Studies in Judaism 4

Studies in Judaism 4

As Eliezer had been greatly honoured in the community in which he lived,

his orphan son was carefully tended and educated. He was early supplied

with an instructor in the Holy Law. But though he learned with rare

facility, he rejected the customary methods of instruction. One day, while

still quite young, his teacher missed him, and on seeking found him

sitting alone in the forest that skirted his native village, in happy and

fearless solitude. He repeated this escapade so often that it was thought

best to leave him to follow his own bent. A little later we find him

engaged as assistant to a schoolmaster. His duty was not to teach, but to

take the children from their homes to the synagogue and thence on to the

school. It was his wont while accompanying the children to the synagogue

to teach them solemn hymns which he sang with them. In the synagogue he

encouraged them to sing the responses, so that the voices of the children

penetrated through the heavens and moved the Divine father to compassion.

Satan, fearing lest his power on earth should thereby be diminished,

assumed the shape of a werewolf, and, appearing before the procession of

children on their way to the synagogue, put them to flight. In consequence

of this alarming incident the children's services were suspended. But

Israel, recollecting his father's counsel to fear naught, besought the

parents to be allowed to lead the children once more in the old way. His

request was granted, and when the werewolf appeared a second time Israel

attacked him with a club and routed him.

 

In his fourteenth year Israel became a beadle at the Beth Hammidrash.(4)

Here he assiduously but secretly pursued the study of the Law. Yet, being

anxious that none should know his design, he read and worked only at

night, when the schoolroom was empty and the usual scholars had retired.

During the daytime he slept, so that he was popularly believed to be both

ignorant and lazy. Despite these precautions, however, his true character

was revealed to one person. A certain holy man, the father of a young

student at the college, had discovered some old manuscripts which

contained the deepest secrets. Before his death he bade his son repair to

Ukop, Israel's birthplace, telling him that he would find one Israel, son

of Eliezer, to whom the precious documents were to be entrusted. They

possessed, so the old man declared, a certain mystic and heavenly affinity

with Israel's soul. The student carried out his father's instructions, and

at last discovered the object of his search in the beadle of the Beth

Hammidrash. Israel admitted him to his friendship and confidence on the

condition of secrecy as to his real character. The student, however, paid

dearly for this acquaintance with Israel. Contrary to Baalshem's advice,

he entered upon a dangerous incantation in the course of which he made a

mistake so serious that it cost him his life.

 

Upon the death of his friend, Baalshem left his native village and settled

as a teacher in a small town near Brody. Here, although his true mission

and character were still unknown, he became much respected for his rigid

probity, and was frequently chosen as umpire in disputes among Jews. On

one of these occasions he arbitrated with so much learning and

impartiality that not only did he satisfy both parties, but one of them, a

learned man of Brody, named Abraham, offered him his own daughter in

marriage. Israel, to whom it had been revealed that Abraham's daughter was

his predestined wife, immediately accepted the offer and the act of

betrothal was drawn up. But wishing his true character to remain unknown

he stipulated that Abraham, although a "Talmid Chacham" (student)(5)

himself and therefore presumably desirous that his daughter should marry a

scholar, should omit from the betrothal-deed all the titles of honour

usually appended to the name of a learned bridegroom. While returning to

Brody, Abraham died, and Gershon his son, a scholar still greater and more

celebrated than his father, was surprised and shocked to find a deed of

betrothal among his father's papers, from which it appeared that his

sister was to wed a man with apparently no claim to scholarship or

learning. He protested to his sister, but she declined to entertain any

objections to a marriage which her father had arranged. When the time for

the wedding was at hand, Israel gave up his post as teacher, and repaired

to Brody. Disguised as a peasant he presented himself before his future

brother-in-law, who was then fulfilling some high judicial function.

Gershon taking him for a beggar offered him alms, but Israel, refusing the

money, asked for a private interview, stating that he had an important

secret to reveal. He then, to Gershon's surprise and disgust, explained

who he was and that he had come to claim his bride. As the girl was

determined to obey her father's will the affair was settled and the day

fixed. On the morning of the wedding Israel revealed to his bride his real

character and mission, at the same time enjoining secrecy. Evil fortunes

would befall them, he said, but a better time would eventually follow.

 

After the wedding, Gershon, having in vain attempted to instruct his

seemingly ignorant brother-in-law, decided to rid himself of his presence.

He gave his sister the choice of being separated from her husband, or of

leaving the town in his company. She chose the latter, and thereupon the

two left Brody and began a life of hardship and suffering. Israel chose

for his new home a spot on one of the spurs of the Carpathian Mountains.

No Jews lived there, and Israel and his wife were thus separated from the

society of their fellows in a life of complete and unchanging solitude.

Israel dug lime in the ravines among the mountains, and his wife conveyed

it for sale to the nearest town. Their life at this period seems to have

been one of great privation, but the harder Israel's outward lot, the more

he increased in spiritual greatness. In his solitude he gave himself up

entirely to devotion and religious contemplation. His habit was to climb

to the summit of the mountains and wander about rapt in spiritual

ecstasies. He fasted, prayed, made continual ablutions, and observed all

the customary outward and inward exercises of piety and devotion.

 

After seven years, Gershon, who was well aware of the bitter poverty which

his sister endured, relented and brought her and her husband back to

Brody. At first he employed Baalshem as his coachman, but as he proved

wholly unfit for this work Gershon rented a small inn in a remote village,

and there established his sister and her husband. The business of the inn

was managed by the wife, while Baalshem passed most of his time in a hut

in a neighbouring forest. Here he once more gave himself up to meditation

and preparation for his future work, and here, a little later, when nearly

forty-two years of age, to a few chosen spirits, afterwards his most

fervent disciples, he first revealed his true character and mission.

 

From this point unfortunately the materials for a continuous biography are

wanting; we next hear of Baalshem discharging the functions of an ordinary

Rabbi at Miedziboz in Podolia, but for the remainder of his personal

history we have to be content with detached anecdotes and fragmentary

passages in his life, the sum total of which goes to show that he resided

in Podolia and Wallachia, teaching his doctrines to his disciples and

"working Wonders." He does not seem to have figured as a public preacher,

nor has he left behind him any written work. He appears rather to have

used the method, familiar to students of Greek philosophy, of teaching by

conversations with his friends and disciples. These conversations, and the

parables with which they were largely interspersed, were remembered and

stored up by his hearers. By his neighbours the country folk, Baalshem was

regarded simply as "a man of God." He was allowed to pursue his course

undisturbed by persecution of the serious character which his more

aggressive successors provoked. Such of the Rabbis as were aware of his

existence despised him and his ways, but the Rabbinical world was at that

time too much occupied in the controversy between Eybeschütz and Emden to

concern itself with the vagaries of an obscure and apparently "unlearned"

eccentric. Baalshem also took part in the disputes which were held in

Lemberg, the capital of Galicia (1757?), between the Rabbis and the

Frankists,(6) who denounced the Talmud to the Polish Government and wanted

to have all the Rabbinical books destroyed. Baalshem suffered from this

excitement in a most terrible way. The abrogation of the Oral Law meant

for him the ruin of Judaism.

 

Baalshem, in forming the little band of devoted followers who were

destined to spread a knowledge of his creed, travelled considerably about

Wallachia. He at one time decided to make a pilgrimage to Palestine, but

when he reached Constantinople he felt himself inspired to return and

continue his work at home. He died at Miedziboz on the eve of Pentecost,

1761.

 

After his death his disciples, of whom one Beer of Mizriez was the most

prominent, undertook the proselytising mission for which Baalshem had

prepared them, but from which he himself appears to have abstained. They

preached and taught in all the provinces of Russia where Jews may reside,

and in Roumania, and Galicia. The number of the sect at the present day is

probably about half a million.

 

Returning now to Baalshem the founder, it may be noted that his appearance

as a teacher and reformer was accompanied and justified by a customary and

adequate number of miracles. To one disciple he revealed secrets which

could have become known to him only by divine revelation; to another he

appeared with a nimbus round his head. On the evidence of the Chassidim we

learn that Baalshem performed all the recognised signs and marvels which

have ever been the customary minor characteristics of men of similar type

in similar environment. When Baalshem desired to cross a stream, he spread

forth his mantle upon the waters, and standing thereupon passed safely to

the other side. Ghosts evacuated haunted houses at the mere mention of his

name. Was he alone in the forest on a wintry night, he had but to touch a

tree with his finger tips and flames burst forth. When his spirit wandered

through the angelic spheres, as was frequently the case, he obtained

access to Paradise for millions of pining souls who had vainly waited

without through long thousands of mournful years. These and other miracles

need not be examined. Here, as in the case of other such blissful seasons

of grace, they were the ephemeral though important accessories in

establishing the inspired character of his utterances and the authority of

his injunctions. It is not as a worker of miracles, but as a religious

teacher and reformer, that Baalshem is interesting.

 

Properly to understand the nature and special direction of his teaching,

it is necessary in some measure to realise the character of the field in

which he worked; to consider, in other words, the moral and religious

condition of the Jews in those districts where Chassidism first took root.

 

In a Hebrew Hymn, written about 1000 A.C., and still recited in the

synagogue on the Day of Atonement, the poet expresses the strange and

bitter fortunes of his race in touching words of mingled sorrow and

exultation.

 

 

Destroyed lies Zion and profaned,

Of splendour and renown bereft,

Her ancient glories wholly waned,

One deathless treasure only left;

Still ours, O Lord,

Thy Holy Word.