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2 Apostate or Saint? In the Footsteps of Moshe, the Son of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady On more than one occasion we have seen that many of those who converted were the great-grandchildren or grandchildren of the holy rabbis. For they are unfaithful, and use not their intelligence to weigh their deeds. Even their fear of God is a rote commandment copied from their forebears. And when one of them makes a small breach in the fence erected by his forefathers, he then strides through like a ferocious beast or wild ass in the desert. If he experiences a slight mischance, he rages at God and his Messiah and at the religion of his forefathers. —Wolf Ehrenkranz, Hazon lamoed (Iasi, 1858), 43 Among the mitnagedim, Berl Katzenelson once related to Dov Sadan, there is a saying concerning the hasidic custom of singing “bambam .” The mitnagedim interpret this as an acrostic that stands for “Bernyu Moshenyu-Beide Meshumadim” (Bernyu and Moshe are both converts),1 as referring to Dov Ber (Bernyu) Friedman of Leova,2 Yisrael of Ruzhin’s son who in 1869 abandoned his hasidim and went over to the maskilic camp, and to Moshe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady’s son who converted to Christianity , the main protagonist of this chapter. For the reader’s convenience I provide a table of the Habad rebbes. Name Title Dates Shneur Zalman of Lyady (Rashaz) Ha’admor Hazaken; the Alter c. 1745–1812 Rebbe Dov Ber Ha’admor Haemtsa’i; the 1773–1827 Mitteler Rebbe Menahem Mendel Schneersohn Ha’admor Tsemah Tsedek 1789–1866 Shmuel Schneersohn (Moharash) the fourth admor 1834–82 Shalom Dov Ber (Rashab) the fifth admor 1860–1920 Yosef Yitshak Schneersohn the sixth admor 1880–1950 (Rayyats) Menahem Mendel Schneersohn the seventh admor 1902–94 (Ramam) 30 untold tales of the hasidim The margins of nineteenth-century hasidic history contain many incidents and failures—cases of individuals who strayed from the fold—that the hasidim would be content either to forget or to suppress. Although the two figures mentioned above are among the most conspicuous examples of individuals who shamed their prestigious families and their hasidic branches, other individuals also left a stain on Hasidism.3 Hasidic tradition generally had them repent prior to death, lest they die as heretics or as non-Jews.4 “Would That My Parents Had Been Cruel”: Straying Children of Zaddikim and Rabbis The prophet Isaiah stated: “I reared children and brought them up—And they have rebelled against Me!” (1:2). It is an open secret that the intimacy and intensity of family life and child rearing in presence of a famous, admired leader are not easy. On the one hand, many advantages accrue to the leader’s children: unmatched conditions for spiritual development, acquisition of the father’s traits and imitation of his ways, and enhanced status as the father’s natural heirs (which is also seen in the political and artistic arenas ). On the other hand, the demanding framework in which they are raised and educated poses many dangers to their development and can lead to emotional immaturity. Moreover, expectations by family and admirers that all the leader’s descendants will continue the exact path set down by the leader, without diverging even an iota, leave no room for anomalous individuals uninterested in following the trodden path or in assuming their destined posts. In this sense, the social and emotional pressures with which the children of zaddikim or rabbis grapple differ little from those of the offspring of kings or nobles, or of prominent political, literary, or artistic figures. The response to these pressures takes the form of a variety of relief-bringing mechanisms, ranging from repression to awareness of living a dual, divided existence,5 and to harsh antagonism manifested in the crossing of all red lines: fleeing from the assigned post, or denying family tradition—or, in extreme cases of bitter despair, turning their backs on their religious and national identity. We will have occasion to meet various figures fitting these models in the chapters of this book. Needless to say, the behavior of these individuals sears parental hearts and lives with a sense of bereavement and failure, which is especially conspicuous among prestigious families whose brilliant sons became maskilim or heretics. These children were no less affected than their parents, as the memoirs of the maskil Yehuda Leib Levin (Yehalel; 1844–1925), the grandson of the zaddik Moshe of Kobrin, illustrate: “My parents’ anguish and their...

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