People relate in the name of R. Raphael Hamburger that for a while he drew close to the ways of Chassidism and he spent some time at the Magid. But he did not influence him.
Later he went to Vilna and met the Gaon [of Vilna]. The Gaon asked him whether the Magid was a Torah scholar. R. Raphael answered him: “No.” And when he asked him whether he evinces [intellectual] prowess in the mystical realm [i.e. Kabbalah]. He answered him: “I don’t know – because I am no maven in these matters.”
I.F.
A Misnaged
