Rav Yitzchak Blaser, often called Rav Itzele Peterberger, is usually considered the most prominent of the disciples of Rav Yisrael Salanter and is the source of most of the writings attributed to Rav Yisrael. Rav Itzele wrote several works, Ohr Yisrael, Kochavei Ohr, and Nesivos Ohr, which he states are comprised completely of the thoughts and opinions he learned directly from Rav Yisrael.
Aside from the many articles that Rav
Itzele published in various rabbinic journals, his primary published work is
called Pri Yitzchak. At the time he published the first volume of this
work, he had no children, and he was the only surviving descendant of his
father. Rav Itzele had two brothers, both prominent talmidei chachamim and
rabbanim. Unfortunately, both passed away as young men without progeny.
When Rav Itzele turned 50, his rebbetzin
insisted that they get divorced so that he might be able to have children from
a different wife. He refused her entreaties, until she took him to a din
Torah to force him to divorce her. She won the din Torah, and after
their divorce and his subsequent remarriage, he continued to support her
financially, like the true baal mussar that he was. From Rav Itzele’s
second marriage, he had a son and three daughters.
I have a personal reason to write
about Rav Itzele. His first rebbetzin, this unbelievably altruistic
woman, was a sister of my great-grandfather, which makes Rav Itzele my
great-great-uncle – and makes me the closest his first rebbetzin had to
descendants.
Rav Itzele Peterberger was born in
Vilna; he studied under Rav Yisrael Salanter in Kovno. While yet in his 20s, Rav
Itzele reluctantly agreed to become the rav of St. Petersburg (also
known as Leningrad and Petrograd at different times in history), which was at
the time the capital of the Czar’s Russian Empire. Of course, being the rav of
the capital city was a position of both great prestige and greater responsibility,
and his position enabled him to assist many Jews living under the Czar. During
this period, perhaps the majority of world Jewry lived under the thumb of the
viciously anti-Semitic Czar’s regime.
Because of this position, he was
called Rav Itzele Peterberger from that time on. Rav Itzele held the position for
16 years, at which time he returned to Kovno, where he became the head of the
famed Kovno Kollel. He was also involved in the creation of both Slabodka yeshivos,
Kenesses Yitzchak and Kenesses Beis Yisrael, and the yeshiva in Kelm (called
the “Talmud Torah”). Kenesses Yitzchak was named after Rav Yitzchak Elchanan
Spector, the posek hador and the rav of Kovno. The yeshiva was
later referred to as the “non-mussar yeshiva.” Later, the rosh yeshiva there
was Rav Baruch Ber Levovitz, author of Birchas Shemuel. Kenesses Beis
Yisrael, named after Rav Yisrael Salanter, was the mussar yeshiva at
whose helm was Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, known to history as “the alter of
Slabodka.” The rosh yeshiva was Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein, author of Levush
Mordechai, until he and the alter moved to Eretz Yisrael to
open the Chevron Yeshiva.
At this time, Slabodka was a
suburb of Kovno; the two cities sat on opposite sides of the Neiman River, now
called the Nemunas. Slabodka is now incorporated within the city of Kovno, which
is currently called Kaunus.
In his late 60s, Rav Itzele left
Europe and moved to Eretz Yisrael, where he lived his last years in
Yerushalayim. He passed away in 1907.
Complaints, Complaints
As mentioned above, Rav Itzele
published several sefarim, which he accredited to Rav Yisrael Salanter.
In one of these, Nesivos Ohr, he discusses a few questions.
Question: At times, the Gemara
states that I can be upset at someone for what they did to me. Are there halachic
guidelines as to what type of resentment I may have?
Answer: According to halacha,
wronging someone financially does not always mean that the aggrieved party
is entitled to financial compensation. There are situations that are
categorized as grama, indirect damage, which are ruled chayov bedinei
Shamayim (liable in the heavenly court), and beis din cannot
demand payment. In these instances, the damager should pay, or the heavenly
tribunals will punish him for not having paid. However, should the aggriever
refuse to pay, the aggrieved party has no halachic recourse whereby he can
force collection.
There are also situations in which
Chazal rule that he may have tar’omes, a complaint that someone
dealt with him unethically, although one cannot say that the aggriever caused
him any damage. Several examples appear in Chazal where this is the
ruling. Here is one:
Question: An employer
engaged a foreman to hire daily workers for whom he was willing to pay $40 per
diem. For whatever reason, the foreman hired the workers for only $30; they
were willing to work for the lower amount and did not know that the employer
was willing to pay them more. The workers now discover that, had they known,
they could have earned more for their work. Do they have any financial claim
against either the employer or the foreman?
Answer: The answer is that
they do not. Since they agreed to the price quoted by the foreman, who was the
party with whom they negotiated, they have no financial claim against either
the employer or the foreman. However, the Gemara states that they have a
non-financial grievance against the foreman, which is called a tar’omes.
This is one instance in which the Gemara refers to someone as having a
claim that is not financial but that he can be upset at someone who caused him
loss.
Question: Are there halachic
guidelines as to what type of resentment I am permitted to have?
Answer: Rav Itzele quotes
Rav Yisrael Salanter as noting that tar’omes is a legal claim. This
means that the employees cannot sue the foreman for money, but they have a halachic
right to be upset at him should he not apologize to them or make amends in a
way that satisfies them. If they reach agreement with him and/or they forgive (mocheil)
him, even without his having made any amends, they can no longer have any tar’omes
against him.
Problematic Shocheit
Here is a different question that
Rav Itzele discusses in one of his responsa: “My town has a shocheit who
may not be up to snuff. Can we get rid of him?”
Concerns have been raised about
this shocheit’s knowledge of the laws of shechita and bedika, the
checking for tereifos. He appears to be an observant Jew, and he has a kabbala
on shechita, the halachic equivalent of a shocheit’s license.
This last point is clearly astonishing, since it usually requires that a
recognized, respected shocheit test him on his skills, oversee him
perform shechita successfully several times, and check that his shechita
was kosher. In addition, kabbala requires that a rav tested him
on his knowledge of the laws of shechita, on his ability to check a shechita
knife properly and repair a nick on a shechita knife in the nick of
time. The assumption is that if he is not skilled enough to repair his knife
quickly under the pressure of having a rav watch his work, he will be
unable to sharpen his knife properly and quickly while working as a shocheit
should it become necessary to do so.
To receive kabbala as a shocheit
ubodeik, which is what is required for virtually all such positions, he
also needs to pass testing on his abilities both as a bodeik penim,
who checks whether the animal is a tereifa while the lungs are still
bifnim, inside the animal, and as a bodeik chutz, who checks them
after they have been removed.
As a true ba’al mussar, Rav
Itzele is concerned about destroying the reputation and livelihood of this shocheit,
but, of course, the kashrus rules cannot be violated an iota either. Rav
Itzele rules that he may not work as a shocheit without full
supervision; however, Rav Itzele does not exclude him from ever being a shocheit.
He rules that this shocheit must learn all the laws and skills of a shocheit
and undergo testing until he demonstrates that he has mastered the skills and
knowledge required. He also insists that the shocheit accept that he is
not competent to rule on the laws of shechita but must refer any
question to a competent rav. (Shu’t Pri Yitzchak II #22)
Conclusion
We know most of the details of
what Rav Yisrael Salanter bequeathed to us only from the writings of his talmidim,
the foremost writer of whom was Rav Itzele Peterberger, my great-great-uncle.
