Continuing with the second part of the translated comments from the Rav.

You can read Part 1 HERE.

There is a ton of hints here about real Jewish history, BH, I will put together a separate post trying to fill out more of the picture. I’m sure we’ll all learn a lot….

Enjoy!

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R Itzik Hamburger.

There were three tzaddikim, R’ Itzik Hamburger, and there was R’ Yechezkel Landau [the Nodah be’Yehudah], and there was R’ Gershon from Kitov, the brother-in-law of the Baal Shem Tov.

They said that the wife of the Rav was assura (forbidden).

The Rav was working on behalf of the State, this was in Russia, so they said that whoever says that the wife of the Rav is assura, they would get either 100 lashes, or they would have to pay some 10,000 rubles, or 100,000 rubles.

At that time, they didn’t have what to pay 100,000 rubles with, so R’ Gershon he ran away [from the city, and the way was blocked]. Eliyahu HaNavi came and picked him up. He got to the Baal Shem Tov, R’ Gershon was the brother-in-law of the Baal Shem Tov.

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The Baal Shem Tov was also nistar (hidden).

He used to go along with boots and a long coat.

This was was the father of R’ Gershon Kitover, he made the shidduch [between the Baal Shem Tov and the sister of R’ Gershon], because the Baal Shem Tov mediated between him and another person, because once upon a time, there were no kollels.

Everyone [all the people who learned Torah] were merchants. So the Baal Shem Tov arbitrated between him and someone other person, he made a compromise.

Then, the Baal Shem Tov was just known as a melamed (teacher) of the aleph-bet. He was a teacher’s helper. Suddenly, the father of R’ Gershon grasped that the Baal Shem Tov was a huge talmid chacham, just that he was nistar. So he said to him:

Reveal to me, who you really are! How did you make the compromise between us?!

So, he revealed to him that he was the Baal Shem Tov, that he knew all of the kabbalah, and all the Gemara, and all of SHAS, and every day, that he used to finish SHAS.

So, the father of R’ Gershon immediately wrote a contract, two contracts, one contract, that I will give my daughter to you [which he gave to the Baal Shem Tov, and the second contract stating that he was giving his daughter to the BESHT, he kept for himself].

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And now, he died (immediately after writing the contracts).

He died during the journey. They opened his packages, opened his suitcases, and saw the contract [pledging his daughter to be the Baal Shem Tov’s wife].

So, R’ Gershon Kitover waited for the groom to come, who would know about the contract. Suddenly, he saw someone coming with boots up to his knees, and a fur coat of the type worn by peasants, a coat of peltz, like they used to wear in Russia.

Now, Russia is minus 30, so they walked around with heavy furs, and a peasant’s hat, that hung over the eyes, like the peasants, like someone illiterate.

He said what?! This is the shidduch for my sister?!

Immediately, R’ Gershon said [to his sister] cancel the shidduch! It’s impossible to do the shidduch without [your agreement]! “Let us call the girl and ask her decision.”[1]

She said, whatever my father wrote, it’s kadosh. Me – I don’t care about anything, let him be an am ha’aretz, let him be a peasant, let him be backward. My father – maybe the children will good, I don’t know. I’m not bothered.

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And then, before the chuppah, he revealed that he was the Baal Shem Tov, in order that she wouldn’t go to her wedding canopy with a broken heart.

In any case, R’ Gershon Kitover decided that [the BESHT] was a simple peasant, and that he was essentially a big am ha’aretz, so he bought him a horse and cart and told him go and live in some other village.

[The BESHT] used to dig clay, he used to pick up the clay, and she used to sell it. He used to dig up the clay once a week, and she [his wife] used to sell it. Clay was the way Jews made parnassa. Or, they would gather straw, go to the fields and gather straw, and sell this for mattresses, for pillows, for bedding. This was the parnassa of the Jews.

There wasn’t parnassa!

There was no bread to eat, everyone was hungry for bread, not like today, when every woman is a teacher, and head teacher, and a lawyer, and a judge, and already Prime Minister.

This was another time.

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In any case, after 10 years, the Baal Shem Tov returned from the town, and he was doing hitbodedut, he went to walk on the mountains, and the mountains joined together. There were robbers there, in the mountains. And they saw a man walking on the mountains, and suddenly, [they saw] him fall down into the chasm.

They started to scream Hello!!! Be careful!!! They saw the mountains join together, [to save the Baal Shem Tov’s life], so they decided to make teshuva.

They went to the city, [and they recounted] there is a hidden tzaddik here, he walked on the mountains, and the mountains joined together!

The moment he got to the city, the whole city ran after him. The robbers made teshuva.

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And then, [the Baal Shem Tov] got to Brody.

R’ Gershon Kitover was from Brody. This was a city of talmidei chachamim, so he was the ABD there. Just then, he was entering [Brody], so they told Gershon Kitover. [He told the BESHT], listen, you can’t just come into the town like this!

The Baal Shem Tov came with his hat over his face, his peasant hat, and with his fur down to the floor, and his boots up to his knees. [The Baal Shem Tov] told him, listen, the mezuzah is possulla (unfit).

R’ Gershon checked, and saw that it was possulla, so then he understood that the Baal Shem Tov possessed ruach hakodesh, so he immediately submitted to him. And from that point on, he became his chassid.

And then, he went to Eretz Yisrael, and he’s buried here, next to the Bartenura. They found his gravestone 30 years ago, R’ Gershon Kitover.

So, we are telling the story of how the Baal Shem Tov got married.

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[The Rav returns to the Get of Cleves].

In any case, [the bride], Leah, she was a woman yirat shemyaim (God-fearing), a young woman of 13. [She said] Until all the rabbis agree to the get, she was not going to agree [to get remarried].

So he [her ex] built [in London] the synagogue of R’ Yitzhak Hamburger, he became a very wealthy man. A milionaire. A billionaire.

He built a synagogue, it’s still standing until this day, of R Yitzhak Hamburger, R’ Yitzhak Horowitz Hamburger. He was the rav of Hamburg [text missing in original] that she wouldn’t remain an aguna.

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So, there was the Rav Yisrael Lifshitz, this was the grandfather of the Tiferet Yisrael, he was also called Yisrael Lifshitz.

He was the rabbi of Cleves. [The get was from Cleves, even though the couple weren’t from there.] He was on the way to London, the wedding was in Mannheim, and they were on the way to Bonn.

All of this was in Germany, on the Rhine.

[The groom said he was] in danger, they wanted to kill him, to give him a death sentence, there was some woman who had complained against him. So he needed to run away to England, so either he would give the get now, or he was going to vanish, and they would never find him again.

All of this he told Shimshon [R’ Shimon] Copenhagen.

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So, R’ [Tebele Haas][2] turned to the rabbis of Frankfurt, that they would also invalidate the get.

But the parents of the groom, they were against the get. They said said that he’s not insane, that he stole all of the dowry money.

The rabbi of Cleve, R’ Yisrael [who organised the get], the grandfather of the Tiferet Yisrael, Yisrael Lifshitz, said that he was totally normal. He stole a bit of money – what’s the big deal? [It didn’t mean he was insane].

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B’kitzur, there was a machloket between all the rabbis of the generation.

The Pnei Yehoshua wanted to write [and publicise] that the get was invalid, but the inkwell overturned, and splashed on everything [that he’d written about it].

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It wasn’t like today, when there is [pens and paper].

We were still writing with ink, up until the wedding, there was an inkwell, a hole in the table, there are tables like that today, it’s possible to do an inkwell with ink. And the ink spilled all the time, on the books.

And there was kishkes! Such a kishke, made from intestines, a pen made with kishkes, that you would press and it would fill up, and air would escape from the kishke, and then it would fill up with ink.

There was such a nib, made from gold, it had ‘14 carats’ written upon it, and like that they used to write, until the Parket pen came out, and after that, the pens that we have [today].

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There were no pens at all [until very recently].

I don’t know how people used to write sifrei Torah, and to write chiddushim. The Magen Avraham wrote his chiddushim on the table, he wrote on paper made of mortar, there wasn’t ‘paper’. ‘Paper’ was something very expensive, there still wasn’t industrialisation, everything was hand-made.

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R’ Shimshon Copenhagen – this was the uncle of the bride.

He was the brother of her mother. He said the get was kosher, he organised the get. [The Frankfurt Beit Din said it was possul].

R’ Abish didn’t uphold that the groom was insane, and that the get was no get, because there was some doubt about his work[3], chas v’shalom but rather, because the Beit Din and the important members of the Frankfurt kehilla didn’t give him all the letters of the rabbis, who proved that the get was kosher.

[They made sure the letters were not] given to R’ Abish, in order for him to not know that he and his Beit Din and errred, and that the get was indeed kosher. Because if he had known that he’d erred, the king would fire him.

But if he didn’t know that he’d made an error, the king wouldn’t fire him, because he would still assume that he’d paskened according to halacha, and so from this, how would the king know who was right?

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Because now, they were scared that the Nodah Be’Yehuda would be proved correct.

The Nodah Be’Yehuda said that the get was kosher, and then he would be disqualified. The king would disqualify him, the King of Denmark, of Prague, they were under Prague. This was the Principality of Prague, and every thing required the permission of the king.

If the king knew that the Rav had made an error, so he would get rid of him.

So, they were afraid to admit to the Nodah Be’Yehudah, because if they admitted to the Nodah Be’Yehudah that the get was kosher, then the Rav [Abish] had made an error, so then they’d get rid of him.

But after a year, he died, in 5529 (1768-9)

[The controversy around the Get of Cleve] began in 5526 (1765-6), and the Get of Galuna was in 5529 (1768-9).

Translated from Shivivei Or, 394.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] Parshat Chayei Sarah, 55:57.

[2] This name is given in square brackets in the original Hebrew.

[3] The Rav appears to be saying that R’ Abish didn’t uphold the get because there was some doubt about the organisers’ abilities in arranging it, but for the reason that follows.