19 Elul 5770
Yesterday was Shabbat, 18 Elul. In Hebrew the number 18 is “yod (י), chet (ח)”—“chai,” which means “life.” Elul is the month whose significance is all about teshuvah—“returning” to Gd. The 18th of the month then is a special time, in which a new energy of “life” is enthused into the month, as we continue the journey through time until Rosh Hashanah.
Two very illustrious figures in the Chasidic world were born on 18 Elul: the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe. Both of these figures changed the Jewish world at a time when the communities of Europe were going through a particularly dark period. Their births, on “CHAI Elul” portended new life coming into these communities, as the King in the field was listening and then responding with a message.
Earlier, in the seventeenth century, when the Shabbetai Tzvi movement swept through Europe, the Jewish people were certain the mashaich had arrived and would soon take everyone triumphantly to Eretz Israel. Literally hundreds of thousands of people ecstatically hailed Shabbetai Tzvi the long-awaited mashiach—incredibly, in a time long before modern mass communication. In the year 1666 (notice this infamous number) he bowed to the threatening demand of the sultan of Turkey and converted to Islam. This failure, when the people were so certain of the imminent fulfillment of messianic hopes, utterly shattered the Jewish communities of Europe.
The Baal Shem Tov–Rabbi Yisrael ben Eliezer—was born in the year 1698. This was 32 years after the downfall of the failed mashiach. There is a very sweet message in this number: the number 32 in Hebrew is “lamed” (ל), “bet” (ב), which spells the Hebrew word for “heart”—lev לב. The heart of Hashem broke over the broken heart of the Jewish people, and He sent a gift of His heart on CHAI Elul—the auspiciously timed birth of the Baal Shem Tov.
One of the principle leaders of the Shabbetian movement was Jacob Frank, whose goal was to attack the validity of the Talmud. In the anti-Semitic atmosphere of Christian Europe, this encouraged public Talmud burnings. When the bishop of Lemberg forced the Jews to debate the Frankists, the Baal Shem Tov was a member of the Jewish team. After the Jews won the debate, the Frankists were forced to convert to Christianity. The Talmud was saved from being burnt, so it seemed like a happy outcome. Yet the Baal Shem Tov did not rejoice over the downfall of his enemies, for he said: “The Divine Presence wails and says, ‘So long as a limb is attached to the body there is still a hope that there can be a cure, but once the limb is cut off there is no cure forever.’ And every Jew is a limb of the Divine Presence.”[1] How his own heart reflected that of the Shekinah and cried for the people of Israel!
Rabbi Shneur Zalman Borukhovich of Liadi, known as the Alter Rebbe, the first rebbe of the Lubavitch Chasidic (Chabad) movement, was born on 18 Elul in the Gregorian year 1745. He was the author of the Tanya, the magnum opus of Chabad, and was thus also known as Baal HaTanya (Master of the Tanya). The Tanya explains Jewish spirituality from a kabbalistic perspective.
From the time of the Baal Shem Tov, the Chasidic movement was meant to lift the simple person to a higher relationship with Hashem through prayers of the heart. The opponents (mitnagdim) in the Torah world, were concerned that there was not going to be sufficiently serious emphasis on Torah study as they watched these people act wildly in synagogues. So soon after the disaster of Shabbetai Tzvi, the rabbis worried that this was another sectarian break that would take the people away from true Judaism. On the one hand, this opposition sometimes became overly stringent—even mean—but in hindsight, it may have been a key element in forcing the Chasidic leadership to implement serious Torah study in their ranks.
The Alter Rebbe was a target of the mitnagdim, who were students of the Gaon of Vilna. The overly zealous opponents falsely accused the Rebbe of subversive activities to the Russian authorities, and he was imprisoned. It should be noted that while the Gaon of Vilna opposed the dangers of the Chasidic movement, he did not condone the actions of his followers that endangered the Alter Rebbe. However, he refused to ever meet with the Rebbe, but never revealed the real reason.
As stated above, the opposition challenged the Chasidim to serious Torah study. Rabbi Zalman Shneur was a brilliantly talented Torah student from a very early age. While he could have gone in the rationalistic direction of Talmud scholarship of the famous Lithuanian schools, he chose instead to pursue the Chasidic path of the prayer of the heart.
It used to be said: “In Vilna they knew how to study; in Meseritch they knew how to pray.” Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the saintly Sage of Liadi, knew how to do both. He bridged the gap between the mind and heart by his masterly synthesis of intellect and emotion within the framework of Chabad ideology.[2]
Far from a devastating break with Judaism that the mitnagdim feared it would be, the Chasidic movement breathed new life into the Jewish people during the very dark post-Shabbetai Tzvi period. Started by the Baal Shem Tov, it was continued by men like the Alter Rebbe, who taught that anyone can lift his heart to Hashem and draw down divine light into his life and into the world.
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Miriam Ben-Yaacov © August 2010
[1] Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov, Jewish Virtual Library, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/baal.html.
[2] The Alter Rebbe, Chabad.org., www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/109626/jewish/Arrest-Release-and-the-French-Pursuit.htm.
Healing Well of Miriam 
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