Chapter 125

The prayer leader recited “Fortunate are those who dwell in Your house” with immense and powerful awakening, in a melody that deeply stirred and broke the heart, so that we literally burst into sobs, and so forth. The Torah scrolls were then returned to the Ark. He began, “Behold, I am poor in deeds, shaken and afraid,” in its familiar, deeply stirring melody. I followed him literally word for word with immense awakening, as described at length concerning the first day of Rosh Hashanah. This too continued for a long time.

We afterward prayed the silent Mussaf Shemoneh Esrei with immense and powerful awakening and with clapping. Each person prayed with intent from the depths of his heart, and so forth. The prayer continued for a long time, until we reached Malchiyos; the shofar was sounded, and the congregation recited “Today the world was conceived” with awakening.

They then prayed Zichronos, beginning “You remember the deeds of the world.” The Zichronos prayer likewise continued for a long time, until the shofar was sounded for Zichronos and “Today the world was conceived” was recited. They then prayed Shofaros; the recitation of “You revealed Yourself” continued at length until the shofar was sounded for Shofaros, followed again by “Today the world was conceived.” They afterward completed the entire silent Shemoneh Esrei, all with great awakening and intent on the part of every individual, and so forth.

The leader then began the repetition of the Shemoneh Esrei with great awakening and the familiar heart-stirring melody. The entire congregation recited “Remember us for life” with a thunderous, resounding voice, after which the emissary of the congregation repeated it with sweetness and a stirring melody. Likewise, the entire congregation recited “Who is like You, merciful Father?” with a thunderous, resounding voice, and the leader repeated it in his sweet and stirring melody. So the service continued until Kedushah.

The whole congregation recited “Unesaneh Tokef” together with intent, awakening, and tears, and so forth; this continued for a long time. The leader then returned to the beginning and chanted from “Unesaneh Tokef” through “and who shall be raised” in the distinctive melody for that prayer—a voice and melody that profoundly awaken and break the heart. Every word was literally gold and pearls to me, and I was awakened far more powerfully than during our collective recitation aloud. As described at length above, the leader’s sweet, deliberate enunciation awakened my mind and heart more intensely.

He completed the whole of “Unesaneh Tokef,” letter by letter, in melody, sweetness, and profound heartfelt awakening, until we reached the Kedushah of Kesser with its liturgical poems, as on the first day. The entire order then continued through Malchiyos, as on the first day; the poems beginning “I shall hope,” and so forth, were all recited with immense awakening.

The prayer leader then recited Malchiyos within the Shemoneh Esrei, every utterance deliberately and with awakening. I followed him word by word with awakening and teshuvah, as described above. The shofar was sounded, and we recited “Today the world was conceived” and “May the expression of our lips,” and so forth.

The leader afterward recited “You remember,” and the entire Zichronos prayer. I whispered every word with awakening, teshuvah, and shame. The Zichronos blasts were sounded, followed by “Today the world was conceived” and “May the expression of our lips,” and so forth. Everything was marked by wondrous awakening, both from the congregation and from the prayer leader, who repeated the words with inward awakening and settled thought that stirred us still further, as described above.

The leader then recited “You revealed Yourself” and the entire Shofaros prayer with immense and wondrous awakening. Because of my intense awakening, teshuvah, and shame, I followed him word by word, as stated above. At the conclusion—“For You hear the sound of the shofar, attend to the teruah, and none is comparable to You”—the leader repeated several of the words a number of times, and the congregation joined him because of their sweetness and awakening. He then said, “Who hears the sound of the teruah of His people Israel,” repeating “His people Israel,” and concluded “with mercy” in a voice like thunder. The shofar was sounded, followed by “Today the world was conceived” and “May the expression of our lips,” and so forth. The others, and especially R. Avraham Baruch, laughed and mocked the repetition of these words in the prayer, which angered us. The emissary of the congregation then completed the Shemoneh Esrei with Retzeh, Modim, and the Priestly Blessing. There is ordinarily great awakening when the Kohanim raise their hands amid a multitude and melody, but we had no Kohen. Earlier there had been “Inscribe for a good life,” and now “As on this day,” all with immense awakening. This was followed by Kaddish Tiskabel, the shofar blasts, Kaveh, Aleinu, Anim Zemiros, and so forth.

In sum, thank God, we completed the service with immense awakening, a broken heart, and joy. As customary, we wished one another “Gut Yom Tov” and held an extensive dance to the melodies “And therefore the righteous,” “Fortunate is the man who does not forget You, and the son of man who strengthens himself in You,” and “Fortunate is the man whose strength is in You,” in accordance with our Rosh Hashanah custom and with awakening, and so forth. We danced to these melodies for some time, followed by “Bar Yochai,” “And you shall say: So may you live,” and so forth.

The Adversary did not remain silent. He stirred the others to argue about the repetition of words in the prayers described above and about other aspects of the service, since they were unaccustomed to them. We, however, possessed a received tradition from R. Nachman of Tulchin, of blessed memory, to pray in this rite, and so forth. At any rate, they laughed in our faces and mocked us, and especially our prayer leader R. Avraham, very severely. We were deeply angered that a Torah scholar should be so gratuitously humiliated, and so forth. The young men in particular could not restrain themselves from answering. R. Avraham Baruch, for his part, went still further: he greatly praised his own renowned leader and their adherents in Tiberias and elsewhere, declaring how great they were, while saying of us—and especially of R. Avraham—that we did not reach even the level of their youngest men.

R. Yisrael Dov was exceedingly angered and could not restrain himself from protesting the humiliation of a true Torah scholar. He answered that the greatest among their adherents and chasidim did not reach R. Avraham’s ankles; and that had R. Avraham desired fame, he could have been honored like their renowned leader, but we did not desire such things, and so forth. When R. Avraham Baruch heard this, his anger flared and his wrath burned like fire. Were it not Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgment, and were they not beside the tomb of Rashbi—may his merit protect us—he would literally have smashed R. Yisrael Dov’s head, as he explicitly said. Above all, he feared us, for we would not remain silent if he did so, and so forth. Nevertheless, he raged loudly in his anger and became R. Yisrael Dov’s enemy.

Several others and I quieted him, explaining that R. Yisrael Dov had been unable to endure the contempt with which they had treated us, and so forth. In truth, I experienced great anguish over the entire affair—why did we need this? I rebuked R. Yisrael Dov in R. Avraham Baruch’s presence, asking why he had not restrained his spirit, and so forth. Even R. Avraham himself rebuked R. Yisrael Dov, saying that he should not have kindled the blazing fire of dispute, and so forth. We somewhat quieted R. Avraham Baruch’s anger. He approached the holy tomb, cursed R. Yisrael Dov, and declared that their renowned leader would take vengeance upon him. R. Yisrael Dov answered that it was a causeless curse and that he did not fear it at all. R. Avraham Baruch raised his hand and swore that he would pursue R. Yisrael Dov to utter destruction.

Those of us who had devoted ourselves to the matter quieted R. Yisrael Dov so that he would not answer these words, and we rebuked him intensely. We also spoke at length with R. Avraham Baruch in order to calm his anger and demonstrate that R. Yisrael Dov was not entirely at fault for answering him. Was R. Avraham Baruch permitted to disparage us so completely and humiliate an elderly Torah scholar before his followers, who honored him just as their people honored their renowned leader, and so forth? We ourselves conceded that R. Yisrael Dov had acted improperly in answering him in that fashion; yet R. Avraham Baruch had surely acted improperly as well in his contempt and disparagement. He himself was therefore culpable for having caused the ensuing insults and humiliations. His anger subsided somewhat, but his heart remained filled with fury and wrath against R. Yisrael Dov. He kept his distance, refusing to stand within four cubits of him, and thundered and raged whenever he saw him, and so forth.