[Avodah] The Other Person's Gashmius Is Your Ruchnius

[Prof. Levine]

Last week on the 25th of Shvat was the Yahrzeit of Rav Yisrael Salanter, ZT"L.

Reb Yisroel Salanter, who started the Mussar Movement, is quoted as 
saying, "The other person's gashmius is your ruchnius." The story 
below indicates just how far he took this principle. It is from The 
Mussar Movement, Volume 1, part 1 pages 292 - 296. I personally found 
his approach to this issue  fascinating.

HIS PRACTICAL APPROACH TO ALL PUBLIC PROBLEMS

     R. Israel was blessed with a healthy and developed
political instinct. His approach to all problems was completely realistic.
He examined every life situation minutely
and took full account of all the angles. Hence communal
leaders would converge from near and far to seek his
advice on current problems and paid the closest heed to
his advice.

     It is worthwhile to place on record the report of an
interesting encounter between him and one of the leaders
of the Yishuv in Eretz Israel, A. L. Frumkin, so as to
reveal how R. Israel really approached questions addressed
to him. The meeting took place at the beginning of 5680
(c. Sept. 1880). The pogroms and the vicious anti-Jewish
decrees in Russia had stimulated a mass migration from
that country, and the idea of settling in Eretz Israel had
begun to take hold. At the same time a society had been
formed in Jerusalem, comprised of some fifty families,
with  the aim  of establishing an agricultural colony.
R. Frumkin had been dispatched as an emissary to Western
Europe to enlist financial backing for the project. En route,
he stopped in Koenigsberg. Hearing that R. Israel was
there, he came to see and consult with him. R. Frumkin's
account of the conversation runs as follows:
    "The next day, I arrived in the city of Koenigsberg.
There it became known to me that the authentic Gaon,
Rabbi of all Israel, R. Israel Salanter... was staying with
R. Jacob Krushkal. I accordingly went to pay my respects
to his holy presence, and to seek sacred counsel concern-
ing the journey I had undertaken. Before revealing my
inner thoughts to him, however,  I asked for practical
advice in respect of those who had already made up their
minds to settle abroad and would ask us whether they
should choose America or the Holy Land.

    "How astonished was I to see how this question seized
hold of the Gaon's entire thinking, how with his breadth
of comprehension and reflection, he delved into the depth
and breadth of all aspects of the problem, and was like
a man possessed. I set my heart to test all his thought and
feeling processes which this question had aroused in the
inner recesses of his heart, and it was most surprising and
astounding in my eyes. His brow became wrinkled and
relaxed time and again, and the light of his face changed
from minute to minute, as he paced the room with powerful
steps and reflected profoundly with his mighty spirit
on what to answer. After a protracted silence, he gave his
reply: `Let them go to America!' "I countered: `What does the Master believe?
Will they remain faithful to their holy religion over there?' `It is
difficult to believe that,' he sighed: `And those who wander
to our Holy Land, what does the Master believe of them?'
`It is very probable that they and their posterity will re-
main faithful Jews.' `If so', I said, `Why does the Master
say that they should choose to go to America?' `My dearest
friend,' he answered me bitterly, `How can we mislead
these wanderers with advice that is not to their benefit?
The very day of their arrival they will lack bread and water
to sustain themselves, since there is nowhere to earn
a penny there. The Moslem inhabitants and the fellahin
won't buy anything from them. Not so in America. Al-
though, there too, one cannot earn a living respectably,
nevertheless they will be able to still their hunger in the
grocery store the very first day they come there. As for
observing the Jewish religion, this will depend upon their
will power. There, too, it is possible for them to remain
Jews faithful to their G-d and King. Poverty, may G-d for-
fend, is not so. It perforce confounds one's belief in G-d.
If these wanderers will move about like shadows in the
Holy Land for a month or two and spend all their money,
they will finally be forced to seek their sustenance wherever
they can find it.'

    "`But if the leaders and wealthy Jews will set their
mind to this great matter,' I asked, `to establish these immigrants
in special colonies and provide them with their
needs, until G-d remembers them and they sustain them-
selves and their families from the fruits of their own labors,
would our Master still recommend America?'

    "`G-d forbid! If the matter will be set on a firm and
enduring footing, then everyone will have  to make an
honest assessment of his possessions and capabilities. If
he can establish himself, then undoubtedly it would be
a mitzvah to flee from these places even to forests and
deserts, so as to observe the Torah of our G-d.'

    "Thereupon, I disclosed my thoughts and my mission
to awaken and rouse the hearts of the rabbis and pious of
Germany to induce wealthy donors to provide the means
for at least one colony of fifty Jewish families. Whereupon,
he blessed me: `May G-d be with you and establish the
deeds of your hands.' And so I departed from him in
peace." [1]

      From R. Israel's delving into this problem, it is possible
to see how sensitive he was to human suffering and
poverty. With all his love for the Holy Land and his anxiety
for Jewish spiritual welfare, he would not ignore the economic
factor in human life. [2] He would never allow idealistic
aspirations   to  blind  his    eyes.  Worrying  about the
material welfare of the emigrants, he reached the seemingly
strange conclusion that America was to be preferred
to Eretz Israel as their destination, with all the negative
aspects entailed in such a choice, because in America one
could earn one's keep. He made his approval of settlement
in Eretz Israel conditional upon the assurance of a livelihood
for the immigrants.

[1.]  R. Frumkin's letter dated Sivan 10, 5642 (May 28, 1882) is printed
     in A. Druianov, Historical Documents pertaining to the Chibbat
     Zion Movement and the Jewish Settlement In Eretz Israel (Hebrew),
     III, p. 410. As a result of R. Israel's encouragement, R.
     Jacob Chvas (mentioned above), who would never take any step
     without P.. Israel's approval, joined A. L. Frumkin in approaching
     the philanthropist, Ovadiah Lachmann known to us as the
     provider of the financial backing for the Kollelim (Chap. 14).
     The last-named contributed 10,000 marks towards the founding
     of the colony, and the income it produced was to be used to
     maintain Torah students. P.. Ezriel Hildesheimer and Dr. Lehmann
     also joined the campaign. As a result a sizeable tract of land
     was purchased in Petach Tikvah. For a considerable time, it was
     managed by R. Frun~ikin, and this is how Petach Tikvah began.
     R. Eliezer Jacob visited Eretz Israel several times on behalf of
     the project. (For details, see The Fiftieth Anniversary of Petach
     Tikvah [Hebrew] and the introduction to Frumkin's Toledot
     Chachme Yerushalayim ["History of the Sages of Jerusalem"]).

[2.] Cf. his Musar doctrine, below Chap. 23, according to which one is
     not permitted, in matters affecting someone else, to advise asceticism
     or trust in G-d, but must first of all attend to that person's 
material needs.


Professor Yitzchok Levine