Courtesy: David Hoffman<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Founder of Berditchev Courtesy: David Hoffman The Founder of BerditchevBorn:5427-(1667) – Died:5531- (1771)Rav Lieber HaGadol had a unique way of combining his “avodas Hashem” with an incalculable love […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions\/255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Born:5427-(1667) – Died:5531- (1771)
Rav Lieber HaGadol had a unique way of combining his “avodas Hashem” with an incalculable love of every Jew. At night, when he wandered around the giant forests surrounding Berditchev in order to learn, daven and ponder over Hashem\u2019s wonders, he simultaneously kept a sharp lookout for any sheep and cattle that may have strayed away from their owners during the day. At the end of the night, he would drive the animals before him back to Berditchev, pausing beneath people\u2019s windows to call out, \u201cHere is your goat!\u201d \u201cHere is your cow!\u201d
Although he had never been a talmid of the Baal Shem Tov, Rav Lieber, the founder of the Berditchev kehillah, sowed seeds of Chassidus in his town that exploded into full bloom during the years of Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev.
THE BEGINNINGS OF BERDITCHEV
It is not surprising that Rav Lieber became one of the greatest Ukrainian “gedolim” of his time as he was the great-great-grandson of two renowned giants, Rav Shimshon of Ostropol and Rav Nasan Shapiro, author of the Megalleh Amukos. This is why Rav Lieber instructed in his will that no descendants of his should ever marry kohanim. He had received this warning from his ancestor, Rav Shimshon of Ostropol who explained that because his family was descended from Dovid HaMelech, combining kehunah with malchus could lead to the family\u2019s destruction.
Rav Lieber\u2019s father, Rav Avraham, had fled from Krakow to Bistritch in the Ukraine, probably during the Swedish invasion of Poland (5415\/1655-5418\/1658) when thousands of Jews from Krakow, Kalish, Piotrikov, Poznan and Lublin were slaughtered by Swedes, Poles and the plague. Some historians estimate that about half a million Polish Jews died during these few years. Although most of the Polish Jews returned home afterwards to patch up their lives, many others, including Rav Avraham fled to other countries to make a new start. After all, do not Chazal (see Rosh Hashanah 16b) state, \u201cShinui makom shinui mazal,\u201d \u201cChanging one\u2019s place can improve one\u2019s mazal?\u201d
Sadly, Rav Avraham\u2019s mazal did not seem to have improved since he died while still a young man but he left his young son, Rav Lieber, ten thousand gold coins. Rav Lieber immersed himself so deeply in Torah, it is said, that every night, his famous ancestors descended from the heavens to teach him the secrets of Kabalah.
In those days, Berditchev barely existed. Although first founded in about 5190\/1430, reputedly by someone named Berdich, it had been destroyed by the Tartars and then only a handful of Jews lived in its vicinity. Most of Berditchev was still thick, untouched forest.
Something about the wild, unpopulated area attracted Rav Lieber like a magnet and he felt certain that there was something unique about the place. After his father\u2019s passing, he would cross the river every morning and evening and stroll among its ancient trees, reveling in the opportunity to be alone with Hashem without disturbances. He maintained this custom for months and years.
One morning, the ducal owner of Bistritch and its environs was traveling in the forest in his coach when his horses suddenly halted and reared upwards, almost throwing the duke out of his carriage. They had been startled by Rav Lieber, who was standing in the forest track in his tallis and tefillin, totally unaware of the coach that had almost run him down. Using every ounce of his strength, the duke\u2019s Ukrainian coachman somehow got the horses under control.
Then the infuriated duke ordered his tough coachman to give the insolent Jew a whipping he would not forget. The coachman did not need to be told twice; his whip sang through the air biting into Rav Lieber\u2019s clothes and flesh. However, Rav Lieber was so engrossed in his davening that he did not notice a thing.
\u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d the coachman asked his master. \u201cWhat should I do? No matter how much I beat this person, it makes no impression. He isn\u2019t a human being!\u201d
\u201cLeave him alone!\u201d the duke said in disgust. \u201cLet\u2019s go.\u201d
Back home, the duke leapt from the carriage and strode confidently into his luxurious mansion; suddenly his legs and arms went limp and he collapsed onto the floor.
\u201cHelp, help!\u201d he cried out.
The servants who ran in from every direction could not do anything except carry him to his room and put him in bed. There he lay helpless as a newborn, and his doctor declared that his condition was hopeless. Help came from an unexpected quarter. Like most Ukrainian land-owners, the duke had a Jewish arender (estate manager). When he heard what happened, his face turned white.
\u201cDo you know who the person the duke beat up must have been?\u201d he asked the servants. \u201cObviously our great maggid who crosses the river to pray every day! I am certain the duke will never recover from his paralysis until he begs him for forgiveness!\u201d
The duke immediately sent his doctor to help Rav Lieber recover from his beating and to bear a message begging his forgiveness. This was a golden opportunity for Rav Lieber to fulfill a long-time dream.
\u201cI will forgive the duke if he builds a large shul at the place I was praying and a house next door in which to live,\u201d Rav Lieber told the doctor.
The duke hurriedly built the shul and the house and, after his recovery, he visited Rav Lieber and asked if there was anything else he wanted.
\u201cYes,\u201d he replied. \u201cI would like you to build a town next to the shul.\u201d
This is how the Berditchev kehillah was founded in about 5451\/1691.
A SPECIAL PLACE
It is not surprising that the mere mention of Berditchev\u2019s name evokes spiritual longings in Jewish hearts, as Rav Lieber used to say that the shul he built was sited opposite the gateway to Heaven where the prayers of Klal Yisroel stream skywards. This is one reason Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev established his kloiz and home right next door to the old, original shul of Berditchev when he moved there after Rav Lieber\u2019s passing.
In addition, Rav Lieber built a beis medrash next to his shul where he taught revealed and hidden Torah to talmidim. Once the Berditchev kehillah began thriving, Rav Lieber served as its maggid. Despite his deep Torah knowledge, he always bowed to the authority of the Berditchev av beis din, Rav Yosef Halperin, known as Rav Yosef Charif because of his sharp mind; the only time he paskened shaylos was when Rav Yosef was unavailable.
On one such occasion, a butcher came to Rav Lieber with an animal\u2019s problematical lung.
\u201cThis lung seems to have a sircha (lesion),\u201d the butcher told him. \u201cDoes this make it treif?\u201d
\u201cCertainly!\u201d replied Rav Lieber who was generally machmir (stringent) when it came to sirchos. \u201cThis animal is absolutely forbidden!\u201d
At that very moment, Rav Yosef entered and Rav Lieber asked his opinion about the sircha.
\u201cI say that is kosher!\u201d the rav replied.
\u201cOy vey!\u201d cried out Rav Lieber. \u201cMy apologies to you Reb Yid (the butcher) for almost causing you a great loss, and my apologies to you, lung, for ruling that you are treif!\u201d
If Rav Lieber had such love and consideration even for an inanimate lung, imagine the feeling he had for Klal Yisroel! The depth of his love for every Jew was indescribable. In his home, he always had a special room ready with twelve beds for any tired and hungry wayfarers who might pass by, and he treated his simplest guests like honored personages.
There is a story told that this great hospitality almost led to tragedy when Rav Lieber once remarked to his sons, \u201cIn the Next World, I will not be embarrassed of my hachnosses orchim even before Avrohom Avinu!\u201d
As this tiny shred of pride was unfitting for his lofty level, it was decreed on high that he should not live out the year. When Eliyahu HaNavi heard of this impending tragedy, he rushed before the Heavenly beis din and fervently pled in Rav Lieber\u2019s defense. How could such a tremendous tzaddik be condemned to perish for making a miniscule error?
The court ordered that Eliyahu HaNavi should come down in the form of a ragged, filthy pauper and test Rav Lieber. If Rav Lieber received him pleasantly and gave him every honor, the decree would be revoked. Of course, Eliyahu\u2019s duty was to make this trial as difficult as possible.
Eliyahu HaNavi arrived at Rav Lieber\u2019s home moments before Shabbos just as Rav Lieber was about to set off to shul. Physically, he seemed the most repulsive looking person Rav Lieber had met in his life.
\u201cI\u2019m hungry!\u201d the stranger slurred. \u201cGive me something to eat!\u201d
\u201cBut it is time to go to shul,\u201d advised Rav Lieber.
\u201cI need food now!\u201d retorted the pauper.
Rav Lieber immediately brought him a generous plateful of food. However, the poor man\u2019s stomach was a bottomless pit and as fast as Rav Lieber rushed in food from the kitchen, the stranger gluttonously gobbled it down. In one sitting, down went the challah, fish, soup and chicken of Shabbos night, down went the cholent and kugel of Shabbos morning, and down went the fish of shalosh seudos.
\u201cLet us go and daven,\u201d suggested Rav Lieber when the stranger was temporarily sated.
\u201cYou go yourself,\u201d said the visitor. \u201cI want to sleep now \u2013 in your bed.\u201d
Clambering in Rav Lieber\u2019s bed with filthy clothes and muddy boots, the stranger fell into a stupor but not for long. By the time Rav Lieber returned from shul, he was already up like a new man with a new appetite, ready once more to eat his host out of house and home. The same thing happened on Shabbos morning. With no food left in his house, Rav Lieber brought in food from relatives and neighbors.
The guest\u2019s coarse behavior all this while was beyond description.
After Havdalah, Eliyahu HaNavi revealed his true identity to Rav Lieber and told him, \u201cBecause of your momentary pride, the Heavenly court condemned you to death. I came down to save your life, and because you did not get angry once this Shabbos, your sentence has been transmuted to a year of exile. You may not spend two nights in the same town except on Shabbos and Yom Tov. Set out now!\u201d
The following morning, Rav Lieber instructed a tailor to sew him a suit of coarse traveling garments and took a wagon to Brod, intending to go from there to Austria where no one knew him. He arrived in Brod on Erev Shabbos, made his way to the local Jew in charge of giving people a place to stay and was assigned to spend Shabbos with the uncouth Jew in charge of the beis kevaros.
After enduring a terrible Shabbos night, Rav Lieber went to the local shul that was headed by Rav Ephraim, a son of Rav Tzvi Hirsh Ashkenazi (the Chacham Tzvi) and a brother of Rav Yaakov Emden. During davening, Rav Ephraim noticed Rav Lieber crouching near to the oven and recognized him immediately.
\u201cWith my authority as rav of this town,\u201d he commanded him, \u201cI hereby order you to sit in the mizrach (the most honorable location).\u201d
After calling him up for shlishi during Kerias HaTorah, Rav Ephraim took Rav Lieber home and honored him like a king. However, Rav Lieber felt as if he was sitting on shpilkes (pins and needles). Is this how he was supposed to be spending his galus?
\u201cPlease hurry and bentch,\u201d he implored his host at shalosh seudos. \u201cI have to leave Brod immediately.
\u201cWhat is the hurry?\u201d inquired Rav Efraim.
\u201cI am in galus and cannot stay in one place for more than one night!\u201d he replied.
Suddenly Eliyahu HaNavi appeared with good tidings.
\u201cYom leshanah!\u201d he told Rav Lieber. \u201cYour one day of galus has been counted as a full year and you are free to go home whenever you wish.\u201d
Rav Ephraim was overjoyed to have the privilege of hiring an elegant coach and sending his distinguished guest back to Berditchev.
WITH THE BAAL SHEM TOV
Whenever the Baal Shem Tov visited Berditchev during his travels throughout Poland and the Ukraine, he always insisted on staying at Rav Lieber\u2019s.
\u201cRav Lieber is unique!\u201d he used to say. \u201cWhile there are a number of tzaddikim who merit gilui Eliyahu, by Rav Lieber it is the opposite \u2013 Eliyahu merits the gilui of Rav Lieber!\u201d
Rav Lieber\u2019s wife passed away in his old age, and one of his young nieces agreed to marry him on condition that she be blessed with righteous offspring; they named their son Yaakov.
None of Rav Lieber\u2019s descendants achieved his fame and renown. This is because Rav Lieber was once asked by Heaven what he preferred \u2013 to have sons and grandsons whose fame would spread far and wide, or to contribute a portion of his merit to speed the Moshiach\u2019s arrival and Rav Lieber chose the second option. Thus even though this son, Rav Yankele, became the son-in-law of Rav Yechiel of Mikolaiv, one of the Baal Shem Tov\u2019s great talmidim, he never achieved his father\u2019s immortal fame.
Although Rav Lieber always revered the Baal Shem Tov, he never became his talmid or followed his path of Chassidus. His awe of the Baal Shem Tov increased dramatically after the Baal Shem Tov\u2019s passing when the Megalleh Amukos, who appeared every night to study with Rav Lieber, suddenly stopped coming. Concerned, Rav Lieber sent his older son, Rav Yechiel, to the Megalleh Amukos\u2019 grave in Krakow to inquire what happened.
\u201cSince the Baal Shem Tov\u2019s passing, the yeshivah shel ma\u2019alah has closed down for thirty days,\u201d the Megalleh Amukos told him.\u201d \u201cIt is from there that I get the Torah I study with your father.\u201d
Rav Lieber then drew closer to Chassidus, mentioning its wisdom in his Shabbos drashos each Shabbos. Through these teachings, the Jews of Berditchev became receptive to its ideas when talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov, including Rav Leib Sarahs and Rav Yaakov Yosef of Polonoye, began passing through, and by the time Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev arrived in 5545\/1785, it was easy for him to create a major Chassidic metropolis. By then, Berditchev had a thriving kehillah of about 2,000 Jews who comprised seventy-five percent of the town\u2019s population.
The kehillah reached its highpoint in 5621\/1861 when its 46,683 strong community was the second largest in the Russian Empire and the only major town of the empire with a Jewish majority.
Rav Lieber enjoyed an extremely long life, passing away in 5531\/1770, aged 104, during a violent plague which was killing so many that survivors were afraid to bury them according to halacha and interred them in mass graves.
\u201cGreat destruction has been decreed on the community,\u201d declared Rav Lieber. \u201cI hereby accept death upon myself instead!\u201d
Calling four people to him, he promised them a place in Olam Haba if they would perform all the customs of interment on him and bury him properly instead of throwing him into a mass grave. He then passed away and the plague abruptly ceased.
May Rav Lieber\u2019s memory be a blessing.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"