Letters from Eretz Ha-Shekhinah to Galut Ha-Shekhinah: The Spiritual Co-leadership of the Vitebsker and the Kalisker Partnering in the Emunah of Unknowing

The 1777 ‘aliyah of Hasidim to Tiberias remains an under-appreciated chapter in the evolution of modern Hasidism. This immigration was headed by three Hasidic leaders of White Russia: R. Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk, R. Abraham of Kalisk, and R. Israel of Plock. Their caravan set out in March 1777 from Eastern Europe and arrived in Palestine, via Istanbul, in September of the same year and upon settling in Tiberias established uniquely modern mystical community. While possibilities abound about the causes of this immigration: (1) the establishment of a Hasidic center in Palestine; (2) bringing redemption closer, that is a messianic immigration; (3) flight from the increasing persecution of the Hasidim in eastern Europe in the 1770s; and (4) the elevated state of consciousness realized through prayer and Torah study in the Holy Land. These Igrot Qodesh are Letters of Love penned by R. Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk and R. Avraham haKohen of Kalisk primarily to hasidim in Eastern Europe, an ongoing correspondence that provides a needed spiritual direction. How these letters of Tiberian Hasidism articulate a kind of spiritual direction even being written in Eretz HaShekhinah while grappling with the simultaneous experience of Galut HaShekhinah (the exile of the divine presence) in correspondence will be explored. Further consideration will be given to the unusual co-leadership model shared between R. Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk and R. Abraham of Kalisk as expressed in these letters and their supplements to shed light on why and how such a spiritual partnership appears to have supported more contemplative modes of ‘Emunah as unknowing, and in turn, how this affected their advice to disciples experiencing their own uncertainty.