Title: From the Waters of the Shiloach: Plumbing the Depths of the Toras Izhbitz
By: Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Schwartz
Mosaica Press
Sometimes you meet people who you don’t know, but it turns out you have many friends in common. Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Schwartz, z”l, seems to have been the type of person with whom I would share friends. As it is, I’m not sure how we never met each other, as we shared many things in common including being denizens of Brooklyn, entranced by penimius haTorah (inner depth of Torah) and working to transmit the richness of our tradition to current and future generations.
As Rabbi Schwartz takes us on a journey throughout the year, based on the parshiyos and mo’adim, he introduces us to Torah from the great Izhibtzer dynasty. Each essay is taken from divrei Torah that were originally delivered by Rav Schwartz. While in print form, they successfully convey the conversational tone of the class where these ideas were expressed. The felicitous tone made for an easy read. I found myself noting an interesting way of introducing an Izhbitzer concept, combining a wonderful vocabulary and examination of human nature, often in quite a humorous fashion.
The book is essentially a survey of the work of the entire Izhbitz library, of both the direct descendants and students. Izhbitz was the name of a town where Rav Mordechai Yosef Leiner served as Rebbe, after a famous break with the fiery Kotzker Rebbe, Rav Menachem Mendel Morgenstern. Whereas the Kotzker Rebbe was known for his pithy sayings and mistrust of human nature, his former student, R’ Mordechai Yosef (also known as the Izhbitzer) took the psychological depth of his rebbe, but added notes of hope and on the grandeur of man. His main book was called Mei Hashiloach, based on his initials (Mem Yud) and a praise of him from his teacher, that R’ Mordechai Yosef was like an ever-flowing spring like the famed Shiloach (Silwan) in Jerusalem. Rabbi Shlomo Freifeld, zt”l, Rosh Yeshiva of She’ar Yashuv, would declare, “The Izhbitzer is an avant-garde psychologist!”
Throughout Plumbing the Depths, we are introduced to the world of the Izhbitz philosophy. We encounter the deep waters of the Mei Hashiloach and their application in the teachings of his son Rav Yaakov. Into the third generation, we hear wonderfully nuanced readings of the family treasures by R’ Gershon Henoch Leiner (known as the Radzyner) in his multivolume work Sod Yesharim.
The Izhbitzer had two famous students who came from Lithuania and became captivated by the Mei Hashiloach. They became rebbes in their own right, Rav Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin and the grandson of the famed Rabbi Akiva Eiger, Rav Leibele Eiger. In Plumbing the Depths, you encounter a taste of the brilliance of Rav Tzadok in several chapters, after which you are entranced by tremendous hartzigkeit – warmth and emotional encouragement – from Reb Leibele Eiger.
Finally, and a personal favorite of mine (as I wrote a book on his teachings, Pathways through the Field, published by Kodesh Press), are the unique style and insightful questions of R’ Dov Shmuel Asher, the Neos Deshe, known to Rabbi Schwartz as the Biskvitzer.
As a whole, the book summarizes and presents Izhbitzer concepts in an easy to understand fashion. A handful of these concepts include: learning how one grows through failure, how one can understand the mistakes of “the villains” in a positive light, navigating one’s strengths and frailties, and how to understand the depth of creation and Hashem’s plan.
While the book gives sources to look up each teaching, it would have been more helpful to have them printed on the page where they are referenced in order to see how the concept is expressed in the original.
I firmly believe in the depth and meaning explicitly portrayed by the teachings of the Izhbitzer Rebbes, as they help us develop our inner world of avodas Hashem. Concepts become three dimensional as they express our longings, desires, and contradictory drives. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to begin exploring those waters.
