Rav Yisroel Friedman
The holy Rizhiner, a great-grandson of the Maggid of Mezritch, who led his chassidim with royal splendor and rebuilt his court in Sadigura after imprisonment in Russia.
Biography
Early years
Rav Yisroel Friedman zy"a, the holy Rizhiner, was born in Prohobisht on 5 October 1796. His father, Rav Sholom Shachna, was the Rebbe of Prohobisht and a son of Rav Avrohom HaMalach, who was a son of the Maggid of Mezritch. His mother, Chava, was a daughter of Rav Nochum of Chernobyl. He was named Yisroel for the Baal Shem Tov. He had a younger sister, Chaya Ita, and two older brothers, Avrohom and Dov Ber, of whom Dov Ber died as a child.
His father, who traced his descent to the royal line of Dovid HaMelech, conducted himself differently from the other Chassidic leaders of his time. Most of them dressed in white, while he wore fashionable woolen clothes with buttons, and his home was a striking house set in a large garden. These features later appeared in his son's conduct as a Rebbe.
It is told that even before his birth, people knew that he was destined for greatness. When Rebbetzin Chava was expecting, she went to the Apter Rav for his berachah. He stood up for her as she entered, telling her that he was rising for the Sefer Torah she carried within her. As a small child, the Rizhiner's holiness was already clear. When he was only a few years old he often cried bitter tears and would not say why. His father told him that a father had the right to demand that his son give the reason, and he answered, “I am thinking of how many times today I have lifted my hands not for the sake of Heaven.”
When Rav Yisroel was six years old, he met Rav Shneur Zalman, the Baal HaTanya. He asked him a question about an apparent contradiction in Krias Shema. When a person says the verse Shema Yisroel, he must annul himself entirely, until he feels that Hashem is One and that he and all else are nothing beside Him. How, then, can he immediately go on to the next verse and love Hashem, having just annulled every feeling of his own? The Baal HaTanya later spoke of how deeply the question had impressed him. He answered at length, an explanation that took several hours, and the child understood every word.
That same year his father passed away, and his brother Avrohom, then fifteen, took over leadership of their father's chassidim in Prohobisht. At the age of seven, he was engaged to Sarah, daughter of Rav Moshe Efrati of Berdichev. When Avrohom died childless, Rav Yisroel performed chalitzah and took his brother's place at the head of the chassidim of Prohobisht.
Torah and leadership
He lived first in Prohobisht and then in Skvyra, and finally settled in Ruzhin. There he became known as a great holy man, and thousands came to him. Ruzhin became the biggest and most influential Chassidic community in the southwest of the Pale of Settlement. Through his leadership Chassidus also gained broad acceptance, and for the next century it thrived across Ukraine and Volhynia with no opposition.
The Rizhiner's name has long been linked with fabulous wealth. All his personal belongings, even his everyday cutlery, were made of the most expensive materials. The buttons of his bekeshes were solid gold set with diamonds, and his pillowcase was woven of pure gold thread. His home was a palace with splendid furnishings. He traveled in a carriage with silver handles, pulled by a team of four white horses, surrounded by an entourage of attendants, and he wore a golden yarmulke. His children were clothed like nobles, and servants in livery waited on them.
Most people did not understand the reasons for his conduct, but many leading rabbanim and rebbes accepted it, seeing in it a way to raise the glory of Hashem through His representative, the tzaddik. His chassidim believed that he constantly humbled himself before Hashem and afflicted his body with fasts. It is told that one winter night he went outside to bless the new moon in solid-gold boots studded with diamonds, and afterward his chassidim saw blood on the snow at the spot where he had been standing. They found out that the splendid boots were without soles, so that he had been walking essentially barefoot. After that, people understood that his way of life was entirely for the sake of Heaven. He treated the poor and downtrodden with the same warmth as the famous rebbes and chassidim who flocked to his court, and he also won the respect of the Russian upper class.
The gedolim of his generation praised him highly. The Divrei Chaim of Sanz said he could testify that the Rizhiner was constantly moser nefesh for Hashem, every second of the day. Rav Moshe Kobriner said that even in the times of the Tanna'im and Amora'im he would have been considered a special person, and that even when he blinked, it was only for the sake of Heaven. The Chiddushei HaRim traveled for three weeks to speak with him, and later said that in the half hour they spent together the Rizhiner had taken him through half the Torah. The Apter Rav used to say that he had never seen anyone as well versed in Torah as the Rizhiner.
His success and royal bearing stirred the jealousy of Tsar Nicholas I, and the maskilim, angry with him, kept plotting his downfall. In 1838, during a two-year investigation into the murder of two Jewish informers, the governor-general of Berdichev arrested the Rebbe on suspicion of complicity. The tsar's agents told the tsar that the Rebbe was trying to set up his own kingdom and was stirring up opposition to the government. The tsar had him held for seven months in Donevitz, and then for fifteen months in Kiev, while deciding whether to exile him to the Caucasus or to Siberia. No formal charges were ever brought, and no trial was ever held.
Suddenly, on 19 February 1840 (Shushan Purim 5600), he was set free. He was still suspected of opposing the government, and he was placed under police watch at home, which made it harder and harder for his chassidim to visit. He moved to Kishinev, where the local authorities were more lenient, and his family joined him. Then his chassidim learned from inside sources that the tsar still planned to exile him for trying to create a “Jewish kingdom,” and they bribed the governor of Kishinev to give the Rebbe an exit visa to Moldavia. Just as he left Kishinev, the orders for his arrest and deportation arrived. In Iasi, the capital of Moldavia, his chassidim obtained a travel pass for him to cross into Austria. His plight became a cause that Jews and non-Jews across Eastern Europe took up, petitioning officials and even priests to save him from extradition and exile.
He drifted from town to town in Bukovina, then part of Austria, stopping in Shatsk, Kompling and Skola, until he arrived in Sadigura, whose Jewish community was the largest in Austria except for Chernowitz. It is told that four decades earlier a boy of ten, Yisroel Donenfeld, had vanished from the town and was never found. The Rebbe identified himself as that lost Yisroel. Eight men testified that he had been born in Sadigura, and on that basis he was issued citizenship papers. His chassidim helped him acquire property there and prove that he had 20,000 crowns to live on, after which the Austrian government granted him honorary citizenship and its protection. In the summer of 1842 his family was at last permitted to join him, provided they renounced any right to visit or return to Russia.
In Sadigura he built a new palace, lovelier still than the home he had left behind in Ruzhin. His beis medrash had room for three thousand worshippers. Chassidim by the thousands traveled across the border from Galicia, Russia and Romania to be near him, and every Jew in Sadigura became a Ruzhiner chassid.
The Apter Rav had named the Rizhiner president of Kollel Volhynia, responsible for raising and distributing money to support the Chassidic community in Eretz Yisroel. The Rebbe encouraged chassidim to settle there and supported them through the kollel. He longed to travel to Eretz Yisroel himself, but declared that he was unable to abandon his chassidim.
In 1843 a Ruzhiner chassid from Yerushalayim, Rav Nissan Beck, came to Sadigura to see the Rebbe. He reported that Tsar Nicholas I wanted to purchase land next to the Kosel and put up a church and monastery. The Rebbe sent Rav Beck to block the plan. Rav Beck bought the plot from its Arab owners at an exorbitant price, just a few days before the tsar instructed the Russian consul in Yerushalayim to buy it on his behalf. The tsar had to settle for another site for his church, today called the Russian Compound. The Rebbe's son, Rav Avrohom Yaakov Friedman of Sadigura, finished raising the money and dedicated the building in the summer of 1872. It was named the Tiferes Yisroel shul in honor of the Rizhiner, and since Rav Beck built it, it also came to be called the Nissan Beck Synagogue.
Later years and passing
The Rizhiner passed away in Sadigura on 3 Cheshvan 5611 (9 October 1850), at the age of fifty-four. On his deathbed he spoke to his talmid, Rav Shneur Zalman of Fastan. He recalled that Rabbeinu HaKadosh, Rav Yehudah HaNasi, had testified that he took no pleasure from this world, not even as much as a small finger. In the same way, the Rizhiner called heaven and earth to witness that he had taken no enjoyment from this world, not even as much as a thread. The grandeur and royal bearing with which he had led, he said, were all for the honor of Hashem.
He was buried in Sadigura. Later his two sons, Rav Avrohom Yaakov of Sadigura and Rav Dov Ber of Leova, and other family members were buried near him, and his grave became a shrine for Ruzhiner chassidim. His gravestone was destroyed during the First World War, and was replaced by a large white concrete slab.
Legacy
The title of Ruzhiner Rebbe belonged to Rav Yisroel alone, but his sons and grandsons established dynasties of their own, known together as the House of Ruzhin: Bohush, Boyan, Chortkov, Husiatyn, Sadigura and Shtefanesht. Each continues many of the Rizhiner's customs. He was also connected through his daughters to the men who founded the Vizhnitz, Skver and Vasloi dynasties.
Stories
A Simple Jew
The holy Rizhiner made every effort to attach himself to all of Klal Yisroel, even to the simplest people and even to sinners, so that he could benefit them and lift them to serve Hashem.
Once the Rizhiner came to a town, and the crowd of people who wanted his advice and blessing, or only a glimpse of the tzaddik, grew so large that there was no room for them all in the shul. The heads of the congregation decided not to admit any simple Jews, but only the important and honored citizens. When the Rizhiner heard this, he turned to them. “Is that so? You won't let simple Jews in? Then you should know that I am a simple Jew. My father was a simple Jew, and my grandfather was a simple Jew.” With that, he too refused to enter the shul.
Retying a Sefer Torah
When the holy Rizhiner was still young, he attended a wedding where many great tzaddikim and Chassidic Rebbes were present. During the chasuna his gartel, the sash worn around the waist, fell off. The holy Apter Rav, regarded at that time as one of the elders and leaders of Chassidus, bent down himself to gird and tie the Rizhiner's gartel.
Many of those present were shocked that such an elder Rebbe would humble himself before such a young tzaddik. The Apter Rav said, “What do they want? I have only fulfilled a mitzvah. I was doing gelilah, retying a Sefer Torah.”
Torah in Your Innards
The Tshortkover Rebbe once told of a Jew who came to Rav Yisroel Friedman, the holy Rizhiner, with a complaint. He felt that the light and warmth of Torah gave him life only while he was actively learning. As soon as he finished and closed the sefer, he felt nothing.
The Rizhiner answered with a mashal. When a person walks at night through a storm, each flash of lightning lights up the sky and his surroundings for only a moment, and then the darkness returns. But if he carries a candle or a torch, it lights his way and drives away the darkness for the whole journey.
So it is with learning Torah. If a person's learning is fleeting, momentary, fragmented and by rote, it can give him light and life only while he is actively studying. But if he learns with true kavanah, until the verse “Your Torah is in my innards” (Tehillim 40:9) is fulfilled in him, his body is purified and sanctified, and he feels the Torah at every moment.
Just as Chashuv
The Rizhiner told that when the holy Berditchever Rav was alive, whenever a Jew left his home with his tallis and tefillin under his arm, Rav Levi Yitzchok would raise his hands toward Heaven and plead for Klal Yisroel. “Ribbono Shel Olam, how can You have any complaints against Your Yidden? Here is a Jew who leaves all his affairs behind and goes to shul to daven.”
The Rizhiner added that if the holy Berditchever could see a Jew going to shul in these days, he would say, “Here goes a Jew who leaves behind his home, where he struggles in poverty, with not a penny to his name and not a crumb of bread in the house, and his heart full of fear that the snatchers will seize his children and conscript them. Still he goes to shul.”
“And I say,” the Rizhiner concluded, “that today any Jew who puts on tallis and tefillin and goes to shul to daven is as important and chashuv as the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezritch were in their days.”
L'Chayim, the Secret Tefillah
Rav Shmelka Rubin of Far Rockaway, the Sulitzer Rebbe, used to tell of a time when, in the course of one of his journeys, Rav Yisroel Friedman, the holy Rizhiner, was challenged by two Misnagdim (opponents of Chassidus). They said they found it hard to understand the ways of the Chassidim. They themselves rose well before dawn and davened Shacharis at sunrise, and afterward they stayed in the shul, still in tallis and tefillin, studying Mishnayos. The Chassidim, on the other hand, davened late, and then brought out cake and brandy and sat around the table, eating, drinking, singing and wishing each other “L'Chayim.” Everyone called the Chassidim “pious ones” and the others Misnagdim. “It should be the other way around.”
The Rizhiner's gabbai could not hold himself back. He said that their avodas Hashem was cold and lifeless, with no heart, and that it was no wonder they studied Mishnayos afterward, in keeping with the custom of learning Mishnayos in memory of the departed. The Chassidim, he said, davened with fire and excitement, and a living man on fire needs a l'chayim, a sip of strong brandy to match his devotion.
“I am sure you realize that he is mistaken,” the Rizhiner told them. “Let me explain the real reason for our way, and why we bless one another and say l'chayim after davening.” Since the destruction of the Beis HaMikdosh, he said, our tefillos take the place of the korbonos. When a person davens, the yetzer hora wants only to confuse him with foreign thoughts. Such a thought makes a korban pigul, and it ruins the chances of a tefillah. Then the yetzer hora argues against the tefillos and tries to prove that they do not deserve an answer.
“We Chassidim have found a way around this. After davening we sit together, raise our glasses and say l'chayim, and bless one another with life, health, happiness, parnassah, nachas, children and much more. The yetzer hora sees us eating and drinking and concludes that we have finished davening, and he does not bother to prosecute us. Tefillah can be said in any language, and when Yidden bless one another from the depths of their hearts, the yetzer hora leaves them alone. Then all their tefillos and berachos rise on high and are accepted and answered at once.”
Hidden Intentions
Once Rav Uri of Strelisk and Rav Yisroel of Ruzhin met. Sitting opposite one another, they spoke about the price of wheat, barley and other grains in the market. Rav Eliezer of Taprov, a chassid of Rav Uri, who later became a Rizhiner chassid after Rav Uri passed away, sat there dumbfounded. Was this what these two great tzaddikim were discussing? And Rav Uri asked the going price of grain, and the Rizhiner's answer was wrong.
“Excuse me,” Rav Eliezer interrupted, “but that price is a mistake. It is not the current price.” The Rizhiner raised his eyes and fixed the chassid with a cold stare. “If you have no idea what we are talking about, don't interrupt,” he thundered.
They then ordered everyone present to leave so that they could continue without interruption. The chassidim understood that whatever the two were discussing was clothed and hidden within the seemingly ordinary talk. Afterward, each sent the other his tefillin straps as a gift. Who can understand the ways of such great tzaddikim, or their hidden intentions?
A Simple Act of Devotion
The Rizhiner was sitting one Sukkos when he suddenly burst out laughing. Such an outburst of mirth was quite unlike him, and his close followers were surprised. The Rizhiner explained that there was laughter and joy in Heaven at that moment, because a simple man had awakened great simchah above by a sincere act.
This simple Jew was hungry, but there was no sukkah in sight. How could he eat outside a sukkah? Suddenly he had an idea. He took off his hat and turned it upside down, so that the hole was on top and the brim served as walls. He gathered some straw for s'chach, and sat down to eat with a sukkah on his head. The act was so comical, yet so great, that in Heaven they laughed with delight, and so did the tzaddik.
Teachings
A Yichud With Every Breath
The Divrei Chaim of Sanz said of the holy Rizhiner that he could not draw even a single breath without making a yichud Hashem. The Rizhiner himself testified that his mind and thoughts were so firmly bound to Hashem that if he were alone on a desert island with no seforim, he would still not forget Hashem for even a single moment.
Ner Yisroel IV, p. 144; Shevet MiYisroel, vol. I, p. 5
Who Told You That You Are Naked?
On the verse in which Adam says, “I heard Your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid” (Bereishis 3:10), the Rizhiner told a mashal. A tsar was ill and gripped by fear that people were stalking him, and he posted guards along every road he traveled. One guard, standing in the heat by a river, left his post to bathe. When he heard the tsar's coach approaching, he ran back and stood at attention, dripping and in his underclothes. The tsar demanded to know the meaning of this. The guard answered that he could not delay the tsar by getting dressed, nor desert his post, and the tsar accepted it. So too, said the Rizhiner, Adam believed that his sin had stripped him of every merit, and so he hid. Hashem answered, “Who told you that you are naked?” Who said that you have no merit left and are excused from avodas Hashem? Even if a person is bare of every merit, Hashem still values him and his avodah forever.
Parshas Bereishis (on Bereishis 3:10)
A Diamond in the Rough
On the verse “But for all of Bnei Yisroel there was light in their dwellings” (Shemos 10:23), the Rizhiner told of a miner who spent weeks digging in the dark until his pickaxe struck a hard, dirty lump. His fellow miners saw only a rough stone, but he knew that once it was cleaned, cut, polished and set in gold, it would shine. A diamond must first be chipped out of the wall, then scrubbed, then cut, and only in the right setting does its splendor show. The Rizhiner read the verse to mean that Bnei Yisroel have light in their settings. Every Jewish soul is a diamond in the rough. Even in lowliness and suffering, a Jew must remember that he has a lofty soul that Torah and mitzvos can clean and polish. But much depends on the setting: a Jewish neighborhood, a Yiddishe home, the beis medrash, yeshiva or kollel. In the right setting the Jewish soul shines with an otherworldly brilliance.
Parshas Bo (on Shemos 10:23)
Holding Onto Darkei Avos
The Rizhiner told of a city near a tree whose apples were irresistible, but whoever ate one lost his mind. Fences and gates did not help. Half the city went mad, then three-quarters, until only a minyan was left, and the ten gave each other strength, until two of them also ate. Finally only one man was left, and he began to wonder whether he was the one who was mad and the townspeople the sane ones. Then he remembered how they had all once behaved, normally, like him, and he understood that he was the only sane one left. The Rizhiner said that at the end of days, when the world is tempted by many evils, the few righteous may be so alone that some even of them will fall. How will the Yidden of Ikvesa DeMeshicha survive? “They will look back to the mesorah, to the darkei Avos, and remember how their zeidas and alte zeidas conducted themselves. If they wonder whether the rest of the world is right and they are wrong, they need only look back to their forefathers, the Avos HaKedoshim, and hold fast to them, and they will be saved.”
Chassidic teaching of the Rizhiner on the times of Moshiach
Family & talmidim
Talmidim: Rav Shneur Zalman of Fastan, Rav Nissan Beck, Rav Eliezer of Taprov
Children: Rav Avrohom Yaakov Friedman of Sadigura, Rav Dov Ber of Leova
Also on 3 Cheshvan
All hilulos on 3 Cheshvan ›Historical sources
- Shevet MiYisroel
- Ner Yisroel
- Tiferes Yisroel
- Yismach Yisroel
- Beis Yisroel
- Yehuda Lekadsho Stretin
- Yalkut Mishnas HaRegel, Pninei HaChag