Trudy Gold
Zalman of Liadi: The Creator of Chabad

Trudy Gold | Zalman of Liadi: The Creator of Chabad | 06.14.22

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- And welcome everybody. It’s such a good feeling to be back with the group. And today I’m going to be talking about Zalman of Liadi, the man who created Chabad, chochma, bina, da'at. But I want to widen it as well, because I want to refer back to some of the issues that Phil Rubenstein talked about when he talked about the creation of Hasidism. And I want to talk about the clash between Hasidism and traditional Orthodoxy. The violent clash, and how in the end though, they’re both going to come together to fight, which for both organisations, for both kinds of Judaism was the greatest threat of all, and that was modernity. Those of you who’ve been with me a long time, well now I often use the phrase “the crisis of modernity” because in Chinese the figure for crisis is represented by two figures. One is danger, one is opportunity. And for the figures of the enlightenment, for the modern Jews of Berlin, of Paris, of London, of Vienna, the outside world was to be grabbed. For the orthodox, like I shouldn’t really even use that word because orthodox was a response to reform.

But for the traditional Jews, particularly of Eastern Europe, the modern world for the majority of them, was something that was very dangerous and very frightening and would lead to the the end of Judaism. So that’s my task for today. And the other thing I want to mention before I actually get to the bones of my argument, is that obviously I’ve been studying characters like Zalman of Liadi, like the Vilna Gaon, and what is fascinating about Jewish heroes, the way we make them heroes, we elevate their education, their educational intellectual abilities, they are all illui and it struck me. I was reading some mediaeval English history, maybe I’m strange, but that’s what I do sometimes for relaxation. And if you think how a king is honoured, he’s honoured for his swordsmanship, he’s honoured for his beauty, he’s honoured for his bravery. And then you think of the Jewish heroes and what are they honoured for? They’re honoured for their knowledge. And in a way it’s almost this worship of the intellect, which I think really does explain, on many levels, the explosion of the Jews into the modern world. So that’s by way of an introduction. And can we see the first slide, Judy?

There is Shneur Zalman of Liadi, whose date 1745 to 1812, and of course he is going to be active during the last years of Poland. It’s taking the majority if you remember, the majority of Poland is going to be taken by Russia, and he’s also going to be there for the invasion of Russia by the French. So these are the outside factors. But what I want to do first is actually go back, and I’m going to have to look with you at really what were the factors that created the rise of Hasidism? And when you’re dealing with Shneur Zalman, he’s third generation. And ironically, the factors that produce Hasidism are very much duplicated in Christian evangelical life. It happens when religion has become arid and formal, when it’s harsh, when it’s uncertain, and also against a backdrop of cruelty. In the Christian world, you saw it with the 30 years war, and of course what could be crueller than what had happened in Eastern Europe. You’d had the Khmelnytsky massacres of 1648, and then at the period of the partitions of Poland, you had another period of terrible cruelty, terrible unrest as armies clashed to take control of territory. And not only was the peasant population completely vulnerable, but so is the Jewish population. But it’s something else as well.

Hasidism was also a social revolt. Important to remember, as I’ve said to you, knowledge was always the passport to fame and glory in the Jewish world. And Jewish merchants, and of course society even in Eastern Europe is modernising, and you have a large Jewish merchant class now, they’ve managed to transform their superior Talmudic education into a symbol of social aristocracy. So in the Jewish world, not only is it the merchants, but it’s also the educated class, they now form the Jewish aristocracy. So Talmudic learning becomes the symbol of the Jewish aristocracy. And of course, particularly after the Khmelnytsky massacres where all the study centres were destroyed, not just a terrible loss of life but a loss of study. What happened to the Jews in Galacia and in the Ukraine? Of course they’d lost their knowledge and they’d bitterly rejected the social stigma attached, many of them had become illiterate. And of course as a response to it, they’d already been presidents in Eastern European history.

One of the biggest responses to the Khmelnytsky massacres was of course the life and times of Sabbatai Zevi, if we could see him, please. Yeah, we’ve talked about him in the past. He is the false Messiah who came out of Smyrna. And what happened to him? He became very popular, particularly because of the Khmelnytsky massacres. He’s challenged by rabbis from the north, and they tell the sultan of Turkey that he claims to be the king of the Jews. You’ve heard this story before. What happens is he goes before the Sultan and the Sultan offers him conversion or death. He chooses conversion and he is exiled, according to the story and maybe it is a mighty, but he’s actually exiled on Yom Kippur, and in Yom Kippur he’s exiled, and it’s on Yom Kippur that he dies. He dies in Albania. So that’s the story of Sabbatai Zevi. So they’re not unusual in Jewish history. And then of course you have the even more charlatan, Jacob Frank. Let’s just see his picture. I lectured about him a few weeks ago. And of course his kind of… his aberration was very, very strange. You also had the spread of Practical Kabbalah. Isaac Luria, the notion of the transmigration of souls. Because when the outside world is dark and horrific, what does one do?

One needs to find some sort of panacea, and Hasidism becomes a very appealing way of life. Should we have a look at the figure of the The Baal Shem Tov? And of course it’s the Baal Shem Tov, the mystic from Medzhybizh, who creates this new brand of Judaism. What he does is he puts all his emphasis on prayer and joy. God doesn’t just demand Talmudic erudition. God demands joy in his teaching. Now the problem with Hasidism, particularly from the point of view of the traditionals, mainly centred in Vilna, because that area had been untouched by the massacres, there’s a lot of superstition. Insistence that a divine power was locked away in God’s name, its faith in the coming of the Messiah, and also its emphasis on angels. Also the early meetings of the followers of Hasidism. It was noisy, it was wild dancing, but on the other hand, it was a camaraderie and it was warm. This is what Martin Buber had to say. This is how he describes it, “In spite of intolerable suffering man must endure. The heartbeat of life is holy joy. One can force a way to that joy, provided one devotes oneself entirely to those deeds.”

So basically the Hasidic movement came out of the great pain of the Khmelnytsky massacres, out of the destruction of the study centres. The fact that, in the main, the illiterate Jews could no way become part of the traditional communities, and they reach out for this new way of life which is warm. And of course they’re mocked by the traditionals. Why are they mocked by the traditionals? They’re even accused of being like the Gentiles. Why the Christians? Almost the worship of the Tzaddiq. And you’re going to see a really big clash to start with. You’re going to see this tremendous clash between the Hasidic movement and the centre of the controversy is the great figure of Elijah of Vilna. What the Hasidic movement also led to would… Should we see a picture of… There you see, there you see. The quote of Martin Buber. And shall we see a picture please of Elijah of Vilna? Yeah, the great Gaon of Vilna. And I’m going to give you a bit of background to him because I think he’s very important. Both he and Shneur Zalman, according to all the sources are illui, they are geniuses.

Now, as I said to you, isn’t it fascinating? This is the greatest accolade that you can give in the Jewish world of that period. But what it leads to, because it spreads like wildfire, you can understand it, can’t you? God demands joy in his worship. This is an alleviation of the terrible suffering of the time. And what it leads to actually is the traditional community also looking at itself, and it leads gradually to the reformation of the Talmudic tradition. And of course the reform itself, not reform Judaism, but the reform of the way of teaching Talmud, getting rid of more and more people. It actually begins in Vilna, and of course in Vilna, that is the home of the great Elijah. And his life really does encompass the whole struggle between the Talmudists and the Chassids. Now, according to the stories about him, he spoke at least 10 languages. He knew maths, he knew sciences, he knew astronomy, he studied kabbalah. But only you see, whereas Kabbalah was very much part of the Hasidic movement as far as Lurianic Kabbalah, as far as he was concerned, You could only study Kabbalah if you were completely soaked in Talmudic knowledge. you have to be rooted. What was the saying? To study Kabbalah, you have to be 40 years old, which that presupposes that you have stability in learning, that you have to be married, because of all the sexual illusions, And you can’t be a woman. You have to be a man.

That was the, what was laid down for the study of Kabbalah. But he does realise that he has to cut away at the pilpul. He does reform. And in fact, it is one of his great disciples that is going to lead to the creation of the greatest of the Yeshivat. The Yeshiva of Vilna, which is going to become the model for the other great yeshivas like Slabodka and Mir. So his life is very, very important. But we’re also going to have to look at the terrible fighting between him and Shneur Zalman. Shneur Zalman tried to meet him, but he refused to meet him, And as a result, you have this- it’s a tragedy that the two men never met because they were both trying to bring their own way to peace in the Jewish community, insofar as their own acceptance of the worship of God. But nevertheless, Elijah of Vilna refuses to meet Shneur Zalman, so they run along parallel lines. Now let’s talk about Shneur Zalman of Liadi. Can we please go back to his picture? I think, no, we’ve got it next, Judy. I think I put it in twice. Can we see Schneur Zalman of Liadi? No, go on. One more. There he is. Let’s keep it there for a while now, he had a very, very illustrious family background.

One of his greatest ancestors on his paternal side was the Maharal of Prague. And of course the Maharal of Prague was the great Judah Loew, who was born in Poznan, and he becomes the chief rabbi of the Holy Roman empire. Again, a man of huge erudition. He was working at a fascinating time in history under the reign of Rudolph II. For a Hapsburg, Rudolph II was very, very unusual. He loved to go in conversation with clever people. And, and the Maharal of Prague was often at his court. You see, Rudolph, this is humanism. Rudolph was interested in ideas. He was also interested in astrology and alchemy. And there was this notion that the Jew has the secret of alchemy. But nevertheless, this is a man of huge erudition who had some fascinating disciples who made a huge impact on the Jewish world, like Rabbi Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller, who settled in Krakow, And David Ganz. David Ganz is particularly interesting because he produced a work of Jewish history as well as writing on astronomy. So I need you to understand there are always these periods of Jewish history, like in the reign of Rudolph II, where at a certain time, at a certain place, that Judaism is left alone by the ruling class because they’re actually interested. So this is an ancestor.

He comes from a great tradition. He was born in a town called Liozna, which is in present day Belarus. I may have mentioned this to you before, I have travelled extensively in this part of the world, and I really find it almost impossible to understand how… they must have lived entirely within their own worlds. He was the son of Baruch. He was also, according to the story, by the time he was eight years old, he wrote a commentary on the Talmud, based on the works of Rashi and Nahmanides and Abraham ibn Ezra. Until the age of 12, he studied under Izzachar Ber in the town of Lyubavichi. Now he was then sent home to his father because his teacher’s pronouncement, he can now study without the aid of a teacher. At 12 he delivers a discourse on very complicated laws of Kiddush Hachodesh. And evidently at the age of 12, he is given the title Rav. this is the way, in the Jewish world, of building someone up. When he was 15, he marries. He marries a woman called- a girl called Sterna Segal. She was the daughter of Yehuda Leib Segal, who was a wealthy resident of Vitebsk, And those of you who listened to Patrick on Sunday, of course, Vitebsk was also the hometown of Chagall. This is the common practise. If you are incredibly wealthy, the greatest match for you is a great illui. And I was discussing this with Patrick, because there is, probably, in terms of methodology, no greater education than a Talmudic education,

But it’s rivalled by the Jesuit education, and of course Jesuit’s don’t marry, so it’s fascinating. I don’t want to go too far into that. I’m just throwing it at you because I find it very very interesting. So now that he’s married, he’s kept by his father in law, because it gives great yichus to the father in law, because he can now study. And during those years, he studies what? Very much like the Vilna Gaon, he studies mathematics, he studies geometry, he studies astronomy. He studies the latter two with two very learned brothers from Bohemia, and one of them is a Kabbalist, so he had mentors on the way. So he’s mastered rabbinic literature, and he’s got knowledge of science, he’s got knowledge of Jewish philosophy, and he’s got knowledge of mathematics and Kabbalah. And I’m going to throw at you again, something I often bring up. What made a jew study? Okay? The Vilna Gaon, he said you cannot study the philosophy of the west. Never forget there is wisdom amongst the gentiles, but there is no Torah. What made the Jews study? Anyway. In 1764, he becomes a pupil of Dov Ber.

Now, Dov Ber was the Maggid of Mezeritch, and he was the disciple of the Baal Shem Tov and his chosen successor. And he really is the main architect of the movement. Dov Ber establishes his base in Mezhirichi, and what he does is he brings around him a very close circle of disciples, and when he dies, the third generation all take their different interpretations and they create their own horts. And this is how Chassidism spreads, and it spreads like wildfire. Anyway… So it’s at this stage, he is very much the great student, and he becomes part of the inner circle of the Maggid of Mezeritch, He’s actually delegated to actually put together some important works for the Rav. And tragically, it’s known as the Shulchan Aruch HaRav, of the rav. Shneur Zalman worked on it for many years, but only a small part of it was published. Much of it was destroyed in a fire, and the rest of it was published posthumously. But it’s written, evidently, in a superb Hebrew style, with very elusive explanations, very profound, without being complex, which is obviously very very important. And it became an important source amongst the Lubavitcher Chassids. Now, it’s at this stage that he is working with his other mentor, Menachem. So he’s with Dov Ber, he’s also working with another mentor, Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, who was another great scholar. And the two of them, in 1774, are sent to Vilna to try an make some sort of peace with the Vilna Gaon, who still refuses to meet them.

Shneur Zalman is still quite young. Menachem Mendel and many of his disciples decide to leave for Israel, and as a result of that, Shneur Zalman, when he was only 22, he is left as the deputy leader for the whole of the Belarus Chassids, and in 1788 Menachem Mendel officially appoints him, really, leader. So, let me go back to what was written about Shneur Zalman. By the age of 8, he had written an inclusive commentary on the Torah, and he became so talented that he also became an adept at Lurianic Kabbalah. So, he, again, is seen as the great figure, but he also realises that there is a problem within the Chassidic community. That there’s almost a worship of the figure of the Rav. And what he wants to do is bring it back. And what he does, what he formulates, is Chochma Bina Da'at. Yes, you must have joy in the worship of the almighty, I mean he’d love that side of it, but also, you must have wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. Chochma, Bina, Da'at. That is what Chabad is. This is what Jonathan Sacks said. The late great Jonathan Sacks, this is what he had to say. “The gap between spiritual insight and daily behaviour has always been a problem for Jewish mysticism.”

And what Shneur Zalman insisted on from his followers, that emotion should always be led by the mind. He wants to bring it back, already, to a more rational basis. And what he does is, in the Tanya, which is a very, very sacred book to the Chabad, It’s a masterly and very systematic exposition of what Chassidism is. And what is fascinating, after him, because of this, it’s permeating through the strongholds of the traditionals, so much so that there’s war between the two. Avidgor Ben Joseph Hayyim, who was the rabbi of Pinsk, formally accuses Shneur Zalman of acts of treason against the Russian state by sending money to the land in Israel. Russia’s involved in the Russian-Turkish war. By sending money to Israel, are you helping the enemies of Russia? And also accused him of creating a new religious sect, which were banned in Russia. New sects were banned in Russia.

So, as a result, Shneur Zalman is arrested, and he is brought for trial in St. Petersburg. We don’t know what happened at the trial. There are no details, but of course there are many legends. He was acquitted, and released on the 19th of Kislev. It’s known amongst the Chabad as the holiday of deliverance. Again he was arrested in 1801, but released without trial. Finally, the family settled in Liadi, and his kind of Chassidism is very different from the rest of Chassidism, and I think what is fascinating today, of course, Chabad is the most- is probably the most important sect within the Chassidic world. Tragically, the majority of Chassids were murdered in the Shoah, but whenever I travelled the world, teaching Jewish history or holocaust studies, be it in china, be it in Ukraine, I’m talking about eastern Ukraine, I’m talking about the most extraordinary places, what would you always find? You would find Chabad. And when we were teaching in the Ukraine, we were teaching in a town called Dnipropetrovsk, and who was our partner in the venture, but Rav Menachem Lichbefer, who was the Chabad in the town, and basically, it was fascinating, because all these Ukrainians were of course new to Judaism.

Think about Russia, think about communism and the death of religion. It was Chabad who was in there actually teaching them, and the night before Rosh Hashanah, the male members of our group, with Menachem Lichbefer, went to the tomb of Shneur Zalman of Liadi, which was deep in the forests of Belarus, It was about a 10 hour journey there and back, and there was a pilgrimage to the tomb of this incredible man. Now, important to know that at the festival, when they celebrate his freedom, It’s Kislev the 19th, the Festival of Deliverance, they hold a festival and a festive meal, and they pledge to learn the whole of the Talmud, which evidently Shneur Zalman knew. So he’s certainly one of the greatest personalities of his age. He wasn’t just a man of the mind, he was also a mystic, he was deeply emotional, he composed Chassidic melodies, and he also had huge charisma. You can see it in his eyes, can’t you? He was a figure of great charisma, and what was absolutely fascinating about him, and he’s one of the characters I’d like to have met, because he had this incredible blend of realism and mysticism. However… What I’m going to do now, though, before we get on to one of the most extraordinary things about him, is I want to talk a little more about Elijah of Vilna. So, is it possible to go back to Elijah of Vilna, if you don’t mind? Thank you.

Now, I’ve already talked a little about this man. The legends of him. By the time he was three, so the story goes, he’d committed the tanakh to memory. At 7 he was taught Talmud by Moses Margalit, the author of the commentary on the Jerusalem Talmud. He was reported, at the age of 8, to know several treaties by heart. He was studying astronomy by 11, evidently he had committed the Talmud to memory, he was attracting, just as Shneur Zalman did in the Chassidic world, he’s attracting the attention of the great rabbis, Shneur Zalman studied alone, he preferred to study alone. 13, he begins to study Kabbalah, and he’s untraveled by the traditional methods of the time, and that’s one of the reasons he was bale to reform it, because he studies alone. And, as I’ve already told you, he acquainted himself with geometry, geography, algebra, he actually wrote a textbook on trigonometry, he touched languages, but he wouldn’t touch philosophy. Like Shneur Zalman, he was married very young, and he secluded himself in a small house, which of course was owned by his father in law. He lived a very ascetic life. He believed torah could only be acquired, real torah, if you abandon any kind of pleasure, and accepted suffering.

This is a very different approach to the chassids, who believed in the love of god, emotion, but with him he’s a very ascetic type, and he travels through Poland and Germany, visiting Jewish communities, finally he settles, with his family, in Vilna, where he’s going to stay for the rest of his life. He’d been left a stipend by a wealthy admirer, and he also received help from the capila, so that he could totally devote himself to study. And we know quite a lot of how he lived from his children. Evidently, according to his son, he only needed two hours sleep a night. He always shut the windows of his room so he should never be distracted. At night, he worked by candlelight, and evidently in winter, and those of you who’ve been to Vilna will know how cold it is in eastern Europe, he studied in an unheated room and he put his feet in cold water to stop him falling asleep. But there is a story, and I remember having a real quarrel with a friend over this. His sister, who he hadn’t seen for many years, came to visit him, and he kept her waiting for three days until he was prepared to break his study to greet his sister, who had travelled many miles to see him. It’s an interesting dilemma that I’m sure there will be people on the channel who will have different views of that.

But this rather reclusive man of huge brilliance, by the time he’s 40 he begins to lecture to a group of outstanding students, and in 1768 another wealthy man bought a plot of land nearby for study and for prayer, and several of his followers and his sons began to record his sayings and explanations, so it’s been widely disseminated. Just as Hasidism is widely disseminated, traditional Judaism is being widely disseminated. Whereas Shneur Zalman was a charismatic, this man shunned public life, but he’s becoming more and more famous, and he began to encourage translations of scientific work into Hebrew. He would spend time studying the kabbalah, but never at the expense of halakha. Now, his rejection of Chassidism. He told the Jewish leaders it must be fought, He believed that their changing the prayer rite was an aberration, and in fact, the Vilna community, at his insistence, closed the prayer rooms of the chassids and burnt their works. And he’d dispatch letters to other communities, telling them to shun the chassids. And at the trade fair in Brody, they instituted the Herem. Zalman of Liadi and Menachem Mendel had come to Vilna to try and meet him. He refused to meet them, and he instituted the Herem. Shall we see that, if you don’t mind, Judy. “We have come to inform our brethren children of Israel, from near and far… All our people, the leaders must wear the mantle of zealotry, zealotry for the Lord of hosts, to destroy and expunge, and to sound to them the voice of excommunication and banishment… And though they entreat you do not believe them… Until they themselves repents completely, they must be divided and dispersed such that two heretics should not be found together… And it benefits the world to separate them.” Thank you very much.

So it’s pretty strong, and also he instructed that the testament of the Baal Shem Tov be publicly burnt in Vilna. And he said this: “I will continue to stand on guard, and it’s the duty of every believing jew to repudiate and pursue with all manner of afflictions and subdue them, because they have sin in their hearts, and they are a sore on the body of Israel. Now, what happened to him? He decided to emigrate to Israel, and he set out with the intention of sending for his family. He later turned back. He didn’t go. But he sent a letter to his family, and the letter’s very interesting, the letter to his wife. She should economise to spend on the education of his sons, and also on their health and their diet. He also instructed very strongly on the education of the daughters, and they must refrain from quarrelling, cursing, and deceit. He considered lashon hara, you know, the evil tongue, one of the greatest sins, and he advised his family to only make a few visits to the synagogue, to pray at home in order to avoid idle talk and jealousy as much as possible. He told them not to covet wealth and honour, because it belongs to this world, and "vanity, vanity, all is vanity.”

Now, his teaching had such an impact on one of his major pupils, a man called Chaim Volozhin, that he founded a yeshiva in which both rabbinic teaching and literature be taught. And this, of course, led to the opening of the Vilna yeshiva in 1803. It revolutionises torah study, it had a huge impact, and in a way it’s a response to Chassidism. So, in traditional Judaism, they stop concentrating on pilpul, they make it come alive, it’s structured, proper study, qualified faculty. One of the problems of Jewish knowledge in the pale was many of the teachers were itinerant. I’m going to be talking about that when I talk about Salomon Maimon next week. They were just itinerant, and they didn’t have enough knowledge, but what he insisted on is from now on, there’s going to be a proper syllabus, and not only that, the boys in the yeshiva should have their meals and accommodation looked after, so that they would have the peace to actually study and spread study to the whole of Israel. He also wrote another textbook on mathematics, and he encouraged one of his greatest students, Baruch of Shklov, to translate Euclid into Hebrew. He had no problems with knowledge, if that knowledge was used for the good. I mean mathematics, astronomy, the stars, the study of the calendar.

So it’s fascinating, but then, of course, we come to the big issue, and so I want to turn back now to Shneur Zalman, because as I said to you, the two worlds are going to come together in one way, and they’re going to come together why? Because of the threat of the outside world. So. Can we see the twelve questions next, please? Thank you. Now, whilst all this is happening, I want you to turn to France, and we will be spending quite a lot of time on France towards the end of the year. Just as with Russia we’ve given it three months, we’re going to do the same with France. Now, many of you will know this well, but I realise that not all of your know the 12 questions, and let me explain. Remember, whilst these traditional Jews, be they Chassidic or Misnagdim, which means opposers, opposers to Chassidism, whilst they are quarrelling amongst themselves, what is happening in Europe? We’ve already looked at the ideas of the enlightenment. The french revolution emancipates the Jews. When Napoleon returns from the battle of Austerlitz, he is met by a man called Francois Rubel, who’s a deputy from Alsace. That’s where the largest proportion of Jews in France lived. There were only 40,000 of them. 10,000 wine growers in Bordeaux, wealthy Sephardi merchants, and 30,000 Yiddish speaking ashkenaz, peddlers, money lenders in Alsace. And he said, “look. The peasants are still in debt to the Jews. You’ve got to do something about it.”

And because napoleon believed, above all, in the central power of the state, and because he was a man of huge detail, he convenes an assembly of notables. And it’s terribly important, because this is not just going to be the Jews of France. Remember, napoleon is a conqueror. So, what he does for the Jews he applies to communities wherever he conquers. His envoy was a man called Count Malouet, And Count Malouet said this: “To the Jews as individuals, everything. To Israel as a group, nothing.” And at the assembly of nobles there was a rabbi, Abraham Furtado. The more traditional rabbis of Alsace said that he’d learned his Talmuds through Voltaire. But there are rabbis, there are wealthy businessmen, there are leaders of the community, there are 112 of them, and these are the questions that napoleon poses. “Can a jew have more than one wife? Is divorce allowed by the Jewish religion? May a jew marry a Christian? Are french Jews and Christians brothers? What conduct does Jewish law prescribe towards non-Jewish Frenchmen? Do french Jews acknowledge France as their country for all purposes? Who elects the rabbis? Do rabbis have judicial powers over the Jews? What are the police powers of the rabbis? What occupations/professions are prohibited by Jewish law? Does Jewish law forbid Jews from taking usury from fellow Jews? Does Jewish law forbid Jews taking usury from non-Jews?”

Now these are the famous 12 questions. To the Jews as individuals, everything. Corporal Israel, nothing. You already have the work of Moses Mendelson in Germany. Be a jew at home, and a man in society. You’re back to the old canar. What does Jewish identity mean? And now napoleon has invaded Poland. Now the answers, you should be able to work out for yourselves. Because, bearing in mind napoleon also said, “To reform the Jews would be a sign of strength, to expel them a sign of weakness.” He wants to know if the Jews can be good citizens of France. Do you remember when Menasseh ben Israel petitioned for the Jews to come back to England, he asked for the Jewish nation. It’s napoleon who wants to find out, are you a nation in exile? Can you ever be loyal to France? What is there in Judaism that stops you being loyal citizens? Now, bearing in mind, they’d already had a short period of emancipation. It took the french assembly a year and a half to finally emancipate the Jews. There were some extraordinarily heated arguments. Can we have a nation of spies amongst us? Are the Jews too downgraded ever to be french citizens? And this is one of the problems. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to study the enlightenment with you before we could move on, because the Jews themselves in the west are going to get a very downgraded idea of what it means to be a jew, and I want you to imagine, after napoleon, between 1791 and this, which is 1806, they were emancipated. And what does emancipation mean?

Can you imagine what it must’ve been like for the little peddler from Alsace to go to paris? We all get something in our tummies when we turn up in paris, don’t we? The beauty, the visual beauty of the place, the art, the architecture, the music. It must turn them. The same true of berlin, the same true of Vienna. And is there a price? This is the crisis of modernity. Is there going to be a price? Can a jew have more than one wife? Well yes, or no. Do you know how they answer it? They go back to the Synod of Vern in 1100, where the rabbis decide that a jew could only have one wife. Now, that wasn’t true always of the Sephardi community, and many of you will know that when, I think it was the Yemenite community came to Israel, some of them had two wives. And actually there’s a takhana, that edict was going to expire in 1000 years, which means by 2100 of the Christian calendar- Anyway. Is divorce allowed by the Jewish religion? Yes. May a jew marry a Christian? That’s a lovely one. The rabbis really baulked at this, but look how it’s worded. “May a jew marry a Christian?” The french revolution was a secular revolution. So yes, they could. In a secular ceremony.

But, because remember, the radical enlighteners were anti-Christian too. They thought religion was moribund and holding people back. But they did say that neither the rabbis, nor the priests would sanction such a union. Are french Jews and Christians brothers? They go to the Hebrew bible. “Love thee the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Love you the stranger, and now we are no longer strangers because we are emancipated. What conduct does Jewish law prescribe towards non-Jews? Well, you’re brothers now. I think it says it 36 times in the Torah, loving the stranger. Do french Jews acknowledge France as their country for all purposes? The answer to that was yes, and they’d go as far as to say that they feel more at home with Frenchmen not of their religion than they do with Jews in other countries. Remember, they’re giving napoleon the answers he wants. Who elects the rabbis? Basically, communities. Do rabbis have judicial power? They say no, but actually in eastern Europe, as you all know, they did. What are the police powers of the rabbis? Well, that’s an interesting one. Some of the Kehillot and the Beit Din did have the power to imprison. Not under the purposes of the state, but if everybody went to the rabbi, their words were law. What occupations are prohibited by Jewish law? Anything that’s immoral, was the answer. Does Jewish law forbid taking usury from fellow Jews? They had to explain was usury was, and then they said “non-Jews are our brothers, so it’s the same.”

So basically, they give napoleon the answers he wants, and he then convenes a grand Sanhedrin, ill do this in a lot of detail with you, and the answers are ratified. He goes a lot further, but I won’t talk about that now, I’ll talk about that when we’re looking at France. But the point is, he has invaded Poland, and where is the largest Jewish community in the world? In Poland, which is now under the control of Russia. So you have the great clash, now, between napoleon and tsar Alexander the first. And can we have a look at the next extract, please, Judy? This is what Shneur Zalman writes to another Rabbi. “If Napoleon wins, Jewish wealth and prosperity will rise, but Jewish hearts will be defeated… But if Alexander wins, our poverty and persecution will increase, and Jewish dignity will reduce… But the hearts of Jews will become close to god, and though I die soon, and our Jews will be taken into the Russian army, it is worth it.” What he does, he goes on the march with napoleon, and he actually dies on the march. So he is quite simple on this. Napoleon emancipation will be the end of the Jewish people. And it’s an extraordinary story, really, isn’t it? Is emancipation the end of the Jewish people? Question mark. And, before we go on to his successors, I want to quickly mention that there’s a wonderful story. That Napoleon passes by a synagogue on Tisha Ba'av, and he sends one of his soldiers to find out what was going on, and they say it’s reported back to him that they are praying for the loss of Jerusalem.

And he says, “any people that mourns that long, will have their country again.” Can we move on, quickly, if you don’t mind Judy. I just wanted you to see the successors. That’s Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, and he becomes the next rabbi, and they settle in Lubavitch. Now, he is going to come into the picture in a couple of weeks when I’m looking- No, sorry, not in a couple of weeks, in my next presentation, under Nicholas the first, because he’s going to be called to st Petersburg for a meeting, so that is Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, and can we see the next slide? Yes. Now that is someone you know. This is Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn. He is of course the great Rebbe, and he moves the community, first to Poland. They move to Russia, that’s right, but then you have the problem of bolshevism, and in 1940 they get to America. So they were the most intact of all the Chassidic dynasties, and of course lubavitch is merely the little village in eastern Europe that they came from. They’re known for these characters. And there were many people who thought that he was Moshiach.

So I think I’ll stop there, and let’s have a look at questions, Judy. And thank you so much for helping. Right.

Q&A and Comments

Q: Oh, Marilyn, “did the rise of a Jewish aristocracy threaten the status of the rabbi?” A: No, because they incorporated them in.

Q: “Trudy, is there a way you could send the names and dates of the people you will be discussing ahead of the class?” A: Right. I suppose. Everyone I talk about I tend to put a slide on, I’ll talk to Judy.

Oh yes, this is from Monty. It will be interesting to know… Follow Hebrew literature… Yes, of course. died at the age of 85. Right, this is Seften.

Q: “Do you not think that Zalman of Liadi was correct that modernism was the end of Judaism as they understood Judaism? However, would Judaism have survived if it had not embraced modernism?” A: I’m going to be terribly naughty, Seften. I think if you look at the majority of the ultra orthodox today, they have totally rejected modernism, haven’t they? They see the outside world as evil. Look what it led to. Look what emancipation led to. It led to our destruction. That’s very much the ultra traditional response. It’s a complicated one. We’ve survived for 2,000 years. How? In exile. How have we survived? It’s an interesting point, Seften. It’s not an undergrad essay, it is a PHD thesis.

This is from Judith. “My father, Mark Amdurah came from Amdur Chassidic dynasty in Mogilev, Belarus. Three Amdurah brothers moved to Tsfat. The Amdurah synagogue still stands, now called Indur. The Amdursky Hotel, now Petra Hotel, was the first Jewish hotel in Palestine. The formation of the IDF was signed there.” Well that’s fascinating information, thank you so much Judy, that’s very very interesting. Yeah.

Q: “What are the actual differences between the various Chassidic sects?” A: I can’t answer that question. Betty, that’s a huge, huge question. In fact, the person to answer it is Jolene Barnett.

Steven, I thought I’d mentioned the Tanya. I hope I did. I was talking more from a historical point of view. I think Jeremy is going to be looking more at the philosophy.

Q: “Why was Elijah against the study of pilpul?” Because he felt that it denigrated. “Were there yeshivas in slalom?” A: Yes there was a yeshiva in slalom.

Ah, you would prefer a proper syllabus. You know, what is interesting, we do have a syllabus, but we only publish a week in advance. I know we keep on saying this. Once the website is up, I think all these problems will disappear. We don’t publish more than a week in advance, because obviously, Wendy and I and Judy, we settled the syllabus quite a long time ago. I try and work three months in advance, because quite often, people have to be changed around and all the rest of it. Remember how this organisation started. We are going to become a little more… What’s the word? What is the word I’m looking for? We’re going to become a little more bureaucratic. We will be describing our lectures more, et cetera.

Q: “What is pilpul?” A: Hair splitting argument. How many angels can stand on the eye of a pin? But it does lead to brilliance. Intellectual brilliance. But you might argue about what they’re talking about.

Oh, this is from Jennifer. “My mum now listens with me.”

Q: “Did Napoleon require Jews to adopt mass names? How were the names selected?” A: Yes of course, but they were already in France, they were already adopting names, and in the Hapsburg Empire, that was much earlier. In Germany it was much earlier. The Russians are going to do it too. If you didn’t give a name, they made one up for you.

“To good and evil. Amongst Ascetic Jews there was always evil too, it’s a sad fact of humanity.” Yes, you are right.

Anyway, I think that’s all the questions tonight. My goodness, we’ve finished early, Judy.