(CHASSIDISM).

These volumes all concern themselves with the controversy between the two Galician Chassidic dynasties of Sanz and Sadigora that pivots on the tragic figure of R. Dov Baer Friedman of Liova (1817-1876). R. Berenyu, as he was endearingly referred to, was the son of R. Israel Friedman, founder of the famed Rizhiner dynasty, that traced its ancestry back to R. Dov Baer, Maggid of Mezritch, the successor to the Ba'al Shem Tov. R. Berenyu married Sheindel, daughter of R. Mordecai of Chernobyl, and set up court in Liova, Moldavia (Romania), a decidedly “backwater” province. There this sensitive and intelligent man, possibly suffering from depression, began to entertain doubts as to the validity of the Chassidic way. Eventually he came under the sway of the “enlightened” Dr. Judah Leib Reitman of Tchernovitz, went to live in the latter's home, and within no time published in Ha-Melitz, a modern Jewish newspaper, a scathing critique of the Chassidic movement and its leaders. (Ha-Melitz of 14 Adar, 1869.) At this point, R. Berenyu's shocked wife left him. (The couple were childless.) Thereafter, R. Berenyu undergoes a remarkable volte-face, and at the behest of his older brother, R. Abraham Jacob of Sadigora, prints a retraction, and lives out the few years remaining to him in pitiful solitude behind the walls of the palatial court of Sadigora. In the interim however, the great sage of the generation, R. Chaim of Sanz practically declares a “holy war” on the entire Rizhin or Sadigora community. In return, R. Nissim Bak of Jerusalem, a staunch chasid of Rizhin, declares a “cherem” (ban) on R. Chaim of Sanz! Eventually, most of the Chassidic leaders of the day were drawn into the fray. R. Aaron of Chernobyl, brother-in-law of R. Berenyu, sided with his opponents. R. Mendel of Vizhnitz, son-in-law of R. Israel of Rizhin, pleaded on behalf of his brother-in-law to R. Chaim of Sanz. To this day, historians continue to speculate what “inner demons” possessed this undoubtedly brilliant and tortured soul. See Yitzchak Raphael, Aresheth vol. VI, pp. 211 -221; Samuel Werses, Haskalah ve-Shabta’'ut (Jerusalem, 1988); Tzvi M. Rabinowicz, The Encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), p. 137; N.Z. Friedman, Otzar ha-Rabbanim, no. 4554.