One Travels to Kock Dancing. a 19Th-Century Hasidic Folk Song

Kock .One travels to Kock dancing קאָצק .Ukr. Коцьк, Yid A 19th-century Hasidic folk song People have souls, not clockworks, meanings. In 1839, he experienced Menachem Mendel Morgenstern a revelation, after which he decided (1787–1859), a Hasidic tsaddik from to burn all his manuscripts and spend Kock (pronounced “Kotsk”), used to the rest of his life in seclusion, isolated say. For many years, the town was one in a bricked-up chamber next to the of the major centres of Hasidism in prayer room in his house in Kock. Many Poland and home to a Hasidic dynasty of his followers left him at that time, famous for its ardent and enthusiastic although some of them stayed in town, piety. Its founder, Menachem Mendel acknowledging the leadership of the Morgenstern, was most likely born in tsaddik’s descendants after his death. His Biłgoraj. He was tutored, among others, son David (1812–1873), and grandson by the famous Hasidic master Simcha Izrael (1840–1905) succeeded him as Bunem of Przysucha and Jacob Isaac the rabbis of Kock and the rebbes of the Horowitz, called the Seer of Lublin. In local Hasidic court. ¶ The teachings of 1829, he settled in Kock. During his Menachem Mendel were popularised teaching sessions, he strove for a syn- by theVienna-born Jewish philosopher thesis of the rigorous rabbinic regula- Martin Buber, in his Tales of the Hasidim tions and most poetic mystical visions, (published in 1903–1904). The Kock of the Talmud and Kabbalah, and also tsaddik’s definition of idolatry, as writ- pursued secular learning and medieval ten down by Buber, was cited in Pope natural philosophy. He taught that there Francis’ first papal encyclical, published is but one Divine revelation and but one in 2013 by the Vatican: Idolatry is ‘when God’s will, and that a Hasid’s duty is a face addresses a face which is not a face’ to do everything to learn their hidden (Lumen Fidei, 13). „ God’s dwelling ¶ “Where does God live?” – asked the Kotzker rebbe to the surprise of the several learned men staying as guests in his house. They laughed at these words: “What are you saying, rabbi? The world is full of His wonders!” ¶ But he Kock answered his own question: “God lives wherever you let Him in.” „ Different customs ¶ A Hasid of the rebbe of Kotzk (Kock) and a Hasid of A view of Kock from the road, watercolour the rebbe of Chernobil were discussing their ways of doing things. The disci- by Zygmunt Vogel, ple of the Chernoboler rebbe said: ¶ “We stay awake every night between Thursday and , collection of the National Museum in Friday; on Friday, we give alms in proportion to what we have; and on the Sabbath, we Warsaw. recite the entire Book of Psalms.” “And we,” said the Hasid from Kotzk, “stay awake every night as long as we can; we give alms whenever we run across a poor man and happen to have money in our pockets, and we do not say the psalms it took David seventy years of hard work to write, all in a row, but [we recite them] according to the need of the hour.” ¶ Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, in: M. Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, trans. Olga Marx, New York 1991, edited. The tsaddik’s house ¶ At the inter- Abraham Josek Morgenstern, Menachem section of Wojska Polskiego, Warszaw- Mendel’s great-grandsons. ¶ The court of ska, and Polna Streets there is a wooden the first tsaddik of Kock was presumably house with a distinctive polygonal turret located in Białobrzeska (today Josele- that allows a view in all directions. How- wicza) St., near the residence of Duch- ever, this so-called “tsaddik’s house” was ess Anna Jabłonowska and Aleksandra not where Menachem Mendel lived – it d’Anstett, who presented Menachem was built at the turn of the 20th century, Mendel with two building plots in 1837. presumably as a post office. From the To this day, there are wooden build- beginning of the 1930s, however, it was ings there that might be old enough to home to the court of the last of Kotzker remember Kock’s first tsaddik and the (Kock) tsaddikim – Izrael Lejba and Hasidim making pilgrimages to see him. Duchess Anna Jabłonowska is one of those amazing women of the th century whose personalities left a lasting mark on the landscape of the towns they owned. The duchess rebuilt Kock and gave it a new urban proﬁle. A new marketplace was founded, with a network of streets radiating from it. A new The tsaddik’s house in Kock, known as rabinówka, . Photo by Mirosław Koczkodaj, collection of Duchess Anna Jabłonowska née Sapieha Community Centre in Kock town hall and other buildings were constructed in the marketplace, and the church in the southern frontage was rebuilt in a new style. For herself, Jabłonowska had a palace erected in place of the former castle, surrounded by a large park with exotic ﬂora. The designer and supervisor of the construc- tion works was Szymon Bogumił Zug, a distinguished architect of the clas- sicist period. The court of the duchess became a meeting place for eminent representatives of Poland-Lithuania’s cultural world of the day: scholars, writers, poets, painters – and even King Stanisław August Poniatowski. The Jewish community ¶ The first a Jewish district. It was there that the Jews arrived in Kock in the late 16th and most important buildings of the kahal early 17th century. Many residents of were located – the synagogue and the the town were killed during the 1648 mikveh. In a special “Proclamation” pub- Cossack Revolution. After the wars of lished in 1773, the duchess also regulated the mid-17th century, the town slowly matters for the Jews regarding judiciary regenerated, and Jews began to return matters and kahal elections, and also the as well. Towards the end of the 17th rules for resettling elsewhere and trading century, Maria Wielopolska, the owner in certain types of commodities. The of the town and niece to Queen Maria earliest known statistics for the Jewish Kazimiera (King John III Sobieski’s population of the kahal and town of Kock wife) issued a document in which she date from around that time, the second obliged local Jews to perform duties to half of the 18th century. They prove that the town the same way Christians did: to the kahal consisted of the town of Kock, provided organized help in case of fires, plus three other small towns (Serokomla, to keep night watch, and to repair roads, Wojciechów, and Adamów), and 40 bridges, and dams. ¶ A hundred years nearby villages; the number of its mem- Kock later, Duchess Jabłonowska designated bers was estimated at about 800, and they the northern quarter of the town to be all reported to the Kock kahal. The synagogue ¶ Before World War The seal of Kock’s Rabbi B. W. Rappaport, th II, the synagogue stood in the north- century, collection of eastern part of the town, on the road the National Archives leading north from the marketplace in Lublin (now Piłsudskiego St.), at the place where the road leading to the Jewish cemetery branches off near the statue of Kościuszko. The synagogue was a large brick building that combined the functions of a prayer venue and Jew- strike blew up the warehouses of a local ish communal authorities gathering. distillery. All Jewish political parties Referred to in 1933 as the Great Syna- of note, from Zionists to communists, gogue, the building was erected in the had established their branches in Kock. second half of the 19th century. It burnt The Bund and Hashomer Hatzair were down in 1899 but was soon rebuilt. The quite popular among the Jews of Kock. kahal budget for 1926–1927 included Among the trade unions, two most expenses for whitewashing and painting influential were the tailors’ union and the synagogue, repairing its floors, and the pursemakers’ union. The pursemak- putting in glass windows. In 1930, a sum ers’ activities included looking after the of money was allocated “to A. Cukier for public library, where local people could the examination of the synagogue Torah read the works of contemporary Yiddish scrolls and the synagogue itself,” and in authors and Yiddish translations of 1931–1933, a sum of 140 złoty was allo- European literature. The library hosted cated “for electrical wiring.” ¶ The com- multiple soirées at which young people munal budgets from the interwar period of all political persuasions met. Daily, mention two prayer houses in addition to weekly, and monthly papers as well as the synagogue, one of which was located magazines were distributed – according in the same building as the synagogue. ¶ to the Memorial Book of Kock, almost The mikveh stood opposite the syna- every young person bought a paper. In gogue, on the west side of Szkolna St. It the town council, consisting of more was a brick building from the second half than 20 members, almost half of the of the 19th century. It burnt down with seats were filled by Jews. the synagogue in 1899 but was rebuilt before World War I. The Jewish cemetery ¶ It is not known where the Jewish cemetery was Social organisations ¶ Numerous located before the new urban layout of organisations, societies, and political Kock was implemented in the second parties – both Polish and Jewish – half of the 18th century. A new cemetery emerged at the beginning of the 20th was established outside town, one kilom- century and during the interwar period. eter northeast of the centre, amid fields It is well preserved in the memories of gently sloping towards the south-west.

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