|
By The Chief Rabbi Dr. Lilienthal
No. II.
It is, alas, too well known, how mournful is at
present the situation of the Jews under the Russian government; but to
judge rightly of the whole of their condition, it needs to hold a
general survey; and promising to give in those pages a general outline
of the state of the Jews in Russia, let us begin with their religious
sects. Although the Jews in Russia, as everywhere, adhere to the general
principle of our religion, and cannot be said, as it is the case with
the followers of Christianity, to hold different views in essential
points: yet they can be divided into six different classes. The first
are the Jews of the Baltic provinces, where they are only permitted to
live in Riga, in Livonia, and in the state of Courland. As those Baltic
provinces: which belonged formerly to Germany, are full of German
civilization; and are far ahead in enlightenment of all other Russian
provinces: so do the Jews who live here approximate the nearest to the
German Jews in their religious ideas.
Long ago, before the peculiar Jewish dress was
prohibited, a great many could be seen here dressed after the German
fashion, speaking pure German, and having their whole house arranged
after the German custom. The works of a Mendelssohn were here,
טרפה פסול , the children visited the
public schools, the academies, and universities; but, again, it is true
enough, that from the thirty thousand apostates, who live in Petersburg
and Moscow, the greater part hails from the Baltic provinces. Those men,
who have acquired, from study, an idea of the rights of man, and that
the Jew ought to enjoy the same privilege with every other citizen;
those men, who tried by the knowledge they had obtained, to open for
themselves better prospects for life, and seeing now every hope
frustrated by laws inimical to them only as Jews, ran, from mere
despair, into the bosom of the Greek church. The harassing cares for a
living, the terrible difficulties to surmount it, forced them, in an
hour of distress, to deny their faith. I always compared them with the
אנוסים (forced converts) of Spain.
Among them is no religious indifference, as is the case in western
Europe and Germany; and I have met with many an apostate Jew there, who,
with tears in his eyes, complained of the heartburning and the pangs of
his conscience, and they look at themselves as eternally lost. Those
tears will show a heavy balance against Czar Nicolas, when he, bereft of
his earthly power, stands before the eternal tribunal.
The second class are the Jews of the states of
Wilna, Minsk, Grodno, and Bialystok. Here is the great home of
talmudical lore; for centuries were here living the Coryphaei of the
later rabbinical literature. Here flourished the ש"ך as Parnass of Wilna; here, as
Rabbi, the celebrated Gaon Eliyahu, and it was Wilna which took such a
lead in Jewish colleges and Jewish sciences, that it was called
עיר ואם בישראל the metropolis and
mother of Israel. A disciple of the Gaon, Rabbi Chayim, is the founder
of the Yeshiba in Walosin, which, at this day, is still flourishing, and
was the alma mater of numberless renowned talmudists, who spread their
glory over the whole empire. And, when I visited the present Rector, the
Rosh Yeshiba Rabbi Yitzchak, in the year 1842, the college numbered more
than three hundred students. This zealous study of the Talmud, the
tenacious orthodox hold with which they observe all points; the
clearness and acuteness of mind with which they argue every case of the
Talmud, characterize them, and keep them far from the visionary views of
the Chasidim, who call them therefore their opponents
מתנגדים .
The first class of the Chasidim we find under the
name “Lechawitzer,” (from the town of Lechawitz,) in all the southern
provinces of Russia, where Jews are permitted to sojourn. They adhere
more to the Kabbalah than to the Talmud, although they acknowledge its
authority. They distinguish themselves less by a thorough knowledge of
the Kabbalah, or by a full acquaintance with the theosophical works of
the Zohar, than by the strongest belief in wonders and superstitions;
the Rabbi is their idol, his word is law, and cannot be revoked. He has
not the limited power of a Rabbinical Talmid Chacham; but he is viewed
as inspired by the divine spirit, and as in connexion with angels; he is
revered as a worker of miracles, who can see into futurity, and he is
looked upon, although these men are very often but little learned, as
the powerful mediator in the divine counsels. I was often astonished how
Jews could arrive to such superstition, to such a reverence of human
saints;—but facts are stubborn things, and gainsay all doubts. I was
often astonished how Jews, really intelligent in all worldly affairs,
could be so deaf to every rational objection; but alas, it is too true,
that a superstition reigns here, which is an entire stranger to the pure
and undefiled principles of the Jewish faith, which they cannot
comprehend. Therefore, we find here so little knowledge of rabbinical
literature, so much distaste for scientific culture, which brought about
many a blunder and excited early the unfavourable opinion which the
Russian government has of our people.
Another class, again, are the Jews of Odessa. As
this city is the only European one from Petersburg to the Black Sea, so
are also the Jews residing here among all their southern brethren, the
only ones who have a high state of civilization. They are mostly
emigrants from Gallicia, where the schools of the blessed Pearl of
Tarnopol and Brody wrought so much good. Disciples of these schools
brought with them a spirit diametrically opposed to the Chasidim, so
that the Chasidical Rabbi Yisrolzi said: “He sees round Odessa the
flames of the Gehinam.” And under the humane treatment of the generous
Governor-general, Count Woronzoff, the condition of the Jews of this
city developed itself to such a height, that the Emperor said, after a
visit to the Jewish institutions there, “In Odessa I have also seen
Jews, but they were men.” The school of this congregation, under the
direction of the learned Stern, a scholar of Pearl, is an institution,
the yearly expenses of which amount to twenty-eight thousand rubels
banco [ ? ] and is attended annually by four to five hundred scholars of
both sexes, and has diffused, for many years, a great deal of knowledge
among the inhabitants. This congregation enjoys also a divine service,
in which order reigns throughout, and a splendidly-trained choir assists
the minister during worship. In most of the families can be found a
degree of refinement which may easily bear comparison with the best
French saloons.
From here, eastward, we find Jews in the states of
Poltava, Cherson, and Ekaterinaslav, who reckon themselves as belonging
among the Leuchawitzer Chasidim, but have already more of Russian
nationality. Although they speak, as yet, the Jewish jargon, it is,
nevertheless, already mixed up with a great many Russian words. On the
ordinary week days they dress already in Russian style; they are entire
strangers to modern scientific education.
To the north of this we pass the states of
Tschernigoff, Witebsk, and Mohilev, the home of another sect of
Chasidim, the Chabadniki, from
חכמה בינה דעה
knowledge, understanding, wisdom. From these words we should judge that
though they enforce a study and thorough knowledge of the Kabbalah, and
although they cannot be entirely cleared from the charge of superstition
and the belief in the power of their Rabbi: yet we find among them a
more positive knowledge of the Theosophy of the Zohar.
The family
Schneyersohn, to which their Rabbis belong, embraces great Talmudists,
and Rabbi Salman was a man of great learning, and he edited some very
valuable works. Yet all the Chasidim together were excommunicated by the
renowned Gaon of Wilna, Rabbi Eliyahu, which excommunication brought
about enmities and denunciations before the government.*
Differing from each other, therefore, as we find
the Jews in Russia in their religious views, yet they all are sedulous
in a warm attachment to the religion of their forefathers. The power
with which they feel attached, the adoration which they feel for
everything Jewish, inspires them with a resignation which braves all the
machinations of the Emperor to bring them from their faith. Thousands
would rather be martyrs מוסרי נפש and
sacrifice their life, before yielding in the least degree; and only the
refined policy of the Czar may attain, after years of trouble, something
of that mournful end, which he aims at with such consistent
perseverance.
(To be continued.) |
