HILLEL TSAYTLIN (HILLEL ZEITLIN)

HILLEL TSAYTLIN (HILLEL ZEITLIN) (1872-1942)

            The father of Arn and Elkhonen Tsaytlin, he was born in Korma, Mohilev district, into a well-to-do merchant family.  His father was a well-known scholar.  Tsaytlin was raised under the influence of his mother’s Musar texts and Hassidic stories.  From ages five to twelve, he attended religious elementary school.  He later continued his education with his father, and on his own in the synagogue study chamber.  In various cities and town in Lithuania where he studied, he acquired a reputation as the Korma prodigy.  He was a great master of Musar works, homiletic interpretation of sacred texts, and Kabbala.  At age thirteen he began reading modern Hebrew literature, and from that point his deeply religious convictions were shattered.  At age fifteen, his father became destitute and after a severe illness died.  Tsaytlin then had to worry about earning a living.  His employment consisted of giving Hebrew lessons, because of which he often had to travel through towns and villages.  At age eighteen, he began in earnest to turn his attention to secular subjects.  He was an autodidact and a highly diligent person.  With particular intensity, he studied natural science and philosophy, from which he was powerfully influenced by Spinoza and his pan-theism.  In the early 1890s, Tsaytlin settled in Homel (Gomel), where he soon befriended Yosef Ḥaim Brenner, Z. Y. Anokhi, and Uri Gnessin, among others.  Under their influence, he became interested in social problems and drew closer to the positivist philosophy of the English thinkers: Spencer, Darwin, and Mill.  At that time, he also began reading Russian literature and was especially affected by Dostoevsky.  It was just at this time that he began to write, initially only in Hebrew.  In Hashiloaḥ (The shiloah), he debuted in print with an essay entitled “Hatov vehara al pi hashkafot ḥakhme yisrael veḥakhme haamim” (Good and evil in Jewish and general thought), in which he touched upon the problem of optimism and pessimism in philosophy.  Several years later he published a monograph on Spinoza, Barukh shpinoza, ḥayav sefarav veshitato hafilosofit (Baruch Spinoza, his life, his books, and his philosophical approach) (Warsaw: Tushiya, 1900), 139 pp., as well as a work about Nietzsche in the monthly Hazman (The times).  In Homel he was a close friend of the Zionist organization.  In 1901 he participated as a delegate to the fifth Zionist congress in Basel.  In David Frishman’s Hador (The generation), he published a series of articles on Zionist issues: “Hirhurim” (Thoughts) and “Mikitve aḥad hatseirim” (From the writings of one of the young ones), among others.  In these pieces, he criticized the Zionist leadership, with whom he was not pleased.  When the Uganda proposition was raised, Tsaytlin—still strongly influenced by the Kishinev Pogrom—became a territorialist.  Over the years 1902-1905, he lived in Roslavl; he then settled in Vilna, where he became a regular contributor to Hazman.  In this same newspaper, he published a lengthy series of articles with a sharp polemic against the preachers on behalf of the land of Israel.  Under the influence of Avrom Reyzen, in Vilna he began writing in Yiddish.  His first published work in Yiddish was a series of philosophical articles entitled “Di benkshaft nokh sheynheyt” (The nostalgia for beauty) in Dos yudishe folk (The Jewish people) (1906).  At first he conceived of Yiddish as a means of leading enlightenment work among the Jewish masses, but with time he came to the conviction that the Yiddish language possessed a powerful internal capacity which could save Jewry from assimilation.  In later years, Tsaytlin wrote a great deal on this issue, among other places in a series of articles entitled “An emes vegn hebreyish un yidish” (A truth about Hebrew and Yiddish), published in Haynt (Today) and Moment (Moment) in Warsaw.  In 1906 Hazman ceased publication for a while.  At the invitation of Sh. Y. Yatskan, Tsaytlin moved to Warsaw, where in 1908 he became editor of Dos yudishe vokhnblat (The Jewish weekly newspaper).  He took up residence at No. 60 Szliska, and for many years writers and cultural gathered figures there in the evenings.  And it served the same function as an inn for writers as had his home in Vilna earlier.  Among the regular frequenters at Tsaytlin’s home both in Vilna and in Warsaw were: Zalmen Shneur, Y. D. Berkovitsh, Z. Y. Anokhi, Perets Hirshbeyn, Uri Gnessin, Y. Katsenelson, Y. Mastboym, Y. Fikhman, D. Frishman, Y. M. Vaysenberg (Weissenberg), and Sh. L. Kava, among others.  In Dos yudishe vokhnblat, Tsaytlin published his well-known series “Ernste shmuesn” (Serious conversations) and sharply polemicized with the Jewish socialist party.  By this time he was mostly writing in Yiddish.  From time to time, he might occasionally publish an article somewhere in Hebrew.  In addition, his ideological point of view had by this point completely crystallized.  With his deeply religious and ethnic Jewish convictions, he stood within the limitations of traditional Judaism.  Although religious, he was exceedingly far from fanaticism.  With his journalistic activities, which he had begun at the time in Warsaw, he popularized in Yiddish literature the great ideas of religious Jewish philosophy and aroused among the intellectual readers a fierce interest in Hassidism.  From 1908 to 1910, he was a regular contributor to Haynt.  When Moment was founded in 1910, he moved over to the new newspaper.  In his “Brivele tsu der yidisher yugnt” (A short letter to Jewish youth), which he first published in Haynt and later in Moment, he led a religio-ethnic campaign among the youth.  He published his weekly articles in Moment over the course of thirty years until the outbreak of WWII.  In them he dealt with community and cultural matters and wrote on general literary topics and critical assessments of Yiddish and Hebrew books, as well as on rabbinic religious texts.  Tsaytlin was militant and too often aggressive vis-à-vis his opponents.  He contributed to numerous Yiddish and Hebrew journals and anthologies: Yudishe yugnt (Jewish youth), Herbst (Autumn), Di nay-tsayt (The new times) of which he was also editor, Naye himlen (New heavens), and others.  At the time of the elections to the Polish Sejm in 1922, he published a weekly entitled Der blits (The flash) which supported the Folks-partey (People’s party) and fought against the Zionist electoral bloc.  Later, though, when Zionist spirits were in the ascendant in the Jewish street, he again drew closer to Zionism.  Although he officially did not join the Zionist movement, he did support building up the land of Israel, and he took pains to link Zionist ideas with religious revival of the people.  In 1932 he published anthologies entitled Der alef (Alef), serials for the spiritual renewal of the world and reconstruction of Israel, and these were dedicated to the battle against partisan splintering among Jews.  He even attempted to create a party which would appear publicly against factional infighting on the Jewish street.  Tsaytlin also contributed to the Yiddish publication of Heinrich Graetz’s Di yudishe geshikhte (Jewish history) (Warsaw: B. Shimin, 1913).  Together with Sh. Y. Stupnitski, he was the general editor of Ersht yudish entsiklopedish verterbukh (The first Yiddish encyclopedic dictionary), comp. D. Kasel and B. Karlinyus (Warsaw: Hantbikher, 1917), 140 columns; subsequent two volumes compiled by M. Y. Trivaks.  Of his particularly significant monographs which were published in installments in various newspapers and journals, we should note: “Der alter rebe” (The old rebbe) about R. Shneur-Zalmen of Lyadi, in Moment (1912, 1913); about Y. Ḥ. Brenner, in Moment (1921), the same in Hebrew in Hatekufa (The epoch) (1921); “Der lebnsveg fun sh. anski” (The life path of Sh. An-ski), in the almanac of Moment (1921); “Yidish in religyez-natsyonaln bavustzayn fun folk” (Yiddish in the religio-ethnic consciousness of the people), in Moment (1916-1917); a large number of works on mysticism and the text Zohar were published in Hatekufa issues 5, 6-9, 11) and in subsequent years; a religio-philosophical work entitled “Vos es lebt un zingt in mir” (What lives and sings within me); a polemical work entitled “Zibn zind fun der ortodoksye un zibn un zibetsik zind fun der fraydenkeray” (Seven sins of Orthodoxy and seventy-seven sins of freethinkers), in Moment (1928); and many more.  In the years prior to the eruption of WWII, he often gave lectures on Hassidism and especially in the field of Chabad.  He was active in the association of Jewish writers and journalists and on several occasions was elected to serve as a member of its managing committee.  During the years of the Nazis occupation, Tsaytlin was, because of his appearance and the style of his clothing, unable to appear on the street.  He lived in greater need than other Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, and he sat in hiding, reading and writing a great deal.  In Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum’s Ksovim fun geto (Writings from the ghetto), vol. 2, p. 60, it is noted that Tsaytlin wrote a great deal—among other things, he translated the Psalms into Yiddish.  His entire archive, together with these writings, written during the war, were left in his apartment on Szliska Street, and there they were destroyed.  We also have no fully certain information about the time of Tsaytlin’s death.  According to Ringelblum’s notes (vol. 2, p. 59), Tsaytlin was freed once from the Umschlagplatz, and then a second time he was taken and sent off to Treblinka.  All this, according to Ringelblum, took place at the time of the first killing Aktion—namely, in the month of July 1942.  Other sources, however, indicate that Tsaytlin was deported on Rosh Hashana—namely, September 1942.  It has also been stated that, in the cart that transported him to the Umschlagplatz, he put on his prayer shawl and chanted the vidui confession aloud.  There were as well reports that he was shot at the Umschlagplatz.  Tsaytlin also used the pen name Amami.

            Tsaytlin’s books would include: Shriftn (Writings), vol. 1 (Warsaw: Velt-biblyotek, 1910), 163 pp.—including the following works: “Di benkshaft nokh sheynheyt,” “Di froy bay yidn” (Women among Jews), “Rabi nakhmen (braslaver), zayn veltanshoyung” (Rabbi Nakhmen of Braslav, his world outlook), and other philosophical essays; Rabi naḥman mibreslav, ḥayav vetorato (Rabbi Naḥman of Braslav, his life and doctrine), vol. 1 (Warsaw: Sifrut, 1910), 43 pp.; Rabi yisroel baal shem tov (Rabbi Yisrael Baal-Shem-Tov) (Warsaw: Mikra, 1910), 27 pp.; Ketavim nivḥarim (Selected writings), with an image of the author and his biography by Y. Fikhman (Warsaw: Tushiya, 1911), 153 pp.; Dos problem fun guts un shlekhts bay yidn un bay andere felker, filosofish-historishe ophandlung (The problem of good and evil among Jews and other peoples, philosophical-historical treatment), ed. Hillel Tsaytlin, trans. B. K-y (Warsaw: Velt-biblyotek, 1911), 246 pp.; Der alef-beys fun yudentum (The ABCs of Judaism) (Warsaw: Alt-yung, 1922), 213 pp.; Khsides (Hassidism) (Warsaw: Nayer farlag, 1922), 165 pp.—including “Khsidishe gedanken un iberlebungen in rayn khsidishn levush” (Hassidic thought and experiences in purely Hassidic garb); Davar leamim (A word to the nations) (Warsaw, 1928), 85 pp.; Vos ikh hob yetst tsu zogn dem yudishn folk (What I have to say to the Jewish people now) (Warsaw, 1930), 98 pp.; Di reyd fun shaye ben amots, ṿos er hot amol gezogt un ṿos er volt haynṭ zogen (The speech of Yeshiyahu ben Amots, what he once said and what he would say now) (Warsaw: T. Yakubson, 1930), 47 pp.; Gezangen tsum eyn-sof (Sung to infinity) (Warsaw: Nowozetgraf, 1931), 105 pp.; Vos darf yisroel ton in der itsiker tsayt fun khevle-meshiekh? Fuftsen retungs-briv mit a nokhṿort, “Tsi lebstu nokh alter yisroel” (What should Israel do in our time of the birth pains of the Messiah? Fifteen rescue letters with an afterword: “Are you still alive, old Israel?”) (Warsaw, 1934), 63 pp.; Toyre-likht, hoypṭ yesoydes fun yudishen das un yudisher etik (Light of the Torah, principal bases of Jewish religion and Jewish ethics), including “homiletic writings, Kabbala, Hassidism, and Chabad” (selected and translated from Jewish texts, with an addendum of his own writings, arranged according to the orders  of the Mishnah, the scrolls, and the holidays) (Warsaw: Khokhmes Yisroel, 1937-1938); Shmuesn iber der khabadisher velt-banemung (Conversations about the Chabad’s international behavior), part 1 (Warsaw: Akhdes-Yisroel, 1938), 71 pp.; R’ nakhmen braslaver, der zeer fun podolye (Rabbi Nakhmen of Braslav, the seer of Podolia) (New York: Matones, 1952), 302 pp.; Araynfir in khsides un der veg fun khabad (Introduction to Hassidism and the pathway from Chabad) (New York: Matones, 1957), 288 pp.; Bepardes haḥasidut vehakabala (In the orchard of Hassidism and Kabbala) (Tel Aviv: Yavne, 1960), 279 pp., the first volume of Tsaytlin’s collected works that were being published in Israel; Al gevul shene olamot (At the frontier of two worlds) (Tel Aviv: Yavne, 1965), 374 pp., second volume in the newest Israeli edition; Alef-bet shel yahadut (ABCs of Judaism), trans. and ed. Menaḥem Barash-Roi (Jerusalem, 1982/1983), 167 pp.  Only a small portion of Tsaytlin’s complete output has appeared in book form.  The majority of his writings are spread through innumerable newspapers and magazines.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Sefer tsaytlin (Volume for Tsaytlin), ed. Dr. Oskar Wolfsberg and Tsvi Harkavi (Jerusalem, 1944), 148 pp.; a letter from Tsaytlin to Leyb Rokhman (June-July 1942), in Unzer veg (Paris) 10 (1946); R. Oyerbakh, in Eynikeyt (New York) (June 1946); M. Ungerfeld, in Davar (Tel Aviv) (October 12, 1962); Ungerfeld, in Hayom (Tel Aviv) (Rosh Hashana eve [= September 7], 1964); M. Ites, in Yidishe bilder (Riga) 27 (59) (July 2, 1938); L. Olitski, in Poylish yidntum (Tel Aviv) א (1963), pp. 120-31; Y. Bornshteyn, in Yidishe shriftn (Lodz) (1948); F. Bimko, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (April 21, 1967); Bal-Makhshoves, Geklibene shriftn (Selected writings), vol. 3 (Warsaw, 1929), pp. 87-91; Dr. Shloyme Bikl, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (October 9, 1960); Abe Gordin, in Tsukunft (New York) (January 1937); Vl. Grosman, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (June 14, 1943); M. Hempel, in Hapoal hatsayir (Tel Aviv) (September 25, 1962); Y. Varhsavski (Bashevis-Zinger), in Forverts (New York) (May 18, 1958); Ts. Z. Vaynberg, in Hadoar (New York) (Av 1 [= July 14], 1961); A. Toyberhoyz, in Keneder odler (March 20, 1952); Y. Tolkes, in Prozdor (Tel Aviv) (Adar [= February-March] 1963); D. Tsharni (Daniel Charney), in Tsukunft (January 1942); Sh. Lubetkin, Publitsistn (Journalists) (Warsaw, 1937); A. S. Lirik, in Tsukunft (April 1946); M. Lenski, in Yidishe shriftn 7-8 (1947); Lenski, in Davar (May 26, 1961); Sh. Leshtshinski, Literarishe eseyen (Literary essays) (New York, 1938), pp. 63-69; Y. Mastboym, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (February 20, 1954); N. Mayzil, in Yidishe kultur (New York) (October 1944); Sh. Mendelson, Geshtaltn (Images) (New York, 1949), pp. 383-84; Shmuel Niger, in Tog (New York) (December 20, 1931; November 11, 1934); Dr. N. Ek, in Hadoar (June 20, 1947); Y. Pat, in Tsukunft (January 1962); Sh. Pyetrushka, in Keneder odler (May 27, 1943); Sh. Y. Penuel, in Derekh sofrim beḥasidut (The way of writers in Hassidism) (Jerusalem-Haifa, 1961/1962), pp. 158-71; Rabbi Dr. Fridbush, in Hadoar (Elul 24 [= September 16], 1960); Y. Fernbakh, in Literarishe heftn (Los Angeles) (January-April 1949); Arn Tsaytlin, in Zamlbikher (New York) 6 (1945), pp. 19-25; A. Tsaytlin, in Hadoar (January 30, 1953; Rosh Hashana [= October 5], 1967); A. Tsaytlin, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (July 2, 1954; July 25, 1954; October 25, 1957; September 28, 1962; October 4, 1967); A. Tsaytlin, in Hadoar (Marḥeshvan 1 [= October 7], 1964); M. Kalikshteyn, in Idisher kemfer (December 23, 1960; February 17, 1961); Barukh Karu, in Maariv (Tel Aviv) (May 21, 1965); Getzel Kressel, Leksikon hasifrut haivrit (Handbook of Hebrew literature), vol. 2 (Merḥavya, 1967); Meylekh Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 1 (Montreal, 1945); Ravitsh, in Tsukunft (April 1955); Ravitsh, Dos amolike yidishe varshe, biz der shvel fun dritn khurbn, 1414-1939 (The Warsaw that was, until the threshold of the Holocaust, 1414-1939) (Montreal, 1966); Avrom Reyzen, Epizodn fun mayn lebn (Episodes from my life), part 3 (Vilna, 1935); B. Resler, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (June 17, 1960); M. Erdberg-Shatan, in Keneder odler (November 6, 1964); Dr. Y. Shatski, in Jewish Bookland (New York) (December 1953); Y. Sade, in Goldene keyt (Tel Aviv) 5 (1950); Rabbi M. D. Shif, in Dorem-afrike (Johannesburg) (September-October 1963); N. Shemen, in Keneder odler (September 30, 1957); Shemen, in Der veg (Mexico City) (October 12, 1957).

Yekhiel Hirshhoyt

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 465.]