PRIVATE LIFE: MARRIAGE

IN 1906, shortly after writing the letter to Mathisson mentioned at the end of the first chapter, Weinberg was offered the rabbinate of the Lithuanian town of Pilwishki (Pilviškiai in Lithuanian; Pilvishok in Yiddish), about 30 miles southwest of Kovno. In order to attain this rabbinic position Weinberg was required to marry Esther Levin, the 16-year-old daughter of the town's deceased rabbi, Jacob Meir Levin. According to one version recorded by Weinberg, Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Rabinowitz was responsible for arranging his appointment to the rabbinate, though elsewhere he portrayed Rabinowitz as merely giving his approval. According to Mathisson, who was a witness to the event, it seems that Finkel realized that Weinberg was at a turning-point in his life. In order to ensure Weinberg's continued adherence to the rabbinic lifestyle, Finkel arranged the marriage or, as Weinberg himself put it, ‘forced me to marry’.

Mathisson recalled Weinberg's marriage as being the most tragic event of his life. He simply did not care for his bride, who was both very young and uneducated, probably knowing little more than how to read the prayer book. She was a typical Orthodox woman of the old generation, whereas Weinberg, despite his yeshiva training, was still somewhat of a maskil, who read modern newspapers and books in both Hebrew and Russian, and had a good deal of contempt for the Jewish masses. As Mathisson noted, unlike the intellectually and culturally aware young women he knew from Ciechanowiec, Esther Levin had nothing to offer Weinberg, who was not prepared to seclude himself in the traditional Orthodox world of Lithuania and would obviously have preferred to choose his own wife. The relationship between Weinberg and Esther Levin appeared doomed from the start. Although he did sometimes consider calling off the wedding, Weinberg's own desire to join the rabbinate, together with the pressure both from his parents and from Finkel, prevented him from taking this step. The marriage went ahead as scheduled and Weinberg became the town's new spiritual leader.

Shortly after this Weinberg passed a government examination in Lomza and was appointed crown rabbi (kazyonny ravvin) of the Pilwishki district.