The Maharal Tzintz of Plotzk

The name just rolls of the tongue! It is a really fun name to say. Give it a try.

At any rate, I saw the ad, pictured to the right, in the Five Towns Jewish Times. Click on the image to see it much larger, so that you can actually read the advertisement. It presents the rare opportunity to help print the Maharal Tzintz of Plotzk's sefer, sefer Chidishei Maharal on Hilchos Ribis.

I just love that they call it "chidishei" rather than "chidushei," presumably reflecting their pronunciation. (A Google search returns no hits for "chidishei," but three hits for "chiddishei.")

They even have a website, the wonderfully named tzintz.org, as a front-end for this same project.

He is indeed the Maharal, but it is spelled with an aleph -- מהראל, for Rabbi Aryeh Leib.

Basically, he promised on his deathbed (170 years ago) that he would aid whoever would try to bring his sefarim to publication:

The talmidim watched silently as this mighty Torah scholar wrote: finally, his amazing wonderful promise was written: I will be an intermediary with the Almighty (melitz) in the world to come for anyone who tries to bring to publication the books that I have compiled.

...

For a short moment, he speaks in a clear voice: When a man hangs a sign on his store, he is telling us that he has something to sell!

They have indeed published several of his books. What they are doing here is as follows: For your donation of $400, they will print 10 sets of his books (a set in this case consists of two of his sefarim of Chiddushei Maharal on Ribbis) and distribute it to yeshivos, libraries, etc., and you can even specify where you want it to go. Thus, you published his books and you thus should get the benefit of the segulah!

They will also travel to Warsaw on the day of his Yahrtzeit on May 8 (2 Iyyar). "They will recite the names of all those who undertake to print the holy seforim of the tzaddik, and they will pray that the tzaddik fulfills his promise."

I would note that HebrewBooks.org has 13 hits on his name, some of which are duplicates:

הגדה של פסח ברכת השיר	צינץ, אריה ליב	ווארשא	תקפט
הגדה של פסח ברכת השיר	צינץ, אריה ליב (מהרא"ל)	ווארשא	תרצו
הגדה של פסח עם פירוש ברכת השיר	ארי' ליב צינץ ור' משה פלאצק	פיטסבורג	תשה
הגדה של פסח עם פירוש ברכת השיר	ארי' ליב צינץ	פערנוואלד	תשי
יין המשמח	אריה ליב צינץ	ורשה	תרמח
יעלת חן	אריה ליב בן משה צינץ	ורשה	תרנב
להב אש	אריה ליב צינץ	פיעטרקוב	תרצה
מלא העומר	ארי' ליב צינץ	פיעטרקוב	תרפה
מקצוע בתורה	ארי' ליב צינץ	פיטסבורג	1950
משיבת נפש ח"א	ארי' ליב ב"ר משה צינץ		תשלט
משיבת נפש חלק א	אריה ליב בן משה צינץ	פיוטרקוב	תרם
שו"ת מהרא"ל	אריה ליב בן משה צינץ	ורשה	תרמט
שיורי קומץ המנחה	אריה ליב צינץ	מאנטריאל	תשז

By publishing this blogpost, I have effectively published his sefarim, so I should reap the benefits of the segulah.

The cynic in me has a few questions or problems with all this.

First, it does indeed seem that he intended it as a segulah, and they cite some big names that endorse this as a segulah. Fine, as much as I disagree with this approach.

But his idea, I think, was not specifically to create a new segulah, but to get the sefarim published. And likely he had in mind people with printing presses 170 years ago, so that his chiddushei Torah would not remain in manuscript form and be lost. But I think it is perhaps misguided to set this up as a perpetual segulah such that the way his books are published are based on the donation model, and such that the books are segulos, and the segulah is a commodity. The idea is print them. And then make it available for people to purchase.

Second, I admit not having read any of the sefarim in question, and so I do not know how good these chiddushei Torah are. (For the sake of this post, though I am short of time, I will cite a few things from his Haggadah shel Pesach at the bottom of the post.) But there have been a lot of tzaddikim, and a lot of Talmidei Chachamim. And while there is some luck to what becomes popular and what books people purchase, it is also a meritocracy. The Ketzos is popular for a reason, and that is why people buy it, and why people learn it. The same for Mishnah Berurah, Aruch haShulchan, Penei Yehoshua, Nodeh Be-Yehuda, and so on. So too for Chafetz Chaim, despite the fact that he also gave a segulah for learning his sefer on shemirat halashon. These are important works. This is not to say, chas veShalom, that the works of Maharal Tzintz of Plotzk are not also valuable and full of pearls. But if they are, publish the sefarim, they will become popular, and everyone will learn it, and buy it! Which is perhaps more in line with what the Maharal Tzintz intended. Instead, this segulah seems to circumvent this process of natural selection. Of course, there are great works that for various reasons, people are not exposed to. But still.

Third, what exactly are the expenses involved? Lulu.com will publish bound books for between 7 and 13 dollars a copy, depending on the size and the type of binding. And they are making a profit. These publishers are asking for $400 to print 10 sets, and since a set is 2 books, this is $400 for 20 books, or $20 a book. Is this really their operating costs? I would assume that sefarim printers can get publish for cheaper than this. Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps some money goes to typesetting (assuming these are not simply reprints of existing books). And for ads in the Five Towns Jewish Times. And perhaps airfare to Warsaw to visit the kever. And perhaps they are getting other donations, or something, such that $400 donation this merely contributes towards the total expenses, rather than being the specific expenses in publishing these 10 sets. I don't know. It could also be a moneymaker, or a way to pay the salaries of the people involved, and so on. After all, these people could be doing other work, but instead they are spreading Torah knowledge and giving a chance to participate in the segulah, so this could be viewed as sechar batala. I wish they would be more clear about this.

Fourth, this whole idea of davening at the kever. I know that it is an inyan for some people, though I personally think they misunderstand the sources they bring to support the practice, such as the gemara in Taanis. (Perhaps a lengthy later post on this topic.) But they claim that they pray to Hashem at the location of the kever, and the deceased tzaddik will also daven and intercede. Or they ask the tzaddik to intercede on their behalf with Hashem (though I think this is where the misunderstanding of sources lies). Or asking Hashem to answer us in the tzaddik's merit. And so on and so forth. And all sorts of defenses of the practice are available, depending on how this is cast.

But here, see what they say: "They will recite the names of all those who undertake to print the holy seforim of the tzaddik, and they will pray that the tzaddik fulfills his promise."

To whom are they praying? I certainly hope that they are not praying to the tzaddik that he fulfill his promise. The alternative is that they are praying to Hashem. So it is tefillah directed at Hashem that He will make it that the tzaddik fulfills his promise to intercede on these peoples behalf with Hashem. Why pray for this at the tzaddik's kever? So that he can intercede and also ask Hashem that he will fulfill his promise as act as a meilitz. It is a bit of a Rube-Goldberg tefillah, if so.

Perhaps (most probable) here is where the tzaddik is acting as an advocate. That is, specifically now, they recite the names of people in need of his advocacy, and that all work out for them, and are hoping (and perhaps asking) that the tzaddik fulfill his promise and thus acts in this instance as an advocate for all the donors. This is better, but does not really work so well with the wording to my mind.

Even if so, would he make a promise and not be able to deliver? The Maharal Tzintz of Plotzk claimed that he was promising this because he had this power. So if I go separately and print and distribute his seforim, and don't daven at his kever, he won't help?! Or Hashem won't listen to his advocacy, or let him advocate? What happened to tzaddik gozer veHakadosh Baruch Hu Mekayem?!

At any rate, do it or don't do it. But I found all this interesting.

______________

I said above I would flip quickly through at least a bit of his work, and so here I do a bit of that.

From the Maharal Tzintz of Plotzk, ztz"l's Haggadah, with my own thoughts:

1) He says one may not say kiddush ad shetechshach. Indeed, Divrei Chamudos on the Rosh says this. I personally am not so convinced this is the case, and think it possible it only applies to matzah. But there is what to speak about in this matter.

2) He has an analysis of Ha Lachma Anya. His style in general in the haggadah seems to be Abarbanel-like, asking a bunch of questions and then answering all of them afterwards at length. One interesting question is why the shift to Hebrew in leshana habaah benei chorin. And notes that the Rambam's language is indeed leshata de`atya benei charei.

3) He cites the Arizal that Rabbi Eleazar ben Azarya was the gilgul of Shmuel Hanavi. Shmuel lived 52 years. And Rabbi Eleazar ben Azarya was 18 years at the time. Add the two together and you get "ke-ven shivim shana." And Shana is a notrikon for nishmat shmuel haNavi. And "Nasi" is the notrikon of nishmat shmuel yedid elkana. And it hints with this that he had a great neshama. Yet he was not zocheh to what ben Zomah darshened, because this was the chelek of the neshama of ben Zomah.

We've been talking recently on parshablog about gilgul, and kabbalah in general; and whether there is anything to gilgul, or whether it is nonsense borrowed from the superstitions of others. This last bit obviously is not my cup of tea. And this notrikons seems very easy to make up in any direction, and prove nothing (just like the abuse of gematrias).

4) He suggests that the fact that the chacham says etchem is of no concern, given that it is said as regards to korban pesach, and presumably he was one of the minuyim of the korban pesach or he would be chayav kares. So when he asks, he is trying to find the particulars of the mitzvah he is participating it. But the rasha says mah haavodah hazos lachem, and he is not part of the avodah, until he gets his arguments first answered. Ayin sham. And blunt his teeth so that he will not be able to eat of the korban, for he is not one of the minuyim on the korban.

Interesting. I don't think it is correct, in that we see blunting teeth in other contexts of sharp responses; and because of the alternate girsa of the pasuk which the Yerushalmi seems to have had such that the question is uprooted. But that I disagree is not of a concern here.

But I have not touched the surface of the work; and it is late at night; and I am not devoting to it the time it is due. I am sure there is a lot to learn from these sefarim, some which I would find interesting and some which I would argue with, or dismiss. Regardless, I still maintain what I said above.

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Update: Note in the ad that they have done work on it, such as thousands of corrections and the like.