Menachem Mendel von Kotzk

Rabbi Menachem Mendel von Kotzk , the Kotzker Rebbe (* 1787 in Biłgoraj , † 1859 in Kotzk near Lublin), was a Hasidic rabbi .

life and work

Menachem Mendel was born in Bilgoraj near Lublin into a non-Hasidic family and was a pupil of Jaakow Jizchak, the seer of Lublin , Jaakow Jizchak of Przysucha and later of Simcha Bunem of Przysucha .

After initially taking on a job as a rabbi in Tomaszów, he was rabbi in Kotzk near Lublin from 1834 until his death.

About 20 years before his death, he decided to “leave this world”. He locked himself in a room next to the Lehrhaus, where his students were studying. Food was served to him through a window and, with the exception of his most loyal friends and individual family members, he was only seen on very rare occasions. It is not clear what prompted him to take this dramatic step, but it is clear that his isolation did not reduce the number of his followers.

Although he adopted some of the principles of the Baal Shem Tov in his teachings , he differed in some ways fundamentally from the founder of Hasidism. While the Baal Shem Tov emphasized love, joy and compassion for this world and maintained friendly relations with everyone, Menachem Mendel called for a constant, tense fight against egocentrism and defended its principles with a prophetic, unrelenting zeal.

At the beginning of Hasidism, attempts were made to include all Jews in the movement, but Menachem Mendel was only interested in a select few. His focus was on emet , the truth . To achieve the goal of truth, he was ready to sacrifice everything else. There is only one truth and everything outside of the truth is false, but the replicas of the truth are worst, and the closer they get to the truth, the more so. This truth can only be achieved through absolute freedom, which means not giving in to external pressure, renouncing complacency and favors for others. He did not preach asceticism or denial of this world, but proclaimed that in search of the truth, people often have to fight against themselves and society.

His numerous students, often learned young men, who gave up their studies and their families to search for the truth in Kotzk, complied with this demand. Menachem Mendel explained to them that true worship is not to find the truth, but to seek honestly what requires complete self-abandonment.

He described the study of the Torah and Talmud as the surest way to search for truth , which brought him closer to the thoughts of the Gaon of Vilna , who was originally the most important and sharpest opponent of Hasidism.

After the death of the Kotzker Rebben , his radical requirements were significantly modified (ie, softened) by his students and successors; the self-confident, restless approach to studying the Torah remained a hallmark of the Kotzk school.

literature

• Encyclopedia Judaica , Vol. 10, pp. 1222-1224.