no other nation, as distant by its nature from theocratic
government as are the Israelites. Neither was he the administrator of
the community, because the members of the kahal took charge of its
civil affairs; rabbis, while being members of the kahal, possessed
only the role of warden of religion in respect to its rules and
rites. He possessed a dignity higher than that, however. He was the
descendant of an old princely house and among his ancestors he
counted many scholars, pious and revered rabbis, and he was perfectly
pious himself--consequently cadek and hahamen, ascetic, almost a
miracle-worker, and a deeply, supernaturally learned man. Of course,
saying that he was a learned man refers only to religious erudition,
but in the eyes of the community of Szybow this was the only
learning.

This scholarship embraced the incomparable knowledge of sacred books;
Torah or the Bible, as little as possible--more of the Talmud, and
most of Kabala.

Isaak Todros was the most able Kabalist of modern times, and it
constituted the corner-stone upon which was built his greatness.
Someone not familiar with the faith of the plebeian Israelites would
suppose that the population of Szybow was a branch of a numerous
gloomy sect of Hassid, which puts at the head of all religious and
secular learning, the Kabala. No; the inhabitants of Szybow did not
consider themselves heretics. On the contrary, they were proud of
being orthodox Talmudists and Rabbinists. But they belonged to those,
numerous in the lowest stratum of Talmudists, who joined Kabala to
the Torah and Talmud, recognised it as a holy book, and became
passionately fond of it, setting it in the shadow of the two first
books.

And then Hassidism touched the Hebrew population of Szybow and left
deep traces. In fact the greater part of the population was Hassidish
without knowing it. Tradition said that Isaak Todros' ancestor, that
Reb Nohim who had waged a battle of ideas with Hersh Ezofowich, was
for some time a pupil of Besht, the founder of that curious sect. He
saw him often, and although he did not join the sect entirely, he
grafted some of its ideas into the community of which he was the
spiritual leader.

The principal characteristics of the sect were: a boundless respect
for Kabala, an almost idolatrous worship of Cadeks and a deep, pious
and unshakeable aversion toward Edomites (foreign nations) and their
lores.

These principles multiplied and branched out under t