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IN-DEPTH FEATURES
"Third voice (two generations removed) of the Vilna Gaon."
That was how one of the great talmidim of the Vilna
Gaon's talmidim was known. HaRav Yitzchok Eisek Chover
(Wildmann), a marvelous gaon who was the student in
nistar of HaRav Menachem Mendel Mishklov, the "Second
Voice" of the Gaon, a talmid and exponent of his
kabbalistic teachings.
HaRav Menachem Mendel did not, perhaps, become as famous as
HaRav Chaim Volozhin, but he was one of the most prominent
and perhaps the most important of the kabbalistic students of
the Vilna Gaon. He spent almost two years in close
association with the Gaon and even had the merit of spending
one seder night with him. He actually published a
commentary of the Gaon on the Haggodoh, as well as the
famous commentary on Mishlei. He later moved to Eretz
Yisroel and was one of the leaders of the community of the
talmidei HaGra who moved to Eretz Yisroel.
He describes one conversation he had with the Gaon, in his
commentary on Ovos. It was an occasion where the name
of the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle was mentioned in
the presence of the Gaon. "Aristotle," said the Gaon,
"recognized his Master and rebelled against Him." Not
inadvertently but intentionally. "If he were to come here, I
would bring the sun and moon onto this table and show him the
wonders of Hashem. Surely his contemporary, Shimon Hatzaddik,
was capable of proving to him the existence of Hashem!
However, Aristotle was not interested."
Apparently the talmid, Rav Menachem Mendel Mishklov,
could not hide his amazement at this statement from the Gaon,
so the latter added the following, as if to confirm his
initial assertion: "Why are you amazed? I would do it with
the aid of one Sheim. Even the Geonim after the
compilation of the Talmud still knew that Sheim."
Such was the first generation: "The Gaon" -- with the
definite article, without any additional titles, for he is
best praised without lengthy descriptions.
Who was the rov of the Gaon himself? HaRav Wosner
shlita asked the Chazon Ish this question, and he
answered on the spot, "Eliyohu Hanovi is a good rebbe."
In that same conversation, the Chazon Ish also said that if
the Gra's great accomplishments in chochmas hanistar
had been better known, there would not have been such a great
split.
HaRav Chover himself testified about seeing a manuscript in
the possession of a grandson of the Gaon which contained an
explanation of the dispute between Beis Shammai and Beis
Hillel at the beginning of maseches Kiddushin in which
the Gaon states that these chiddushim were revealed to
him by Eliyohu Hanovi.
The talmidim of the Gaon say the following about HaRav
Menachem Mendel Mishklov: "He was loved by the Gaon and had
the merit of hearing Torah from his holy mouth. He revealed
to him his secret thoughts during his happy moments."
HaRav Menachem Mendel himself testified: "Hashem saw my
unworthiness and brought me to the house of our master, the
gaon and chossid, rov of all the Diaspora, of
Vilna, and Hashem made me find favor in his eyes, and I
served him with all my strength. During the entire two years
less a third that I was by him, I was constantly in his
presence, `I held him and would not let him go,' and I stayed
in his company day and night. I went where he went and slept
where he slept. There was not a moment that I was not in his
presence. He taught me some insights of chochmoh
revealing to me some precious `doorways' of wisdom."
His Youth
When he was fourteen Rav Yitzchok Eisek Chover already took
the first tentative steps into the world of Kabboloh.
Already then he entered the Holy of Holies, the teachings of
the Arizal and of the Gaon. His son relates the following
about this period:
"When he was a lad, about 14 years old, he was chosen by the
holy and pious ish hoElokim HaRav Menachem Mendel
Mishklov (now buried in Yerushalayim), who learned with him
matters that are studied in secret: every great matter,
ma'aseh Bereishis, the secrets of the Merkovoh
and the secrets of the Torah. He handed over to him some
hidden treasures, many manuscripts from the Vilna Gaon, who
resembled a divine angel. There can be no doubt that HaRav
Menachem Mendel who was famous for his great strength,
righteousness, piety and holiness, would not have disregarded
Chazal's admonition only to hand over such material to a
select person, wise and G-d-fearing by nature -- and
especially with regard to the manuscripts of his holy rov,
the Vilna Gaon ztvk"l, which, as is well known, were
more precious to him than all the objects of the world --
unless he was fully convinced from his own experience with
him that the recipient was worthy of receiving them. It is
well known how much he accomplished in this wisdom, more than
all the chachomim of his generation."
Not much is known about his childhood, but his son's
testimony is witness to the fact that already at a young age
he stood out among his contemporaries.
He was born in Horodna, Lithuania in 5549 (1789). About his
father, HaRav Yaakov Chover, HaRav Yitzchok Eisek writes in
the introduction to his responsa Binyan Olom that he
was "perfect and righteous in his deeds, a man of perfect
faith with Hashem his G-d with all his soul and all his
might."
In one of the teshuvos in the sefer he debates
with his father whether a mechitzoh made up of people
is a valid mechitzoh.
Rav Yitzchok Eisek's mother was also known as a very
righteous woman, and he credits his parents with [having
provided him with an excellent education]. "Both of them
together instructed me in the straight path and guided me in
the way of righteousness and taught me the truth."
From a young age his exceptional qualities of modesty and
righteousness were apparent. According to the testimony of
his son, even then not a night passed without his depriving
himself of sleep or other material pleasures. "From his youth
until old age he served his Creator perfectly, despising all
the pleasures of the world, dismissing them as insignificant,
spending all his days in Torah and avodoh. We all know
and have heard of his wonderful hasmodoh and diligence
from the days of his youth, which were a source of much
amazement."
When his fame as a great gaon began to spread, various
Lithuanian communities competed for the zechus to have
him as their rov. After serving in the rabbinate at Prozhin,
Rozhinoi, Volkovysk and Tiktin (Tikocyn), he became rov of
Suvalk at the age of 60. Since it was an especially prominent
position and he was also niftar there, he is
remembered as rov there.
HaRav Yitzchok Eisek was a giant in both nigleh and
nistar. His personality was a faithful reflection of
the talmidim of the Vilna Gaon including boundless
vistas of nigleh and nistar, halocho and
aggodoh, lomdus and machshovoh, using profound
and straight insight, aiming to attain the emes
without compromises. This was a legacy of the Vilna Gaon and
his talmidim who disseminated the study of Torah
qualitatively and quantitatively.
His son writes about his bekius that "everybody knows
about his proficiency in Shas, Tosafos, Rif and
Rosh, he was totally conversant in all of these as
well as with the seforim of the poskim and the
mekubbolim." As for his sharpness, HaRav Yitzchok
Elchonon from Kovna wrote, "his works are sweet to the palate
and built on straight foundations."
He left behind him an immense spiritual legacy. We cannot
within this framework undertake a survey of all his many
works, not even those that were published, but shall only
mention a few of them.
The sefer Bayis Ne'eman deals with the topic of eid
echod ne'emon be'issurin, and discusses the many
halochos and details related to this topic, which are
spread throughout the Bavli, Yerushalmi, Rishonim and
Acharonim.
The sefer Beis Yitzchok is a compilation of all the
halochos of bereiroh. Another of his books,
seder zmanim deals with mitzvos that are dependant on
time, such as Shabbos, prayer and Krias Shema. His
Shut are a densely-packed treasure of responsa on
Orach Chaim, Yoreh Deah and Even Hoezer.
He also wrote a commentary on the Haggodoh called
Yad Mitzrayim as well as Shabbos Hagodol and
Shabbos Teshuva droshos and other works on
aggodoh.
HaRav Yitzchok Eisek dealt a lot in the teachings of his
rabbonim the Vilna Gaon and HaRav Menachem Mendel Mishklov.
In various works, collectively entitled Beer Yitzchok
he wrote a commentary on selected sayings of the Vilna Gaon,
on Aderes Eliyohu and glosses on Mayim Adirim,
the commentary on Idro Zuto of his rebbe, HaRav
Menachem Mendel Mishklov.
His other works on Kabboloh are also all permeated
with traditions from the Vilna Gaon and his talmidim,
a tradition which he transmitted serving as a conduit and
bequeathing it to future generations. Many of his writings
remained in manuscript form and became lost. Among them are
works on the Torah, Ma'ase Merkovoh, the Zohar
Hachodosh, Ra'ayo Meheimno, Yeshayohu, Sefer Yetziroh and
others.
In a special work called Mogen Vetzinoh, first
published in Johannesburg two years after his death (5615-
1855) HaRav Yitzchok Eisek defends the sanctity and the
historical integrity of the Zohar and the
Kabboloh generally, against its detractors. In this
book, which was written as a response to Arye Nohem by
Rav Yehuda Arye de Modena, the author presents an extensive
survey of the Toras hanistar, of "practical"
Kabboloh, the belief in gilgulim and so on. He
asked that this work be among those mentioned on his
tombstone.
In 1990 (5750) HaRav Shlomoh Vidan zt"l, published a
collection of short quotations taken from the many works of
HaRav Yitzchok Eisek entitled Otzros Rabbi Yitzchok Eisek
Chover. It presents insights, ideas and chiddushim
of HaRav Eisek that are often not accessible.
He always mentions the Vilna Gaon with much awe and respect.
This is how he describes him in one of his books:
"In our generation we merited the pure and luminous light
that shone on the world, and spread the cloud of its radiance
on the four corners of the earth from one end of the world to
the other, a holy heavenly creature descended from the
heavens, rabbeinu hagodol HaRav Eliyohu from Vilna
z"l, in his commentary on the Safro Detzni'uso
and his writings on esoteric passages from the holy Zohar
based on remarkable discoveries made by the Arizal, he
discovered ethereal matters that several generations before
him did not merit and are not mentioned in the kabbalistic
writings of the Rishonim from the Ramban onwards. His
words illuminate like sapphires the words of the holy
Zohar. People with discernment realize that the
esoteric statements in the Zohar can only be
understood with the explanations of Rabbeinu Hagodol,
z"l."
In another passage he writes as follows:
"Our whole generation, including many of its greatest
rabbonim, knows and recognize the preeminence, righteousness
and wisdom of the true Gaon, me'or hagoloh Rav Chaim
of Volozhin who drank from the Torah of Eliyohu z"l
and kissed the dust of his feet with awe and dread. Pay
attention to his introduction to the commentary of his great
rov to the Safro Detzni'uso, his great and awesome
revelations. Inter alia, he relates wonderful
expositions that he heard from his rov the Vilna Gaon
zt"l and on one occasion [his rov darshened]
when R. Shimon bar Yochai sat on his right side and the
Arizal on his left. This incident became publicized by a
contemporary who had a dream [about it] and was a spiritual
personality, as related there. Go and consider the quality of
this great witness, the gaon HaRav Chaim z"l
who, apart from his greatness and righteousness and whose
fame spread to all the corners of the world, many of us who
knew him know that he was an exceptionally wise man, who was
restrained and hated any exaggerations. How, then, can we
think that one of these two, either the Vilna Gaon z"l
or his talmid HaRav Chaim, could have lied? Neither of
these possibilities can be entertained, since both the rav
and the talmid are known in our generation, and there
is none, even among the wicked of our nation, who will deny
the glory of their greatness and who would cast doubt on
their credibility, for to him were revealed awesome things
and the secrets of the Merkovoh from R. Shimon bar
Yochai and the Arizal that were not revealed to earlier
chachmei Yisroel. It can be clearly perceived that
they were masters."
He invested a tremendous amount of effort into deciphering
the writings of the Arizal and the Vilna Gaon. His
talmid, HaRav Yitzchok Kahane-Kellner testified that
his rov told him that he spent thirty continuous years
gaining an understanding of the writings of the Ari and the
Vilna Gaon. Elsewhere this talmid writes what he heard
from his rov about the status of the Kabboloh of the
Arizal and of the Vilna Gaon within the Kabboloh as a
whole:
"I heard from my rov who heard from HaRav Mendel, z"l
that his rav the Vilna Gaon said that the statements of the
Arizal are like a parable and at the time he did not have
permission to reveal their meaning. However, in the days of
the great Vilna Gaon who lived a few hundred years after the
Arizal, he was granted the method of revealing by way of
remez which is the simple explanation of the
Kabboloh, and that too with extreme effort, but about
this he found it necessary to be very brief in his
revelations."
His Will
Everything depends on mazel and, unlike others, no
biography of HaRav Yitzchok Eisek has been printed, and so we
have lost some precious pearls regarding the actions and
deeds of one of the most special members of the group that
absorbed the light of the Vilna Gaon's teachings. The main
source that we have is a biographical introduction to a
reprint of the sefer Mogen Vetzinoh written by HaRav
Chaim Friedlander, zt"l. Still, we can glean something
of his righteousness from the will he left behind.
In it he requests that the arba misos beis din be
performed on his body; that a request for mechilla be
announced in all the shuls and botei medrash of
Suvalk in case he sinned [against anyone] financially or
physically, and that it be announced that anyone who
considered himself to be a creditor should inform the beis
din in order to be reimbursed from his estate.
A special place in the history of this spiritual giant was
taken up by his anovoh. In his will he writes: "Not to
mention the words "gaon" or "godol" in the
hesped. Woe unto me that I have become known as a
gaon and a godol and I know myself that I have
not attained this quality, even in part. All the more so
should the words "tzaddik" or "chossid" not be
mentioned. Nor should the following appellations be inscribed
on my grave: gaon or me'or hagolah or chorif
veboki, chas vesholom. Surrounding communities should
also be notified not to mention the above appellations. Only
reproof in words of mussar [should be said in the
hespedim] which is the end of every person."
This request, it must be recalled, was made by a man, who was
like an angel, and never spoke a sichas chulin in his
life, and who was conversant in the whole Torah,
nigleh as well as nistar. He was as familiar
with the sugya of Dina Degarmei as he was with
the Heichalos chapters and Maase Merkovoh. He
was a spiritual giant who responded to questions dispatched
to him from every Jewish community.
Throughout his life Rav Yitzchok Eisek was a living example
of his statement in his own work Or Torah: "A person
can only acquire the crown of Torah through middos,
first and foremost among them being a humble and subdued
spirit." This is an accurate description of his character and
that is how he departed from this world.
At the age of fifty we find him corresponding about
agunos matters with an avreich thirty years
younger than he. He opens this correspondence by telling the
avreich that it would actually "have been fitting for
him to be reticent, for this matter requires treatment by the
`holy of Holies,' the geonim of our generation, who
have the power and authority in these matters, and I have
always avoided poking my head among these lofty mountains,
but because you have implored me and due to your great love I
have decided to breach my usual boundaries by attaching
myself to the righteous and expressing my humble opinion."
This avreich later became famous as the gaon of
Kovna, HaRav Yitzchok Elchonon Spektor zt"l.
Rav Yitzchok Eisek passed away on erev Rosh Chodesh Kislev
5613 (1852) at the relatively young age of 64. On that day
the Jewish nation lost "a giant among men," a "divine
mekubal," a "kedosh Hashem," as he was termed
by Rav Eliyohu Chaim Meisel, the rov of Lodz.
He departed this world, leaving behind him a set table full
of superior food. As for us, we have neither the mouth to eat
it with, nor teeth to chew it with.
Understanding the complete correlation between nigleh
and nistar is one of cornerstones in the teachings of
the Vilna Gaon. HaRav Yitzchok Eisek mentions this basic
premise several times.
In his book Mogen Vetzinoh he writes: "We have a
tradition from the Vilna Gaon that we should not
choliloh say that true sod can contradict an
established and accepted halachic ruling, based on the
foundations of psak handed down to us, and [if it does
appear to be so] it is just that the Acharonim did not
fathom the depths of this chochmah."
In his other book Pischei She'orim he deals with
reconciling different shittos in nigleh and
nistar, as the publisher writes on the title page:
"All the secret and esoteric statements in the writings of
the Vilna Gaon z"l are explained and deciphered, and
wherever his words seem to contradict the Arizal he
reconciles them with his deep insight." This sefer
also explains many of the deep concepts of the Arizal in
terms that are more familiar to lomdei nigleh.
This claim of unity recurs in many of the writings of the
Vilna Gaon's talmidim. In his introduction to
Medrash Rus Hechodosh, Rav Avrohom Simcha from
Amchislav writes that his uncle, HaRav Chaim Volozhin told
him in the name of the Vilna Gaon that "the holy Zohar does
not differ from the gemora anywhere. It is just that
people do not know the pshat -- either in the
gemora or in the Zohar."
Rav Avrohom Simcha justifies this premise in the introduction
to his Shut Binyan Shel Simcha: "It is impossible that
the nistar part of the Torah could differ from the
nigleh part. For how could the Torah contradict
itself? And anyone familiar with his holy statements in
Aderes Eliyohu will see [this] in many places. For
this is his holy method: to completely integrate the
nigleh and the nistar."
Predictably this attitude has ramifications in practice. An
example of this is the Vilna Gaon's shittah according
to which one need not adopt the minhag of the
kabbalists to slice twelve challos at every [Shabbos]
meal, following instead the ruling of the Rashbo to slice at
every meal both of the two challos on which the
brochoh is made.
According to one tradition the dispute between the Vilna Gaon
and the Ari stems from a different interpretation of the
acronym yud, beis, ches that appear in this context in
the Zohar. Whereas the Ari understood this to be a
reference to twelve challos that have to be sliced at
every meal (yud beis challos), the Vilna Gaon
explained that it refers to twelve halves (yud beis
chatzo'in) obtained as a result of eating four halves per
meal at three meals, i.e. slicing two challos at every
meal."
(His son after he passed away)
(From a letter of Rav Shlomoh Luria)
Chochmoh is the ability, given from Him Yisborach, to
man to understand the Torah. Binah is the effort he
puts in with his own mind to understand one thing from
another. One who learns Torah but never is zoche to
teach it, has only reached the aspect of chochmoh. But
one who learns and teaches achieves both aspects.
(from Otzros Rabbi Yitzchok Eisek Chover, p. 16)
Yisroel has two kinds of enemies. One is in this world, to
subjugate their bodies. The second is in the upper world, the
Sar of Eisov, to subjugate their souls. This we see by Homon
who is called: Ish tzar ve'oyeiv. He oppresses
(tzar) from above and is an enemy (oyeiv)
below. And when we are occupied with Torah, we can overcome
both of them . . . as it says (Shemos 34:16):
Chorus al haLuchos, [read cheirus] free from
the subjugation of the earthly kingdoms and from the
Mal'ach Hamoves.
(from Otzros Rabbi Yitzchok Eisek Chover, p. 3)
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