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Chasidim of Warka
[Yiddish, Vurke Chasidim] - A Chasidic group
founded by Israel Yitzhak Kalish (1779-1848); influenced by
the tzaddik
of Lelow, David Biedermann, Kalish became a proponent of
Chasidism and
studied under Yaakov Yitzhak Ha-Levi Horovitz of Lublin, and
then under
Symcha Bunem of Przysucha.
After Bunem's death, he settled in Przysucha in 1829 and
became
leader of some of the local Chasidim. He then moved his seat
to Warka,
near Warsaw, where his following grew. Among his pupils were
Yaakov Arie
Guterman (1792-1874), who later became tzaddik in Radzymin;
Dov Ber of
Biala Rawska; and Yechiel Danziger of Aleksandrow.
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Together with the tzaddik Yitzhak Alter of Gora
Kalwaria, he was involved in the struggle against the
tsarist
"Cantonist decrees" [regarding the conscription of Jewish
boys into the
army - Ed.], and those forbidding Jews in the Kingdom of
Poland from
wearing their traditional garb. His pupils later wrote down
his
teachings.
His oldest son, Yaakov David, founded a dynasty of
tzaddikim in
Mszczonow, and the youngest, Menachem Mendel (1819-68), took
over his
father's function in Warka. He was called the "silent
tzaddik" because
he treated the virtue of silence as a form of prayer. He
taught that man
has three qualities: "straight posture, silent weeping, and
motionless
dancing". He stressed the need to understand other people.
He called
this part of his teaching Ahavat Israel [Hebrew, "love of
the Jewish
people"].
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His successors were Symcha Bunem (1851-1907),
Menachem Mendel's son, who settled in Otwock, near Warsaw;
and Symcha
Bunem's son, Menachem Mendel of Marszynow (1860-1918), who
during the
First World War moved his seat to the capital.
(A.C., H.W./CM)
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