Rav Avrohom Hamalach Friedman
The son of the Maggid of Mezritch, called the Malach (the Angel) for his holiness and seclusion, whose teachings are gathered in Chesed L'Avrohom.
Biography
Early years
Rav Avrohom HaMalach Friedman zy"a, known as the Malach (the Angel), was the son of Rav Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch and successor of the Baal Shem Tov. He was born around 5501 (1741).
For many years the Maggid had no children. After he met the Baal Shem Tov, his master declared that, frail as he was, he would live long and father a son so pure and holy that people would hardly think him human. It is told that an angel appeared to the boy's mother to announce his birth. The chassidim called him the Malach for this reason, and because, like his holy father, he seemed free of earthly temptation.
From his earliest youth, Rav Avrohom lived an other-worldly life. He spent the whole day in his room, wrapped in his tallis and crowned with tefillin, immersed in Torah, so that he could neither see nor be seen and was shielded from the material world. He often afflicted himself with fasts and self-denial. His grandson, Rav Yisroel of Rizhin, recalled that when Rav Zusia of Onipol pronounced Hashem's Name, he trembled with fear, and his blood ran cold, and he had to ask Hashem to shield him from such awe. But his own grandfather, he said, was an angel who lived on no more than a pigeon skin a day, and his fear of Hashem never left him for a moment.
When the Maggid sought a bride for him, the Malach exclaimed, "How can one descend to such physicality?" Only for the sake of the mitzvah did he agree to marry. His wife was the daughter of Rav Meshulam Feivish of Kremenitz, author of Mishnas Chachamim, a man so devoted to his learning that he declined to attend his own daughter's wedding, to avoid bitul Torah (wasting time from learning). Rav Feivish's wife found the idea amusing, since she had never heard of the Maggid and her daughter was only twelve years old, but Rav Feivish agreed to the match.
As the engagement agreement was being written, the Maggid's emissaries stressed that the wedding must not be delayed. The wedding and the week of sheva brachos were filled with joy, festivity and divrei Torah. The bride's mother returned to Kremenitz delighted, for she had never seen anything like it.
Torah and leadership
Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of Chabad, learned hidden Torah from the Malach, while Rav Shneur Zalman taught him the revealed Torah. Once, while they were learning together, the Malach explained a simple, straightforward passage of revealed Torah as if it were deep Kabbalah. Rav Shneur Zalman complained to the Maggid that his son was learning nigla (revealed Torah) as if it were nistar (hidden Torah). The Maggid answered, "Leave him alone. Study in your way and let him study in his. You will show him the outer garments, and he will show you the hidden depths within."
Rav Avrohom did not succeed his father as leader of the chassidic movement. He kept so far from the world that, although chassidim and tzaddikim held him in great esteem, he could not lead others. He said of himself that there is a kind of tzaddik who cannot lead his generation, for people cannot relate to him. His intellect is so lofty that he cannot sink low enough to lift them up.
Rav Nachum of Chernobyl secured a position for him as maggid in Fastov, far from the center of Chassidus, and there he remained in seclusion for the rest of his days. Chassidus rests on the Rebbe, the tzaddik of the generation, and the Malach is remembered as the tzaddik who stood apart from his generation.
His avodas Hashem was intense. It is told that once, as he davened, his soul began to leave his body. Rav Shneur Zalman told those near him to replace his Rashi tefillin with those of Rabbeinu Tam, and only then did the Malach return to himself.
Teachings and seforim
Some of the Malach's teachings were gathered in the volume Chesed L'Avrohom. Two of his best-known sayings, on lines of the Shabbos tefillah, appear under his teachings.
Later years and passing
Rav Avrohom passed away on 12 Tishrei 5537 (1776), at the young age of thirty-six, and was laid to rest in Fastov. Rav Pinchas Koritzer said of him that had he lived longer, all the tzaddikim of the generation would have bowed before him.
It is told that Rav Nachum of Chernobyl heard of the passing a few days later, on Sukkos. He banged his head against the wall and wept without stopping for two hours. At last his chassidim carried him into the sukkah and reminded him, "Rebbe, remember that today is Yom Tov." Only then did he calm himself and begin to speak of the Malach's greatness.
Chassidim say, in the name of Rav Meir of Premishlan, that the Malach lived just long enough to free the soul of Rav Yisroel of Rizhin from the "treasure house of souls." Rav Yisroel himself believed that his grandfather was that rare tzaddik who could cling to his Creator constantly. When Rav Moshe of Savran remarked that the Malach had not lived very long, Rav Yisroel answered that this did not matter. A person comes into this world only to accomplish what is good for his soul, and when he has finished, he returns to the Source from which his soul was hewn.
Legacy
Rav Avrohom's sons were Rav Shalom Shachna of Prohobitsh and Rav Yisroel Chaim of Ludmir. Chassidim remember the Malach as a tzaddik who forever sought the satisfaction found in Hashem, an angel in human form.
Stories
You Saw Your Malochim
Rav Moshe Mordechai, the late Kopyczynitzer Rebbe and a descendant of the Malach, passed on an account he had heard from his father. Rav Meshulam Feivish of Kremenitz, author of Mishnas Chachamim, was so constant and devoted in his learning that he stayed away from his daughter’s wedding to the Malach, so as not to lose time from Torah.
Afterward Rav Feivish learned how great his new mechutan, the Maggid, really was, and resolved to go and visit him. He came on a Friday afternoon, hoping for an invitation to the Shabbos meals. The Maggid instructed the Malach, his son, to have his wife’s father join them as a guest for the seudah that night.
As the Malach entered the house with Rav Feivish, he began singing Sholom Aleichem, greeting the malochim that escort a Jew home from shul on Friday night. Just then Rav Feivish fainted. After he was revived, the Malach said to him, “You saw your malochim. If you had seen my malochim, if you had seen my malochim...”
Chassidim understood that Rav Feivish had truly beheld the malochim who accompanied him home from shul that week. Had he seen those who accompany his son-in-law, they said, those around him might not have succeeded in reviving him.
The Haughty Mountain
It is told that when the Malach once visited his father-in-law in Kremenitz, the whole town came out to greet the man everyone called the Malach. He took no notice of them and simply gazed at a tall mountain. The crowd waited anxiously for a word from him, but he stayed lost in thought.
In the crowd was a young mitnaged (opponent of Chassidus) who was very impressed with his own learning and family background, and not at all impressed by this strange behavior. He could not hold himself back. "Why are you staring at that mountain for so long?" he demanded. "It is only a heap of earth."
"I am amazed," the Malach answered. "How can a simple heap of earth be proud enough to rise into a tall mountain?" The young man trembled and squirmed as the words sank into his heart.
The Inheritance
It is told that the Malach once said to his father, the Maggid, that he had no connection to a father of flesh and blood, for his soul yearned for his exalted Father in Heaven. The Maggid asked him how, if that was so, he had accepted an inheritance. The Malach declared, "I hereby renounce it." At that moment fire engulfed his house and consumed everything the Maggid had left him.
Soon afterward, on erev Yom Kippur, the Malach put on the white silk bekeshe that his father had worn on the High Holidays. As he entered the shul, the flame of a lit candle leaped onto the robe and burned it up. Chassidim understood that in this way his last ties to his forebears, and to all flesh and blood, were severed.
Awe Before the Malach
It is told that the Malach's holiness brought such awe that even great men could barely bear it. The Baal Shem Tov's grandsons, Rav Moshe Chaim Ephraim and Rav Baruch, once came to see him. Afraid to enter his room, they peeked in through a window. When the Malach got up and Rav Baruch looked at his face, he was so frightened that he grabbed his brother and ran, leaving his books and his coat behind.
Once, Rav Nachum of Chernobyl performed a bris milah, and the Malach was the sandek. A large crowd had gathered in the shul, eager to see the secluded Malach, but when he arrived, all but twenty of them bolted, and even the shamash was afraid to speak to him. As the Malach approached the bimah, Rav Nachum was so startled that he dropped the mohel's knife and forgot whether he had said the blessing.
When he got home, Rav Nachum sat down silent and bewildered. His attendant brought him coffee, and twice he refused it, saying, "How can we drink when there is a man who serves Hashem on such a lofty level?"
Twelve More Years
It is told that the Malach's wife was no simple woman. Twice she dreamed that a court of distinguished-looking sages wanted to take her husband away, and both times she cried out and argued his case. In the third dream, the court ruled that her defense was so strong that he would be allowed to stay with her for another twelve years. The next morning the Maggid thanked her warmly, for her efforts had gained his son twelve more years of life.
After the Maggid's passing, he appeared to his daughter-in-law in dreams whenever the need arose. One night he told her to tell her husband to change rooms, or at least to move his books into hers. The Malach brushed the matter aside. The following night a fire broke out in his room and burned his entire library.
Dreams After the Passing
After the shivah for the Malach, his wife came to Fastov to receive what he had left her. His followers tried to comfort her, but she could not be consoled. That night she dreamed that she entered a great and beautiful palace, where she saw her husband, his face radiant with joy, together with several distinguished elders. He told them that his wife had always said he was too abstemious, and that she had been right, and he asked her forgiveness in their presence. "I forgive you with all my heart," she replied.
He went on to say that the Torah permits her to remarry, especially since she was only twenty-four years old, and he would not stand in her way. But if she agreed not to marry another, he would cover all her expenses and her children's, and each child would already have a fitting match waiting when she returned home. When she got home, her children soon found good shidduchim, and her business improved and provided for all her needs. The Malach continued to appear in her dreams whenever it was needed.
When the wife of Rav Nachum of Chernobyl passed away, Rav Nachum thought of marrying the Malach's widow, and he sent the Malach's son, Rav Shalom Shachna, to speak with her. On the way to his mother's home, Rav Shalom Shachna dreamed that his father stood at the entrance of a magnificent palace, his hands reaching up to its ceiling, and called out, "Who dares to enter my palace?" When he woke, Rav Shalom Shachna understood that he and Rav Nachum had overstepped.
Teachings
Standing Erect and Bowing
Quoting the Shabbos prayer, "All who stand erect shall bow before You," the Malach explained that only after a person has reached his full stature can he truly nullify himself and bow to the Eternal.
Attributed saying, on the Shabbos tefillah
Nothing Compares to You
On the words of the Shabbos tefillah, "There is none comparable to You, Hashem, our God, in this world," the Malach said that if, Heaven forbid, there were even a split second without Hashem's inspiration and providence, nothing in this world could give him anything. He would take no pleasure even in the coming of Mashiach or the revival of the dead. But if Hashem is here, then everything is here, for nothing can compare to the delight of His influence. Chassidim say that this search for the satisfaction found only in Hashem was the way of the Malach.
Attributed saying, on the Shabbos tefillah
The Tzaddik and the Redemption
The Malach traced the decline of the chassidic ideal over the generations to the terrible sufferings of exile. These sufferings should have driven the people toward their tzaddikim, through whom goodness and perfection reach the lower worlds. He saw the tzaddik as central to the redemption: Jews can rise spiritually only by gathering around him, while he in turn embraces them all and clings to Hashem.
Attributed teaching
Seforim
- Chesed L'Avrohom: A volume gathering some of the Malach's teachings.
Family & talmidim
Teachers: Rav Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch
Talmidim: Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi (learned hidden Torah from him)
Children: Rav Shalom Shachna of Prohobitsh, Rav Yisroel Chaim of Ludmir
Also on 12 Tishrei
All hilulos on 12 Tishrei ›Historical sources
- Hamodia, This Day in History, 12 Tishrei
- Shivchei HaBesht, pp. 77-80
- Dor Deah, vol. 1, p. 74
- Sippurei Chassidim, Torah p. 265; Moadim pp. 373, 426
- Migdal Oz, pp. 389-399
- Beis Rizhin