Rav Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter
The second Rebbe of Ger, grandson of the Chidushei Harim, whose Sefas Emes on the Torah is studied across the Torah world and whose tears were shed for every Yid.
Biography
Early years
Rav Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter zy"a, known to the world as the Sefas Emes, was born in Warsaw on erev Rosh Chodesh Iyar 5607 (1847). His father, Rav Avrohom Mordechai, was the eldest son of the Chidushei Harim, the first Rebbe of Ger.
The boy lost his mother when he was only two years old, and his father passed away when he was still a child of eight or nine. From then on he was raised by his holy grandfather, who treated him as a son, and who did not hold back from rebuking him when he felt it was needed.
It is told that once, when the young boy arrived late to the shiur, the Chidushei Harim rebuked him in public, and the boy accepted it in silence. His friends knew that he had been awake all night learning, and they asked why he had not explained this to his grandfather. He answered, “It wouldn’t have been worth forfeiting my grandfather’s rebuke.”
As a youth he slept as little as possible and ate very little. He gave eighteen hours of each day to the Gemara, the Zohar and the classic seforim of Chassidus, and he became a gaon in both nigleh (the revealed Torah) and nistar (the hidden Torah). In his later years, when he grew weak, he said, “I feel that my body is weak probably due to my minimal sleep and food when I was young. I don’t regret the missing sleep, because mi’ut sheinoh is one of the ways with which Torah is acquired, but I do regret not having eaten properly, for now I am suffering the consequences.”
After his bar mitzvah he married a granddaughter of Rav Boruch Taam, and he continued to live in Ger with the Chidushei Harim.
Torah and leadership
The Chidushei Harim passed away on 23 Adar 5626 (1866), and the young Rav Yehuda Leib was appointed av beis din (head of the rabbinical court) of Ger. He refused to take the place of Rebbe. Instead he travelled together with the chassidim to Rav Chanoch Henoch of Alexander zy"o, and he continued to do so until Rav Chanoch Henoch’s passing in 5630 (1870). He held to the words his grandfather had told him before his death: “Buy truth and do not sell. As long as you can acquire truth, do not sell.”
In 1870 he reluctantly agreed to become the second Rebbe of Ger. On Shavuos, when he saw the enormous crowd gathered around him, he agreed to join the chassidim in giving themselves chizuk (strength). Even so, he did not say divrei Torah in public until Succos of the following year.
When he finally began to share his Torah, the world was astounded. His words were later printed in his famous Sefas Emes on the Torah, and his seforim on Shas have been printed many times.
Teachings and seforim
The Sefas Emes on the Torah is a commentary in five volumes. It draws out the moral and ethical lessons of the pesukim and is full of kabbalistic allusions. The vast knowledge, deep wisdom and complete devotion to Hashem and His Torah of the author shine through all his writing. His seforim on Shas, among them his Sefas Emes on Seder Kodashim, are studied closely by talmidei chachamim of every background, from chassidic to Lithuanian.
The name Sefas Emes comes from the verse “Sefas emes tikon la’ad,” truthful speech endures forever (Mishlei 12:19). His children, who published his works, chose it because this was the last verse on which he commented before he passed away.
Later years and passing
In his later years war broke out between Russia and Japan, and the Rebbe carried the pain of every family whose sons were taken from the beis medrash. After the war the soldiers streamed back from the front, many of them wounded or crippled, and the sight of the returning Jewish soldiers, together with all the troubles of Klal Yisroel in his times, broke his heart. His pure body could not bear the burden, and he fell ill with a rare illness that no one could cure.
All of Polish Jewry stormed the heavens for him. They gathered to say Tehillim and to fast, and in Ger itself tefillos were said around the clock. On Sunday, 24 Teves 5665 (1905), the illness took hold, and at dawn on 5 Shevat the Sefas Emes returned his pure soul to its Maker.
The Avnei Nezer had come to Ger the day before to visit the Rebbe, and he stayed awake all night, davening at his bedside. At the levaya he explained why so rare an illness had struck. Chazal teach that one who prays for his friend while he himself needs the same salvation is answered first. All his life the Sefas Emes had carried the illnesses and sorrows of his chassidim and had poured out his heart that the sick be healed and the healthy not fall ill. Had he taken ill with a common sickness, his own prayers would have answered him at once. So when Hashem wished to bring him to Gan Eden, He sent an illness for which the Rebbe had never davened on behalf of a fellow Yid.
Legacy
The Sefas Emes was succeeded as Rebbe by his son, Rav Avrohom Mordechai Alter, the Imrei Emes. Under the Imrei Emes, Ger grew to embrace more than 100,000 chassidim, most of whom were destroyed in the Holocaust. The Imrei Emes himself escaped, and from the ashes he rebuilt Ger, centered around Yeshivas Sefas Emes in Yerushalayim. Today Gerrer Chassidus spans the globe.
Stories
A Tzaddik Is Born
Rav Avrohom Mordechai Alter of Warsaw was the eldest child of the Chidushei Harim. Like all the other children of Rav Yitzchok Meir of Ger, he was unwell, and the Chidushei Harim had already lost all his other children. Now Rav Avrohom Mordechai, only thirty years old, was gravely ill again. The doctors had given up hope, and it seemed he would leave the world with no son to inherit his place.
As he lay in the final throes of death, his childhood friend, Rav Yaakov Arye of Radzimin, leaned over and whispered, “I have one piece of advice left for you, my dear friend. Ask Hashem to grant you life, long enough to merit having a son you don’t yet have.”
The Chidushei Harim also came to the sickbed and told his dying son, “You must know that it is a mitzvah to desire to live, as it says, ‘Choose life,’ uvocharta vachaim. Please, my son, strengthen yourself. Choose life and get well.”
Rav Avrohom Mordechai gathered his last strength, sat up and cried out, “Ribbono Shel Olam, please grant me the gift of life so that I can have a son. I shall name him Yehuda, as it says, ‘This time, odeh es Hashem, I shall thank Hashem.’” A miracle occurred, and he recovered.
The next year he did indeed have a son. Rav Chaim Meir Yechiel, the Seraph of Mogelnitza, was the sandak, and the baby was brought into the bris of Avrohom Avinu and named Yehuda Leib, as his father had promised. Rav Avrohom Mordechai told his wife, Esther, “I named him Yehuda, and he will cause the hearts of all Klal Yisroel to praise and give thanks, lehodos laShem.”
The Sefas Emes used to say of himself, “My father named me Yehuda, which means thanksgiving, because he was healed from his sickness in my merit. I feel this within me as well. Each day and night I never tire of giving thanks, lehodos laShem.”
Force Your Eyes Open
Reb Mendek Ostover, one of the chassidim, once complained to the Sefas Emes that he simply could not stay awake when he tried to learn. He kept falling asleep over his sefer.
The Sefas Emes did not accept the excuse. He told him, “Rip open your eyelids. Force your eyes open and learn.” The words made such an impression on the chassid that in that same year he completed all four parts of the Shulchan Aruch.
You Can Still Be a Jew
On another occasion the Sefas Emes said to the same chassid, “You can still be a Jew.” He meant that there was still time for him to make something of himself.
His sharp words of rebuke entered the chassid like a healing elixir. In that year he left behind all worldly pursuits and desires and immersed himself in Torah and tefillah.
The Key to a Jewish Heart
One Shavuos night, at the tisch he conducted, the Sefas Emes said to the chassidim, “We say in davening, in Uva LeTzion at Shacharis, ‘Hu yiftach libenu besoroso,’ may Hashem open our hearts through His Torah. Do you hear? The key to opening our hearts is the Torah itself. Only through Torah can a Jew open his heart for Torah. In the Torah itself is hidden the key to a Jewish heart.”
These words caused such a stir that that night every sefer was taken from the shelves. Every bench and shtender was occupied, and the Gemaras, volumes of Shulchan Aruch and seforim of Chassidus were snatched up until the shelves stood bare. The chassidim learned through the night, trembling and in awe, as if standing at Har Sinai.
Never Alone
Rav Arye Leib Kotshitzky, the chief Rav of Vlachlovik, once came to the Sefas Emes and complained of his situation. He led a kehillah with no chassidim in it, and he said, “I feel lonely.”
The Sefas Emes answered him, “Avrohom Avinu was also alone in his time. And besides, whoever holds himself up and steadies himself with a blatt Gemara is never alone.”
The Line Outside His Home
Throughout the long galus, the time when young Jewish men were conscripted into the army of the host country was always an eis tzoro, a time of fear and of desperate attempts to bribe anyone with influence. The days of the Sefas Emes were no different.
As soon as conscription began, a long line would form outside his home in Ger. Like a caring shepherd, he gave each person in turn a brocho, comfort and chizuk. To the bnei Torah he cited the mishnah in Pirkei Avos, that whoever takes on the yoke of Torah is freed from the yoke of the government. The chassidim used to say that one could tell from the Rebbe’s advice and brocho whether the person before him would be sent to the army or not.
Once two young men came to ask whether they should bribe the officials, and how much. One barely made a living, and the other had considerable means. To the wealthy man the Rebbe said it would be a shame to waste his money, since even a hundred rubles would not help. He should invest it instead so that his wife would have a good business to live on, a hint that she would have to manage on her own, as indeed it turned out. To the poor man he said to scrape together twenty-five rubles, and that would be enough, and it was.
The Spy Who Asked for a Brocho
At one point the Russian government began to suspect that the Sefas Emes was helping people avoid the army, and they sent a spy to find out. They chose a Jewish meshumad (apostate) of draft age for the task.
The man entered the Rebbe’s room disguised as a chassid and asked for a brocho and for guidance, since he was about to be drafted. To the astonishment of everyone present, the Rebbe shrugged and said, “Well, the Russian army needs soldiers. Without fighters, wars cannot be won.” The chassidim were stunned by such an answer. Only later did they understand, when they heard that this chassid was a spy planted by the authorities.
The Floor Wet With Tears
In the Rebbe’s later years war broke out between Russia and Japan, and this time no bribe or ransom helped. Everyone of age received a draft order to appear in the town square on a set date, and from there the men were sent straight to the front. Thousands of young men were torn from the beis medrash and from their homes, leaving frightened parents, wives and children behind.
All through the war the Sefas Emes never slept in his bed. When the hour grew late he lay on the floor with a thin garment spread beneath him. In the morning his attendants would find the garment soaked with the tears he had shed all night for the Jewish soldiers.
The chassidim at the front were pained to be cut off from the beis medrash and from their Rebbe, and letters full of longing reached him. One chassid wrote that on Rosh Hashonoh they had no shofar, and so they sat together and spoke about the shofar and its power to awaken. Another wrote that on Succos, while digging trenches, they found the strength to set up three boards inside a trench to form a succah, so that each could eat a kezayis inside. One talmid who excelled in learning sent a long letter with his own chiddushim on Rabbeinu Yonah.
The Rebbe was deeply moved and sent a reply that later became famous. He quoted the verse in Haazinu, “Ha’idosi bochem es hashomayim v’es ho’oretz,” and explained ha’idosi in the sense of adornment, as in “adi adoyim.” He wrote, “With heroic people like you, my dear chassidim, Hashem adorns the heaven and the earth.”
Tehillim in the Shul
When the war intensified, another general order was given, this time for those who had stayed behind. Men with their wives, and mothers with their sons, gathered at the entrance to the Rebbe’s house and pleaded with him to save them.
He told them at once to go to shul, light candles and begin saying Tehillim, and the Rebbe himself joined them. Their tearful tefillos rose in loud cries that must surely have pierced the heavens. Then the Rebbe turned to the crowd and, in a calm voice, assured them that with the help of Hashem all would be well.
A short while later word spread through the country that the war was over. The soldiers came home and the rest were spared from having to leave. Yet the returning soldiers of the Russian army plundered and robbed their way home and left havoc behind them, and the sight of the crushed and wounded Jewish soldiers weighed heavily on the Rebbe.
Seforim
- Sefas Emes al HaTorah: His commentary on the Torah, in five volumes, stressing the moral and ethical lessons of the text with many kabbalistic allusions.
- Sefas Emes al HaShas: His seforim on Shas in three volumes, including his Sefas Emes on Seder Kodashim, studied by talmidei chachamim of every background.
- Maamrei Sefas Emes: His discourses for Chanukah and Purim.
- Days of Joy and Days of Awe: English volumes of his teachings on the Yomim Tovim.
Family & talmidim
Teachers: Rav Yitzchok Meir Alter, the Chidushei Harim of Ger (his grandfather), Rav Chanoch Henoch of Alexander
Children: Rav Avrohom Mordechai Alter, the Imrei Emes (his successor as Rebbe of Ger)
Also on 5 Shevat
All hilulos on 5 Shevat ›Historical sources
- Marbitzei Torah BeOlam HaChassidus, Vol. II
- Chareidi.org (Voera features, 5761)