BATTLING THE MODERN-DAY REFORM MOVEMENT

Dear Reader sh’yichyeh,

I would like to start off with a story that I heard from the first Shliach to Cincinnati, where I live on Shlichus, Rabbi Shalom Ber Kalmanson: Shortly after my marriage in Montreal, I began working at Beis Rivka there and founded camp Pardes Chana in memory of Rebbetzin Chana a”h, the Rebbe’s mother. Later on, I had various shlichus opportunities, and on Lag B’Omer, 5734 (1974), I and my wife had yechidus with the Rebbe.

I asked the Rebbe to tell me what was my shlichus . The Rebbe looked at the note with the various suggestions and said, “How about considering Cincinnati?” Until then I had never heard of Cincinnati and didn’t even know where it was located, but if the Rebbe said Cincinnati, that’s what it would be! I made a pilot trip and quickly realized that this was not going to be easy. Cincinnati had many Jews, but most of them were associated with the Reform movement. In fact, the Reform headquarters is located in Cincinnati. At Reform’s Hebrew Union College they train future leaders of the Reform movement. Some referred to it as the l’umas zeh (antithesis) of Crown Heights.

At my next yechidus, for my birthday on 4 Tishrei, I asked the Rebbe what message I should bring with me to my work in Cincinnati. The Rebbe said, “The Tzemach Tzedek fought to get Lilienthal (one of the leading Maskilim) out of Russia. When he arrived in the United States, he settled in Cincinnati and founded the Reform movement. Now, the descendants of the Tzemach Tzedek need to win a decisive victory over the descendants of Lilienthal.”

Who was Lilienthal and what fight did he have with the Tzemach Tzedek? Max Lilienthal held a doctorate from the University of Munich when Ludwig Philippson recommended him to head a school inspired by the Enlightenment in Riga, then a part of the Russian Empire. He arrived in Riga in 1840. He made a greater impact with the Minister of National Enlightenment, Sergey Uvarov, than he did with the school. The next year, Uvarov summoned Lilienthal to serve as the Ministry of National Enlightenment’s “learned Jew.” Lilienthal’s most important task was to convince the Jews of the importance of enlightened education.

Lilienthal summoned committees from the various Jewish communities in the Pale of Settlement to provide recommendations on the reform of the schools, but the notion of reform was so controversial that many boycotted. Nonetheless, Lilienthal embarked on ambitious plans for the creation of Haskalah inspired schools in Russia. He invited his peers in Central Europe to come teach at Russian schools. Lilienthal did not understand the degree to which the Russian Jews resented having a foreign-inspired education imposed upon them.

In 1843 the Russian Government announced that a conference was to be held at Petersburg for the purpose of deciding important religious problems. It was the intention of the government, at the instigation of the Maskilim, to use the conference as a means to introduce into the school system innovations which would interfere with traditional procedures in Jewish education and prayer. A Rabbinical Commission composed of leaders of Chassidim and Misnagdim was convened to plan how best to combat the threat the conference posed. The Tzemach Tzedek was appointed to the commission.

The first meeting between the Tzemach Tzedek and Rabbi Yitzchok of Volozhin, the leader of the Misnagdim, made a favorable impression on both of them. Observers remarked that the meeting proved to the Misnagdim that the Chassidim were Torah scholars and convinced the Chassidim that the Misnagdim were pious. This rapprochement and communal cooperation had salutary effects on the general relationship between Chassidim and Misnagdim. The antagonists were reunited and began to work together for the common cause of traditional Judaism.

At the first meeting of the government-called conference in 1843, the Tzemach Tzedek expressed his opinion that the purpose of the conference could only be to encourage religious observance among the Jews and he reiterated the indefensibility of tampering even with Jewish custom, since “customs are also considered Torah.” Despite threats by the chairman of the conference, a Minister of Government, the Tzemach Tzedek showed unswerving determination to oppose any proposed change of any Jewish custom whatsoever.

“We were not summoned to legislate,” he said. “We are here to clarify statutes previously decided in the laws of the Mosaic faith. We are here to clarify too, the customs of Israel, to protect both the commandments of G‑d and Jewish usage from tampering.” The conference ended without the adoption of any of the changes proposed by the Maskilim. The Tzemach Tzedek’s resoluteness and selflessness impressed all the participants and enhanced his already considerable reputation.

The Rebbe (HaYom Yom 23 Cheshvan) tells us of a correspondence that took place by that conference: “The Tzemach Tzedek was arrested twenty-two times during the Rabbinical conference in Petersburg, in 5603 (1843), for opposing the demands of the government regarding changes in education, etc. The minister in charge confronted him: “Is this not rebellion against the government?!” The Tzemach Tzedek answered: “A rebel against the government is liable to be punished by death of the body; a rebel against the Kingdom of Heaven is punishable by death of the soul. Now which is worse?”

In addition (28 Teves): “The published text of the Tzemach Tzedek’s Seifer HaChakira, also called Derech Emuna, lacks many glosses. The Tzemach Tzedek composed it in connection with his journeys to Petersburg, where he was required to reply to several questions on these themes.”

In 1845 Lilienthal left Russia and eventually settled in Cincinnati. The exact cause for his quick decision to leave is a source of great discussion. The following is what we know from the Frierdike Rebbe (sicha of Rosh Hashana 5701, pg. 26): “On the first night of Rosh HaShana, the Alter Rebbe did not speak. He only repeated teachings of the Baal Shem Tov that he had heard from the Maggid [of Mezritch]. Before the observer stood a man deep in thought, with the dread and awe of G‑d apparent on his face. The Mitteler Rebbe did speak on the first night of Rosh HaShana, but only about the Sefira of Malchus in the World of Atzilus. The Tzemach Tzedek used to discuss the subject of earthly kingship, and by doing so he would deploy his “subcontractors” in Petersburg.

[Two possible meanings for this metaphor: (a) by the power of his words, the Tzemach Tzedek ensured the success of the chassidim whom he had dispatched to lobby in the ruling circles in Petersburg for the good of Jewry; (b) on several occasions, the Rebbe quoted the Rebbe Rayatz as saying that on the first night of Rosh HaShana, the Tzemach Tzedek used to “set things in order in Petersburg”; he would “promote ministers and depose them,” thereby making them his mere “subcontractors.”]

The Rebbe Maharash never spoke on the first night of Rosh HaShana except for once, when he said: “Thinking is effective and speaking is certainly effective, so today, when both are present, he can already perish.” He was referring to a certain anti-Semitic governor, who in fact immediately fell ill.

On Rosh Hashana 5704 (Sichos 5704 pg. 4), the Frierdike Rebbe added: “The Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, turned the famous Maskil Lilienthal into a refugee – someone that had to run away from Russia – through his davening, and speaking, on a certain Rosh HaShana. Lilienthal was very close to the government and was supposed to travel on that Rosh Hashana to Petersburg to implement his educational program. Suddenly he was accused of stealing money, which in truth he did not steal, and had to steal across the border to escape the authorities. He eventually ended up in Cincinnati and founded the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati.”

Dear Chassidim sh’yichyu,

Baruch Hashem, as a general rule, the Rebbe has been victorious in his fight – as Moshiach will “fight the wars of Hashem” – and, especially through his Shluchim, has totally changed the landscape of Judaism. This has even affected the reform movement itself. To quote one of their largest publications: “At the same time, though, the Reform movement is becoming more traditional, in the sense of adding more Hebrew to services and incorporating more observances into the average family’s Jewish life. A generational split is emerging, with younger Reform Jews hungry for more traditional ways to incorporate Jewish meaning into their lives, while the older generation is more reticent to adopt new practices that may change the feel of Reform worship and lifestyle.”

Now we need to battle a new “Haskala movement,” the Haskala movement inside each and every one of us! In the words of the Rebbe (HaYom Yom 12 Teves): “In 5648 (1887), my revered father, the Rebbe [Rashab], was elected gabbai of the Chevra Kadisha. Following the local custom, he was escorted by a large number of townsmen to the synagogue on Simchas Torah. There he delivered the maamer that begins, Ein HaKadosh-Baruch-Hu Ba BiTrunia, and concluded with these words: “Even those of superior intellect who are here now must put their minds aside and not follow their own reasoning, for their minds can mislead them to the extent of (Heaven forbid) a bitter end.”

This is the fundamental point in this era of Ikvisa d’Meshicha: not to follow one’s intellect and reasoning, but rather to observe the Torah and its mitzvos with artless sincerity and simple faith in the G‑d of Israel.

Rabbi Avtzon is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Lubavitch Cincinnati and a well sought-after speaker and lecturer. Recordings of his in-depth shiurim on Inyanei Geula u’Moshiach can be accessed at http://www.ylcrecording.com.