Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch, was the disciple and successor of the holy Ba’al Shem Tov. During his leadership, most of the great leaders of the next generation joined the Chasidic movement. Though unlike his teacher, the Maggid was a distinct "tent dweller" and did not travel extensively, he sent his disciples to many places in Poland and Lithuania, and even to distant Germany to spread the teachings and ways of Chasidut. Chasidism flourished, and naturally, opposition to it deepened. It is said that the Maggid passed away because of the intense controversy, when some of his disciples responded with fierce counterattacks, which took a toll on his health and ultimately his life. In 5532 (1772), a plague broke out in Mezritch. Rebbe Zusha brought the Maggid to Anipoli, where he lived for about seven months until his passing on the 19th of Kislev, 5533 (1772). After his passing, his disciples dispersed throughout Europe, spreading Chasidut in their locations, laying the foundations of the Chasidic movement as it is today.
Before the Maggid of Mezritch became a disciple of the Ba’al Shem Tov, he had a yeshivah for students (or according to other versions, a Talmud Torah for children). When a student wanted to be accepted to his yeshivah, he would test him in a special way: He would speak with him about the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai and try to awaken a memory of it in him. If, through speaking with him, the student remembered receiving the Torah or even something specific that happened there, he would accept him. If not, he would reject him as a student.
This is certainly an interesting and unique test for accepting students. While regular tests examine a student’s intellectual abilities or refined character traits, the Maggid is testing something entirely different here. He is looking for the soul connection of the student to the Torah, a connection that completely transcends the intellect. But how does he do this? Naturally, it is hard to imagine that an ordinary person would remember what his soul experienced many generations ago! We do not know for certain, but it is possible that an encounter with a tzaddik, who is entirely permeated with the experience of cleaving to the Giver of the Torah, makes the moment of the Giving of the Torah tangible and alive in the soul and the memory of the event suddenly awakens from its slumber.
Apart from this unique practice, the connection revealed here between the Maggid and his future teacher, the holy Ba’al Shem Tov, is particularly interesting. Chabad tradition relates that the Ba’al Shem Tov would approach each new follower with the question: “Vos gedenkst du?” meaning “What do you remember?” The purpose of the question was to awaken the person's earliest memory, thus connecting him to the root of his soul. It seems that, inspired by this custom, the Ba’al Shem Tov’s great-grandson, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, told the story of the Blind Beggar in his lengthy story titled “Seven Beggars.” The blind beggar in the story describes a group of people competing for who has the earliest recollections. The blind beggar wins the contest by recounting the earliest possible memory: “I remember the nothingness.”
Although the special relationship to memories connects the Ba’al Shem Tov to his disciple the Maggid, there is a significant difference between them. The essence of the memory they seek to awaken is very different. While the Ba’al Shem Tov (and similarly his great-grandson Rebbe Nachman) is interested in revealing the earliest memory of the Jew, the Maggid seeks to awaken the memory of the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai specifically. This difference in focus is reminiscent of the dispute in the midrash about who came first: the Torah or the souls of the Jewish people. Chasidut follows the Tanna DeBei Eliyahu, which states that “the thought of Israel precedes everything.” But the Maggid, before drawing close to the Ba’al Shem Tov, believed that the Torah preceded Israel and that the Jewish people connect to God only through the Torah.
From Nothingness
In essence, one could say that this is the central shift the Maggid experienced when he became a disciple of the Ba’al Shem Tov. He came to understand that the thought of Israel preceded even the primordial Torah. In Kabbalistic terms, the Maggid then ascended from the sefirah of wisdom to the sefirah of crown. The Zohar states that, “Torah emerges from wisdom.” From the perspective of wisdom, the Torah is indeed superior to Israel. The Torah is God’s wisdom and His will that guides Israel in cleaving to Him. Without it, they might have strayed very far from Him, Heaven forbid. Despite this, the Ba’al Shem Tov identifies that the root of Israel is higher. This root is the supernal crown, in which no conception or thought is possible, only faith alone.
This is the secret of the holy Name הָכָּכ, which literally means “so! [and no different],” but whose letters, the Ba’al Shem Tov revealed stand for the phrase “the crown of all crowns” (יםִרָתְכַּהַלָּכרֶתֶּכ).
