Rav Menachem Mendel Morgenstern zt"l
הרב מנחם מנדל בן יהודה לייבוש מרגנשטרן זצ"ל
Shevat 22 , 5619
Rav Menachem Mendel Morgenstern zt"l
Born in Goray, near Lublin, Poland, Rav Menachem Mendel received a thorough Torah education from his father, Leibush Morgenstern, a zealous opponent of Chassidus. After his marriage at fourteen, his father introduced him to the world of Chassidus. Thereafter, he became an ardent follower of the Chozeh of Lublin and Rav Simcha Bunim of Peshis'cha, whom he eventually succeeded. Rav Menachem Mendel was a new type of Chassid. If the Ba’al Shem Tov embodied chessed (loving-kindness), Rav Mendel represented din (strict justice). While the Ba’al Shem sought to reach all the people, Rav Mendel knew that what he sought could only be attained by the elite. The Ba’al Shem lifted the people up; Rav Mendel rebuked them for their inadequacies and always demanded more. Rav Leibel Eiger was entranced by Kotzk, to the despair of his father, Rav Shlomo. Rav Mendel and Rav Mordechai Yosef of Izhbitz had been close friends and talmidim of Rav Simcha Bunim of Peshis’cha. After Rav Bunim’s passing, Rav Mendel became Rebbe. However, because of Rav Mendel’s extreme aloofness the two friends were traveling on a collision course. Finally, on Simchas Torah of 1840 there was an irrevocable split between the two and Rav Mordechai Yosef left with his Chassidim to form a new Chassidus. Most prominent among his talmidim were the Chiddushei HaRim of Ger and Rav Chanoch of Alexander.
Stories of Rav Menachem Mendel Morgenstern zt"l
The holy mechaber of the Sefas Emes once told of his first visit to Kotzk.
He observed that there was no order and no one watching and safeguarding the Kotzker's household and court. People and guests came and went and the doors were always open. This lack of organization and supervision led to a series of "missing" objects which no doubt went “missing” along with those "missing" persons who had pilfered them.
The shamash, the Kotzker's attendant, was named Feivel, and his argument with the Rebbetzin was so loud as he bemoaned the missing – presumed stolen – silver candlesticks on that Erev Shabbos, that everyone in the house heard it – even the Rebbe himself.
"Feivel, what is all the commotion?!" the Kotzker demanded.
Rav Feivel was yelling, "And why shouldn't they steal, eh? Why not? When everything here is hefker – open and free for all!? Why shouldn’t they steal?!"
"What!" roared the Kotzker. "Feivel, how can anyone steal? It says in the Torah: "Thou shalt not steal”!!!
Years later the Sefas Emes related, "When I heard the holy Kotzker roar those words, it seemed to me at that very moment that there was no possibility of stealing anything at all because of the negative commandment not to do so!"
This is what the Sefas Emes took back with him from his first visit to Kotzk.
There is a fine line between “should not” and “cannot”. We are given free will and we are also challenged with the evil urges and temptations that try to tempt us to sin. We are free to resist and overcome temptation and thus be rewarded. We are free to give in and succumb to our desires and be punished for our misdeeds. The choice is ours. This is because we do not see or experience divine revelation first hand. Hashem is hidden from us. We believe and our emuna (faith) carries us to the strength needed to overcome those urges, temptations and desires. However, we do not see. If we did see or hear Hashem first hand, we would automatically lose our free choice. There is no choice or freedom to disbelieve that which is clearly and plainly right in front of your eyes. If Hashem's presence is first-hand knowledge and you hear Him command, you are not free to disobey any longer.
It seems to me that the Sefas Emes was transported on that Erev Shabbos to Har Sinai. The holy Tzaddik, the Kotzker, became a channel, a medium for the Shechina that spoke from his throat as he uttered the commandment "Thou shalt not steal". The Sefas Emes heard this mitzva as if from Hashem Himself, and thus, at that moment, he was transformed from a free-willed chooser to one who had no choice but to obey. This is why he felt that at that moment he could not understand how anyone could steal! How can you steal if Hashem tells you not to? It went from "you shall not steal" to "you cannot steal". It is impossible to steal, it cannot be done, it is simply not a choice.
We all go through such stages in our lives. Our intellect and our logic tell us we should not do things, yet the evil urges tempt us beyond reason to do them – and so we give in. However, at the point where we strengthen our resolve and say, “No, I cannot do this!” At the point where we triumph and defeat the evil urge, then we lose the free will to choose evil and we transform the suggestion of "you shall not sin" into "you cannot sin". Sin becomes impossible.
Rav Feivel of Gritza, (father of Rav Yechiel of Alexander) once approached the Seraph of Kotzk and said, “Good news! The wealthy Jewess Tamarel is supposed to arrive tomorrow and then we will have some money to relieve the abject poverty.
The Kotzker bellowed, “Money!!! Fech (Disgusting)!”
“From that moment on,” related Rav Feivel, “money disgusted me so, that I simply could not handle any without becoming so nauseous that I almost vomited. It took me over six months before I was able to even touch money again without becoming sick.”
Rav Chanoch Henich of Alexander once told the Kotzker, “Tonight I am preparing a seuda with fish and meat.” The Kotzker thundered back, “Meat? Fish? Who needs those?! Bread and borscht are plenty!”
“From then on,” admitted Rav Henich, “I could taste no flavor in any food save bread and borscht for the rest of my life. Every other food was loathsome to me, all except bread and borscht.” When he traveled on Shabbos to the Gerrer Rebbe, the Chiddushei HaRim, he ordered that they cook borscht for Rav Henich so he could delight in the taste of Oneg Shabbos, otherwise what would he enjoy? (Bais Kotzk 29)
His whole life he waged a war for the truth – the external and internal truth. This was the essence of Rav Menachem Mendel Morgenstern, better known as the Kotzker Rebbe. The word “Kotzk” has become synonymous with a burning and piercing kind of truth, a truth so hot it singes anyone who dares to delve deep enough to uncover it.
The Kotzker was born in 5547/1787 and lived at a time when Chassidus was making great inroads into the mainstream of Jewish society. He felt that Chassidus needed to be “fine-tuned” by correcting some of its basic flaws. Chassidus had become too Chassidish for him. He wanted to restore Torah as the focal point of all Avodas Hashem and get people to become more self-reliant and not subjugate their God-given minds to the Rebbe. A person, he felt, needed to take responsibility for his life and his ways, and to develop his own personal relationship with Hashem.
He left no seforim, no tales of miracles and no biography. He did not seek honor, fortune or fame. He sought to raise Chassidus to a movement for the elite. He longed to metamorphose Chassidus into a movement with truly inspired Avodas Hashem and intense Torah learning as its cornerstone. His lone legacy is his short, sharp sayings that he became famous for, to the world outside Kotzk.
When the Kotzker was asked why he did not want to write a sefer, he said that in Kotzk they work hard all week. The only time to read his sefer would be Friday night after the meal. Then, however, a person is tired from the entire week and will lay down on the couch with it. He will shortly thereafter fall asleep without reading anything and the sefer will fall on the floor. So why should he write a sefer whose only use will be to lie on the floor in shame? Such was the Kotzker truth.
He was born into a family of Misnagdim and eventually became a talmid of the Chozeh of Lublin, later leaving Lublin for Peshis’cha, where he became a talmid of Rav Simcha Bunim of Peshis’cha. After Rav Simcha Bunim's petira, most of his talmidim who were peers of Rav Menachem Mendel, including the Chiddushei HaRim, the founder of the Gerrer dynasty, chose to follow Rav Menachem Mendel and make him their leader. His other main talmid was Rav Mordechai Yosef Leiner who eventually broke away and founded the Izhbitza Chassidus. Rav Leibele Eiger, the grandson of Rav Akiva Eiger (whose yahrzeit is also the 22nd of Shevat), was also attracted to Kotzk, much to his father's great dismay. The Kotzker's son-in-law was the Avnei Neizer and he was succeeded by his son, Rav Dovid.
The Kotzker was niftar in 5619/1859. He spent the last twenty years of his life in seclusion, frustrated by his inability to create the flock of his ideals, while refusing to play the role of the ideal Rebbe as the Chassidim wished.
Yehi Zichro Boruch.
www.revach.net/stories/gedolim-biographies/Rav-Menachem-Mendel-of-Kotzk-A-Chassidic-Renaissance/1772
Whenever Rav Zev Wolf of Strikov came before his Rebbe, Rav Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, the Kotzker asked him to review some chiddush that his father had taught. The Kotzker was very strict about this procedure – so strict that if the Strikover could produce no chiddush, the Kotzker would not greet him with sholom and refused to see him!
On one occasion, the Strikover was in Warsaw on some business and happened to visit his Rebbe afterward in Kotzk without advance preparation and thus he had not prepared any chiddush beforehand. As expected, the Kotzker greeted him with a request for one of his father’s chiddushim; when none was forthcoming he refused to see the Strikover or extend his hand in sholom, instead sending him packing and telling him to come back with a chiddush!
On the way back to Tchechonow the Strikover stopped off in Warsaw and went to see the Chiddushei HaRim, telling him what had happened in Kotzk. The Chiddushei HaRim asked him to stop off and relate his father’s chiddush to him as well the next time he came back that way. And so the Strikover went to his father and heard a chiddush from him. On the way to Kotzk, he stopped off in Warsaw and related the chiddush to the Chiddushei HaRim who was greatly impressed with it and praised it highly.
“Please stop off here after relating this to the Koztker and tell me what his reaction to this chiddush was,” he requested.
When the Strikover returned, he stopped off again at the Chiddushei HaRim and told him that he had been in Kotzk and related the chiddush to the Rebbe and the Kotzker had retorted back, “That can’t be right – it’s against an explicit Gemora!”
“Aha!” exclaimed the Chiddushei HaRim. “It is no wonder that the Kotzker responded thus, for he himself is like a Tanna from the Gemora!” (Siach Sarfei Kodesh, #87)
Rav Michel of Sheps was once in Kotzk and related what he saw:
It was Shabbos and the two Tzaddikim and Geonim, the Gerrer Rebbe and the Alexander Rebbe, both talmidim of the Kotzker, sat facing one another in the Bais Medrash, discussing Divrei Torah, when all of a sudden the Kotzker Rebbe’s footsteps were heard coming toward the closed door that led from the Rebbe’s room to the Bais Medrash. Immediately, such a terror seized all those present, that before the Tzaddik could open the door, the Gerrer Rebbe took flight and hid behind the stove and the Alexander Rebbe ran away and jumped out of the window! Rav Hirsch Tomashover, the Rebbe’s gabbai, was so seized with panic that he hid under the table. Then the door opened and the Rebbe declared in a voice that burst forth like fiery flames words of mussar and hisorerus that reached the highest heights and moved the soul to its depths! He finished and then closed the door to his room.
That is what it means to fear your Rebbe! concluded the Rav of Sheps. (Siach Sarfei Kodesh, #89)
Another time, the Koztker burst into the Bais Medrash and yelled, “Ha! That’s what I thought, eh? I thought I would have ten white-robed talmidim and no more!”
Almost everyone present fled in terror that the Rebbe should not be angry at them; only Rav Yechiel Meir of Gustanin stood rooted to the spot in abject terror, petrified and unable to flee, when the Kotzker turned to him and said, “I didnt mean to include you in that.” (Siach Sarfei Kodesh, #90)
Divrei Torah of Rav Menachem Mendel Morgenstern zt"l
The Imrei Chaim of Vizhnitz was fond of citing the Kotzker’s well-known vort about being true to yourself:
The Kotzker used to say: “If I am I because I am I and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you. But – if I am I because you are you and you are you because I am I, then I am not I and you are not you!” (Sarfei Kodesh Vizhnitz)