have a long life." The Bach replied: "Why do you concern yourself with the secrets of the Holy Blessed One? My soul came to this world for the purpose of printing this book!" Only then did the Megaleh Amukot gave him the approbation and told the printer to print it.
Afterwards, the Bach became very weak and did not want to give rulings or judge cases that came before him. He instructed the judges to sit and judge in his house, while he lay in the inner room. One day, two people came for judgment: one man claimed he had lent six hundred gold coins to the defendant, and brought a document as proof, signed by witnesses as required by law. The defendant cried, saying it was a lie. The Bach heard the cries, called the judges, and they told him what had happened. He asked for the document and read it and said that it was entirely forged from beginning to end. The judges asked: "But according to the law, isn't the document valid? And even if you find it invalid through your Divine inspiration, the Torah is not in heaven, and we judge according to what our eyes see!"
The Bach told the lender to confess that he had forged the document, but he refused. Then he asked everyone to leave, and the lender remained in his room. He told the lender to confess, and for the sake of truth, he promised him to be in his company in the World to Come. The lender began to cry and admitted that he had indeed forged the document and hired false witnesses. The Bach called the judges to his room and said: "Rejoice, my inner parts! If your uncertainties are like this, how much more so your certainties!" And his soul departed in purity.
* * *
Despite his greatness, the Bach had his share of troubles and enemies. Even at the end of his days, he suffered bitterly from those who sought conflict. This was also the case in his earlier years. When the Bach was a rabbi in Belz, his salary was not even enough to buy candles. Every night, the Bach sat in darkness and studied Torah by heart. When the townspeople noticed that his house was dark at night, they decided to dismiss him: a rabbi who does not study at night is not worthy of being a rabbi in their town...
Before leaving Belz for Brisk, where he had found his next rabbinical position, he asked the people of Belz: Why was Sodom destroyed by its bedrock turning upside down; was there no other punishment fitting for them? He answered his own question: The people of Sodom turned the natural order upside down. Instead of providing for the rabbi's livelihood so that he could care for their studies, they concerned themselves with the rabbi's studies and imposed upon him the responsibility to support the city's poor...
* * *
One of the great Torah scholars of the generation found himself at the holy tisch (festive meal and gathering) of the Rabbi Chaim of Sanz, known as the Divrei Chaim, may his merit protect us. The Divrei Chaim honored him by inviting him to eat together from one plate of kasha (porridge) made from fine flour. The great scholar and tzaddik, who was the head of the rabbinical court and yeshiva in a famous city, refrained from eating the kasha as he was held strictly by the opinions that chadash (new grain) is prohibited even regarding grain produced outside the Land of Israel.
The Divrei Chaim, however, was completely lenient in this matter, as this was the teaching of the Ba’al Shem Tov. The holy Rabbi of Neschiz related: The Ba’al Shem Tov, of blessed memory, asked in his dream about the law of chadash regarding grain from non-Jews in our times outside the Land of Israel, and they answered him that after the passing of the Bach, of blessed memory (who permitted this), they cooled the fires of purgatory for forty days in his honor. In the morning, the Ba’al Shem Tov arose and ordered beer made from new grain to be brought to him, and he drank it. And he said: The Bach is authoritative and can certainly be relied upon.
In any case, when the Divrei Chaim saw that the guest was not eating, he whispered in his ear that if he did not immediately eat from the kasha with him, he would publicly announce that he was to be treated as “a rebellious elder” (zaken moreh), who transgressed the words of the heavenly court that ruled to permit it. (Zichronam Livrachah)
As reflected in many stories, Rabbi Yoel Sirkis was greatly esteemed by the great Chasidic masters. It is even said that the Ba’al Shem Tov chose to settle in Mezhibuzh because the Bach had also served as rabbi in this city. The Bach's lenient ruling regarding chadash, which was very significant in European countries, was reinforced by many Chasidic Rebbes and halachic authorities such as the Seer of Lublin, the Avnei Nezer of Sochatchov, and others.
The connection between the Bach and Chasidut is evident in other places as well. The Lubavitcher Rebbe enthusiastically cited his words about learning Torah for its own sake, noting that they are fitting for a Chasidic Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe, in his Shulchan Aruch HaRav, often rules according to the Bach, and Rabbi Yoel Ba’al Shem, one of the leading hidden tzaddikim who preceded the Ba’al Shem Tov, was a disciple of the Bach.
There is additional depth to the Chasidic affection for the Bach, beyond his significant “power of leniency” (כח ההיתר), his greatness in both revealed and hidden Torah, or the heritage passed from teacher to student. The title of the Bach’s commentary on the Tur, Bayit Chadash literally means “New House,” and he named it so, "because I did not gather (i.e., copy) into my house the words of the scholars of previous generations... unless I could innovate some new understanding from them."
Based on the Chatam Sofer's saying, "Chadash (innovation) is forbidden by the Torah," one could say that the Bach's approach, which permits and emphasizes Torah innovations and innovations in serving God, prepared the ground for the coming of the Ba’al Shem Tov who was a total innovation in Divine service.
This affinity for renewal is also alluded to in the initials of his title, Bach: Among the letter substitutions explained in Kabbalah, such as AtBash (אתב"ש) and AlBam (אלב"ם), a place of honor is reserved for the AtBach (אטב"ח) substitution. In the section dedicated to letter substitutions in Etz Chaim, it is explained that AtBach belongs to the secret of the sefirah of kingdom, which is the Shechinah, the source of Jewish souls. Each pair of letters belongs to a different aspect of kingdom, and the combination Bach (ב"ח)—the initials of his book’s name (בית חדש)—belongs to the wisdom within kingdom, which in our context means kingdom’s ability to renew itself and flow forth again and again. For those who delve deeper, we'll add that the source of wisdom in kingdom is in the sefirah of victory (netzach) of Ze'ir Anpin and the tzaddikim who emerge from it eternally face many opponents. So, it was in the time of the Bach, and so in the time of the Ba’al Shem Tov. Eventually, however, the opponents fade away and the innovation becomes an inseparable part of Judaism, continuing to enliven and refresh it.
