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The Tests of the Rebbe

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The Tests of the Rebbe 12 BOOKS )""3&5;ď.BSDI .BSDIď)""3&5; Je w i s h Hi s t or y The tests of the Rebbe Historian Immanuel Etkes has blazed a trail through the forest of Hasidic writings and biographical scholarship about the founder of Chabad, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, and produced a new sort of biography that gives a full picture of this spiritual giant and charismatic leader boundaries of his religious sect and who Ba’al Hatanya: holds a place of honor in the pantheon of Rabbi Shneur Zalman Meliady Vereshita Shel Hasidut great Hasidic rabbis, but he was an excep- Chabad (Ba’al Hatanya: Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi and the Origins of Chabad Hasidism ), by Immanuel tional leader who left behind him a varied Etkes. The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History and wide-ranging body of sources, some (Hebrew ), 495 pages, NIS 116 by him and some about him. This corpus includes dozens of private and public mis- sives, polemical and philosophical writ- By David Assaf ings, books on Jewish law, reports about him made to the Russian government by habad, which next year will mark the informers, and the transcripts of his in- bicentennial of the death of its found- terrogations by the czarist police. They C er, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, is constitute a biographical gold mine that re- the best-known branch of Hasidism, both searchers of the history of Hasidism were in Israel and around the world. In their ev- aware of, but that was nonetheless never eryday lives, Chabad members, especially fully exploited to produce a well-rounded the emissaries who operate its centers picture of one of the greatest creative and around the globe, are typically welcoming spiritual figures of the Jewish people. to all kinds of Jews − the Orthodox as well Just how special Shneur Zalman was may as the non-observant − offering them an en- be seen by the affectionate remarks lav- ticing Judaism that is comforting, tolerant, ished on him by historian Simon Dubnow, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi. Left behind a open-minded and relatively enlightened. biographical gold mine. the founding father of scholarly research This is the Hasidism that embraces serv- on Hasidism. In his “History of Hasidism” ing God with joy, a Hasidism that is easy The enormous interest in the latest reb- (1930 ), Dubnow did not spare his criticism to embrace and be embraced by, and which be as one of the great charismatic leaders of many Hasidic leaders, but when it came may be placed, at least in its approach to of Hasidism in the 20th century, and in his to Shneur Zalman’s 1797 volume of Hasidic the modern world, in the left wing of the activities and messianic legacy, has over- philosophy − the Tanya, which remains The Rebbe’s grave in moderate ultra-Orthodox community. shadowed interest in the beginning and the central text of Chabad to this day − Hadiach, Ukraine. Seemingly paradoxically, when it comes development of the movement as a whole. Dubnow wrote that going from reading the to Israeli politics, Chabad Lubavitch is in Nevertheless, Hasidim and scholars are writings of other Hasidic leaders to read- fact right-wing and even ultra-nationalis- familiar with the name of the founding fa- ing the Tanya is like moving from a dark tic. This polarity, as well as the messianic ther of Chabad, Rabbi Shneur Zalman Ben room into a well-lit one. The literature of his son Dov Ber (sometimes referred to as fanaticism that has overtaken the latest Baruch (the name Schneerson was given to the first Hasidic masters was argumenta- “the Middle Admor” ) and his star student, generation of the less rational segments of his descendants only after his death ), also tive and complicated, consisting of disor- Aharon Halevi of Strashelye. This strug- Chabad, has prevented it from maintain- known as the Rashaz (based on the Hebrew ganized and unmethodical fragments of gle, which ended in the victory of his son ing its place as the favorite ultra-Orthodox acronym of his name ), the Alter Rebbe ideas, Dubnow wrote. The Tanya, by con- and the departure from the sect of his stu- sect of Israeli society. It had this status in (the Old Rebbe ) or Ba’al Hatanya, after the trast, “is presented in orderly fashion ...it is dent, determined the image of Chabad as a the 1960s and ‘70s, before the last Chabad movement’s foundational text, which he the first attempt to philosophize Hasidism, dynastic movement for generations. rabbi, Menachem Mendel Schneerson wrote. The story of his life, however, has a dimension that had forbid even the small- Even if “Ba’al Hatanya” isn’t a biogra- (1902-1994 ), blatantly intervened in Israeli never been told in full from a scholarly, est amount of philosophy.” phy in the formal sense, it does provide a politics − in disputes about halakhic con- historical point of view. detailed description of the fateful cross- versions and who is a Jew, as well as the Not only was Shneur Zalman considered Dynastic movement roads in the subject’s life, against the back- issue of the territories and the occupation. a paragon who reached out beyond the ground of his time and place, using com- “Ba’al Hatanya: Rabbi Shneur Zalman parative and contextual methodologies of from Liadi, and the Origins of Chabad analysis. It is clearly a social history, but Hasidism” is Immanuel Etkes’ fourth what does this term mean? quasi-biography, in which he combines so- A social historian is aware that social cial-historical discussion with study of the circumstances determine the behavior, religious philosophies of his subjects (the thinking and worldview of the people who previous ones are on Rabbi Israel Salanter, live in a particular time. In this spirit Etkes the Vilna Gaon and the Ba’al Shem Tov ). I focuses mainly on the significant junctions use the term “quasi-biography” because and stations of his subjects’ lives, examin- these are not traditional biographies de- ing such topics as how the rebbe ascended picting the life stories of the subjects from to the throne of leadership; his battle with birth until death, and making use of all opponents from within and without the available sources. movement; the way he dealt with crises “This book does not purport to encom- such as the battle between Hasidim and pass Rashaz’s entire legacy from all as- mitnagdim (Orthodox Jews who opposed pects,” writes Etkes. And though it pro- Hasidism and favored Torah study over ceeds in chronological order, it does not spiritualism ); the struggle against Hasidic pretend to be a systematic biography. So for leaders who disagreed with him; his arrest example, there is not a word about Shneur and interrogation; the Napoleonic Wars; Zalman’s birth, childhood or adolescence, and so on and so forth. and almost nothing on his family life − such The first three of the book’s 11 chapters as his relationships with his father, wife deal with how Shneur Zalman became the and children, although these are intrigu- leader of all the Hasidim in White Russia, ing parts of his life and there are quite a how he established his leadership and how few sources about them. Nor does the book he maintained it. The Alter Rebbe neither end with his death, but rather goes on with inherited his role (on the contrary, his fa- the battle to inherit his position as leader ther apparently opposed his Hasidic bent ), and his legacy, a power struggle fought by nor did he seek it. Rather, he achieved his )""3&5;ď.BSDI .BSDIď)""3&5; BOOKS 13 point of view. ... And yet, since the ver- out with unequivocal, enthusiastic support sions are contradictory when it comes to for Czar Alexander I. His loyalty to his the facts, there is a point in asking which Russian homeland, including the recruit- one was speaking the truth and which one ment of spies for Russian intelligence, put was lying.” Etkes thus steps out of the tra- him in danger, and with the advance of ditional historian’s role − remaining objec- the French army, he and his family had to tive and attempting to relate the historical abandon their home and escape eastward event “as it was” − and decides that Rabbi in a guarded convoy. The difficulties of Abraham’s anger drove him crazy, to the the trek brought on the death of the Alter point that he was “forced to make up a sto- Rebbe, at the age of 65, in Pena, a remote ry that he himself almost believed, but the village, and his burial in nearby Hadiach. historian cannot.” Immanuel Etkes is known among his Three other important chapters in the colleagues and students − and I am one book deal in depth with Shneur Zalman’s of them − as a master teacher whose les- public battles. These struggles were sons and lectures are models of clarity and against the mitnagdim, whose opposition method. This talent extends to his writing. to Hasidism derived from religious rea- His ability to examine seemingly familiar sons (the Vilna Gaon and his followers, for sources and use them to shed new light on example, viewed it as heretical ), social rea- the subject − and then express this at the ‘Which one of these holy enemies was in the right?’ writes Etkes about the Alter Rebbe and Rabbi Abraham of Kalisk. ‘Since the versions are contradictory when it comes to the facts, there is a point in asking which one was speaking the truth and which one was lying.’ sons (fear of changes in the accepted or- reader’s level, in handsome language and der ) and personal ones (fear of losing one’s with originality − makes this book a valu- livelihood should one dare to disagree with able one to read.
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