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Personal Reminiscences of Rabbis Baruch Ha-Levi Epstein and Aaron Walkin from the Yiddish Republic of Letters

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Personal Reminiscences of Rabbis Baruch Ha-Levi Epstein and Aaron Walkin from the Yiddish Republic of Letters A nay bintl briv: Personal Reminiscences of Rabbis Baruch ha-Levi Epstein and Aaron Walkin from the Yiddish Republic of Letters A nay bintl briv: Personal Reminiscences of Rabbis Baruch ha-Levi Epstein and Aaron Walkin from the Yiddish Republic of Letters Shaul Seidler-Feller Editor’s note: The present post is part two of a two-part essay. Part one can be found here. Second Letter Approximately eight and a half years after his column on the Hafets Hayyim appeared, Rabbi Aaron B. Shurin penned another essay, entitled “The Mistake of the Austrian Emperor” and about the meaning behind the observance of the Three Weeks, which was published 18 Tammuz 5756 (July 5, 1996), a day after they had begun.[1] In the first line, he quoted Rabbi Baruch ha-Levi Epstein (1860–1941/1942) as citing a story about Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I’s (1830–1916) negative response to a group of Hungarian nationalists who wished to establish a day of mourning for the loss of their independence in 1848, using the Jews’ observance of Tish‘ah be-Av as a model.[2] This prompted Simon Paktor to write in: SCHENECTADY 9.5.96. זייער געערטער און חשובער .הרב ר״ אהרון בן ציון שוּרין נ״י עס איז מיר זייער פארדראסיג וואס כ׳האב ניט בעוויזן צו שרייבן מאמענטאל, און זיך הארציג בעדאנקען פאר .אייער ארטיקל ״פאָרווערטס״ דעם -5טן יולי ה.י ווי געוויינליך ווען די אידישע צייטונג קומט אן צו מיר, איז עס ביי מיר ווי א גוטער פריינד וואלט געקומען פון דער אלטער אומפארגעסליכער ..פארשניטענער היים… און מיר ריידן א[וי]ף יידיש איך האב ממש א ציטער געטאן ווען כ׳האב אין אייער ארטיקל וועלכן איך לייען שטענדיג מיט דעם גרעסטן אינטערעס דערזען אין דער ערשטער שוּרה דעם טייערן נאמען ״הרב ר׳ ברוך עפשטיין (מחבר פון פירוש ״תורה תמימה״ אויף חומש) דערציילט אין [3](זיין זכרונות ספר ״מקור ברוּך״ א.א.וו איך האב געהאט די זכיה צו קענען אט דעם ״אִיש פֶלֶא״ כבין געווען א פריינד פון א פינסק-קארלין משפחה וועלכע האט זיך געיחוס׳ט מיט קרובישאפט. דער פאטער פון דער פאמיליע האט בעת א שבת׳דיגן וויזיט צוגעטראגן צו מיר דעם ספר ״מקור ברוך״ און בעוויזן אז ר׳ ברוך 2 ווייזט אן אז אין שׁימל פון ברויט ליגט רְפוּאָה ווי PENECiLiN. דער פאטער אלתר סלוּצקי איז געווען א לאַווניק אין שטאט ראַט און די טאכטער האט געארבעט אין דער יידישער אפטיילונג. אזוי ווי פינסק האט געהאט א פנקס פון 800 יאר האט זיך זי געהאט די א מעגליכקייט אויסגעפינען און אנטקעגן קומען ר׳ ברוך עפשטיינס ביטעס אין די ארכיווע אויסצוזוכן. ער פלעגט זיך שטענדיג בעדאנקען צו איר דורך שיקן א ״באָמבאניערקע״ דא הייסט עס א באַקס שאקאלאד)… איך) .מיט טרערן אין די אייגן און מוז א וויילע איבערייסן ער האט מיר אויסגעלערנט אן אריטמעטיג פארמוּלע. איך דערמאן זיך ווען כ׳האב שבת נאכן דאוונען אין פינסקער גרייסער שוּל אראבגעגאנגען צום ברעג פון אונזער שיינער טייך PiNA און בעמערקט ר׳ ברוך עפשטיין ז”ל זיצט אויף א באַנק כ׳בין צוגעגאנגען צו עם און געזאגט ״גוט שבת ר׳ ברוּך גום ברוך יהיה״ ער האט געענטפערט ״גם אתם״ און צובייגענדיג צו מיר געפרעגט ״אפשר האט איר די פאָלקס צייטונג״ (א בונדיסטישע צייטונג וואס איז ארויס אין ווארשע) (ווען איך האב עס דערציילט א היגן רָב (ניט קיין ראביי האט ער צו מיר געזאגט יעצט זע איך 3 אז ער איז געווען ״אם לא למעלה מזה״… איך בין יונג געווען און קיין שכל ניט געהאט און ניט פארשטאנען צו צוהערן זיך און פאָלגן וואס אונזערע חכמים האבן געזאגט ״והוי מתאבק בעפר רגליהם״ איך פלעג עם זייער אָפט טרעפן גייענדיג צו (הרב הגאון ר׳ אהרון וואלקין ז״ל השם יקום דמם הרב וואלקין האט עם ר׳ ברוך עפשטיין זייער מְקַרֵב .געווען אין זיין עלנדקייט איך האב געהאט דעם טרויעריגן זכות זען אט דעם גאון ר׳ אהרון וו. הארט פארן אימה׳דיגן חורבן ווי ער איז געזעסן אין א ווינקל פון א סטאָליאריי אַרטיעל נאכדעם ווי די סאוויעטן האבן עם ארויסגעטריבן פון זיין בית דין שטוב. געזעסן ארומגערינגלט מיט ספרים …בליֵיך ווייס ווי שניי. א ״מַראה כהן״ ווייטער האב איך שוין ניט געווּסט כ׳בין געווען אין די .לאַפּעס פון נ.ק.וו.ד איך האב זיין ר׳ ברוּך׳ס ספר ״בָרוּך שֶאָמַר״ פירוּש תפילות ישראל. ר׳ ברוך עפשטיין ז״ל איז געשטארבן אין געטא אין הונגער, צער א צוּווייטאגדיגער. און מיין האַרץ ..וויינט אין מיר טאג און נאכט 4 מיין הארציגן דאנק צו אייך פאר דערמאנען אין אייער ארטיקל (דער טעות….) אט דעם טייערן .נאמען כווינטש אייך געזונט און אריכת ימים ושנים צו שרייבן אזעלכע ״צום האַרצן״ ארטיקלען אין יידיש מיט דאנקבארקייט און כבוד צו אייך .לשנה טובה תכתבו ותחתמו .שמעון פאקטאר Schenectady NY. Schenectady 9.5.96 To the highly esteemed and eminent Rabbi Aaron Benzion Shurin, may his light shine, I am greatly displeased that I did not manage to write immediately to offer my sincere thanks for your column in this year’s July 5th issue of the Forverts. As is usual when the Yiddish newspaper is delivered, I felt then as if a good friend had arrived from the unforgettable, obliterated old country… and we were having a conversation in Yiddish… I literally shuddered when I noticed in the first line of your column – which I always read with the greatest interest – the dear name “Rabbi Baruch Epstein (author of theTorah temimah commentary on the Pentateuch) relates in his memoir Mekor barukh,” etc. I had the good fortune to know that “amazing man.” I was friendly with a family in Pinsk-Karlin that took pride in its kinship with him. The head of the family, during a visit of mine one Sabbath, brought me the book Mekor barukh and showed me that R. Baruch 2 points out that medicine akin to penicillin can be found in moldy bread.[4] The father, Alter Slutzky, was an alderman on the city council, and his daughter worked in its Jewish division.[5] Since Pinsk had a communal register going back 800 years,[6] she had the opportunity to learn of and accommodate R. Baruch Epstein’s requests to search in the archive. He would always thank her by sending a bombonierka (here, we would call it a box of chocolates)…[7] I write this with tears in my eyes and must pause for a moment. He taught me an arithmetic formula. I remember how one Sabbath, after services in the Great Synagogue of Pinsk,[8] I descended to the banks of our beautiful Pina River and caught sight of R. Baruch Epstein, of blessed memory, sitting on a bench.[9] I approached him and said, “Good Sabbath, R. Baruch – may you, too, be blessed [barukh].”[10] He responded, “The same to you”[11] and, leaning over to me, asked, “Maybe you have a copy of theFolkstsaytung ?” (a Bundist newspaper published in Warsaw). When I recounted this story to a local rov (not some non-Orthodox rabbi),[12] he said to me, “Now I see 3 that he was ‘if not even higher than that’[13]…”[14] I was young and foolish and did not realize that I should really listen to and follow that which our Sages taught: “And sit in the dust of their feet.”[15] I would very often meet him on his way to thega’on Rabbi Aaron Walkin, of blessed memory (may God avenge their blood). R. Walkin drew quite close to R. Baruch Epstein in his loneliness. I had the tragic fortune to see that ga’on, R. Aaron W., right before the horrific Holocaust, sitting in a corner of a carpentry workers’ cooperative after the Soviets had banished him from his rabbinic courtroom. He sat surrounded by books, his complexion pale white as snow, like leprosy shown to a priest…[16] I knew nothing more of him; I was caught in the clutches of the NKVD. I have R. Baruch’s book Barukh she-amar, a commentary on the Jewish prayers.[17] R. Baruch Epstein, of blessed memory, died in the ghetto a distressed man, starving and suffering. And my heart cries within me day and night… 4 My sincere thanks to you for mentioning in your column (“The Mistake…”) that precious name. I wish you health and many long days and years so that you might continue writing such “heartwarming” columns in Yiddish. With gratitude and esteem, May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year, Simon Paktor Schenectady, NY Although the author of our letter offers precious few details about himself in the body of the document, we know from other sources that he was born to Moishe and Gittel Paktor on January 18, 1913 in Pinsk (then part of Russia, now in Belarus).[18] At the time, Pinsk was one of the most Jewish (percentage-wise) of the major cities in Eastern Europe, with a Jewish population in 1914 of 28,063 out of 38,686 total residents (approximately 72.5%).[19] Presumably because Paktor was young and politically active, the NKVD (Soviet secret police) arrested him toward the beginning of World War II, when Pinsk was occupied by the Red Army, and sent him eastward to a Siberian labor camp, thereby inadvertently saving his life.[20] When he was released, he traveled to Munich where he met and married his first wife, Helen (1925–2019), and the two of them, together with their young son David Leon (b. 1949), immigrated to the United States in 1952.[21] Sometime thereafter the couple divorced, and in 1973 Simon moved to Schenectady to serve as the Ritual Director at Congregation Agudat Achim, a Conservative synagogue (located at 2117 Union Street).[22] There, in 1976, he married Anne Smuckler (1914–2014), whose own husband had passed away three years prior,[23] and continued serving the shul faithfully until his retirement in 1993.[24] Paktor’s letter, like Dickman’s before it, transports us back in time, providing rare firsthand testimony that sheds light on several aspects of interwar Eastern European rabbinic culture.
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