New Research Uncovers Alter Rebbe’s Mechutan’s Dramatic Reversal

A new research article published this month sheds light on a striking story from the early days of Chassidus about how Reb Avraham Sheines, son-in-law of the Alter Rebbe, was beaten by his father for learning a sefer associated with Chassidus.

The article, by renowned Chassidus researcher Rabbi Avraham Abish Shur, a Karlin-Stolin chossid, appeared in Kovetz Beis Aharon V’Yisrael. It explores why Reishis Chochmah, a classic mussar sefer written in Tzfas generations before Chassidus, aroused such fierce opposition.

Before marrying the Alter Rebbe’s daughter, Reb Avraham was a bochur in Shklov, a center of opposition to Chassidus, and was himself a misnaged. As recounted in Bais Rebbi, one night his chavrusa took him to hear the Tikkun Chatzos of Reb Yosef of Shklov, a chossid of the Alter Rebbe. Reb Avraham was moved and began drawing closer to Chassidus.

He began learning Reishis Chochmah, a sefer the Alter Rebbe had instructed his chassidim to learn, saying that whoever did not learn it would not be taught Chassidus.

One morning, Reb Avraham forgot the sefer under his pillow. His father, Reb Tzvi, a prominent figure in Shklov and a leading opponent of the Alter Rebbe, discovered it and beat his son until the stick broke. When Reb Avraham escaped to the Alter Rebbe, his father demanded that Reb Avraham be sent home.

Reb Avraham refused to return until Reb Chanoch Henoch Schick, a leading rav in Shklov, confirmed that the townspeople had given their word, with a handshake, that no one would harm him. He then went to speak with Shklov’s scholars and eventually made peace with his father. He later married Rochel, the Alter Rebbe’s daughter, and eventually succeeded his father as rav of Shklov.

Rabbi Shur suggests that the clash over the sefer reflected a deeper disagreement about the meaning of learning Torah lishmah.

The author of Reishis Chochmah, Reb Eliyahu de Vidas, a talmid of the Ramak, writes that the purpose of learning is to bring a person to yiras Shomayim and the fulfillment of mitzvos. The talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid added dveikus, attachment to Hashem, as a goal of learning.

The Alter Rebbe writes in Tanya that lishmah means “to bind one’s soul to Hashem through grasping the Torah, each person according to his intellect.” His grandson, the Magen Avos, related that the Alter Rebbe said, “Whoever does not learn Reishis Chochmah will not learn Tanya either.”

Reb Chaim of Volozhin, by contrast, writes in Nefesh HaChaim that lishmah means learning for the sake of the Torah itself, not dveikus.

Rabbi Shur sees this disagreement as the root of why leading misnagdim avoided Reishis Chochmah and refused to approve its printing. As Bais Rebbi relates, they viewed it as the first step toward Chassidus.

Rabbi Shur then presents a fascinating discovery. Bais Rebbi describes Reb Avraham’s father only as one of the prominent men of Shklov. However, Rabbi Shur identifies him as Reb Tzvi Hirsch ben Reb Meir, a moreh tzedek in Shklov who signed the 5547 ban against Chassidim alongside Reb Chanoch Henoch Schick.

Within a few years, however, both men had changed course. In 5554, they signed approbations for the Alter Rebbe’s Hilchos Talmud Torah, printed in Shklov. In 5557, they approved the printing of Reishis Chochmah in the same city.

The sefer for which a father had once beaten his son was eventually printed with that father’s approval.

Shklov would go on to become a center for printing the Alter Rebbe’s works, including the Siddur and Tanya.

Download the full article here.