Rav Menachem-Mendel of Shklov (1770-1839).Yahrzeit - 30 ShevatResting place - JerusalemHis father, Rav Baruch Bendet, was the town's maggid (preacher). Little is known about Mendel's early life. In the last years of the life of the Vilna Gaon (1720-1797), he, like his older brother Simcha-Bunim, was a close disciple of the sage. The Gaon treated Mendel with special tenderness. Here is the testimony of the Gaon's sons: "Rav Menachem-Mendel came under the Gaon's roof already in his old age and saw the great light of his Torah. Striving to uncover its depths and dispel the darkness of uncertainties and doubts, the young disciple 'turned his nights into days' — and the Gaon, having seen that his intentions and deeds were pleasing to G-d, showed him favor." In the disciple's own words: "The Almighty granted me favor in the eyes of the Gaon, and throughout that year and nine months that I lived with him, I did not leave his side for a moment. I did not leave his tent by day or by night, and wherever he went, I went with him, and when he slept, I slept too. And he opened for me the path to wisdom." In total he remained continuously with his teacher for about 3 years. Menachem-Mendel was already a master of Torah, including its hidden dimension, and had accumulated "uncertainties and doubts" which the Gaon resolved; the sources do not say with whom he studied. For this alone it would have been worth never leaving his "small homeland."Shklov, a small town in the Mogilev region that passed to Russia in 1772 during the first partition of Poland, was, in terms of Jewish scholarship, a capital city. Shklov produced both "Prushim" — sages of the Lithuanian tradition (Shlomo-Zalman, 1728-1812, who established a yeshiva there in 1772; his son Binyamin Rivlis; Rav Issachar-Ber; the renowned scholar Rav Baruch Schick; Rav Yehuda-Leib Margaliot...) — and Chassidic leaders: Rabbi Pinchas of Korets (1726-1791) and Eliyahu, another son of Rav Shlomo-Zalman, who became a Chabad adherent.Economically, too, the Jews of Shklov were strong — making up anywhere from 50 to 80 percent of the population in different years, Jews owned 70 percent of the shops, and the town's location on the border (between the Polish partitions of 1772 and 1793) fostered trade and smuggling. The success of Jewish merchants relocating to Moscow, many of them originally from Shklov, led to complaints from local merchants and, in 1791, to the establishment of the "Pale of Settlement." In 1777 Catherine II gave Shklov to her retired favorite Zorich, who set up a lavish court there with all manner of high society gatherings, and extracted the money for it — including from the Jews — through bandit-like methods: taxes, extortion, arrests... This experience would prove useful to our hero later, in Arab-Ottoman Jerusalem.The sages of Shklov became instigators of the persecution of the Chassidim — it was here that both debates and many gatherings of the opponents of Chassidism took place; the sages of Shklov appealed to the Gaon and the leaders of Vilna with complaints about the sectarianism and wild behavior of the Chassidim of the Mogilev region, and their disrespect toward rabbis. The persecution of Chassidim in Mogilev province was the harshest anywhere; this was partly why hundreds of Chassidim relocated to the Land of Israel at the end of the 18th century.Rav Menachem-Mendel did not become an active participant in these battles: though an outstanding kabbalist and the author of some ten works on the hidden teachings, and a "son" of the Gaon — the very banner of this struggle — by nature he was above all a bearer of peace and love, entirely true to his name [Menachem, "comforter"]. After the Gaon's passing on 9 October 1797, he, together with the Gaon's sons and his friend Rav Yisrael — with whom he would later head the community in the Land of Israel — set about understanding and publishing the Teacher's works. The Gaon's hints had to be deciphered, the accuracy of their interpretation verified, and the results shared with others. By the author's own wish, the first work published was his commentary on Mishlei (Proverbs), "for Mishlei is entirely permeated with awe of the Creator."The Rav recorded his teacher's lessons, and these notes formed the basis of several of his own books. Three were published (another seven circulated in manuscript): "Mayim Adirim" (Mighty Waters), "Derech Kadosh" (The Holy Path), and "Menachem Tzion" (Comforter of Zion). For the great Chassidic leader Rabbi Chaim Halberstam of Sanz (1797-1876), "Mayim Adirim" was a bedside book for several years; he did not know the author's name, but studied the work constantly.Once the Gaon gathered his closest disciples and told them that he had mastered the entire Torah, and had seen how the Oral Torah is encoded within the Written Torah. Only 2 problems from the Zohar remained hidden from him. He tried to find Rav Cordovero's commentary in order to resolve them and bring the Mashiach, but... The Gaon's own wish to move to the Land of Israel was likewise never fulfilled.The Gaon was convinced that the Geula (Redemption) must come by a natural path, in particular through the settlement of the Holy Land. His disciples regarded the Gaon as a "spark of Mashiach ben Yosef," whose role is to prepare the world for the revelation of Mashiach ben David...And so, after living in Shklov and Grodno, in 1808 Rav Menachem-Mendel set out for the Land of Israel together with other disciples of the Gaon. The immigrants, united under the name "Chazon Tzion" (Vision of Zion), came to settle Palestine and rebuild the community of Jerusalem. They were better prepared than the "aliyah of idealists" of Yehuda Hasid in 1700, or the aliyah of the Baal Shem Tov's followers in the 1780s. They headed first to Tiberias, where a strong Chassidic community already existed, then decided to settle in Safed. Rav Mendel was accepted as the leader of the 150 disciples of the Gaon already there; a yeshiva arose, along with houses of prayer and study "full of books." In 1809 a new group arrived from Shklov, led by Rav Saadia and Rav Mendel's son, Rav Natan-Note, followed by a third group led by Rav Yisrael. The wars raging across Europe made travel far from comfortable, and some perished along the way, even from starvation. But these practical mystics overcame the obstacles.In Safed there was already a strong Sephardic community, along with groups of Chassidim — differences were set aside, and the Jews worked hand in hand to rebuild the Land. The aftermath of the catastrophic earthquakes and epidemics in Safed had not fully been overcome, and life there was far from comfortable. Then in 1812 an epidemic of plague struck the country, Safed included. Rav Menachem-Mendel and his fellow believers, together with their households, fled to Jerusalem, which was less affected — even though Ashkenazim were forbidden to reside there: by a peculiar ruling of the Ottoman administration, the unpaid debts of Yehuda Hasid's followers (plus a century's worth of interest!) had been imposed upon all European Jews. When the sword of the plague receded, the refugees returned to Safed, which had lost a third of its Jewish population; of the three waves of aliyah of the Gaon's disciples (511 people), only about 70 survived. And Rav Menachem-Mendel decided, despite all the prohibitions, to go to Jerusalem.The Ashkenazim disguised themselves as Sephardim and, with the support of their brethren, began building a community. Menachem-Mendel had a remarkable gift for maintaining friendships even with those from whom he was separated by serious disagreements. He studied at the yeshiva of the Sephardic kabbalists, "Beit El," and rented a courtyard from them for his community. He maintained good relations with the Chassidic leaders in the Land of Israel, with officials of the Muslim administration, and with the heads of the Christian communities. Records survive of his conversations with the well-known missionary and convert Joseph Wolff — the Rav received him daily, teaching him Hebrew and explaining the Torah to him. All of this helped the Ashkenazim put down roots and remain, for a time, "invisible."But everything comes to an end. One night Arab soldiers burst into his home and, seizing the rabbi by his beard and terrorizing his family, dragged him off to prison, demanding a ransom of 10 kisit. The pasha, it seems, had run through his funds on the road and decided to replenish them. After bargaining, the impoverished community managed to ransom him for four and a half kisit, but the rabbi fell ill in prison, and on 1 Adar (16 February) 1827 his soul departed this world. The synagogue built by the Ashkenazim in Jerusalem in 1839, which still functions today, is named "Menachem Tzion." His son, Rav Natan-Note, would go on to head the community.May the merit of the Tzadik protect Am Yisrael!(https://evreimir.com/193189/pod-senyu-gaona/)
