The Golem of Chelm – more comments from the Rav
Continuing the shiur given on Cheshvan 8, 5786 (October 30, 2025)
(Read Part 1 HERE)
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The first thing is to learn gemara, Rabbenu, to learn gemara.
Before everything, learn gemara, the first thing is to learn gemara. Now it’s 7pm, until 12 at night we learn gemara, five hours. Afterwards, sleep from 12 until 7am, seven hours is enough. At 7am we pray shacharit.
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(Skipping some)
Now, we read about the Golem of Prague, and the Golem of Chelm.
Whoever lived in Chelm used to make a golem, therefore we travelled to Chelm, we were in Chelm for a week. We wanted to create a golem.
The Chacham Tzvi brings, he says, there are witnesses [that they made a golem in Chelm]. The Chacham Tzvi writes this, this is not stam.
About the golem of the Maharal – there are no witnesses. And the whole story [about the golem of Prague], they say someone just fabricated it, just threw it [that the golem of Prague was killing the non-Jews of Prague] into some geniza.
And then they found this story, 99% didn’t believe this story – they found this tale in some geniza, that’s where they found it.
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But, about Eliyahu of Chelm [who made the golem of Chelm] – there are witnesses.
This is what the Chacham Tzvi said: there are witnesses, mamash. And the question is, if it’s permitted to include [the golem] in a minyan.
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In the halacha, it’s written that it’s permitted to include a woman in a minyan.
Let’s say a woman sitting shiva for her father, and only nine men come, and they don’t find a tenth, she can say kaddish. She can answer. Yes! The Mishna Brurah brings about the halachot of kaddish that a kosher woman can be included for kaddish.
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So, Rava created a golem.
And each person in Chelm knew how to create a golem – each person! And now, there is a question if it’s permitted to include him in a minyan. Because it’s permitted to include a woman in a minyan, but the golem is not a woman.
He’s stam, clay, he’s stam, a robot.
He just does what he’s told. So there is a question in the halacha, if it’s permitted to include a golem in a minyan.
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So, the Chacham Tzvi brings this in [responsa?] 93, there are witnesses that my grandfather created a golem.
The whole of the Chacham Tzvi, and all of Yaakov Emden, everyone came from Chelm – all the Markevet HaMishna, the Maharsha – everyone was in Chelm.
In the past, I didn’t pay attention to this, but from the time that I was in Chelm, I started to pay attention – everyone was in Chelm. And this person [R Eliyahu of Chelm who made the golem], my grandfather, everyone testified, there are witnesses about this that he created a golem.
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[The Rav reads out the text of the question that’s brought in the Chacham Tzvi, #93]:
“Morenu HaRav Eliyahu, ABD of Chelm, if it’s possible to include with the ten [men for a minyan] a golem, for every thing that is for the purposes of kedusha.”
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(Skipping some.)
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It’s written in the Zohar, that whoever doesn’t sleep in the Succah, he is Erev Rav.
Whoever doesn’t sleep in the Succah – he’s Erev Rav. He wasn’t at Matan Torah, he wasn’t at Har Sinai. He has the neshama of an Erev Rav.
Excerpted and translated from Shivivei Or, 432.
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Still no internet, so working from hotspots etc.
Not ideal for a lot of reasons… BH, I have some extra info on the Chacham Tzvi and Eliyahu of Chelm (and also, R Heshel of Krakow, of course, they are all connected….) – but that will have to wait until it’s easier to post things up.
Here’s a good site to get started learning about ‘Eliyahu, the Baal Shem of Chelm’:
https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/2768807
Snippet:
Elijah Ba‘al Shem (d. 1583) was a Polish rabbi who studied under Rabbi Solomon Luria and later became the Chief Rabbi of Chełm. He was a co–signer of the Agunah laws and, according to legend, was able to create a Golem creature with Kabbalah. Many legends surround his life in regards to this creation. Because of his mastery over the names of God, he was the first Rabbi to be given the Baal Shem title. He was the grandfather of Rabbi Tzvi Ashkenazi whose son was Jacob Emden.
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Also, see this academic paper that shows the Maharal never created a golem:
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Here’s more about R Avraham Yehoshua Heshel of Krakow (1595-1663), from the first part of the Rav’s shiur – the original ‘Pnei Yehoshua’, whose grandson also wrote a work by the same name:
https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/1201
Snippet:
His collected responsa, published in two parts (1715, 1860) as Pene Yehoshu‘a, constitutes his magnum opus. (His grandson Ya‘akov Yehoshu‘a Falk [1680–1756] wrote a work of the same name, adding the subtitle Ape zutre.) A second book, Megine Shelomoh, on eight tractates of the Talmud, defends Rashi against objections raised by the Tosafists.
One of his main students is none other than…. the SHACH.
My candidate for the real ‘Shabtai Tzvi’ (who went mad after the pogroms of 1648 and thought he was the moshiach… so many of the Sabbateans and Frankists descend from the SHACH, it’s crazy….)
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As to trying to figure out which niece of R Heshel of Krakow was the ‘aguna’ mentioned by the Rav in part one…
Good luck with that.
HERE is the family tree on geni – the ‘gatekeepers’ have been at it again, down the generations, sowing as much confusion as possible.
All this was going in against the backdrop of the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648.
And the story told about that missing ‘aguna’ is very interesting… BH we will return to it.
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Last thing, for now:
https://www.chabad.org/therebbe/letters/default_cdo/aid/1965097/jewish/Why-Chabad-Dosnt-Decorate-or-Sleep-in-the-Sukkah.htm
Feel free to let me know how you square the ‘baddd not sleeping in the Succah with the Zohar, which states:
It’s written in the Zohar, that whoever doesn’t sleep in the Succah, he is Erev Rav.
Whoever doesn’t sleep in the Succah – he’s Erev Rav. He wasn’t at Matan Torah, he wasn’t at Har Sinai. He has the neshama of an Erev Rav.
They can’t both be right.
yes. they don’t sleep in the sukkah and they don’t eat third meal on shabbos. so the thing chaza”l say separates jew from erev rav and then the thing that saves us from birth pangs of mashiach davka those thing chabad decided it’s a mitzvah to not do them.
I don’t read the news either but I was in netanya for shabbos and my relatives informed me the mayor died and I should head out of the city earlier on sunday because shiva for the mayor would be held at the nearby chabad house. naturally.
https://chabad.info/blogs/1270705/
That piece you linked to is kinda nuts… for a whole bunch of reasons.
This is also interesting: https://chabadinfo.com/bdh/bdh-great-grandaughter-of-the-rebbe-maharash-91/
Miriam Yuval’s father was Szmuel Horensztjan, who was killed in Warsaw in 1943. The bit it doesn’t tell you is that her father was part of the Warsaw Judenrat. And also, the grandson of the Rebbe Maharash. That stuff all got scrubbed… I’m not judging the Judenrat, btw, but I for sure am judging how all this information keeps getting scrubbed, so we have no idea about just what a huge part these people played, and continue to play, in running the Jewish community.
Miriam Yuval was saved by being ‘adopted’ by a polish Catholic family, and then the ‘Baddd apparently had to pay a lot of money to get her back after WW2.
Chabad’s Tzaddikim should have their reasons,that doesn’t mean the Chabad are from the Erev Rav. For example Rabbi Berland spoke well of the Rabbi and his father of the Rabbi: Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson Haqadosh zatsal.
https://shuvubonim.org/leviitzchok.html
https://ravberland.com/the-father-of-the-melech-hamoshiach (link not worked, retranslated from French to English by ChatGPT)
The father of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson zatsal
The father of the “Melech HaMoshiach”
A lesson given by Rabbi Eliezer Berland from the Tzalmon prison, on August 10, 2020.
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We spoke about the chiddushim (new teachings of the Torah) of R’ Levi Yitzhak [Schneerson, the father of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe], we transmitted them in his name. Now they brought me the book [that he wrote]. Today is the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak, who is buried in Alma Ata, a city [text missing] in Uzbekistan.
That is where he gathered the books.
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His wife, the tzaddeket, took them out through the Israeli Consulate.
She managed to bring this to the Consulate, which was able to transport these writings.
He had chiddushim on the entire SHAS – billions of chiddushim. Everything is lost to us, except what was in galut (exile). He was [text missing] years in galut, each time in a different city.
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At the beginning, he had truly been captured. Being taken by the Russians is really not a simple matter.
It’s not like being taken by the Jews, where there is a telephone here, and you have five meals a day, and you can choose what you want to eat, and there is a cafeteria here. Here it is Gan Eden on earth. Here it is the real Gan Eden, it’s in Tzalmon [prison]. Halavai, [if only] in the World to Come it will be like here.
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But over there, in Russia, the prisons… And the maskilim [Jews supposedly “enlightened” who were anti–Torah Judaism, who informed on the chassidim]. All kinds of different books, it’s… the whole book.
Today is a long night. Now it is 9 p.m. Until 9 in the morning, that is 12 hours.
This is the avoda to which R’ Levi Yitzhak was called, and he was a cousin of the Rayatz. Truly, his cousin. His father and the father of the Rayatz were brothers. The Rayatz was the son of R’ Shmuel. The father of R’ Levi Yitzhak and the father of the Rayatz were brothers.
And he married his cousin, who was his second cousin. He was already the second with the second. And R’ Menachem Mendel, the Melech HaMoshiach, [married] the daughter of the Rayatz. They were the third with the third.
At first, they were “modern”, like that, with a special hat, with an ostrich feather. But in the end, she helped him in all his studies, because he did not want to take pleasure from the kollel. He did not want to – the Melech HaMoshiach.
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So, he learned to be a marine engineer, and when he arrived at [text missing], they really didn’t want to let him into America. They said he was a communist. In the end, he entered. He managed to escape via Riga to Sweden, and from there – a boat before him was sunk, I think.
The Americans sank a boat.
They gave him a reception, and he was a marine engineer. He was in Paris for five years [text missing]. He learned to be a marine engineer, [he learned] all the seven wisdoms. And until they forced him to work on Shabbat, he always managed to avoid it.
I don’t feel well. I am sick.
They told him:
That’s it! Everything that made it possible not to do this is over!! You must work on Shabbat.
So, everyone worked on Shabbat, except the son of R’ Alter, Mordechai. Mordechai.
Mordechai was the only one who did not work on Shabbat.
Thus, R’ Menachem Mendel did not go to the Kollel, and was a marine engineer, and he was the most “kosher”, until after a year, when he had thousands of excuses for not being able to work on Shabbat, they told him:
You are obligated to work on Shabbat. You must resign!
And so, he resigned.
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In 1950, he would be the Rebbe, Menachem Mendel.
That is when the Rayatz passed away.
So his father, R’ Levi Yitzhak, passed away in Alma-Ata, and only the chiddushim from Alma-Ata remain for us. On every word of the Torah, he had thousands of chiddushim. He learned all of the Etz Chaim, all the [text missing]
Like the Rebbe, who entered our light. The Rebbe entered our light.
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At the end of the day, he passed through Oxford.
In Oxford, there is the army preparatory school. In Oxford, one learns all the tricks of the trade.
It is obligatory to learn about the Jewish wars, the Jewish Wars of Josephus, it is obligatory to learn, it is obligatory to learn how 6,000 people killed 100,000. There is nothing like it in the whole world.
At first, they were 3,000, then only 800 remained. They stood, each one, on a high watchpoint and prayed. Only 800 remained.
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This is where Shmuel HaNavi is buried.
Shmuel HaNavi was buried below, [the current location] is not the first burial place of Shmuel HaNavi. The Christians made the current burial place of Shmuel HaNavi, because he was below. It is written that the Christians moved him. They said it was not appropriate that he be buried in a valley.
So there was a promontory, and there was the place of prayer. The Hasmoneans placed the prayers, they saw everything – all the Greeks who came to fight them died. The elephants trampled everyone. They had a thousand elephants, and they trampled about 100,000 of their soldiers. [text missing] Soldiers.
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In 5710 (1950), he would become a Rebbe, Menachem Mendel. That is when the Rayatz died.
Thus, his father, R’ Levi Yitzhak, died in Alma-Ata, and only the chiddushim of Alma-Ata remain for us. On every word of Torah, he had thousands of chiddushim. He studied all of the Etz Chaim, all the [text missing].
Like the Rebbe, who entered our luz. The Rebbe entered our luz.
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At the end of the day, he passed through Oxford.
In Oxford, there is the military preparatory school. In Oxford, one learns all the tricks of the trade.
It is obligatory to learn the Jewish wars, the Jewish Wars of Josephus, it is obligatory to learn how 6,000 people killed 100,000 people. There is nothing like it in the whole world.
At first, they were 3,000, then only 800 remained. They all stood on a high watchtower and prayed. Only 800 remained.
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This is where Shmuel HaNavi is buried. Shmuel HaNavi was buried below, [the current location is not the first burial place of Shmuel HaNavi. The Christians made the current burial location of Shmuel HaNavi, because it was below. It is written that the Christians moved him. They said it was not appropriate for him to be buried in a valley.
Thus there was a promontory and there was the place of prayer. The Hasmoneans placed the prayers, they saw everything that happened – all the Greeks who came to fight them died. The elephants trampled everyone. They had a thousand elephants and they trampled about 100,000 of their soldiers. [text missing] Soldiers.
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And who was the ikker (the main actor)? Yehudit.
It is mentioned in Tractate Pesachim, in Megillah 2a, that Chanukah is thanks to Yehudit, who killed Nicanor. It was impossible to fight against the Greeks. The Jews had a few swords, a few arrows – if an army of 100,000 came, it was impossible.
Everyone already knew it was the end. Tomorrow, they were already going to break down the gates and enter. How much longer could they defend the gate? Another hour and another hour.
Yehudit went to the governor and she said:
I have come to “marry” you. Here, you are the commander, here, you are the commissioner, you are the messenger of Hashem. But first, I need to immerse [in a mikveh], so that when I leave to immerse in a spring, they won’t search me. Tell the guards that when I leave after the meal to go to the spring, I am not to be searched. A spring is at zero degrees.
Meanwhile, they brought her a sword, and she cut off his head.
She cut off his head! She cut off his head.
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the Rayatz, was the 6th Chabad Rebbe. He passed away on 10 Shvat 5710 (1950).
The Rav this week called the deputy Attorney General who faked the whole Sde Teiman a big tzaddeket… If you really follow who the Rav calls ‘big Tzaddikim in his shiurim, the picture becomes far more complex.
Personally, I think it may be connected to Rabbenu’s lesson of Azamra – where you ‘see the good’ in the reshaim, and that’s what actually elevates that good back to God, and causes ‘the bad’ to finally fall away.
Of course there is tremendous good in Chabad, and many Chabad people are very caring, sincere Jews. We are talking about the theology here, and also the leadership. Things are not simple – particularly, as so much of the information that would start to fill out the picture and demonstrate how many bad pies Chabad leaders have had their fingers in, down the years, all gets scrubbed, and scrubbed some more.
One more point to note: notice, that the Rav refers to Levi Yitzhak as ‘the father of the Melech Moshiach’. The late Rebbe was not the ‘Melech Moshich’ – even if you argue he was totally, 100% who they say he was, and not an asset working for the CIA, or something. Why would Rav Berland introduce his father like this?
Something to think about.