Kotsk: In Gerangel far Emesdikeit (review)

The last two books completed by Abraham Joshua Heschel and published posthumously were about R. Menahem Mendel of Kotsk (1787–1859), one of the most challenging and intriguing figures in the history of Hasidism. A Passion for Truth (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1973) was written in English and intended for a general audience. It highlighted the similarities between R. Menahem Mendel and his contemporary, the Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard. Kotsk, the other book about R. Menahem Mendel, was written in Yiddish. It was twice the size of A Passion for Truth and written in a rich, rabbinically inflected style that could be appreciated by a small handful of readers. Unfortunately, Heschel did not offer an explanation for this seemingly unusual choice of language. He mentions in his Introduction the difficulties faced by R. Menahem Mendel’s disciples when he asked them to preserve his writings in written form. They felt it unseemly to write in Yiddish, but at the same time they found it extremely difficult to translate his aphoristic teachings into Hebrew. The end result was that there is no comprehensive corpus of R. Menahem Mendel’s teachings. Instead, his teachings were preserved as oral traditions that were eventually collected and published many years later. This is the closest Heschel comes to an explanation of why he wrote the book in Yiddish.

The first part of the book, comprising the first eight chapters, explores the theology of Kotsk, both in comparison to the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, and in its own context. It is easy to understand the attraction of the Besht’s teachings, based on lovingkindness (hesed) and his openness to people on all spiritual levels. Kotsk, on the other hand, was in many ways the antithesis of Beshtian Hasidism. It was elitist and even antimystical in some respects. The Besht wanted to bring Heaven down to the people, while the Kotsker wanted to raise people to the Heavens. The Kotsker was uncompromising, both with himself and with others. When a destitute hasid asked him for a blessing for financial success, R. Menahem Mendel asked if he had tefillin and a talit. If he did, then he could pray to God directly, without anyone’s intercession. Heschel writes that his heart was with the Besht in Medzibozh, but his head, his intellect, was in Kotsk. This book is his attempt to explain his attraction to the spiritual path of Kotsk.

There is a hasidic legend that R. Menahem Mendel would spend all year writing a book that would summarize and systematize his teachings. On the eve of Passover every year he would take his writings of the past year and burn them along with the hametz, because he felt that he had not adequately expressed his ideas. The written form was not amenable to the transmission of his ideas. It was a combination of his perfectionism and the inability of mere words to express the complexity and depth of his ideas.

Heschel follows what might be called a Kotsker method in his exposition of R. Menahem Mendel’s teachings. Rather than a systematic exploration of concepts and ideas, he selects a brief statement or teaching, often no more than a sentence or two. He then analyzes it, explores its theological concerns, and reflects on its spiritual meaning. Each of these reflections is relatively brief, typically two to four pages in length. From ten to twenty of these brief expositions are brought together to form a chapter. Sometimes the transition from one discussion to the next is readily apparent and other times the connection is less clear.

Truth was the central concept of R. Menahem Mendel’s teachings. His spiritual path was the search for truth. Whatever stood in the way of this search was to be discarded or ignored, whether it was family obligation or social convention. The study of Torah was central, but one had to be careful that one should not become full of oneself...