The Long Letter

The Long Letter (Yiddish: דער לאַנגער בריוו, Der Langer Briv) is the informal name given to a letter written by the Frierdiker Rebbe (the Previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn) to his daughter Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson in 1935. The letter recounts the story of Rabbi Mordechai the Righteous, a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov, and his mission to bring two old friends — Rabbi Yissachar Ber of Lubavitch, who would later become one of the teachers of the Alter Rebbe, and Rabbi Chaim the Recluse, who would later draw Rabbi Avraham of Kalisk into Chassidus — back to their master and to the path of Chassidic teaching.

The Frierdiker Rebbe composed the letter during the winter of 1935 while residing in the sanatorium of the resort town of Purkersdorf, Austria, where he was staying on doctor's orders for his health.

The Letter's Significance

This letter paints a vivid portrait of the great transformation that the Chassidic movement wrought upon the worldview and spiritual aspirations of Torah scholars in its earliest generations. As one reads through it, something of the inner revolution experienced by the first disciples of the Baal Shem Tov begins to come alive — their total self-giving to spreading the new path their master had revealed to the world.

The Frierdiker Rebbe refers to this story in a number of his letters and talks, but nowhere does he tell it at such length and in such rich detail as in this letter.

In a letter written on 8 Tammuz 5699 (1939), he summarized the story as follows:

Three men, students of the Smargon yeshiva, were the first to bring the teachings and guidance of our master the Baal Shem Tov — of blessed memory — to White Russia, around the years 1750–1752. One of them was R' Mordechai of blessed memory, who was the first among them to travel to the Volhynia region, where he heard the name of our master the Baal Shem Tov and went to Mezhybizh.
After spending a long time in Mezhybizh, and having already learned, thank G‑d, the ways of life under the Baal Shem Tov's guidance, he one day heard from the Baal Shem Tov the following teaching:
'A soul descends into this world and lives seventy or eighty years — for the sake of doing a kindness for a fellow Jew, in spiritual matters and especially in material matters.'
The holy words of our master the Baal Shem Tov made a tremendous impression on R' Mordechai. He left Mezhybizh and set out to find his old friends — the prodigy R' Yissachar Ber and R' Chaim, his former companions at the Smargon yeshiva — to tell them of the new path he had received in the Baal Shem Tov's house of study. After many wanderings he found them, and it was from these three that the vineyard of Chassidus in White Russia took root.

Summary of the Letter

R' Mordechai, having been privileged to encounter the Baal Shem Tov and draw close to his light, turned his thoughts to his dear friends from his youth — R' Yissachar Ber and R' Chaim — and felt moved to seek them out and bring them to their master. After many wanderings, he found R' Chaim in the town of Dubrovna, and discovered that over the years R' Chaim had become a perush — a recluse — who had cut himself off entirely from those around him.

R' Mordechai was deeply pained to see how his friend was serving G‑d: in sadness (atzvus), with a sense of self-importance and pride (ga'avah), and in isolation from everyone around him — the very opposite of the Chassidic way.

Gradually, R' Mordechai succeeded in influencing R' Chaim to change his ways. When the townspeople noticed how highly R' Chaim esteemed the visiting R' Mordechai, they decided to appoint R' Mordechai as the town's maggid (preacher). R' Mordechai accepted the position and revealed himself to the community as a speaker of remarkable depth, stirring the hearts of his listeners toward the service of G‑d in a wondrous way. His influence began to leave its mark on the town, and most visibly on R' Chaim, who became a man of energy and vitality — a transformation from one extreme to the other.

The High Holy Days that R' Mordechai spent in Dubrovna that year were etched into the memory of all who were there. His prayers on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur stretched on for hours and stirred the entire congregation. The effect on R' Chaim was especially powerful: when he came to R' Mordechai at the close of Yom Kippur, he found him still deep in prayer.

After the evening prayers (Maariv) and the blessing of the new moon (Kiddush Levanah), R' Mordechai and R' Chaim broke into an exuberant dance. R' Mordechai then began to speak about the meaning of a mitzvah performed without proper kavanah (intention), and the right and desired way to serve G‑d. When he finished, he taught the entire crowd that had gathered around him the niggun (melody) known as "Chafetz u'Matza" — Found What He Sought — a melody sung in the Baal Shem Tov's circle — and explained the meaning behind each of its movements.

The next morning, the whole town was in a stir over what had happened on the night of Yom Kippur, all the more so when word spread that the maggid had been standing in the middle of the morning Shacharis prayers in the main synagogue since early that day. A Torah discussion broke out among the town's leading scholars about how the maggid could still be reciting the silent Amidah when the afternoon prayer time had already arrived. Naturally, the conversation turned to the Baal Shem Tov himself.

One of the leading scholars recalled a story about the Baal Shem Tov that the maggid R' Mordechai had told them. This led to more accounts and episodes that others had heard from R' Mordechai over the course of his stay.

How the Letter Came to Light

The letter was written by the Frierdiker Rebbe, who apparently never completed it, but passed it on to his daughter Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka. The original is held in the Lubavitch Library.

Copies of the letter have circulated among Chabad Chassidim for many years — even before the publication of the Igros Kodesh (collected letters) series. There is a tradition^[1] that the letter was taken from the Rebbe's home. Another account has it that the Rebbetzin lent the letter to one of the Chassidim to read, and he made a copy before returning the original to her.

Editions

The letter appears in the Igros Kodesh of the Frierdiker Rebbe, volume 3.
In 2011, Heichal Menachem of Borough Park published it under the title "Chassidei HaBesht BeReishit Darkam" ("The Baal Shem Tov's Chassidim in the Early Days"), with the original Yiddish on one side of each page and a Hebrew translation facing it.^[2]
Two separate Hebrew translations appear in Shmu'os VeSipurim and Otzar Sipurei Chabad.
A teshura (celebratory booklet) titled Kemotzei Shalal Rav, distributed at the Cohen–Akabeshav wedding on the eve of 24 Tevet 5781 (January 8, 2021), includes the letter in both Hebrew and Yiddish alongside photographic reproductions of nearly the entire original manuscript, together with a comprehensive introduction and several passages omitted from earlier editions.
The letter also appears in Darkei HaChassidim, published by Vaad Chayalei Beis Dovid (770).

Notes

↑ Based on the testimony of R' Shalom Ber Butman.
↑ The editors omitted several passages from the beginning of the letter.

External Links

Igros Kodesh — Frierdiker Rebbe, vol. 3 (HebrewBooks) — Letter 750, p. 196
Photograph of the original manuscript — Lubavitch Library
Chassidei HaBesht BeReishit Darkam — Heichal Menachem, Borough Park, 2011
Kemotzei Shalal Rav — facsimile of the letter in the Frierdiker Rebbe's own handwriting Template:PDF

[1] Based on the testimony of R' Shalom Ber Butman.

[2] The editors omitted several passages from the beginning of the letter.

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