The Maor VaShemesh of Krakow and Galicia
The Maor VaShemesh, 200 Years Since His Passing, 1 Tamuz 5583 (10 June 1823)
By: Yaakov Rosenfeld, Ganzach Kiddush Hashem
For 120 years, the grave of the Maor VaShemesh was a place of glory for Krakow Jewry. From the time he passed away on 1 Tamuz 5583, exactly 200 years ago, until that bitter day, sometime in the spring of 5703 (1943), when the Nazis destroyed the remains of the Krakow community and brought an end to a magnificent holy community that was a towering light of Torah, worship of G-d, and kindness for more than six hundred years.
The Maor VaShemesh, the greatest of Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk’s students, is engraved in the hearts of those who remember the city of Krakow, as he was the first tzaddik (righteous man) to bring the teachings of Chasidism to the city, and with his help a countless number of good people joined the movement.
With amazement and astonishment, the writers of the times described the spirit of holiness and enthusiasm that the Maor VaShemesh, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Epstein z”l, born in the city of Neustadt, brought to Krakow and its environs.
Kalonymous Kalmish was a tender child, the son of a poor father who raised ten children in a difficult situation, and who had no possibility of sending his son to study with a teacher. Every day, when all the children of the devout were studying in the chedder, Kalonymous Kalmish was recognized as a scholar on the streets of old Krakow and he would give the money he got to his father.
Kalonymous was amongst the poor, but his head was clear and brilliant, and his heart was noble and pure, and from this he was drawn to the Torah and the worship of God, and so he was drawn every day to Rabbi Yitzchak Halevi’s lessons that were said in the Beit Midrash of the Bach rabbi, where he would stand with wide eyes and thirstily swallow the words.
The students of the class were already used to the little boy standing on the sidelines and supposedly listening to the deep lessons, but one day the rich Mordechai Gutgold couldn’t help himself and asked the boy out of cantor if he would be so kind as to repeat to him what he understood from the lesson.
The boy did not get confused, stood on the table, and repeated to him the whole lesson from beginning to end with clarity and eloquence “like an old man”.
Rabbi Mordechai was dumbfounded and immediately set his sights on the poor house of Aharon Epstein, and after judgment and discussions he took the boy under his wing. He took it upon himself to raise the boy and take care of all his needs and finance his teacher’s fees and yeshiva tuition on the condition that when the boy grows up, and is 13 years old, he would become his son-in-law.
At the age of 13, upon entering the yoke of the Torah and mitzvahs, he established his home with Milka Reidel, and in the same year a turning point occurred that changed the life of the young prodigy, which actually changed the lives of thousands and thousands in whose hearts the light of Chasidism shone.
In the same year, Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk visited Krakow, and to the young prodigy who followed him, it was clear from the first moment that their two souls were connected.
Rabbi Kalonymous Kalmish, who was to light up the world of Torah and Chasidism with his meritorious and straightforward Torah teachings, which was called by the great and rigtheous men of the age the “Shulchan Aruch for Chasidism” (Shulchan Aruch is the code of Jewish law). He travelled to Lizhensk and lived there for a few years, until his Rabbi, Rebbe Elimelech, ordered him to return to his city and start leading the people with love and dedication.
The holy Rabbi Kalonymous Kalmish shone light in the hearts of thousands of Polish and Galician Jews, and his holy book, “Maor VaShemesh” (Light and Sun) was printed in countless editions and versions until the outbreak of the war, and even in our time the book occupies a place of honour in the homes of Jews everywhere and in synagogues and study halls in the Diaspora.
In the introduction to the Maor VaShemesh book, an anonymous chassidic Jew who grew up poor in Galicia and after the Holocaust emigrated to the United States where he spread Torah and Chasidism, wrote about the influence of the Maor VaShemesh on all Jews in all the places they lived, and how he brought forth parks from his words of Torah. In the anonymous writer’s word, he poured out his memory and wrote:
“And from my words I remember, and my soul bows down to the holy crops that were gathered on the Sabbath nights, shook off the dust of the sand and wore the holiness of the holy Sabbath, because many of them who were busy all the days of the week with making a living and with the economy to bring sustenance to their home and they would travel to the fairs or stand in their stores expecting to find pay and some redemption for their livelihood, and the evil Poles would stand against them lest a Jew come to the store to buy, and in all kinds of propaganda they engaged their labours to deprive them of their livelihood, and everything was done with the support of the government, a malicious government, and the weight of the burden of livelihood subdued their spirit, and the spirit of the governor came upon them with all kinds of extortion and torture with taxes and property taxes that was above their heads and water came up to the soul from the dignity of exile, and yet, when the holy Shabbat came, they were not visible outside, because they were made into a new creation and displayed noble souls, and the Shabbat Queen influenced and clothed them in royal clothing, and they received Shabbat with singing, with joy and merriment that breathed a spirit of life into them, and when they gathered in the shtibelach (small synagogues) after the Shabbat meal, they engaged in chasidic books, songs, praises to G-d, and dance, almost until the morning light, and out of the joy and praise all the poverty and torture of the weekdays was forgotten, and all of them were covered by the love and sanctity of the Shabbat Queen, who are satisfied and happy to do G-d’s will, and the sanctity would envelop them all day long, and this sanctity was theirs literally like light from the sun: on Shabbat the holy men gets his very own, and every Jewish man has his own holy Shabbat.”
For 200 years, Jews have drawn pleasure and vitality, strength and encouragement from the holy book of one of the greatest shepherds of Israel in Poland and Galicia, and now on his 200th yahrzeit (anniversary of death), we at Ganzach Kiddush Hashem unite with his memory and study his words of Torah.
On the yahrzeit of this wonderful tzaddik, the elder of the holy Rebbe of Piaszena, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira, may G-d avenge his blood, who was named after him, we will light a candle in memory of Rabbi Kalonymous Kalmish son of Rabbi Aharon and learn Mishna for his soul’s benefit.
May his soul be bound in the bonds of life.
