Blessing

I have already written about the synagogue of Łańcut, the fantastic treasure trove of the Hasidic visual world. The most conspicuous motifs of the frescoes, completed in 1761, are the prominently placed lions, deer, griffins and bears, which also populate Hasidic cemeteries, and the bima with its scenes from the Scriptures, where the heads of the people are covered with foliage to prevent sacrilege, and the ceiling of the bima is adorned with the Leviathan.


But the whole decoration of the synagogue is an inexhaustible gold mine. Among other things, the frieze running at the height of the ledge depicts the twelve signs of the zodiac, like in many other Galician Hasidic synagogues, implying the continuity of Jewish festivities throughout the year. Here, in Łańcut, however, four alien animals mingle among the celestial figures on the entrance wall. If you do not recognize them at first sight, their labels will identify them: כנמר ka-namer, “like the tiger”, וקל נשר ve-kal ka-nesher “and light as the eagle”, רץ כצב rats ka-tsvi, “running like the deer”, וגבור כארי ve gibbor ka-ari, “and hero like the lion”.





The four figures are repeated with the same labels in the small hall of the synagogue’s lobby, which was the workroom of the first and greatest rabbi of Łańcut, later Rabbi of Lublin, Jakub the Seer. Judging by its more recent, less Baroque, rather 19th-century style, the Rebbe may have painted these later, as a constant warning to himself.

The four figures and the text of their labels refer to a moral maxim well-known in Talmudic education. Its source is the Mishnaic book Pirkei Avot, “Teaching of the Fathers” (5:20), which attributes it to Judah ben Tema, belonging to the tannaim, the great 1st to 2nd-century rabbis. The saying goes like this: הוי עז כנמר, וקל כנשר, ורץ כצבי, וגבור כארי לעשות רצון אביך שבשמים “Be bold as the tiger, light as the eagle, run like the deer, and be strong as the lion, to do the will of your Heavenly Father.”

“Ushpizim Tablet” for Sukkot, Canada, 1947. In the center, the Temple of Jerusalem, soon to be rebuilt, and above, the four Mishnaic animals, with the images of Israeli holy places below them, just as in the synagogue of Łańcut.

What better could we wish for for the year of 5780, set to begin tonight? Shana tova.

At the cradle of Galician Hasidism

Leżajsk, at the tomb of Rabbi Elimelech. Photo by Adam Krzykwa

This post was written for the monthly news of the Hungarian Jewish Cultural Association.

The pious maysele says that when Rabbi Elimelech of Leżajsk, the greatest tsaddik of his age, was asked by his Hasidic followers whether the Messiah to come would be Hasidic or mitnaged, the opponent of Hasidism, the Rabbi, after a brief hesitation, said that he would be an opponent. But Rabbi, how can the Eternal One afford this? asked the startled believers. Well,  said the Rabbi, if he were a Hasid, the opponents would not believe in him. But the faith of the Hasids is so infinitely large, that they will believe in him anyway, whoever he may be.

Leżajsk, at the tomb of Rabbi Elimelech. Photo by Adam Krzykwa

The Hasidim have long since disappeared from Poland. But the memory of their infinitely large faith is still kept alive in two places, by two small neighboring towns, which we will visit as the cradle of Galician Hasidism during our tour next year: Leżajsk and Łańcut.

Leżajsk, at the tomb of Rabbi Elimelech. Photo by Adam Krzykwa

When Baal Shem Tov, may his memory be blessed, returned his soul to his Creator in the Podolian Mezhibozh, where his tomb is still revered, the heir of his teachings, Maggid Dov Ber transferred his seat to Mezerich, in the northern part of present-day Ukraine. Here he founded the “holy company” of his disciples, whose task it was to establish the teachings of Hasidism in the western part of Poland, later Galicia, also.

Leżajsk, tomb of Rabbi Elimelech

The greatest of the disciples, Elimelech, after the death of his master, settled in the little town of Leżajsk – in Yiddish, Lizhensk –, to the south of Lublin, with the result being that this shtetl became the first major center of Hasidism in Poland. A number of institutions, which are today inextricably linked to Hasidism, have their origin here. Here, the Rabbi wrote his Torah commentary entitled Noam Elimelech, which was the first to explain the task of the tsaddik as a spiritual leader who elevates his community to God and guides it in this world. Here he founded the first “tsaddik court”, maintained by the gifts of his followers. Here emerged the custom of the kvitli enclosed with the donations, the slip of paper listing the physical and spiritual problems of the believers, who awaited their resolution from the rabbi. These slips are still today placed by the Hasidim, full of hope, on the tombs of the great tsaddiks. And here is still revered the grave of Elimelech, to which thousands of people make pilgrimage from all over the world, not just on the anniversary of his death, on the 21th day of the month Adar, but every day of the year, offering their kvitlis with “infinitely large faith” to the benevolence of the tsaddik.

Photos by Adam Krzykwa

The disciple of Elimelech, Rabbi Jacob, the other major early tsaddik, the future “Seer of Lublin”, started his activity next to his master, in the neighboring town of Łańcut. In the late 18th century, the Hasidic community of Łańcut lived its heyday under the protection of the Lubomirski Princes, with whose permission and support they built, right next to the Ducal Palace, one of the most beautiful synagogues of Poland. The synagogue belongs to that Baroque building type often called the “Polish synagogue”, whose examples also exist outside of Poland – e.g. in the Slovakian Bártfa/Bardejov, the Hungarian Mád, or the Moravian Nikolsburg/Mikulov –, and whose ceiling is divided by the four massive stone colums of the central bima into nine vaulted sections, thus giving a spacious and majestic impression even in a relatively small space.


But the specialty and stunning effect of the synagogue of Łańcut comes not only from this, but primarily from the fact, that the images of the naive and folkloric world of the medieval Jewish manuscripts and Baroque Hasidic tombstones move into the building and take possession of the entire interior of the synagogue. The walls, the façade of the bima, and the ceiling are entwined with a lavish, lush vitality by the stucco ornamentation, painted in vivid colors, in whose open fields deers, lions, birds, wonderful fish-bodied and deer-headed creatures, biblical scenes and symbols, stars and the signs of the zodiac make the building mystic and broaden its universal dimensions, fascinating the simple Hasid with the impression of such richness, that he had never met in his life.


It is said, that when Rabbi Elimelech stood before the Heavenly Judge, he said with humbly bowed head: “I did not pray and did not study the Torah”. So the judgment said: “Well, then to hell with you.” But the angels raised Elimelech, and took him to heaven, according to his merits. When Elimelech lifted his eyes, he exclaimed: “How merciful is the Eternal One, and how beautiful heaven can be, if already hell is like this!” This is what the simple Hasid might have felt, when upon entering into the synagogue of Łańcut, lifting his eyes.


In the first edition of Rabbi Elimelech’s main work Noam Elimelech, small stars can be seen above certain words, which, according to the commentators, suggest some hidden meaning. But according to the Rebbe of Klausenburg, Yekutiel Yehudah, the situation is reversed, and “the stars of the sky are the comments to the stars of Noam Elimelech”. And you can see this in the synagogue of Łańcut.

New Year, New Year

The Italian literary and cultural journal Biblioteca d’Israele, which already in the spring opened the section Il mondo dello Shtetl – The world of Shtetl for the posts received from our blog and reviving the former East European Jewish world, today, with the approach of the New Year, published our entry written on the Hasidic New Year in Uman.

The difference between the two New Years is a quarter of a year, and in comparison to the mid-September festivities of Rosh Hashanah, when thirty thousand people gathers together from all the world around the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, now there is silence in Uman. However, two hundred and fifty kilometers to the west, in Medzhibozh, at the tomb of his great-grandfather and the founder of Hasidism, Baal Shem Tov, the pilgrimage is continuous also at this time. In January we will write about this both iin Biblioteca d’Israele and here, in Río Wang.

Capodanno, capodanno

La rivista letteraria e culturale Biblioteca d’Israele, che già in questa primavera ha aperto la sezione Il mondo dello Shtetl – The world of Shtetl per gli articoli assunti dal nostro blog che rievocano il mondo ebraico scomparso dell’Europa orientale, oggi, con l’approccio dell’anno nuovo, ha pubblicato il nostro post scritto sul Capodanno chassidico in Uman.

La differenza fra i due capodanni è un quarto d’anno, e in rispetto alle festività di Rosh Hashanah, quando, alla metà di settembre, trentamila persone si riuniscono da tutto il mondo attorno alla tomba del Rabbi Nachman di Breslov, ora c’è silenzio in Uman, ma duecentocinquanta chilometri più all’ovest, in Medzhibozh, alla tomba del suo bisnonno e fondatore del chassidismo, Baal Shem Tov, il pellegrinaggio è ininterrotto anche adesso. Nel mese di gennaio scriveremo di questo sia nella Biblioteca d’Israele che qui, in Río Wang.

All quiet in the Eastern front

“The Jews carrying the holy Torah in front of Archduke Friedrich in P… / 1915-1916”

It is not that easy to read the place name, you see? This is why I got this postcard from Andrea Deák, and she from a collector friend, to try to ascertain where the unusual event took place.

Archduke Friedrich, the third and last Duke of the Teschen branch of the Habsburgs was appointed on 11 July 1914 the supreme commander of the Monarchy’s forces by Franz Joseph, in place of himself. Friedrich, while leaving the actual operational decisions to the Chief of Staff, General Hötzendorf, considered his own main task to encourage the soldiers by his personal presence, thus he almost all the time visited the front lines. In the above period of 1915-16 mainly the Eastern front, where the German and Austrian army was just rolling back the Russian forces from the territory of Galicia. It is thus somewhere here that we have to look for the above place, which cannot be but Podhajce – in the spelling of the postcard, Podhajcze –, west of Tarnopol, now Підгайці in the Ukraine.

“Archduke Friedrich in the war-torn areas. The commander in chief of the Austro-Hungarian Army (×) has recently visited those localities in the Carpathians, which had suffered the most from the war. On his way, the poor population everywhere received the commander in chief with love and confidence. In our picture Archduke Friedrich is receiving a Ruthenian delegation and talking to its leader, the village teacher. Behind the Archduke, Lieutenant-General Benigni.” Tolnai Világlapja, 1915. november 11.

Cadastral map of Podhajce, 1846, detail. The full, zoomable map see here

This is supported by the fact that Podhajce was a really important Jewish settlement. Its history is summarized in the Memorial Book of Podhajce, published in 1972. Its rabbi is first mentioned in 1602, thus the community was established probably in the late 16th century, the period of the great Ashkenazi immigration into Galicia and Podolia. As this region of Southern Podolia, with Kamenets-Podolsk as its center, was part of the Ottoman Empire between 1667 and 1699, its Jewish population was strongly influenced through the Sephardic Jews settling here at that time by the pseudo-Messiah of Smyrna, Sabbatai Zevi, whose movement lived its heyday just then, between 1665 and 1676. Podhajce became the Galician center of Sabbateanism, so much, that its traces survived until the Holocaust. Then, in the late 1700s it also became an important center of the movement of Jakob Frank, a reviver of Sabbateanism. In the early 18th century two great Baal Shem’s, that is, Kabbalist physicians and miracle workers, Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Falk and Rabbi Moshe David worked in the town, but because of the suspicion of Sabbatean sympathies both had to flee to London, where they continued their profession for several decades. At the same time in this region lived the greatest Baal Shem, the founder of Hasidism and a sworn enemy of the Frankists, thus both Hasidism, and the opposing trend, the Misnagdim found fervent supporters in the city: it seems that the Jews of Podhajce did everything fervently. No wonder that many great rabbis and Talmud scholars were born and worked here. Before the Second World War more than 40% of the town, about 3000 residents were Jews. Their impressive fortress synagogue, built in 1640, and their beautiful cemetery founded in the 17th century has survived until now; the Hasidic community of Podhajce lives on in New York and Jerusalem.


When was this photo taken? The period of 1915-16, indicated in the inscription, can be probably narrowed down by half. The German-Austrian counter-attack pushed back the Russian front to the Riga-Pinsk-Tarnopol line by September 1915, but the Brusilov offensive, launched in June 1916, pushed it back within a a couple of months over the town again. It is most likely that the Archduke visited the recently recaptured areas in the autumn of 1915, and it was then that the superiors of the Jewish community of Podhajce went out before him. If you know a more accurate date on the basis of The Great War in writing and picture, or any other source, tell it to us!

Update: Tamás Deák calculated that, according to Steffner Tábori Újság, on 4 November, Archduke Friedrich was still in the Italian front (and in October in Belgrade), while on 13 November he already traveled further to the occupied Russian territories. In the 11 November edition of Tolnai Világlapja – see the illustration above – he “recently” visited the recaptured territories. If we exclude the possibility of a Saturday, then the most likely date of the event is 9 November 1915.

Postcards sent/drawn by Hungarian soldiers from Podhajce, between April-July 1916 (From auction sites)

A found postcard about Podhajce with the synagogue. Drawing of the great Hungarian avant-garde painter of Jewish origin, Bertalan Pór, who worked as a front drawer in the First World War

And why did they went out with the Torah roll in front of the army’s commander in chief? What was the symbolic significance of this? Was it a common practice in the period? What is certain is that Erwin A. Schmiedl’s Juden in der K. (u.) K. Armee, 1788-1918 (Kismarton: Österreisches Jüdisches Museum, 1989) publishes two additional similar photos from the Galician front. We are waiting for the savvy additions of our readers.

“The Jewish population welcomed the I&R troops and dignitaries with special respect. This photograph from the War Archives, Vienna, shows the reception of the highest military chaplain in the I&R forces, the (Roman-Catholic) Feldvikar Emmerich Bjelik, by a Jewish community somewhere on the Eastern Front, in the operational area of the Corps Hofmann (later XXVth Corps).”

“The relationship between the Austro-Hungarian soldiers and the Jewish population in the East was generally good; the Habsburgs were often regarded as “protectors” of the Jews. Above: Emperor Charles visiting a Jewish community in the East, ca. 1917.”

Update: The Yiddish Florilège published a new photo on the visit of Charles on the Eastern front. On this, the Jews of Kolomea greet him with the Torah. Tamás Deák has pointed out on the basis of Streffleur Katonai Lapja, that the visit took place on 4 August 1917. This may also date the above picture.


Update: Tamás Deák has sent some more contemporary photos from the Tolnai Világlapja about the encounter of the armies of the central powers with the Jews of Galicia. Even if we discount the obligatorily propagandistic tone of the captions, the Russian occupation was really a great blow to the local Jewish population also according to contemporary Jewish sources, and as we know from the writings of Joseph Roth, the Galician Jews, threatened by the awakening nationalisms, really saw the guarantee of their equality in the multinational Austrian Empire.

“Towards the abandoned home. A Polish Jewish family returning to Neu-Sandec. Poor Polish Jews, they suffer the most from the war. At the news of the Russians’ approaching, they ran to escape, since they know that the Cossacks give mercy the least to them. But as soon as they hear that our troops drove back the Russians, they hastily load their poor belongings on the cart, the whole family sits on top of it, and they hopefully and happily rush back to the abandoned nest. Their fate is certainly not enviable.” Tolnai Világlapja, 21 January 1915

“German officers at the head of their troops marching into a conquered city in Russian Poland. In our picture the German soldiers march along the Jewish street. The Russian Jews stand in front of their miserable houses and happily welcome the victorious troops. The Jews are particularly glad when the Russians, of whom they had to suffer a lot, leave their towns. It is a veritable salvation for them when the Germans occupy the city.” Tolnai Világlapja, 3 June 1915

“Among ruins in Russian Poland. After our soldiers marched triumphantly in the [Volhynian] town, thoroughly destroyed by the retreating Russians, our officers used their rest time to visit the destroyed city. The Polish Jews surrounded with love the officers, and they guided them about the ruined town.” Tolnai Világlapja, 9 December 1915