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Making of a Codal

rnithnagdic, ,771),7 nx nJJ!P 71!P institution" - see Jacob Mark( This


outlook on a folio of Gemara is obviously diametrically opposed to
I{' Baruch-Ber's, whereby the gelnara discussion automatically in-
vests even the lowly l::1P"P with sanctity/no R' Heiman, one of R'
Baruch-Ber's prime tabnidim - he was generally a pacific indi-
vidual
ll
- was terribly upset with R' Schneerson, and he ap-
proached R' Moshe Soloveitchek, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivath
[{abbenu Yitzhaq Elhanan, to suggest that his talented son R'
Yoseph-Ber pen an appropriate rebuttal.
T'his author was told by a talmid of R' Yitzhaq Hutner in his
Blaster's nanle that the il'>il nN ""JlV "lV criticism of the Rebbe had
already been voiced in Europe in the late 5690's (1930's) and had
reached R' Baruch-Ber's ears 0; The rosh yeshiva applied the
words of King David to the Rebbe, to wit, 'plV ',::1" '> (May
the lIlouth of the speakers of untruths be stopped up)P - and the
then suffered a stroke which partly incapacitated his
speech! This author suggests, though, that R' Baruch-Ber made the
counection to the verse in Tehillim with another affair more suited
to the Biblical depiction of the sin deserving of the curse. When
Polish hasidic families began sending their sons to study in the,
Mirrer Yeshiva, the Rebbe sent one of his hasidim, a member of
the Gurarie falnily, to inspect the place. The Rebbe then publi-
cized the Inessenger's report that the students of the "Lithuanian"
yeshivoth did not wear beards, which was true, and that they did
not wear fringed garments (tallaisim ktannim) beneath their outer
clothing, which was false. The latter misinformation came about
when the hasiel noticed that the talmidim did not extract their tzi-
tzith froin under their shirts when reciting Shma', and he asked
one of the students why that was. Instead of giving a straight an-
swer and saying that in Musar circles it was considered inappropri-
ate to Iness up one's clothing in the middle of the Servicesq, the
L' Exc. B, above - p. 214 m il"':1 :1n:)lU ,K"!) il"nil :1'nJ ,lK'!)7;) ?"'il7;)? ,,'J7J1 n7:1'nl 1"17 Cl
O"l'l:1' O'Z(X7JJ:1 .1'tt"tt' il7J:Jn:1 O'K? "7;)" 'P'17 'J :1vnnVJ '7;) ',J, il'J nJ07;):1'
.1KO il?"l il?VJ:J7J Z('il ill ,:1, ,il'ilU?' ilZ(7;)'U?' ""'l'J il"n? nKT ill"7;) ilJnJ fZ Cf. Vol. 3.
&J Also cf. Exc. HIl, below, on a Iuaxiln of R' Baruch-Ber pertaining to il'!)il nZ( n:uVJ "VJ
which, in converse to the Lubavitch approach, holds up the study of this "nlundane" theIne as
the pinnade of achievenlent in the sphere of becOlning close to the Divine! f :1': lO C'?iln 'f Cf.
NOTES AND EXCURSUSES 3.1 (49) / EXCURSUS R
bahur replied in jest, "" '1J lV":J' N'W (In order not to embar-
rass him who is lacking [a tallis kotten])'t." The innocent jest re-
sulted in a public announcement 'by the Rebbe that hasidinl should
not send their sons to "Lithuanian" yeshivoth because of the two
"faults" of not wearing beards and four-cornered garnlents -
whereupon R' Baruch-Ber applied the verse in Tehilliln. (There
had been an earlier time when the "in order not to elnbarrass" jest
was made. See l;!JN 1JJ'N ,7l;'l;,7j., by 1") n"'il', which recounts that
when R' Meir Shapiro was planning to establish a yeshiva in Lu-
blin, he sought guidance for his novel project by seeing what
"Lithuanian" yeshivoth were like. Alnong the yeshivoth he visited
was the Mirrer Yeshiva
t
, where he was given this facetious expla-
nation for the conceahnent of the tzitzith. When R' Shapiro re-
turned home, he sent a big package of tzitzith to the yeshiva "for
the students who don't have them". When R' Yeruh;lll Levovitz,
the Mashgiah, found out why R' Shapiro had sent the package, he
delivered a shmuess the essence of which was that one lnay joke
with an acquaintance who will understand a gag as such, but not
with a stranger who may take it seriously. Obviously, the joker
who repeated the witticism to Gurarie did not hear - or did not
abide by - the Mashgiah's talk.
u
) R' Avrahanl Verdiger re-
lated
tr
that the last European Slonimer Rebbe, R' Shlomo-David-
Yehoshua' Weinberg, who lived in Baranovich (and was lllartyred
there with his entire family), was also critical of "Lithuanian"
yeshivoth; when he was once visited by a young man who said he
learned in "Mir", the Rebbe raised his hands heavenward and
made a word play - in Yiddish "mir" nleans "me" - exclaiming,
"Master of universe, how far it is fun 'mir' zu dir [from me to
You]!" R' Verdiger, who joined the Mirrer Yeshiva in 5696
(1936), recalled that there were a number of hasidic bahurim in
the beginning of the second paragraph of Exc. V, below. 't n'J17n 'OD rpo ilJtt'7J .1 Published
by n"JVJn ,O'?VJ,,' ,C"il'?!) O"DO nKX'il - pp. 219-220 t According to the biography of R'
Meir Shapiro, 'J77J,7 :17,7, by ([end of 1990] Z("VJJn ,O'?W,,' ,C':1Z(VJ7;) nKl'il) ?7;)',:1 17VJ'il' ':1', p.
254, he also visited Radin, where he spent eight days in the Chafetz-Chaim's environs, and
Baranovich. These visits took place in the winter of 5689 (1929-1930), a half-year before the
laying of the cornerstone for his yeshiva's magnificent building. U According to this author's
brother R' Avrohln, R' Elya Khazan, a top falmid of the Mirrer Yeshiva, told hinl that he had
been the joker (on one of the occasions). v October 31, 2000
Making of a Godol
lVIir at the time: 15 GelTer, 2 froin Hungary, 1 Munkacser -
Munkacs was Czechoslovakia then - and 1 from Romania. (He also
told about two brothers who caIne to Mir later froln Montreux,
Switzerland; one of them was modern European and elegant, and
the other was a Munkacser hasid with long pai'oth and a beard.
flow did he becolne a hasi{/ in Montreux? R' Avraham explained:
older brother had married a daughter of Rabbi Dr. Shimon-
Posen, Shoproner Rav. This Frankfurt native was intro-
duced to hasidic Jewry while serving in the German army in Po-
land during World War I. Afterwards, he became very close to the
IYlunkacser Rav, R' HayyiIn-EI'azar Shapiro, sent back his doctor-
ate, donned full hasie/ie garb, becaine strongly anti-Zionistic, like
the fav, and served as Rav of Shopron, Czechoslovakia. His son-in-
law influenced one of his brothers to become a Munkacser hasid.")
1'he Lubavitcher Rebbe had already spoken out scathingly
against the "Lithuanian" yeshivoth at the beginning of the 5690's
(1930's), as per a letter written in 5692 (1932) and reprinted in
'177,71 770' 'j?7!) - 0'/;)'/;)/7 '::7/;)1/7, by 1'Jn in which he
wrote, irIter alia, "We Ineet today yungelelt termed '0""'31 O'J'N"
(brilliant geonirn)' with chopped beards and cut earlocks, who
build towers to Inake every Initzvah subject less weighty, to de-
rnolish with horns
x
the ideas [N':JO] of the Geonim!:l and to smash
the prohibitions of the Rishonlm. And when we look... we see that
17-' ,on 'p'31 [the book (Le., the personality of these yungeleit) is
rnissing the basics]. They have created a new Torah; they have
forrned new approaches to Inake everything lightweight just to ac-
COllllllodate the delnands of the tilnes and society. Whoever knows
the history of the Jews in exile and contemplates the war of the ir-
religious 111askilbn against the Torah and against the rabbis will
COllle to the full recognition that this was the goal to which the
rnaskilirn aspired. In one of my many public talks about the educa-
tion in the yeshivoth, I expressed clearly that the yeshivoth have
opened the windows of the beth midrash to the public domain [n,lV'
O"::J1;']. Windows are meant to let out and to allow in, but at this
(I! Brooklyn, D"JUln - p. J x This odd phrase Inay be understood as an application of the "w
n.lJtll metaphor of Jacob Mark, above, for mitlmagdic yeshivoth. !I This refers to the
NOTES AND EXC.URSUSES 3.1 (49) I EXCURSUS R
time, behold, to our heart's pain and to the vexation of our spirit,
the wind and mud of the public domain have penetrated the beth
midrash and the talmidim are affected by the cold air and the rot of
the street. .." (It is not known to this author what the basis for the
Rebbe's venonlOUS attack was and who those described as
every mitzvah subject less weighty [o"'p1.']" were. How biased a
view the Rebbe espoused comes through in his absurd charge that
[one can fully recognize that] the goal of the maskilim was to pro-
duce the post-World War I Lithuanian yeshiva talrnid
z
!)
The custom alnong the Lithuanian yeshiva students of not wear-
ing beards was utilized by R' Shmuel Gurarie, a wealthy Lubavitch
hasid in Kremenchug - who naturally opened his purse wide to
cover all the needs of the Lubavitcher Yeshiva there - to explain
why he responded with only a small donation when R' Moshe-
Mordkhai and R' Baruch-Ber called on him. When asked how he
could have sent such great scholars away with so paltry a sum, he
answered that he would not have given anything had a lesser dele-
gation COine to him, because he did not support yeshivoth where
the talmidim did not grow beards. In Kneseth Yisrael they said
then, "For SOlne, all of Torah il'31lV:J il'"n [hangs on a hair] a. f,,,
. reports by the editor in subsequent issues of ,71t'7.,",77 ,7N"",7,
In the Answers to Correspondents" section of the periodical, it is
obvious that '10 had raised a furor in lnany circles. In the issue
following his article's publication, that of Erev Rosh Ho{lesh Kis-
lev 5701 (November 30, 1940), the editor replies to two corre-
spondents, .p.1.' :J'il and ." 1":J '1.', with the response to the latter re-
vealing that ':a couple of letters were received accusing the writer
of heresy (n,o"p')N)". In the following issue, that of Erev Rosh
Hodesh Teveth (December 29), the editor answers .,.:J '1.', "You
make no error in asserting that .0 '1.' [the author of the article, .'.N
'''0] and the editorial board know exactly who the troublemaker
[1"'J] is who instigated certain bnei Torah to take up the cudgel for
sages of Gaonic period, c. 4400-4750 (640-990). Z But cf. Ch. 4, the second paragraph of
Exc. B, WhICh quotes R' Hayyinl SoIoveichik as "suspecting most of the Lithuanian
of having sOine sympathy for Haskalah". c;t See 2("37 )'" ill'ln ilJlV7J b R' Moshe Kopshitz,
whose father was a Slabodka ta/mid in Krenlenchug at the tiIue, related this story, January 17,
1998. Also cf. Ch. 5, Exe. A.

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