Zev Wolf Kitzes
Rabbi Zev Wolf Kitzes (in Yiddish: קיצעס) was among the closest disciples and constant companions of the Baal Shem Tov, and one of the most prominent figures of the early Chassidic movement. He is named after his mother, Kitzes.[1]
Life edit
Rabbi Zev Wolf served as rabbi of the community of Tulchin, and later moved to Mezhybizh — where he and Rabbi Dovid Purkes stood at the head of a circle of Chassidim that had formed even before the Baal Shem Tov's arrival. When the Baal Shem Tov came to Mezhybizh, the leaders of this group initially resisted his authority — but in time they accepted his leadership.[2]
He became the Baal Shem Tov's devoted companion, and when the Baal Shem Tov settled in Mezhybizh in 1740 (5500), Rabbi Zev Wolf came with him.
On several occasions Rabbi Zev Wolf represented the Baal Shem Tov in public debates with opponents of Chassidus. The Baal Shem Tov said of him: "Between you and me there is no more than a hair's breadth — but that hair you will never be able to cross."[3]
Rabbi Zev Wolf made an attempt to ascend to the Land of Israel, but ultimately turned back. One account, recorded in the Chabad journal Kfar Chabad (issue 693), in the memoirs of Rabbi Yochanan Gordon citing a certain R.Z.Ch. (whose full name is not given), relates: Rabbi Zev Wolf wished to travel to the Land of Israel. The Baal Shem Tov asked him to wait until after Shabbos and offered to cover all his expenses, including his immersion in the mikveh. Rabbi Zev Wolf went to the mikveh together with the Baal Shem Tov, who told him to immerse first. When Rabbi Zev Wolf emerged, he announced that he had decided not to go — for in the mikveh he had been granted a vision in which he ascended to the Land of Israel and came to the site of the Holy Temple, where it was revealed to him that the Holy Ark was in Mezhybizh. And so he did not go.
Rabbi Zev Wolf passed away on the 12th of Cheshvan, and is buried in the ohel — the resting place — of the Baal Shem Tov in Mezhybizh.
His Stringencies edit
Rabbi Yitzchak Michelovitch of Radvil wrote of him that he was extraordinarily renowned for his righteousness and his meticulous care in fulfilling the commandments — to the point that "he would immerse even a needle" in the mikveh before use.[4]
It is told that Rabbi Zev Wolf held himself to the stringency of not eating meat unless he had personally supervised its preparation — even when his teacher the Baal Shem Tov ate from that very meat.[5]
It is further told that he would not eat from meat that had been salted in the Baal Shem Tov's household, because the salting did not meet his standard.[6]
The Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, offers an explanation for this.[7] The Maggid of Mezeritch testified that had the Baal Shem Tov lived in the era of the Tannaim — the Mishnaic sages — he would have been among the most singular and wondrous of them, because "most Tannaim are rooted in the world of Beriah" (the World of Creation), while the Mishnaic masters operate on the level of Yetzirah (Formation).[8] A "master of Mishnah" is therefore on a higher rung — the level of Beriah. The Baal Shem Tov's soul, however, was rooted in Atzilus (Emanation), like the most exalted of the Tannaim.
This is the explanation: given the lofty root of the Baal Shem Tov's soul, he could eat meat prepared at a lower standard of stringency, because at his level he had no fear of drawing vitality to the forces of impurity — he had no need for the severe safeguards required by someone on a lower rung. But Rabbi Zev Wolf Kitzes, standing on a lower spiritual plane, was himself required to be more stringent.
Further Reading edit
- Ir Mivtzar — history of the city of Mezhybizh and its rabbis
- Kol MeHaHechal — biography of Rabbi Zev Wolf Kitzes
Notes edit
- ↑ In letter 54 of the Kherson Genizah, he signs himself "Zev Wolf ben Kitzes." In letter 94, he signs "Zev Wolf ben Kitzeh" — suggesting her name was "Kitzeh," and that "Kitzes" is a possessive or affectionate form derived from it.
- ↑ Shivchei HaBaal Shem Tov, section 120.
- ↑ Rabbi Yaakov Emanuel Schochet, Kesser Shem Tov HaShalem, Kehot Publication Society, 2004, p. 483.
- ↑ Rabbi Yitzchak Michelovitch, Ohr Yitzchak, Jerusalem, 1961, Parshas Ekev, p. 188.
- ↑ Maamarei Admur HaZakein HaKetzarim, Otzar HaChassidim, 1981, p. 531.
- ↑ See the sources cited in Migdal Oz (Kfar Chabad, 1980), p. 365, note 34.
- ↑ Mea Shearim, p. 78; Maamarei Admur HaZakein HaKetzarim, p. 531 ff.
- ↑ Tikkunei Zohar, introduction (14a); Etz Chaim, Gate 50, ch. 5; Shaar HaMitzvos and Taamei HaMitzvos, Parshas Vaeschanan; Pri Etz Chaim, Shaar Hanhagat HaLimud.