The Maiden of Ludmir — Chana Rochel Webermacher

On 22 Tammuz/June 11 2004 a hakamas matzeivah took place on Har HaZeisim at the newly discovered gravesite of Chana Rochel Webermacher (1806–1888). It was the 116th yahrtzeit of the “Ludmirer Moid” or Maiden of Ludmir as she was also known.

The story of the only chassidish female who behaved like a rebbe — fiering tisch accepting kvittlach and performing miracles — but didn’t belong to any of the chassidic dynasties has generated many articles books and plays in countries around the world. From these many accounts it is possible to piece together a picture of one of the most fascinating lives of the last century.

A Rebbe’s Blessing

Chana Rochel’s story begins in the shtetl of Volodymir Volhynia (then Russia today northwestern Ukraine). Called Ludmir by its Jewish inhabitants the shtetl is associated with the Tosfos Yom Tov Rav Yom Tov Lipman Heller who served as rav there from 1634–1643 and the Noda B’Yehudah Rav Yechezkel Landau who attended yeshivah there in the 18th century. Another prominent citizen of Ludmir was the founder of the Karliner dynasty Rav Shlomo HaLevi who settled in the town in 1786.

Munish Webermacher and his wife a wealthy couple living in Ludmir had been childless for over ten years when they were given a blessing for children by a chassidishe rebbe. Although all sources agree that Munish was a chassid of the Maggid of Chernoble Rav Mordechai Twersky they differ as to which rebbe gave the brachah that produced the Webermachers’ brilliant red-haired daughter. Since there is no documentary evidence regarding this fact — most written accounts were published decades after her birth — some historians of Chassidus such as Shmuel Abba Horodetzky a grandson of Rav Aaron of Chernoble and writers such as Yochanan Twersky another scion of the Chernobler dynasty and author of a Hebrew novel about the Maiden of Ludmir attribute the blessing to the Maggid of Chernoble.

On the other hand writers Menashe Unger a brother-in-law of the late Bluzhever Rebbe and Ephraim Taubenhaus a descendant of the Maggid of Mezeritch who wrote much about the Maiden of Ludmir claimed it was the Seer of Lublin who told the Webermachers that he foresaw a child being born to them within the year who was going to have a very lofty soul.

Chana Rochel was unlike other children who liked to play. She was always hungry for knowledge and begged to learn Torah. Her father hired private tutors for her but tried to dissuade her from learning Gemara. When she continued to beg him to teach it to her he finally humored her and permitted her to learn hoping she would find it too difficult and lose interest. Instead she became an outstanding student and became renowned as a “talmid chacham.”

The awe-inspiring kavanah she exhibited when she davened three times a day set her apart as an unusually holy girl. When she reached bas mitzvah age she insisted on putting on two sets of tefillin those of Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam in private. Her father who was very upset with her behavior took her to his rebbe hoping the Maggid of Chernoble would dissuade her from behaving like a male.

However, the Rebbe was impressed with her quotes about Beruriah and other Jewish women who were very learned and pious. He told her and her father that she could continue to put on tefillin since many pious women, such as Michal, daughter of King Shaul and wife of King David, did so. But the Rebbe did make Chana Rochel promise to marry, when the time came, so that she would not lose sight of her role as a woman. This visit emboldened Chana Rochel to put on the two sets of tefillin in public and her behavior drew curiosity seekers who viewed her as odd.

Chana Rochel eventually met a boy from a simple family who she wanted to wed. According to one account, it was a yeshivah student who would participate in essen tag at her home. Essen tag was the custom where yeshivah students would eat each day at a different host family, since there was no yeshivah dining room. In another account, Chana Rochel met a Cantonist in a forest not far from her home who was hiding from the Russian army that had conscripted him. Whoever it was, Chana Rochel’s father was thrilled that she was finally acting like a normal young woman and agreed to the match. However, since she was a chassidish girl and the custom was for the kallah and chassan to not see each other again until the wedding, she was told not to meet with her chassan during the engagement period.

A Fall That Was an Ascent

Then her mother passed away. Feeling emotionally vulnerable and extremely lonely, without her mother or her chassan to speak to, Chana Rochel went to the Ludmir cemetery and cried her heart out for several hours at her mother’s grave. When it became dark, she started to run out of the cemetery. She tripped over a stone and collapsed. She was in a coma for several days. When she awoke, her behavior was even stranger than it had been prior to the fall. She was suddenly able to quote many Torah sources by heart, even though she had never learned them. She told her father that while she was deep in a coma, her soul had gone up to Shamayim and another soul had come down and entered her body. She also claimed she had had a mystical vision in which she was commanded to now devote herself completely to Hashem.

According to a number of accounts, the place where she tripped was the gravesite of Mashiach ben Yosef, Rabbi Shlomo HaLevi Karliner. What is fascinating is that she eventually passed away on the 22^nd day of Tammuz, the same date as the Karliner Rebbe’s yahrtzeit.

Believing that with her new soul she could not devote herself to a husband, as she now had to dedicate herself completely to Hashem, the “Moid of Ludmir,” as she was becoming known, broke off her engagement. She closeted herself in her home, where she engrossed herself in seforim.

Her father died heartbroken, since he had never brought her under the chuppah.

Meanwhile, Chana Rochel was slowly acquiring a reputation that she had ruach hakodesh. She once identified meat being sold by the local frum butcher as unkosher just by looking at it. At first no one believed her, but she insisted. When an investigation was made, it was confirmed that the meat at the butcher had been switched and was indeed treif.

Slowly but surely, more and more people sought her out for her sage advice. She developed a following and became known for healing sick people and providing amulets and yeshuos. Unlike other rebbes, she never took any pidyonim (financial redemption) for the kvittlach she was given.

The Female Rebbe

Chana Rochel’s father had left her a sizable inheritance, which she used to support herself and build a beis medrash that was attached to an annex where she lived, studied, and davened. The red brick building was situated on the corner of Kovel and Farna streets and was unlike most of the other buildings in town, which were made of lumber from the neighboring forest. The building became known as the Gornshtibel, since the beis medrash was situated on the second floor. The shtiebel was later used as a shul for Rachmistrivka (a branch of Chernoble) chassidim. It was destroyed during the Holocaust, and an apartment building now stands in its place.

Chana Rochel “fiered” a shalosh seudos tisch behind a curtain and would deliver a sermon every Shabbos. She did not speak to men directly, but from behind a door in another room. Even though she was not married, she covered her hair and wore a white tichel. A woman that she employed provided her with meals and did her laundry.

At first it was only the very poor, who could not afford to give a pidyon to other rebbes, and the elderly, who could not travel far, that came to the Maiden of Ludmir for salvation. She was miraculously able to name all the visitors, even complete strangers. After her good name spread all over Russia and Poland, young and wealthy people also made the trip to her shtetl.

According to historian Horodetzky, even rabbis and learned men came to verify what they had heard about her, as well as seek her wise counsel and hear her Torah. A writer in Pinkas Ludmir, a book written in 1962 to commemorate the history of the town, uses the term “admor,” which stands for adoneinu, moreinu, verabeinu (our master, teacher, and rabbi) to describe her.

In the 1911 Russian language journal Evreiskaia Starina, Mark Klaczko added that not only did the Maiden of Ludmir receive petitions, she also traveled to neighboring cities and towns where she delivered sermons in the local shtieblach. One place she went to was Starokonstantinov, where she gave a sermon to the local women on a Shabbos. According to Klaczko, old people in Starokonstantinov “until this day tell tales about her visit there.”

Bubbe Maisehs?

Nathaniel Deutsch, author of a well-researched 300-page book entitled The Maiden of Ludmir: A Jewish Holy Woman and Her World (University of California Press), traveled to Ludmir, Lutsk, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Jerusalem, and other cities searching for historical material relating to the Ludmirer Moid. Deutsch’s interest in the Maid of Ludmir had been roused when he came across Gershon Winkler’s novel They Called Her Rebbe, and he spent the next six years researching her life. He interviewed as many people as he could find who were descendants of Jews of Ludmir who could give him more information about the Maiden of Ludmir, as well as descendants of Jews in Jerusalem who may have known her.

The foreword of his book was written by the late Janusz Bardach, a world-renowned surgeon in Poland who survived seven years in the Soviet gulag and who claimed to be a great-great-grandson of the Maiden of Ludmir. Deutsch had initially contacted Bardach after he read the latter’s memoir Man Is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulag, in which Bardach mentioned that he had lived in Ludmir until the age of 21. Deutsch asked Bardach if he had ever heard of the Maid of Ludmir, in the hope that Bardach may have heard about her from his parents or grandparents. When Bardach told him that she was his great-great-grandmother, Deutsch writes he thought to himself “bubbe maiseh” (old wives’ tale); according to all the legends and articles he had come across, there had been no mention of the Moid of Ludmir ever having had a child.

Chana Rochel Webermacher had married several years after her father’s death because of pressure from the Chernobler Rebbe, who had come to Ludmir to visit her. The Rebbe had been bombarded by requests from people who objected to her role as a rebbe and who believed that if she married, she would “stop this nonsense.” These people knew that she respected the Chernobler Rebbe, and he was one person she would listen to.

The Rebbe reminded Chana Rochel of her promise to him to marry one day. Chana Rochel acquiesced and did get married. According to some accounts the chassan was a sofer, while according to others he was her gabbai; both men were supposedly much older than her. However, most of the legends relate that she got divorced several days after her wedding. The majority of the tales say that she requested the divorce, although one source claims that her new husband wanted the divorce; he said the Shechinah was hovering around her and he was frightened of it.

When Deutsch asked Janusz Bardach to tell him what he had heard about his great-great-grandmother, Bardach related that he was told that she fell into a coma after visiting the local cemetery with some friends. She fell and hit her head on a stone, suffering a concussion so severe that her parents thought she would die. Suddenly she sat up and began to recite pieces of Torah as if she knew them by heart. It is interesting to note that according to Bardach, her mother was still alive when she visited the cemetery.

He also related that his grandfather, a descendant of one of the oldest chassidic families in the town, had built a shtiebel on Sokalska Street dedicated to the Ludmirer Moid, and as a child he had attended services there. His grandfather owned the two-story brick house on Farna Street in which, according to his grandparents, the Ludmirer Moid was born and raised. His grandmother took him to see the house, which was then owned by a pharmacist named Tabak, and showed him the room where the Ludmirer Moid would learn and daven.

When Chana Rochel got married, she shaved her head according to chassidic custom and wore a wig. But after her head was shaven, Bardach said, she lost her knowledge of the Torah and her influence waned.

This information is in accordance with many of the accounts regarding Chana Rochel’s role after her marriage. They claim she felt she lost her ruach hakodesh after her marriage and was upset, and that is why she initiated the divorce.

Nathaniel Deutsch writes that after having spoken to Bardach he was perusing one of Menashe Unger’s unpublished manuscripts in YIVO’s library and came across a tradition that Unger had omitted in his published work — and which made Deutsch almost fall off his chair. According to Unger, there were two pious young men called Meir and Shlomo Bardach, whose father used to visit the Seer of Lublin. A match was proposed between Shlomo and the Maiden of Ludmir since it was said about Meir that “he learned with madness and Shlomo with intelligence.” Menashe Unger writes that after the Maiden of Ludmir met Shlomo, she described him as being “as pure as white wool.” Shlomo however didn’t want to hear of the match because, in his opinion, it wasn’t good to confuse a rabbi with a woman; each was a category of its own and should not be brought together in the same individual.

When Nathaniel Deutsch called Bardach and asked if he knew of any relatives called Meir and Shlomo Bardach, Bardach answered, “Meir was my great-great-grandfather, and Shlomo was his brother. They started a fur business together, which my grandfather Motel took over.”

Apparently, the Maiden of Ludmir married the other brother, and her grandchild seems to be named after the Maggid of Chernoble.

Bardach also related that his great-grandfather, Chana Rochel’s child, became very sick, and she made a promise to Hashem that if the child would be healed, she would travel to Eretz Yisrael and live the rest of her days there. According to Bardach, she left her child in Ludmir. But since the Maiden of Ludmir may have been 50 when she moved to Eretz Yisrael, her son may have been an adult when she made her promise, which is why he may have remained in Ludmir.

None of the written sources mention this child as an impetus for her move to Eretz Yisrael. Some claim that she hoped she would get back her ruach hakodesh in Eretz Yisrael. While some accounts say that she came with a husband, others claim she married again in Jerusalem.

 

A Jerusalem Legend

Deutsch writes that “Harabbanit Hatzadekket Chana Rochel from Ludmir” is mentioned in the Montefiore census of Jerusalem of 1875. The census information states that she was 69 years old and arrived there in 1859 and that her family consisted of one person. The census also indicates that she was self-supporting, thanks to her inheritance, and didn’t have to work or accept charity from the community.

Many Jerusalemites claimed to have known her. An old chassid named Yosef Akiba was a resident of the Even Israel Jerusalem neighborhood established in 1874. “On her head she wore a yamperke, an old Jerusalem bonnet,” he recalls, “and she lived on Hevron Street.”