Rebbetzin Chana’s Memoirs: Efforts to Limit Influence
In this 32nd installment of the series, Rebbetzin Chana describes how opponents of her husband Reb Levik unsuccessfully tried to diminish his position as Rov of Yekatrinoslav.
Efforts to limit Rabbi Levi Yitzchak’s influence
It was evident that my husband’s sermons in the shuls, usually on Yom Tov, and his activities in general, were attracting large numbers, and his prominence continued to grow. His opponents, who had not expected this development, continued to seek new means not to let it progress further.
The point had been reached where it was no longer possible simply to discount Schneerson as insignificant. It became necessary to employ more “diplomatic” maneuvers. At community council meetings, his opponents regularly raised various issues for a vote, using legitimate and illegitimate means to get a majority vote passed against him, with the intention of demonstrating that he was only the secondary rabbi, not the city’s main rabbi. This, they reckoned, would limit expansion of his power so that his influence would be mitigated.
They held a special meeting for this purpose, but their plan failed. They drew up a contract appointing him as Rabbi, but employing wording preferred by his opponents, and brought it to the home of each committee member to sign. Naturally, it was signed by those supporting that wording.
But then they brought the document to one of the members, a banker, to sign. Although not too familiar with the meaning of the Hebrew, he read the language well enough to realize, according to the names already signed and those missing, that something was not quite straightforward. He told those who brought it that he would sign only after Sergei Paley would sign. [Realizing that their stratagem wouldn’t work,] the contract’s sponsors decided to destroy it.
A few days later, a meeting was held of just three individuals, the two leaders of each camp and a third, neutral member, an attorney who was highly esteemed in the city.
The leader of the opposing camp demanded that Schneerson receive a salary at least ten rubles a month less than the other rabbi, or that his signature on official and legal documents always be the second one, not the first.
When the lawyer asked for a justification for these demands, the opposing leader replied that the other rabbi was a greater scholar. The man giving this opinion about the two rabbis’ relative scholarship was himself a total ignoramus. Paley, on the other hand, was well-versed in Torah scholarship, but didn’t want to embarrass the other. Calling him by his name, he politely observed, “Massei Yudevitch, neither of us know Hebrew, so how can we express an opinion on which rabbi is a greater scholar?”
The attorney, too, was no simple person. He declared that he had spoken with both rabbis, and it appeared to him that Schneerson was a greater scholar. Accordingly, the issue failed again.
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