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Chasidim of Kock (Kotzk)
[Yiddish, Kotzker chasidim] - A Chasidic group
founded by Menachem Mendel Morgenshtern (1787-1859), known
as the
"Kotzker Rebe", a pupil of Yaakov Yitzhak Ha-Levi Horovitz
of Lublin and
Yaakov Yitzhak of Przysucha.
In 1829, Menachem Mendel settled in Kock and founded a
Chasidic
center. He backed the November Uprising, urging his
supporters to aid
the insurgents. In order to avoid persecution, he escaped to
the
Austrian partition, where he lived for several years under
the assumed
name Halprin.
In his teachings, he emphasized the importance of
spontaneity
zealousness in faith. The author of many aphorisms, he said
that "people
have a soul, not watches", thus justifying the rejection of
superficial
religiosity dictated by ritual, and not by one's inner need.
He taught
that "it is not possible to serve God out of habit", and
that "God is
wherever you let Him in". He placed great importance on
striving for
perfection in serving God with all one's soul, which is what
he saw as
the sense of life.
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During a Sabbath evening meal in 1840, he
extinguished the candles (which was against religious law),
and,
according to tradition, said, "there is no Judgment and
there is no
Judge". For the next twenty years, until his death, he lived
in
isolation, in a closed room adjacent to the synagogue,
refusing any
contact with people. Some of his supporters, including Rebe
Mordechai
Josef Leiner, left him, saying he had been possessed by
"evil spirits";
most of the Community nevertheless remained with him in the
belief that
his behavior was a sign of the struggle with the forces of
evil.
After his death, his followers chose the founder of the
Chasidic
dynasty of Gora Kalwaria, Rebe Yitzchak Meir Rothenberg
Alter, as their
tzaddik. A small group stayed with the son of Menachem
Mendel
Morgenshtern, David (1809-1893).
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He was succeeded by his son, Chaim Israel
(1840-1905), who in 1888 moved to Pulawy. He actively
supported Jewish
settlement in Palestine; he believed the duty of every
Chasid is to
build religious life in the Holy Land. Another of David's
sons, Yitzchak
Zelig (1866-1940), was rabbi in Sokolow Podlaski, where he
taught in a
yeshiva he had founded. In addition to having been trained
to be a
physician, he was also active in politics, and was a
co-founder, and
then member, of the Agudas Isroel party. Chaim Israel was
succeeded by
his son Moses Mordechai (1862-1929), a well-known
bibliophile who had a
rare book collection, which he moved to Warsaw in 1914.
(H.W./CM)
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