Episode 223 - The Rise of the Maskilim Against Judaism and the Beginning of Their Activity

00:00 We are now entering deep into a struggle—a serious struggle, in fact—between Jews who decided they wanted to uproot Judaism from Jews, and the true leaders of Jewry, who stood in the breach and would not let their schemes succeed. A struggle, an extremely difficult struggle. Dr. Lilienthal petitioned the Russian government for permission to establish a society called “Friends of Light and Enlightenment.” They always talk about light. The religious are the darkness; the enlightened are the light. Its founders and directors were leading members of Russia’s Jewish Enlightenment movement. He added that, besides serving as a place where they could gather and discuss education in accordance with the government’s wishes, the society would also be a center for spreading enlightenment among Jews. The enlightenment they were talking about, of course, had nothing to do with Torah. It would also publicize the kindness of the monarchy, which cared for the welfare of the Jews. For the most part, the Minister of Education granted Dr. Lilienthal’s request and wrote to the Minister of the Interior recommending that the Friends of Light and Enlightenment society be permitted, in order to carry out the government’s wishes. The Minister of the Interior approved its establishment. It was agreed that Dr. Rotenberg would organize a Friends of Light and Enlightenment society in Berdichev, and similar societies were founded in Vilna, Brisk, Kovno, Minsk, Kiev, and several other places, under the direction of the local enlightened Jews and on the instructions of a special committee headed by Dr. Lilienthal. At that time, a remarkably talented young man, Leon Aryeh Leib Mandelstam, was in Petersburg. He was a Jew who was trying to gain admission to the university there. He befriended the young scholars, especially a young scholar named Yerachmiel Masayev, who associated with the sons of government ministers and introduced them to the young scholars. I would, of course, put “scholars” in quotation marks. Once, during a debate among the young men, the whole group was impressed by Mandelstam’s logical arguments in a scientific inquiry into religious feeling. He expressed the view that reason can overcome even the most fervent faith rooted in the heart, and that it is easy to change religions, reject faith altogether, or uproot the feeling of faith. This lecture by Mandelstam

03:15 became the basis for debates at several gatherings. Although everyone acknowledged the depth of Mandelstam’s ideas, the question of the struggle between faith and reason remained disputed. Yerachmiel Masayev expressed his view that faith holds sway over everything, whether a person is rich or poor, and that religious faith and its feelings can heal illness, develop talent and perception, and bring success in any endeavor—economic or commercial, moral or scientific. Having grown up among chassidim, Yerachmiel had read several accounts of wonders and heard stories of tzaddikim. He supported his view that faith prevails over enlightenment with those stories. But the young Mandelstam and his friends, Jews who had grown up in an assimilated environment, laughed at Masayev’s stories. By contrast, the young men from devout Christian backgrounds listened to them with particular attention. Among them was young Nikolai Pavlov, the son of the Deputy Minister of Education. The father was freethinking and harassed his devout son. Once, young Pavlov told his father about the debates on science in general and, in particular, the debate over the struggle between faith and reason. He gave him the names of Mandelstam, the leading proponent of reason’s triumph over faith, and Masayev, the leading proponent of faith’s triumph over reason. Deputy Minister of Education Pavlov took an interest. He invited Masayev, Mandelstam, and their leading friends to his home and organized a debate on the struggle between faith and reason, their victories, and their effects on political, moral, social, family, and economic life. The first two meetings were so serious in content, and the two leaders of the debate, Masayev and Mandelstam, were so impressive, that they made an enormous impression on Pavlov. So much so that, for the third meeting, he invited some of the older scholars and teachers from the university in Petersburg. The debaters’ speeches, their eloquence, the firmness of their convictions as they fought for and against faith, or for and against reason, and their struggle like valiant warriors in battle—one rising as the other fell, then the reverse—captivated

06:09 the listeners. Even the teachers in the world of scholarship could not decide who was right. They settled on this compromise: from the standpoint of intellectual understanding, Mandelstam was right, for nothing can stand in the way of knowledge and reason; but from the standpoint of feeling, Masayev was right, for nothing is stronger or more steadfast than feeling. News of the young men’s debates spread among scholars. Masayev and Mandelstam made names for themselves, and in scholarly circles they were treated with respect and, to a certain extent, admiration. Deputy Minister of Education Pavlov introduced young Mandelstam to Dr. Lilienthal, who saw in him a man capable of undermining the Jewish cheder and of explaining to the Minister of Education why cheders should be replaced with schools. Dr. Lilienthal proposed to the Minister of Education, Count Uvarov, that Mandelstam be chosen as the “learned Jew” attached to the Ministry of Education. The minister summoned Mandelstam and saw that his deputy, Pavlov, had been right: Mandelstam was highly qualified for the post of learned Jew at the ministry. He had an excellent knowledge of Hebrew, spoke the national language eloquently, was trustworthy, and had a talent for speaking and listening. He held freethinking views on the Jewish religion and intensely hated rabbis and the rabbinate—all qualities needed to carry out the emperor’s wish to sever Jews from their religion and convert them to Christianity, or at least assimilate them. The minister chose to appoint Mandelstam to the post. The Minister of Education suggested that Mandelstam remain at the university in Petersburg, but for personal reasons Mandelstam did not want to stay there. After studying there for a year, he transferred to the university in Moscow. Even then, the minister did not release him from his duties as the learned Jew attached to the Ministry of Education, and from time to time he would come to Petersburg to attend to the affairs of his position. The threefold alliance of Dr. Lilienthal, the Friends of Light and Enlightenment society, and the learned Jew Mandelstam fought shoulder to shoulder against Hashem, against the Torah, and against the Jewish people through

08:49 informing, false accusations, and deception. Agents of the Friends of Light and Enlightenment society went across the country to spy on rabbis, communities, and Jews living in villages and roadside inns. Dozens upon dozens of denunciations arrived every day at the offices of the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Education, and the Third Section—that is, the secret police. Letters about rabbis, about rabbis, about communities, about merchants, about Jews in the villages and lessees of inns: denunciations alleging rebellion against the monarchy, contempt for Christianity, concealing people from military service, hiding money to evade taxes and levies, traveling beyond the Pale of Settlement, evading border customs duties, bribery, usury, and more and more. At one meeting of the Council of Ministers, attended by the ministers of the interior, education, finance, justice, and state lands, as well as the office responsible for the security of the monarchy and the state—that is, the Third Section of the secret police, the main investigative force—a presentation was given on the Jewish question. The speaker gathered the various reports, meaning the denunciations that had reached all those offices, and divided them into categories: so many reports of rebellion against the monarchy, so many of contempt for Christianity, and so on. The presentation made a strong impression on all the ministers. They unanimously expressed the view that the harshest measures should be taken: special taxes imposed, the conscription quota doubled, the area of the Pale of Settlement reduced, and Jews forbidden to move from one town to another or from a smaller town to a larger one. The villain Benckendorff proposed that the Council of Ministers submit a proposal to the emperor to issue a decree separating the Jews from the rest of the country’s citizens and placing them under the authority of the police and investigative bureau, headed by the Third Section. In this way, they would clip the wings of the Jewish people, who dared to think they were the chosen people and that their faith and religion were superior to all other faiths and religions. The enlightened Jews of Vilna, seeing how great the Tzemach Tzedek’s influence was over the Jews, and how extensively he worked to improve their economic situation, whether they were chassidim or misnagdim—this

11:09 Because of this, even the leading misnagdim held him in great esteem. Knowing the Tzemach Tzedek’s opposition to the approach of the Haskalah, they sent the maskil Mordechai Aharon Ginzburg as their representative to debate whether the Haskalah was necessary for Jewish survival in exile. Ginzburg stayed in Lubavitch for about three weeks. Because so many visitors came to Lubavitch, and some waited a week or more for their turn to be received by the Rebbe, during those three weeks he was granted only two meetings with the Tzemach Tzedek: one lasting an hour and the other an hour and a half. Being a writer and linguist, Ginzburg set down in writing his arguments in favor of the Haskalah and its necessity for Jews in exile. The Tzemach Tzedek answered with such decisive responses that Ginzburg could make neither head nor tail of them. On the two Shabbosos Ginzburg spent in Lubavitch, the Tzemach Tzedek delivered two maamarim of Chassidus with explanations. On the first Shabbos he delivered the maamar “To whom, then, will you liken Me, that I should be equal?” and on the second, the maamar “Sustain me with delicacies.” Their content astonished Ginzburg. A note below says that, according to the account of the chossid Reb Eliyahu Shmuel, son of the chossid Reb Meir Rafaels, Ginzburg told the maskilim of Vienna, speaking of the Tzemach Tzedek’s intellectual depth, “Our Haskalah is foolishness.” During his stay in Lubavitch, Ginzburg saw how far the Tzemach Tzedek’s influence extended across all segments of the Jewish people, from the great and learned rabbis who turned to him with their questions to ordinary people who came to ask about their affairs. Mordechai Aharon Ginzburg’s visit to the Tzemach Tzedek in Lubavitch was one step in the Russian maskilim’s planned campaign against the rabbis and chassidim, a campaign to ensnare souls devised by the committee of the Society of Friends of Light and Enlightenment, as we have already related. Ginzburg did not stop at his visit to Lubavitch. He also traveled to the towns where the Tzemach Tzedek’s chassidim lived, to see firsthand their customs and way of life

14:03 in every area of family life, community life, and education—in the home, in the cheder, and in the yeshivah—as well as their relationship with the rabbis and the rabbis’ influence on them, everyone’s relationship with their leader, the Rebbe of Lubavitch, and his influence on the community of Chabad chassidim. Ginzburg, acting as a spy, visited leading chassidim: the learned chossid Reb Isaac of Vitebsk, the learned chossid Reb Isaac of Homil, the learned chossid Reb Leibe of Bobruisk, the learned chossid Reb Yehudah HaBatlan of Dinaburg, and the learned chossid Reb Peretz of Nevel. He visited large and small towns and various settlements in the regions of Vitebsk, Mogilev, Minsk, Chernigov, Poltava, and the colonies in the Kherson region. Ginzburg spent about half a year on his travels, concealing his purpose wherever he went so that no one would discover what he was doing. In one town he appeared as a traveler who, because of poor health, had to stay for several days to recuperate. In another he arrived as a melamed looking for pupils. Elsewhere he posed as a matchmaker searching for a gifted young man of distinguished lineage, saying that until he found a suitable candidate he could not reveal on whose behalf he was traveling. Through such ruses he managed to speak with people from every segment of society, to find out everything that interested him. Ginzburg was by nature a thoughtful, deliberate man who liked to investigate every matter thoroughly. His visit to the Tzemach Tzedek in Lubavitch, life in the small town wholly steeped in Chassidus and filled with visitors from the four corners of the world, and the intellectually searching teachings of Chabad made an enormous impression on him. His visits to the chassidim’s towns and his opportunities for long, face-to-face conversations with the rabbis, mashpi’im, melamdim, and chassidic householders startled him. On this journey Ginzburg came to see that the rabbis were people of profound Torah knowledge, wise and discerning, of fine character, and highly influential among their communities. They were honored and revered by every segment of the people, especially by the chassidim. Almost all the chassidim were businesspeople or craftsmen, yet they filled the shuls and batei midrash three times a day for davening. There were regular groups for reciting Tehillim and groups studying Mishnayos, Gemara, Aggadah, and Shulchan Aruch. All Jewish children

16:21 studied in chadarim and yeshivos, and the young married men supported by their fathers-in-law devoted themselves to Torah study in the shuls and batei midrash. Everywhere he turned, whether in a large town, a small town, or a settlement, he found Torah, fear of Heaven, and Chassidus. Ginzburg returned to Vilna downcast and full of sorrowful thoughts. For about two weeks he remained dejected, his head bowed, because his teachers in Germany and his associates in Russia did not know the value of the chassidim to the Jewish people. In number, they made up some three-quarters of the Jewish people; in character, particularly the community of Chabad chassidim, there was the influence of their leader and Rebbe and the strength of the Chabad chassidim’s convictions. Ginzburg wrote a detailed report on his journey, emphasizing the tremendous strength of their faith in general and their faith in the Rebbe in particular. “Throughout my journey,” Ginzburg wrote, “I did not find a single village or inn whose Jewish residents did not recite a daily portion of Tehillim and, on Shabbos, the entire book of Tehillim early in the morning; nor one where the woman of the house could not tell two or three stories of the wonders of the Rebbe of Lubavitch. Nor did I see any of the women telling these stories mention the Rebbe’s name before washing her hands and drying them on her apron or a towel. Their reverence and awe of the Rebbe are rooted deep in their souls. At every turn they mention the Rebbe, and every utterance made in the Rebbe’s name, whether it concerns life or money, is sacred to them, and they carry it out with mesirus nefesh.” The maskilim of Vilna invited the maskilim of Volhynia and Poland to a secret conference. On the agenda were the state of affairs and the spread of the Haskalah in Russia, and the journey of Ginzburg, secretary of the Society of Lithuanian Maskilim, as we have related. Dr. Lilienthal and Dr. Rothenberg also took part in this conference. Lilienthal described his extensive efforts in government circles and the promises to replace chadarim with schools and melamdim with trained teachers. He said that the maskilim had to bring in 250 qualified teachers who had been trained and awarded diplomas by the schools of the German maskilim. Rothenberg spoke

18:46 about the purpose of the Society of Friends of Light and Enlightenment, which he had founded with government permission and, to a certain extent, government assistance. Besides serving as a meeting place where fellow maskilim could gather to plan their propaganda and compose letters calling for change, it was also a place where young people could come to read a scientific book or hear a talk. In a short time, they had already managed to draw in more than fifteen talented young men from chassidic families. Ginzburg’s detailed report and the speeches of the maskilim Mapu and Gottlober, who described the religious condition of Jews in general and chassidim in particular, were like dark clouds [unclear] at that conference. The participants deliberated seriously over what to do, and all agreed that the cornerstone of opposition to the Haskalah was the Rebbe of Lubavitch and that, first and foremost [unclear], they must fight against him. After discussion, the members of the maskilim’s conference reached the following decisions: First, to inform on the Rebbes in Volhynia. Second, to inform on the Rebbe of Lubavitch—that is, the Tzemach Tzedek. The accusations against the Tzemach Tzedek would be based on, first, collecting money for another country with the intention of rebellion. Second, his opposition to military service and his sending of shochtim to arrange kosher food. Third, his opposition to the spread of the Haskalah. Fourth. And the ways they would act both within the country and outside it.