would lose the good they had. ‘What good could you possibly lose by eating a turnip or some sweets at a seudas mitzvah?’ I asked. ‘The true good of “Better a dry crust with peace in it,”’ one of those gathered told me, and he began to sing, with everyone joining in. I sat there for about two hours. I also heard them repeat teachings in the name of their teacher and Rebbe. Eventually, I learned the reason for the celebration. The man wrapped in bandages was a relative of Rabbi Meir Raphaels, whom we have already heard had become a chossid of the Alter Rebbe. The relative sitting there at the seudas mitzvah was named Shimon Chaim. He had been one of the outstanding young scholars among the students of the Gaon, Rabbi Eliyahu. For several years now, he had associated with the chassidim and become a chossid, gathering groups and speaking to them about Chassidus. But two days earlier, a group of young men who opposed Chassidus had caught him and beaten him savagely. That was why his wounds were bandaged. He held a seudas mitzvah to celebrate the privilege of having been beaten for Chassidus. The chassidim of Vilna’s joy amid suffering for the sake of Chassidus, and the love and fellowship among them, gave me no rest. Little by little I began drawing closer to them, until at last I became one of the younger members of their group.