Rav Tzadok HaKohen - Personal Change

One of the great lights of Chasidic thought and arguably its most prolific author,  Rav Tzadok HaKohen was born to his father Rav Yaakov the Av Bais Din of Kreisberg in Lithuania.  His grandfather  Rav Zalman Mireles was the Rov of the three prestigious communites of Altuna-Hamburg-Wansbeck in Germany and was the son-in-law of the Chacham Tzvi.

He said about himself that when he was one year old, he would make a bracha on his mother's milk.  At age two he davened from a siddur.  By age three and a half he was learning Gemara with Tosfos.  Before his Bar Mitzva he was already writing Shailos U'Tshuvos.  He delivered four drashos at his Bar Mitzva which were printed in the Sefer Meishiv Tzedek.  Throughout his life and to this day he succeeded in teaching tens of thousands of Jews either through personal preaching, or by the tens of books he wrote.

But in order to make these achievements, R' Tzadok had to pay a heavy price. At an early point in his marriage, unexpected and unwanted external factors invaded the happy relationship he and his wife were building. Because of these extreme causes, R' Tzadok was forced to choose to divorce his young wife that he loved.

His wife didn't see these factors as enough justification and wouldn't agree to the divorce. This required R' Tzadok to travel far and wide around Eastern Europe, requesting from Rabbonim and Gedolim of his era  to sign on a heter of one hundred Rabbonim to allow him to marry a second wife.

During this difficult period he met with the Shoel U'Maishiv (Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson of Lublin), Rav Tzvi Hirsh Chayos, Rav Shlomo Kluger and others.  He also met with great Chasidic Rebbes including Rav Shalom of Belz, the Divrei Chaim, the Chidushei HaRim, Rav Meir Premishaln and others.  When he met Rav Mordechai Yosef Leiner, the Izhbetzer Rebbe and former talmid of the Kotzker Rebbe before breaking away, he found in him a soul mate.   Rav Tzadok became his ardent Chossid.  Eventually, his first wife accepted the Get and he did not need a Heter Mei'a.  He then remarried and moved to Lublin.

The "exile" put him into contact with the greatest Rabbonim of the generation and exposed him to new philosophies on yiddishkeit, which he eventually adopted, preached to the masses and wrote in his books. That painful exile brought to him and thousands of Jews a personal redemption.

Addendum

A divorcee reading this might say to themselves, that's all very nice that R' Tzadok went through terrible suffering in order to achieve his purpose in becoming a great Chassidic teacher and leader. His pain was justified for his eventual reward. But what about me?  I didn't write tens of seforim. I didn't become a teacher of thousands of Chassidim. So my pain is unjust.      More to come.............