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Historical research on Graf Pototzki

​By Rav Avishai Beir
Rav Avishai Beir invested much work in compiling and verifying the historical facts from writings and testimonials divulged over the years, and he has now published his findings for the first time. He found various old source material that sheds light on further details.
The following article was first published in the sefer hazikoron of the great mashgiach of the Lakewood yeshiva, HaRav Nosson Meir Wachtfogel zt'l, published this year in 5760 (2000), by Lakewood alumni and entitled Nit'ei Ne'emonim. The sefer is a two-volume compilation of unique, Torah articles and surveys as well as speeches of gedolim of previous generations, some of which were previously unpublished. Accolades to the publisher, Machon Mishnas Reb Aharon and the editors.
The story of the Ger Tzedek shook up the Jewish world at the time and until today, and it still makes the hearts of anyone who reads it tremble.
Very little was written about this story at the time, and we must rely on a combination of rumors and bits of tradition. There are a few reasons why there are so few contemporary sources about the ger tzedek story. It can be assumed that the noble Pototzki family, which was a religious Polish- Catholic family, was not happy that one of their sons defected to Judaism. The Pototzki family was said to have generally dealt kindly with the Jews living on its lands. Mentioning the conversion would have been interpreted as an open provocation of the area's ruler, which would have not resulted in any good. In addition, undoubtedly the conversion of one of the upper- class gentiles aroused great interest among the populace, and his refusal to return to their faith caused them great embarrassment.
Sources of Confusion
The sefer, Ir Gibborim relates a blood libel that happened in Horodna: A Christian girl disappeared, and her scarf was found in the possession of Reb Eliezer ben Reb Shlomo of Verbloi. That was enough evidence for some to testify that they saw with their own eyes how the Jew killed the girl and used her blood. All efforts to save him did not help, and he was sentenced to a cruel death. His body was cut into four pieces, which were hung in four corners of the city. The decree was carried out on the second day of Shavuos 5550 (1790). It seems that the fact that this kodosh, Hy'd was also killed on the second day of Shavuos caused some vagueness in the story of the ger tzedek.
The sefer Amudei Beis Yehuda, tells about "a certain kodosh Hy'd, Morenu HaRav Man, a seventy-year old man and great talmid chochom who was killed al kiddush Hashem in Vilna." This story could have also caused a confusion in tradition.
Someone named Litwin in an article, "Graf Pototzki, the Ger Tzedek," wrote that he made a special trip to the village Ilia, about thirty-seven kilometers from Vilna, where Reb Avrohom ben Avrohom hid and subsequently was given over to the authorities. Litwin asked the community's secretary permission to see the "ledger" in case anything was written about the story of the Ger Tzedek. The secretary absolutely refused.
Litwin related that his efforts to find documentary evidence on the Ger Tzedek were not very successful and only after much toil did he find even a pamphlet of a few pages entitled "The Story of the Ger Tzedek," written by a Vilna Jew. The handwritten story was in Yiddish, according to his guess from around 5560 (1800), and was only a copy, not the original. Litwin only published a few paragraphs of that pamphlet.
The handwritten paragraphs that Litwin quoted, relate that Reb Avrohom ben Avrohom always had a burning desire for learning, and especially a strong desire to know what is the true faith. "The noble's son's main desire in learning was to clarify which faith is the true one." For this purpose, he traveled to Paris and there "he put his body and soul into investigating all faiths."
Litwin wrote that the writings before him related that after the Ger Tzedek found out that he had been informed upon, he fled to the "Starinke" area, about nine kilometers from Ilia. The area's owner, out of fear of the local poritz, handed him over to the authorities.
The article goes on to relate that when the author visited Ilia, a local Jew told him that the Jews of Ilia have the following tradition. When the Ger Tzedek was brought to Vilna in chains, he cursed the informer, his sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren until the tenth generation, that none of them will be physically whole men and that none of them will die in their beds. The same Jew added that the Ger Tzedek's curse was fulfilled and the informer's descendants, who from then on bore the derogatory title "Di Yoshkes," were never physically whole. One was deaf, one mute, one crippled, etc. and it was rare that any of them died a natural death. The family members were stamped with a kind of sign of Cain, and they were always met with looks of fear and suspicion.
A curse fell as well, the Ilian Jew added, on the pub where the Ger Tzedek hid and was chased out by the owner. Not a single barman finished his years of tenancy there alive.
Descendants
In the book Converts to Judaism in Russia and Other Countries, the author relates that in 5645 (1885), when he was in Charson, he met a forty-year old Jew in a hotel who used to say vidui every single night before he went to sleep, as if he were prepared to die that night. When he was asked to explain this custom, he said, "I am a descendant of that tailor, the one who handed over the Ger Tzedek zichrono livrocho to the authorities, since he rebuked him and his wild son. When he [the Ger Tzedek] was imprisoned, he cursed him with the same curse that was placed on the high priest Eli's family: `There will not be an elderly person in your house all the days . . . and all of the majority of your house will die [young] men.' Because of this we, his descendants, say vidui every night . . . Only in rare cases do we cross the border of `their days will not reach half.'"
The author adds that he spoke to the rov of Dimasa, Reb Gershon Pinsker, who told him that he also knows some of this tailor's great-grandchildren and grandchildren and not one them lived a long life.
The Sefer Gerei HaTzedek
In 5622 (1862), M. Dik in Johannesburg published a small pamphlet called Gerei Tzedek, which contains the story of the Ger Tzedek and his friend. The book's style is smooth and gushing; it is obvious that a storyteller embellished the story. It seems, however, that M. Dik never claimed that all details of the story are true. We will quote a story that appears in the pamphlet:
"One gentile woman twisted her mouth in laughter while they judged him, and immediately screamed in a bitter voice and remained that way, with her mouth twisted and opened, and she became mute and had harsh tribulations."
At the end of the book, M. Dik cites two stories in the name of "HaRav HaGaon of Ilia." We are unable to cross verify who exactly this was and if he truly told Dik or this is one of his "improvements." We'll cite them as is:
"HaRav HaGaon of Ilia told me that the tzaddik cursed the wicked tailor who handed him over to the authorities, that from all of his house, none will be a talmid chochom forever, and if one of his family members desires the Torah of Hashem, he will die in adolescence. When he was appointed rov there, he said a shiur in gemora every day in the beis medrash. A good, smart boy sat in the shiur, and the rov drew him close because he was also diligent in his studies. One time his mother came, grabbed him by his payos and dragged him out of thebeis medrash and cried a great, bitter cry saying to the rov: Go out, go out murderous man, heretical man, have pity on yourself.
"The rov was very angry and asked about this outburst. And they answered him that he [the boy] is from the wicked family and his mother is scared that if he learns Torah of Hashem he'll die, so she doesn't want him to learn.
"The aforementioned rov also told me that when the wicked tailor died, they buried him in "a donkey's burial," thrown outside the cemetery's gates. After a few years, members of his family were appointed to the Chevra Kadisha and it was a disgrace to them that their relative was buried outside the gate. What did they do? They bought another piece of ground for graves from the city's prince so that he would be buried in the middle of the cemetery. In that year, anyone who was involved in this died."
A New Manuscript -- Kuntrus Ger HaTzedek
The collected manuscripts, Kehillas Moshe of Arye Leib Freidland, today found in the Leningrad library, contain a nine-page kuntrus, which tells the story of the Ger Tzedek in more detail than was previously known. Undoubtedly, this manuscript is not the one Litwin had, because his was written in Yiddish and this one in loshon hakodesh. It was also not translated from Litwin's, because Litwin related details that it does not contain. These details themselves are unimportant, but they do determine that there are two entirely separate manuscripts.
The author's literary style is very nice. It seems, however, that he was not so educated, because his manuscript is strewn with blatant spelling mistakes and he undoubtedly skipped portions of the story. At the same time, there is no attempt to polish up the story and fill the gaps with details from the author's imagination. Perhaps this fact, as well, gives the manuscript a certain ring of authenticity.
In his aforementioned article, Litwin complains that there are not enough details about the Ger Tzedek. The manuscript before us also does not elaborate much about the Ger Tzedek, but it does speak about his friend Zarembo at length.
The Ger Tzedek's Ties with the Gra ztvk'l
In spite of all our traditions that speak about the Ger Tzedek's ties with the Gra, the manuscript does not say anything about it. It seems quite certain that Litwin's manuscript did not mention it either, because if so he would have cited it. Dik, as well, does not say anything about it.
Nevertheless, we believe the words of our rabbonim, which clearly indicate that there was a connection between the Gra ztvk'l and the Ger Tzedek.
We will discuss one point: Did the Gra ztvk'l himself visit the Ger Tzedek in prison?
In the sefer, Ruach Eliyohu, Rav Eliyohu Moshe Bloch relates that he heard from HaRav Aharon Kotler zt'l that the Chofetz Chaim told him that the Gra ztvk'l sent a message to the Ger Tzedek that "he is prepared to save him through a mofes, and he answered that he doesn't want that."
In the sefer, The Life and Deeds of the Chofetz Chaim, the author relates this very story in the name of HaRav Tzvi Hirsch Levinson, the Chofetz Chaim's son-in-law -- that the Gra ztvk'l sent a message -- implying that he did not meet him personally. The same is written in Shimusha shel Torah. The only one who wrote that the Gra did meet the Ger Tzedek in prison was Reb Chaikel Lunski in his aforementioned article, but he was careful with his words and prefaced the incident with, "The story goes." It seems that there is no reliable source for this detail.
The fact that the Gra was buried in the same ohel as the Ger Tzedek also proves that they did have ties with each other.
Rabbenu Menachem Azarya of Panno writes that there is a strong link between gerei tzedek and gedolei hador, in sefer Olom Koton. He says that the gedolei hador must take care of gerim like Moshe with Yisro and Naomi with Rus.
As far as is known, the story of the Ger Tzedek is not mentioned in the seforim of the Gra's disciples. Perhaps there is a hint in the sefer Toldos Odom, which says that Reb Zalman once mentioned the words of the gemora in Brochos: When they took Rabbi Akiva out to be killed, it was time for krias Shema. They raked his skin with iron combs and in spite of everything, he accepted upon himself the yoke of Heaven with love and happiness and was not affected by his body's suffering. And he concluded with the following, "In this golus as well, Yisroel does not lack chachomim who suffered tortures more bitter than death, with happiness and joy like one going out with a flute to celebrate a holiday."
The Ger Tzedek, Reb Avrohom ben Avrohom was burned al kiddush Hashem on the second day of Shavuos 5509 (1749). Until the Holocaust, all the batei knesses of Vilna commemorated his yahrtzeit le'iluy nishmoso.
In 5712 (1952), the Russian government destroyed the ancient cemetery of Vilna. Only seven graves were moved to the new cemetery, including the Gra's and the Ger Tzedek's.
A monument stands at the site of the old cemetery containing the following words in Yiddish:
Here were buried in the dust / Gedolei Yisroel / Including: / The Vilna Gaon -- / Eliyohu bar Shlomo Kramer / The Ger Tzedek -- / Graf Valentine Pototzki
Reb Chaikel Lunski Hy'd related that anyone who was in pain or suffering used to come to pour out his heart at the kever, to ask him to be a meilitz yosher for the nation for whose belief he sacrificed his life.