[Page 601]

Writers and the Scholarly

[Page 607]

The Youth [Early Years] of Ben-Zion
Rapport z”l [of blessed memory]

by M. D. Berl (Dubi)

Translated by Chana Saadia
Edited by Renee Miller

His only son Ben-Zion was already in his childhood known as one with a sharp mind who was growing up an iluy [genius]. For this they forgave him his wildness and his chutzpa to adults and the elderly.

At age eleven he was orphaned of his mother. His father moved with him to Sandz (Nowy Sacz), to his only daughter, Sarah, wife of Mordechai Mahler the enlightened maskil [follower of the Haskala (Enlightenment) movement], a Zionist and activist. He educated his son according to the spirit of the time with a general education and also Hebrew.

In 1900 the writer of these lines began to teach Hebrew to Michael, the son of Mr. Mahler. This was not viewed favorably in the eyes of the elderly father of Ben-Zion, so he pressured his daughter to remove the “apikoros” [non-believer, apostate] teacher from her home. When he did not succeed with his daughter, he attempted a different stratagem. He sent his son Ben-Zion to observe the Hebrew lesson, in order to harass the teacher with various questions on grammar, explanations of Rashi [Rashi, an acronym for Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac or Shlomo Yitzchaki, (February 22, 1040 – July 17, 1105)] is one of Judaism's classic Bible and Talmud commentators] and of difficult biblical passages, and to press his back to the wall in order to force him to leave the place and give up his lessons. But the opposite occurred, instead of catching the teacher, the son was caught by the evil inclination, God forbid. The young, sensitive boy came to know the teacher during these conversations, and saw that he was very polite, and was cheerfully willing to explain all of his difficulties. The boy became friendly with the teacher, [several words missing in text; replaced by a repetition of the last line in the next paragraph-translator's note].

Once when the teacher left the house after the lesson, he saw Ben-Zion standing outside behind the wall of the house, and he was afraid that someone would see him speaking to the “apikoros”. He [Ben-Zion] asked him [the teacher] to lend him a book to read. Willingly and wholeheartedly the teacher fulfilled this request, and on the following day he brought him “Religion and Life” by R. A. Broides, and the monthly journal “HaShiloach” [Ahad Haam's Bene-Moshe group founded the Hebrew journal Hashiloach (1896-1926)]. The young man swallowed the book like “the first fig of the early summer“ [Isaiah 28\4]. Obviously he had to hide in the fields among the crops, or to read at night by the burning stove, (while his father slept) in order not to be caught in the great and terrible transgression. Later he received the writings of M. D. Bernsttater, Smolenskin, Mapu etc.

He read the articles and poems in “HaShiloach” several times, until he almost knew them by heart. The young Ben-Zion, who formerly only knew the four cubits of halacha [the narrow bounds of Jewish law], the Talmud and its commentaries, and nothing about the world except for this, now opened his eyes: over the course of several weeks he became “different” [lit. “other”, a Talmudic term for an apostate]. In the town and in the study hall people began to gossip about him that he was cutting short his prayers and his learning in the study hall, and vanishing for half days in order to read the modern Hebrew literature and to study Bible and grammar.

From the coins he sometimes received from his sister he bought a first-grade German schoolbook, in order to learn the alphabet. When he learned to read German he bought philosophy books in the German language.

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When his father woke up one night and found him reading an “improper book” he tore it to pieces and threw it into the burning stove.

When he was sixteen he was orphaned of his father too. His sister wanted to be rid of this idler, who ate but did not produce, and tried to make him settle down [lit. “tie a grindstone to his neck”]. She exerted herself and found him a wife, the daughter of a good family from Zmigrod. He was then about seventeen, and she was about twenty-nine.

After the wedding they lived in Zmigrod. His wife, who was forced to be a “Woman of Valor” and provide for the family, began to deal in fabrics, and traveled to the fairs in the area, every day to a different fair, and took her husband along to guard the goods from thieves. But instead of guarding the goods from thieves, he studied a book of philosophy that he brought with him.

The period of commerce did not last long, the goods ran out; some were stolen and some were sold but the profits were eaten, and there remained no money to buy more stock.

On the advice of his wife, the Eshet Chayil [“Woman of Valor”], Ben-Zion became a teacher in her town of Zemigrod. There were some Jews who were willing to give their sons to be taught gemara and commentaries by the sharp young scholar. But in this also he did not last. It quickly became known that he was not worthy of this position, as he was found reading secular books, and was caught in various minor and major sins.

Once he came to Sandz to complain bitterly to his friend the teacher and to ask his advice if he should leave his town and his wife and travel to Berlin to study in the Rabbinical Seminary.

The teacher knew Ben-Zion as a young scholar, a complete idler, bashful and shy, with a beard and side-curls down to his middle, with the fringes of his small tallis [trad. Jewish garment worn under a man's shirt] reaching his ankles. For this reason he feared that in the big city he would be completely lost, and he certainly would not find work giving lessons as he thought he would, because his German was not fluent. Thus his advice was that he should move to Krakow, a city of scholars and lovers of secular learning, in the hope that there he would find friends to his liking, who would stand by him. He took this advice and settled in Krakow, where he met Dr. Yehoshua Tahon who found him work teaching Talmud and commentaries in the homes of wealthy families, and from this he supported himself respectably for a while. After the founding of the Hebrew Gymnasia in Krakow, he was employed there as a Hebrew teacher.

From the beginning of this career, now that he had a steady income, he was able to devote himself to the reading of books of secular learning and philosophy, as there was no lack of Hebrew and general libraries, and he felt [at home] like a fish in the great sea. He met educated people and Torah scholars who understood his soul, and he gained knowledge and wisdom and began writing philosophical articles for “HaShiloach”, “Haolam”, and “Hatekufa”.

He later published his articles as a book called “Hahakara” [Consciousness or Recognition], and became well known among the intellectuals.

During WWI he served in the Austrian army. During WWII [until?] 1939 he remained in Krakow, and in the terrible days he left there for Sandz to join his family, the daughters of his sister, and there he died together with all the people of the town and with his wife and only son and his grandchildren.

May his memory – the memory of a Jewish philosopher and author – be blessed.

[Page 609]

The Final Letter (Last Testament)
of One of the Martyrs of Israel

by M. A. Kurtz

Translated by Chana Saadia
Edited by Renee Miller

I publish the letter of Rabbi Ben-Zion Rappoport, hy”d, which he wrote to his only son at the address: Moshe Rappoport, Zandzin near Tarnow (a large and important city in Galicia, Poland), number 406 Granitzna Street, care of Shtormoynd. These were surely the last words of the writer towards the end of his days, when faith in mankind ceased and all hope to be saved was ended, and the world grew dark for him and for all the people of Israel.

The reader of this letter senses the echo of ethical wills, which some of the great men of the nation would command, before they were gathered to their people, to their sons or their students, to teach them life's wisdom and purpose, and what is the preferred behavior which a man should choose in his lifetime. When you read this letter you remember the wills of the Ro”sh^[3], Rabbi Ya'akov Baal Ha'Turim^[4], the Rambam's^[5] letter to his son, The Holy Shal”a^[6], ha'Gra^[7], etc, etc. Together with the unending simple faith, together with the hope still beating in the heart of the author, despite his grave danger^[8], you sense the beating wings of the angel of death, who neither discriminates nor distinguishes and who runs riot in this time of disaster.

And here are the few details known to us about the author, to which it would be worthwhile for the experts to add further lines, until we receive a full picture of the biography, personality and the creativity of one of the wonderful people who grew in the cultural climate and the social and public conditions of the last century of the existence of Judaism in Galicia; circumstances of life which have passed, have vanished, and will never again exist.

Ben-Zion Rappoport was born in Tarnow which is in Galicia, on the 15^th day of the month of Av, 5644 [1884]; was educated as was customary in religious homes in the towns of Galicia (his father R' Moshe taught gp”t^[9] to Jewish children), and was renowned, even before he reached his Bar-mitzvah^[10], as a genius. When he was thirteen his father moved his residence to Nowy Sacz, which was the capitol of Galician Hassidism of those days. Here he began to read and delve into Hasidic literature, and later into books of the philosophic research of the Middle Ages. In that same period there also came into his hands books of the Haskalah^[11] and various scientific books. As did many of his type, he yearned to travel to one of the great cities of Western Europe in order to further his education. However his father, who desired to prevent his son's plan, found him a wife, when he was eighteen years old. After he did not succeed in small business, he was forced to earn his livelihood in the profession he inherited from his father, and he became a “melamed”^[12]. In those years he began to publish his first articles (Rabbi Yisrael the Baal Shem Tov^[13], Rabbi Baruch of Kossov^[14], the question of free will and the Kabbalah^[15], and others) in the weekly “Ha'mitzpeh”^[16] and in its monthly supplement “Ramat Ha'mitzpeh”^[17] which were then published in Krakow. Because of these articles the householders declared him unfit to be a “melamed”. He was forced to move to Krakow and support himself as a teacher of the Hebrew language and literature. In the years 5673–4 [1913–1914] he published philosophical articles in the weekly “Ha'olam”^[18] which was edited by A. Droianov in Odessa (on Bergson^[19], Spinoza^[20], pragmatisn[?]^[21] and others). At the end of the First World War he was accepted by the Polish-Hebrew Gimnasia^[22] in Krakow as a teacher of Bible, literature and Jewish history. During two decades he served as a teacher and earned respect and acclaim from his fellow teachers, his many students and the Jews of Galicia in general.

[Page 610]

Always deep in reflections, always meditating on elevated subjects, friendly, modest in his manners, innocent and honest – he was valued by his friends for his excellent character. His forgiving nature to his students and his patience served as an example to many.

His clear handwriting – even the hundreds of pages of his last manuscript, written under conditions of poverty^[23] and danger attest to this – the strict observance of the external appearance, exactness in all details, the order – are also characteristics of his excellent character traits in his relations with people.

According to the laws of the Polish State, at the beginning if the 1930's (when Rappoport was almost 50) he was forced to pass an examination in order to officially teach in the high-school and to be called by the title “gymnasia professor”. R. at the time greatly pitied his students who themselves had to study many of the same subjects, which R. completely disdained, and he made fun of his studied and his preparation for this examination, and of the title “professor” - which was granted to him, while others held this official title in great respect.

R”s eyesight was faulty even as a youth. For many years he dictated his articles to his son Moshe, hy”d, or to his students, who knew and loved literature and study. R. always remembered to which of his students he dictated which article, and later – when the article was published – he did not forget to invite the student and show him the published article, so that he could have satisfaction with the work he did.

The details of Rappoport's last days are not known to us. The letter here published is certainly the last thing he wrote, before he was killed with all his people.

When in 1946 I was on a mission to Poland, as a member of the official delegation of the Yishuv^[24], I had the privilege to redeem from oblivion an entire manuscript, prepared for publication and written in a clear and beautiful handwriting. (The philosophical content of the composition was written and edited with a clear prophetic vision in the dark oppression of the ghetto and the grief and suffering of the Hurbm. [The Destruction])

The way to the faithful watchman who guarded the manuscript – even when this involved great danger – I found based on information which Dr. Ben-Zion Katz-Ben Shalom of Jerusalem sent to me to the ruins of Warsaw. I remember: after several meetings, enquiries and exploratory conversations, I was sent to a private home in the city of Katowice. A Jew, who hid his identity and went under a Polish name, brought me into his room, in the apartment of a Christian Pole, After he checked and made sure that it would be impossible to surprise him during our conversation, he removed from its hiding place, very well hidden, a package wrapped in papers and in an unused towel. With reverence he untied the package and carefully handed me the orderly handwritten pages, which a concerned hand had guarded as a precious object until there would be found a redeeming hand for these pages, in which the noble and modest author one of the select individuals of the generation, confided his choice thoughts and hopes.

Thus was saved the collection of philosophical articles “Researches and Studies”, by the scholar and philosopher Rabbi Ben-Zion Rappoport hy”d. The writing of the book was completed during the years of suffering and the “shoah” [The Destruction] of destruction of the Jews of Poland. At a time when the sword shall deal death without^[25] this lofty intellectual found shelter in the four cubits of the world of study, in which he put his trust. The book is the third composition, and the largest, of the author. It was preceded by two books: “Consciousness and Existence”, published by Binyamin Hertz, Berlin, 1924-1929; and “Philosophers and Philosophies”, published by the organization of Hebrew authors “Miflat”^[26], Krakow, 1936.

[Page 611]

I brought this manuscript to Eretz Yisrael, it was published in 1953 by Mossad Bialik, under the title “Character and Mind” – Philosophical Studies.

Along with the manuscript I also received an autobiographical article and the letter here published.

As one of the thousands of the students and admirers of the wise Rabbi, I thank God who made me the messenger for a mitzvah^[27], that of saving from oblivion the last group of articles and the testament, which were written in the essence of the pure and holy blood of a distinguished man and an esteemed teacher.

The letter

I have longed to converse with you, at least in writing, and to pour out before you my thoughts^[28]. My heart is full of sorrow and longing, I am sorrowing that I cannot see you and the dear and beloved daughters. Also I cannot see Mother, she is very miserable. Last winter I was sick and then I almost decided to write down the thoughts of my heart and soul and send [them] to you, but for reasons which you know of the matter was postponed. Thank God I regained my strength, Fayga and her husband took care of me devotedly. Now, when it has been fulfilled unto us for our sins the words of punishment (Deut. 28:66) “The life you face…”^[29] I feel the urgent need to write several words to you.

What can I tell you? In essence there is no important “subject”^[30]. If the times were normal, without the current “state of emergency”, I would council you, my son, not to get angry and upset, and most important not to worry. Now we see how many of our worries before the war were foolish worries, and our angers were were in vain. Then, when we lacked for nothing, we had a large, spacious apartment, we lived in security, what did we have to worry about and over what did we need to get angry? Nevertheless! How many times were we angry and full of “sorrow”. As for me, I don't know if you are aware, the source of my anger was love and worry for your lot, therefore if I sinned to you, my son, or to your wife and daughters I ask you to forgive me.

Even now, happy is the man who can overcome his fear and worries, and hold to faith and belief. Indeed, it is difficult in these times to give “advice”, but you are still young and I hope that you will merit to [see] days of peace and tranquility; therefore I advise to keep distant from anger and worry to the best of your ability. How many times we get angry over things that in our eyes are “important”, and afterwards they are revealed as completely valueless; and on the contrary, we make light of and distain “small” matters which in truth are important and of consequence. And as one of the Hassidic Rabbis has said “All of this world is not worth even one sigh”. There is no other way here except the way of belief and faith. A man must do all he can and the rest, his burden, he must cast on God and He will support him, “Cast your burden on God and He will support you!”^[31]

One more matter of importance, that I want to mention, is – guarding one's tongue from all sorts of lies, slander, gossip and judging a person unfavorably. In this matter the tzadik^[32] Rabbi Yisrael Meir HaCohen^[33] z”l^[34] of Radun (author of the “Chafetz Chayim”^[35] – the editor) can be an example for us. I sinned in this, because by nature I am a social person, and where there is much speech sin does not cease. But you, my dear son, are still young, you can hold to the good character trait – the trait of guarding the tongue, and it will be as if “the son gives merit to the father”.

[Page 612]

These are in my opinion, the most important foundations of a life of purity: truth, belief and faith, and guarding the tongue, “the rest is the explanation”^[36].

As for me, I am very busy writing that book which I began during the last few years. I write, correct and copy (I want to have two copies of it). It is very important to me, because it includes many articles which express my “outlook on the world”, on “theism”, “body and soul”, “the purpose of man”, and more. In size it is larger than “Philosophers and Philosophies”. I am trying to fulfill my obligation, and God will do what is good in His eyes. And now, my son, forgive me that I come to you at this time with “advice”, at a time when you need other things, things “of substance”, but what can I do since I am unable to help you.

Your father who blesses you with a life of tranquility, rest and everything good.
Nowy Sacz, 25 Sivan, (1942]	Ben-Zion
As you can see from the above date this letter was written about a month ago, what came afterwards is known. What can I say, what can I speak, what can I advise!
20 Tamuz	the above

Because I do not know when I will be able to send this letter, I am adding to it some words of “philosophy”. If you do not have the patience to read you can “skip” them. All sorts of torment and suffering which man suffers, their source is – love of life. If a man could free himself from the strong will for his existence and the existence of his fellow men, he would not feel any of the torments of life anf their sorrow, since both the physical and spiritual pains are caused by incidents which involve danger to our life and existence. The love of life is very strong even in times when it is lacking reason; even an old man who has reached eighty and more wants to live and believes that he will yet live a long time. There is a Jewish joke which tells of a ninety year old man who was still strong and healthy. His oldest son, aged seventy, was widowed and the man wanted to remarry a second wife young enough to bear children. His old father opposed this, and his reason was: my son is already seventy and his days are numbered. Afterwards the bother of raising the small children who he will father will fall on him. The idea hidden in this joke is wonderful: relating to another person, this old man understood that a seventy-year-old man was near the end of his life; but relating to himself, who was twenty years older than his son, he believed that he had “made a treaty with death”, and that he would live until at least one hundred and twenty years. Man knows that his end is to die, yet he believes in eternal life. How can we join these opposites? From where do we have this strong wish for life, which forces us to suffer all sorts of sorrow and pain as long as we can continue to live? There is no answer other than that this is “the finger of God”. And RaSa”G^[37] z”l in his book “Beliefs and Opinions”, article 10 chapter 11 (I am quoting from “Sefer Ha'Mezuzah” by Rabbi Shmaryahu Leib Horowitz p. 31), writes: “Love of the world was only put in the heart of man so that he would not kill himself when misfortune comes to him” l”a^[38]. From this idea it is possible to draw a bit of comfort.
22 Tamuz

I did not send the letter until now because of the prohibition here of writing in Hebrew. Now I have decided to send it and may God guard us.
3 Elul

Translator's Footnotes

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