הרב מנחם מנדל מורגנשטרן

Rav Menachem Mendel Morgenstern of Kotzk (5547/1787–22 Shevat 5619/1859), the Kotzker Rebbe, was the founder of the chassidut of Kotzk and one of the sharpest and most demanding figures the chassidic world has known. Born in Goraj near Lublin to Rav Yehudah Leibush, a misnaged, he was sent to the yeshiva of Rav Yosef Hochgelernter in Zamosc, where he was called the iluy of Goraj. In his youth he began drawing close to chassidut; after his marriage in Tomashov he learned in the beit midrash of the Chozeh of Lublin, bound himself to the Yid HaKadosh of Peshischa, and on the Yid HaKadosh’s petirah became the foremost talmid of Rav Simcha Bunim of Peshischa.

When Rav Simcha Bunim was niftar in 5587/1827, the choicest of the chassidim took Rav Menachem Mendel as their rebbe — first in Tomashov, and from 5589/1829 in Kotzk. His court was unlike any other. Where most rebbes drew the many with warmth and chassidic joy, the Kotzker demanded truth without compromise: he set a high bar of lomdut for anyone who wished to learn in Kotzk, scorned every expectation of moftim, and davened quietly in a room beside the beit midrash, holding that tefillah is the work of mind and heart and needs no outward display.

On Friday night of parshat Toldot 5599/1838 he collapsed at his tish and lay gravely ill for some nine months. He recovered by Sukkot 5600/1839 and returned to lead the tishen, but from that illness until his petirah — twenty years — he stayed within his house and seldom went out. Chassidim streamed to Kotzk all the same; many waited days or even weeks to be admitted, while his great talmidim came in freely. On Simchat Torah 5600/1839 his talmid Rav Mordechai Yosef Leiner left the court with a band of chassidim and later stood at the head of his own chassidut in Izbica; many who had gone returned to Kotzk to ask the Rebbe’s mechilah.

The Kotzker left no sefarim; it is told that he burned his writings before his petirah, and some of his descendants held that he never wrote at all. His sayings live on through his talmidim, gathered in Ohel Torah (5669/1909), Emet VeEmunah (5700/1940) and other collections, and his path passed into great houses of chassidut: his talmid and brother-in-law Rav Yitzchak Meir Alter, the Chiddushei HaRim, whom most of the chassidim — the Kotzker’s own sons among them — accepted after his petirah, and who founded the chassidut of Ger; his son-in-law Rav Avraham Bornsztain, the Avnei Nezer of Sochatchov; and Rav Chanoch Henich of Alexander. His son Rav Dovid led those who remained in Kotzk. The Kotzker was niftar on 22 Shevat 5619/1859 and rests in the ohel in the beit hachaim of Kotzk.