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IN-DEPTH FEATURES
Rav Dov Eliach, author of Avi Hayeshivos, Peninim
Mishulchon Govohah, and Peninim Mishulchon HaGro,
spent over five years researching and writing his major new
three-volume work on the life of the Vilna Gaon
ztvk'l, a number of excerpts from which have appeared
in these pages. Rabbi Eliach's lengthy and extensive
ingathering of information on the Gaon's life and works was
accompanied by an equally painstaking process of
corroboration and verification, resulting in a finished work
that presents a comprehensive portrait of the Gaon that is
both highly accurate and very reliable.
The book casts light on several obscure aspects of the Gaon's
life and thought and also contains new material based on
hitherto unpublished manuscripts and documentation. The
combination of the wealth of available information and Rav
Eliach's long years of careful work, gives us a bright and
sharply-focused evaluation of the Gaon's tremendous
contribution to his own and to future generations.
With the book's long awaited appearance around Chanukah,
Yisroel Friedman interviewed Rabbi Eliach to discuss the
finished product and, perhaps more importantly, the effort
and struggle that went into creating it.
Some Background
YF: Rav Eliach, does the book have any bias?
Rav Eliach: The answer depends on what you define as a
bias. The two centuries that have elapsed since the Gaon's
petiroh have seen a tremendous amount of involvement
in his life and work. A great deal has been written about
him, with each author being influenced by his own
considerations and motivations.
I had only one aim before me: namely, taking all due care yet
without stinting on time or effort, to arrive at a
historically accurate portrayal of the Gaon himself, and
naturally, of his greatness in Torah. Of course, allowance
must also be made for our own limitations in assessing him.
If you want to look upon such an aim as representing a
particular bias, then the book most definitely is biased.
YF: Another new work about the Gaon? But why at this
particular time?
Rav Eliach: It would be sufficient to answer that such
a project is always a correct and fitting thing to do.
However, the truth is that my interest was first aroused
seven years ago upon completion of my last project,
Peninim Mishulchon Govohah on the Torah. I engaged in
some mental stock taking and tried to determine what the next
topic I could work on might be that would enrich our
literature.
Ever since the appearance of my work Avi Hayeshivos
about the life of our master Rav Chaim of Volozhin
zt'l, a number of friends had been prodding me to
continue what I had started. They said, "Now that you've
become acquainted with the Gaon's school of thought via the
life of his great talmid, and have also been
instrumental in revealing divrei Torah from the Gaon's
talmidim in Peninim Mishulchon Govohah, perhaps
you ought to undertake an evaluation of the tzaddik
himself, our master the Gaon."
So many people have delved into the Gaon's life over the
years yet no comprehensive written work about him has emerged
from among the ranks of those who take his teachings as their
inspiration and guiding light.
Since the appearance of Aliyos Eliyohu, which laid the
foundations for future research of the Gaon's life, many
generations have passed. Things that it was then proper to
mention in brief or only by way of allusion, need to be
expanded upon nowadays. Moreover, a great deal of new
material has been accumulating, all of which ought to have
been collected together in one volume.
YF: Wasn't the two-hundredth anniversary of the Gaon's
petiroh that was then approaching, also a
consideration?
Rav Eliach: It was certainly a target date and it
served as a catalyst to speed up the pace of the work, but it
wasn't the main reason for undertaking the project.
Progress of the Actual Work
YF: What in fact caused the delay in the work's
completion, until over four years after the bicentennial?
Rav Eliach: The "blame" can be laid first on
Peninim Mishulchon HaGro. As the work of collecting
material was progressing, I saw that the Gaon's divrei
Torah on the Chumash that have been quoted in his
name for generations had been published in a number of
different collections, and even with all of them together,
only part of the material is there.
I thought to myself, "Here is something I can do. While I'm
putting the biographical work together, perhaps I can also
manage a short intermediary project, an easy task of
collection and compilation, which ought not to involve too
much effort."
However, once I actually started the work and began checking
the primary source of each teaching that is quoted in the
Gaon's name and examining each posuk and statement of
Chazal's in context, I discovered that the job was going to
be neither easy nor quick. It is absolutely impossible to
prepare any piece of the Gaon's Torah for publication, even
short pieces and vertlach, without thoroughly
investigating the sources and aiming for the greatest
possible accuracy that one can hope to attain after two
hundred years have elapsed. I also obtained many new pieces
from manuscripts and seforim, with the result that the
work stretched out and it was Peninim Mishulchon HaGro
that appeared for the two hundredth yahrtzeit, while
the biography was put aside.
Upon returning to the biographical work, I again made the
same naive mistake of thinking that I could make do with a
short, rushed job. In retrospect, it seems that I was
supposed to have this impression. There is no doubt in my
mind that had I known that the work would stretch out for
five difficult years, I would have had serious misgivings
about taking on such a burden.
YF: Judging from the series of articles that you
published in our paper, it appears that even in the course of
the work you didn't learn your lesson. We always had the
impression that the book was about to be published.
Rav Eliach: Absolutely right! As I said, I attribute
much of this to Providence! Let me take this opportunity to
apologize to the public for the delays in the book's
appearance. I very much hope that this is no exception to the
rule that, "Every delay is for the good," and that the final
result is sufficient compensation for the wait.
One apparent loss as a result of the delay was the chance to
publish some completely new material from manuscripts and
other sources, which appeared in the meantime in articles. At
one time, I considered issuing just one volume that would
have assured me of being the first to publish several things.
However, I decided that a book is not like a newspaper and
that the chance to publish a scoop ought not to outweigh the
importance of ensuring that the book would be as complete and
as reliable as possible.
The work portrays a great man's character and his approach.
It is a single entity and could not be subdivided and broken
down into pieces, neither in its composition nor in its
publication. There was no choice but to wait until the work
was completed.
At any rate, this is the time to thank all those who waited
impatiently and pushed me to "finish already." Oi,
what I went through so often, with their questions and their
complaints! There were days when I almost didn't go out in
public to attend simchas and the like, from fear of
encountering these nudniks and their pressuring, when
I myself wanted nothing in the world more than to have
everything already behind me. Don't forget that writing a
book like this exhausts one and wears one out.
YF: Why did the work actually take so long: over five
years I think?
Rav Eliach: That's right, over five years of searching
and gathering, digging and collecting, and constant
investigation and checking.
From what you've already seen in the articles that have been
published, you must have noticed that the book is not just a
collection of stories, though many actual incidents are
recorded. We checked the stories extremely rigorously, in the
earliest possible sources. Had we satisfied ourselves with
less, the book would have appeared years ago.
My aim was to portray the Gaon's character and thought, and
to illuminate every aspect of his life and work and every
period and event in his life, to the extent that someone as
small as myself, standing so far removed in time, was able.
All this research took up huge amounts of time, checking
through hundreds of books and other sources, and making
comparisons and clarifications. I spent over an entire year
researching just one of the topics in the book.
All this apart, simply dealing with a figure of such giant
proportions as the Gaon involves much questioning and soul
searching; some sections were written and erased alternately
until they assumed their final form. When one considers the
Gaon, any problems caused by our distance from him in time
are dwarfed by the problems cause by our distance from
grasping anything about the awesome greatness of his angelic
figure. I was constantly aware that I was exposing myself to
problems whether I decided to write a particular thing, or
whether I decided not to.
An Awesome Responsibility
YF: This leads us to the next question: weren't you
nervous about approaching such a subject?
Rav Eliach: Of course, I trembled in fear. The
impressions of that fear are contained in a poem that I wrote
back then, entitled "Remove Your Shoes From Your Feet," which
appears in the introductory chapter that bears the same name.
The chapter's opening words are "Here I am, poor in deeds,
terrified and scared, for I am at the entrance . . . "
The gedolim to whom I presented all my doubts and
perplexities were the ones who tipped the scales in the
project's favor at the outset and they remained supportive
throughout. Were it not for their encouragement, and mainly
for all the clear directions that I received from them, I
would not have had the strength or the determination to see
the project through to the end.
Nevertheless, I was constantly accompanied by fear, inspired
by the realization of the weight of the responsibility which
I had shouldered. It had a positive and a constructive effect
though, and I sincerely hope that it is noticeable in the
final result.
I received particular support from HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, who
put himself out for the book's sake to an extraordinary
degree. Just knowing that HaRav Kanievsky was prepared to
give up his precious time and sacrifice part of his tight
learning schedule in order to spend long periods sitting with
me and advising me, was encouragement in itself and it
heightened my sense of mission. With the actual guidance and
support that he extended to me throughout the project, I was
able to rest assured that I was headed in the right
direction.
It happened on more than one occasion that after having spent
long days and weeks researching a particular topic, I would
come to him and raise doubts and uncertainties that had
occurred to me, playing devil's advocate as it were, in an
attempt to determine whether my presentation of the material
might not be tainted by emotions or personal preferences.
Only after receiving his verdict would the topic finally be
incorporated into the book.
In addition, I attempted to obtain reactions from the
reader's point of view, and handed out several chapters to
different people, among them some well known gedolei
Torah.
Developing a Feeling for Authenticity
YF: Is The Gaon, a continuation in any sense,
of Avi Hayeshivos?
Rav Eliach: The book is not a sequel; it stands on its
own merits. However, my involvement with the Gaon is
certainly an outgrowth of Avi Hayeshivos. Rav Chaim
Volozhiner took me into the Gaon's chamber and since then, I
have developed a bond with him and his teachings. I also
learned a lot in the course of the research for the earlier
work that enabled me to conduct the necessary research for
this one.
When one investigates the Gaon's life thoroughly and, rather
than "peeping" inside briefly, taking away a few stories and
leaving, one immerses oneself in all the subject's
complications and ramifications, one gets a "feel" for it and
reaches a position where one can confirm or repudiate new
stories or details that one comes across.
For example, the Chazon Ish zt'l had a lifelong bond
to the Gaon's Torah, both to his practices and to his written
works whose contents he deliberated on a great deal. HaRav
Chaim Kanievsky told me that when he learned in yeshiva in
Petach Tikvah, he heard people saying that it had been the
Gaon's practice to eat sweets on erev Yom Kippur so as
to fulfill the day's mitzvoh of eating as much as possible.
He asked the Chazon Ish about the story's veracity and his
uncle replied, "That was not the Gaon!" Such a story did not
fit the Gaon as the Chazon Ish knew he had been.
Evidently, someone who is attached to the Gaon's teachings,
and has broad knowledge and experience of his Torah and his
behavior, is able to "sniff" such a story and pronounce a
verdict as to its authenticity. Does it fit the Gaon's
personality at all? In other words, close acquaintance helps
one to determine the degree of "inner" truth contained in any
report.
YF: This would seem to be a test that every story has
to undergo.
Rav Eliach: Certainly. HaRav Eliashiv demonstrated
this to me with an example that is brought in the biography
of Rabbi Akiva Eiger zt'l. A teshuvoh of Rabbi
Akiva Eiger's was once brought to Rav Chaim Volozhiner and
the messenger who brought it testified that it had been
written on the same day that the question to which it
responded had been received. Rav Chaim was very impressed by
this and said that if he had one additional witness that this
was the case, he would travel from town to town and from
village to village and proclaim that Rabbi Akiva Eiger was
greater than his own rebbe, the Gaon.
This story is baseless and could only have arisen in a
quarter where all knowledge whatsoever of the Gaon's approach
and the procedures in his beis hamedrash was lacking,
though this contention is in no way meant to diminish the
towering stature of that gaon among geonim,
Rabbi Akiva Eiger (Rav Chaim Volozhiner's admiration of whom
is noted in my book).
Furthermore, HaRav Eliashiv pointed out that there are
several other strange things about the story. Why did Rav
Chaim need a second witness? Were life and death issues at
stake? And even if so, what would be the purpose in going
around making such a tasteless and pointless announcement?
Altogether, the story lacks any logical basis and has not the
slightest ring of truth. The original writer even attributed
the story to the Avnei Nezer zt'l.
"So you, see," Rav Eliashiv told me, "every story one wants
to publish requires thorough verification."
I think that I have tried to fulfill Rav Eliashiv's directive
as far as I possibly could. I tried to determine whether a
story stood up to common sense scrutiny and simple logic. Was
it free of inner contradictions, halachic inaccuracies or
errors of historical fact? I tried to set a finely sifted
finished product before the readers.
An Old Vessel Full of New Material
YF: Three volumes of finely sifted material . . . this
in itself is a tremendous novelty. Is there new material as
well? Have you managed to come up with any new
revelations?
Rav Eliach: [Yes,] hundreds of them, both great and
small, are incorporated in the book, in the text and among
the photographs and facsimiles of manuscripts. Among the
latter are some manuscripts in the Gaon's own holy
handwriting that are being published for the first time, for
which I am indebted to HaRav Shlomo Brevda, who opened his
library to me for the sake of the book's enhancement, and
even showed me an easy way of identifying the Gaon's
handwriting.
There are many minor but newly discovered facts and stories.
There are also major new discoveries, in the form of entire
chapters and topics that have hitherto not been treated, such
as the Gaon's standing as a rebbe to his own
talmidim and his having been an address to which many
of his contemporaries used to turn, and the account of the
spread of his teachings through those of his talmidim
who served as maggidim. The book clarifies the reasons
for his self-imposed exile and the cause of his imprisonment
and naturally, his opposition to chassidus. Other
topics include new testimonies about the episode of Rabbi
Avrohom, the ger tzedek zt'l, Hy'd, usually known
as Graf Pototzki, earlier sources on the subject of
the Gaon's "lots" (the goral HaGro), an attempt at
describing his daily timetable and a discussion of his never
completed journey to Eretz Yisroel.
Many chapters contain new ideas, that originated as a result
of fitting various details or stories together or by viewing
the Gaon's own words in the light of someone else's seemingly
insignificant words. The complete mosaic is very impressive
and this in itself is really the most astounding revelation
of all.
For example, the many quotes from gedolei Yisroel of
all generations about the Gaon (most of which are brought in
the first chapter, "Remove Your Shoes . . ." and the final
chapter, "Eliyohu Zochur Latov"), demonstrate to us how
far we are from a minimal appreciation of even a portion of
his greatness. Here one sees how gedolei Yisroel
viewed him, as a heavenly angel and as a soul that belonged
to earlier generations that had come into this world out of
turn, as it were, in order to fill the breaches in our
religion and to stem the continuous descent of the
generations.
What is remarkable is that the veneration extended to the
Gaon in certain circles, such as the botei medrash of
the Noda BiYehuda, Rabbi Akiva Eiger, the Chasam Sofer and
others, is so effusive as to approach even that of the Gaon's
closest talmidim.
The Gaon as a Public Figure
YF: Was the Gaon involved in communal affairs?
Rav Eliach: If you are referring to holding a position
or occupying a communal office, the answer is no! The Gaon
refrained from serving in any capacity that might have
interfered with his tremendous diligence in learning Torah.
If however, you are asking whether he lent assistance at
times of communal need, or engaged in activities to defend
our religion, in the broadest sense of the term, the answer
is a resounding yes!
YF: For example . . .
Rav Eliach: It should suffice to mention one of the
important points that the book brings out, namely the
struggle against Haskoloh ("enlightenment"). HaRav
Chaim Kanievsky told me that it was worthwhile to have
written the entire book if only for that one chapter. In this
chapter I show, that even though the fire of Haskoloh
first broke out in Berlin, far away from the Gaon's Lithuania
where it only arrived two generations later, the Gaon was
nevertheless one of the first to battle against it.
Another such subject is the campaign he waged against
chassidus, though the pages of a newspaper are not the
correct forum for dwelling on this topic. I will just note
that even though he was not the first, and certainly not the
only one who campaigned against the movement, it is his name
that is associated with the opposition more than any other.
Indeed, he was involved in this issue for over thirty
years.
If communal involvement means working to increase Torah study
among the rank and file, the Gaon himself was instrumental in
arranging shiurim for the baalebatim of Vilna.
He even set aside his usual practice and delivered the first
shiur from the Ein Yaakov. If communal
involvement means coming to the rescue in difficult times [he
did this too]. During one of the wars, he offered the people
encouragement and ruled as to how they should pray.
He himself held a special prayer in Vilna's Great Synagogue,
and the story of the rescue that is associated with that
occasion is related in the chapter entitled "Man Of
Wonders."
When all is said and done though, his main influence was
simply through his personality, a gaon whose greatness
recalled that of earlier generations and whose radiance
filled his surroundings. The various testimonies about this
influence that we quote are themselves highly impressive.
YF: What about disseminating Torah and generally
raising Torah's prestige?
Rav Eliach: Here lay his main influence, though not
only through his personal radiance, powerful though it was.
For example, he fostered the love of Torah that could be
found throughout Lithuania and especially in the capital
Vilna, where both impoverished and well to do Jews set aside
regular, fixed times for learning. He also engaged in
practical work for this cause, speaking to his
talmidim and to those who visited him about increasing
the ranks of Torah scholars who labor and toil in
learning.
With regard to learning itself, he worked to retrieve the
greatness of earlier times by emphasizing the importance of
arriving at the straightforward and truthful meaning of
texts, by stubbornly following Chazal at all times and in
every respect, and by stressing other fundamentals of Torah
study, which he bequeathed to his own and to all subsequent
generations.
In passing, I made an interesting new discovery in connection
with his role in the founding of the Volozhin yeshiva, known
as Eim Hayeshivos. In reference to your earlier
question too, about connections with my book Avi
Hayeshivos, this provides a firm link.
In my first work I mentioned a tradition that we have
received from our teachers the roshei yeshiva
according to which Rav Chaim Volozhiner founded his yeshiva
with the Gaon's consent, or perhaps even at his direct
instruction. It is known that at first, the Gaon was against
the plan but that later on, he supported it enthusiastically,
once he realized that Rav Chaim's motivations were one
hundred percent pure.
One perplexing point remains though. It is commonly accepted
that the yeshiva was founded in 5563 (1803), in other words,
five years after the Gaon's petiroh. Why did Rav Chaim
wait so long?
I came across a small, seemingly insignificant piece of
information. In the sefer Shulchon Hakerioh by Rav Dov
Ber Dovid Rifman zt'l, the author relates that his
father, Rav Peretz zt'l was a talmid of Rav
Chaim Volozhiner's, together with his friend Rav M.
Yakboshtater zt'l and that he heard Rav Chaim being
maspid his rebbe the Gaon straight after the
yom tov when the Gaon was niftar (during
Succos 5558 (1798).
Rav Rifman writes, "Rabbeinu Chaim zt'l of . . .
Volozhin, came [to] his yeshiva after chag haSuccos,
during the chol hamoed of which Eliyohu ascended
Heavenward in a tempest, and my father z'l heard the
first hesped from his rebbe, the talmid
of the gaon Rav A.V. zt'l, and he trembled when he
told us this."
This brief testimony yields a number of pieces of
information: First, Rav Chaim eulogized the Gaon immediately
following the former's petiroh, an important piece of
knowledge but one that we would have assumed anyway. Second,
the occasion made such a powerful impression upon the
listeners that when speaking about it years later, they still
trembled. The most important thing for us though is that we
can now resolve the question of the date of Volozhin's
opening which was, indeed, before the Gaon's
petiroh.
I recently obtained a fascinating document: an original
letter from the Netziv of Volozhin zt'l, Rav Chaim
Volozhiner's grandson, dated Adar II 5635 (1875), in which he
mentions that the yeshiva has been open, "for the past eighty
years and more," in other words since before 5555 (1795)!
That means at least three years before the Gaon's
petiroh.
This solves the riddle and validates our tradition from our
teachers, which seemed strange as mentioned above. With the
information provided by these two sources, the tradition is
borne out and the question disappears. The Volozhin yeshiva
was indeed opened during the Gaon's lifetime and with his
approval.
Some Open Questions
YF: Now tell us some behind the scenes information.
Perhaps you can reveal what didn't make it into the book?
Rav Eliach: I can tell you as follows: on the whole,
anything questionable, or lacking in basis, was omitted.
Also, in dealing with certain emotional issues, to which some
groups are especially sensitive, the gedolim asked me
to leave out revelations and expressions that are of a
particularly harsh nature. In deference to their wishes, I
therefore tried to maintain maximal restraint. But of course,
this wasn't what you had in mind. You meant that I should
leak something of a classified nature.
YF: Something a bit more substantial . . . just a
brief word that doesn't reveal too much.
Rav Eliach: That's not easy, yet perhaps it's
worthwhile, in order to demonstrate how a project dealing
with the Gaon's life is a virtual mine field and how careful
one has to be.
Approximately fifty years ago the existence of a sefer
entitled Kol Hator, which deals with the pathways to
the future redemption, was first made public and a sharp
debate sprung up around the work.
Some view it as having issued from a holy source. According
to them, its author was one of the Gaon's talmidim,
and in it he gave accurate expression to his rebbe's
outlook on the matter. Others deny the work's authenticity
altogether. They maintain that it is a work of fraud and
deceit.
These then, are the two, irreconcilable extremes. Both
parties number worthy Jews and well known Torah scholars
among them.
I myself have a certain "inner feeling" that as of yet is not
quite a definite opinion, though it is based on a number of
fundamental proofs. I was unable to address the issue in
writing however before learning the sefer and its
contents thoroughly, drawing up a serious study of all
aspects of the issue and presenting my findings to the
gedolei haTorah. At any rate, my own leanings on the
subject are irrelevant to any public discussion and
naturally, I gave them no expression in the book.
I can further reveal that friends of mine from both sides of
the debate have tried to get me to investigate the matter.
One side made a very enticing offer, to finance several
months of research irrespective of the outcome. I nonetheless
refused.
My present instructions from the gedolei Yisroel,
which is naturally the path I have followed, are to make do
with mentioning the sefer's appearance and to note
that its authenticity, and therefore its reliability, are the
subject of debate.
YF: What about the Gaon's portrait? Do you have a
definite opinion as to which one is the most reliable?
Rav Eliach: It's important to realize that we don't
possess a single photograph of the Gaon. Those were the days
of portraiture and it is only painted portraits that have
come down to us. Interestingly enough, the collection of
portraits of the Gaon is quite large, numbering tens of
pictures, which is out of the ordinary for personalities of
those times. It's hard to arrive at a firm opinion concerning
a picture's authenticity. It all depends on the artist's
skill and on how well he knew the Gaon -- and none of them
apparently knew him personally.
For the cover, we have nonetheless chosen a picture that has
not been published before. The picture belongs to the Pines
family who are descendants of the Gaon, and they have a
tradition regarding its authenticity. The picture is almost
identical to the earliest known picture, which is in the
archives of the Cracow National Museum and which was also
given to us for publication purposes.
Whereas most of the portraits of the Gaon were painted
outside Lithuania, the Cracow picture was painted in Vilna,
one generation after the Gaon, by a well known, professional
painter. This gives it relative reliability, which is
compounded by the strong likeness between it and the Pines
family's picture, especially in view of the fact that they
both follow the general pattern of the other, better known
pictures of the Gaon. We also came across pictures of a
different type but this was the one that we chose, for the
reasons that I have explained.
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