Page 18 - HaMizrachi Shavuot 5783 USA

From Near and Far:

Reflecting on the Life of

Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever

Rabbi Meir Bar Ilan ל“צז

Though he was only seventeen years old at the time of Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever’s death in 1898,
Rabbi Meir Bar Ilan, son of the illustrious Netziv and one of the Mizrachi movement’s greatest
thinkers and activists, was well aware of the debt that the nascent Religious Zionist movement owed
to Rav Mohilever. In his memoir, From Volozhin to Jerusalem (1939), Rabbi Bar Ilan reflects upon
Rav Mohilever’s hidden greatness. It is translated here, by David B. Greenberg, for the first time.

great many events and important long tradition of Jewish life. The Jewish Bialystok, and he was not appreciated in
people are of entirely different community there was stable and ordered. the wider world of Torah scholarship to
appearance when viewed from The spirit of the great rabbis who dwelled the degree he was revered by those who
Aup close instead of from afar, there and the numerous great men of knew him closely. His work as an operative
though what is seen from afar is not nec- Torah who lived there struck deep roots in public matters, particularly in Chibbat
essarily better or worse. There are other in the cultural life of the community. In Zion, overshadowed his rabbinate and his
times when both perspectives, from both the days of Rav Shmuel Mohilever as well, scholarly virtuosity. When he came to
up close and afar, reflect someone truly there were eminent community operatives Brisk for a visit, during the time when Rav
great, yet each perspective offers a differ- in Bialystok, some of them illustrious in Chaim Soloveitchik occupied the rabbin-
ent insight. Such a man was Rabbi Shmuel Torah, who in character and in wisdom
Mohilever. stood above the common man. ical throne in that place, Rav Chaim took
the initiative to go and greet Rav Shmuel.
He was an exceptional man, a nationalist Despite all this, Rav Shmuel Mohilever When several of those close to Rav Chaim
Jew in the full meaning of the word. He was tied more to the wider Jewish world expressed surprise, because Rav Chaim
had a very limited tie to Bialystok, the than to his own city. Not all those who was the greatest of his generation [and it
city he served as rabbi. Bialystok, one of knew him on account of his fame knew was beneath his honor to go and greet Rav
the most important Jewish communities him as the rabbi of Bialystok. He was less Shmuel], Rav Chaim responded that Rav
in Russia of the time, was known not so influential in his own city than he was in Shmuel Mohilever was a great man to be
much for the quantity of its Jewish popu- other places. Despite all the honor that regarded as a rabbinical giant and worthy
lation – though this was more numerous they accorded him and the veneration of having others take the initiative to greet
and significant than in other cities of that the Jews of Bialystok felt for their him. After Rav Shmuel passed away, Rav
such type – as for the quality of its Jews: rabbi, his work for the Jewish collective Refael Shapiro, then a rabbi in Babruysk,
students, aristocrats, wealthy individuals, and his Zionist ideas did not influence the
and community operatives. Materially, leaders of the local community. His circle arose and delivered a great eulogy for him.
Białystok was one of the affluent cities, of devotees and disciples in Warsaw and Rav Refael, who was among the greatest
a place of great factories and great enter- Vilna was larger than that in Bialystok, giants of his day and kept a distance from
prises. The city of Bialystok was deemed and in his city he was closer to a few young the political world, underscored in his
in economic terms to be second only to people than he was to the esteemed elders eulogy that Rav Shmuel Mohilever had
Lódź. A minority of the great emporia and of the congregation. not been appreciated as would befit his
factories were owned by Germans, while In this respect, Rav Shmuel Mohilever was greatness in Torah, as a “prodigy” – just as
the bulk of them were owned by Jews. a hidden individual. He was held in less in his youth he had been dubbed the Prod-
Yet unlike Lódź, Bialystok had a great and high regard in his own city than outside igy from Hlybokaye – and a great giant.

18 |