T he Language of

Faith

Prepared for the wedding of Getzy and Shaina Markowitz g"a,wv rst j"f Adar 28, 5770 • March 14, 2010

By Getzy Markowitz

To Chana, Who was fluent in the “Language” I herein transcribe.

Table of Contents

Chapter I An Introduction, A Match Made in Heaven 7

Chapter II The Tzadik of Chaifa, Tanchum Donin 9

Chapter III The Nurer Rav, Rabbi Yaakov Mordechai Markowitz 14

Chapter IV Shea-Beshenkovitze, Rabbi Yehoshua Laine 19

Chapter V Zeide Aharon Leib Lein 25

Chapter VI Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Perlow 30

Chapter VII The Raskins, Zeide Shloma Raskin 35

Chapter VIII The Chosson’s Namesake, Shneur Zalman Yissochar Getzel HaLevi Rubashkin 41

5

Chapter I

An Introduction A Match Made in Heaven

“Your G-d will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.” -Isaiah 62:5

When she studied at a women’s seminary in Brazil, my winsome bride would routinely glance through volumes of antiquated Chassidic publications that were preserved by her headmistress. Often, Shaina would happen upon journalistic accounts of the pious lives of her beloved ancestors.

A year before Shaina studied in Porte Allegre, I was a student at the Rabbinical College of Australia and New Zealand in . My afternoon instructor would often digress from textual lessons and teach us through relating the examples of rabbinic and Chassidic giants. One of the men he often spoke about was the late Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Perlow, a former rabbi of Melbourne.

Rabbi Perlow was the author of Lekutei Sipurim, and, of my prized bride. He was Shaina’s maternal great-grandfather. Zeide Mordechai is considered among the great rabbinic leaders and Chassidim of the last century.

A classic Talmudic epigram that is parroted at nearly every wedding, and certainly at all Sheva Brochos, tells the tale of the espousal for which I laud our Creator. The of the Talmud taught man to trade all of his possessions in exchange of marrying the daughter of a scholar. Such a match, say the sages, is comparable to the blending of the “grapes of one vine, with the grapes of another vine, which is a lovely and acceptable thing.”1

1 Talmud, tractate Pesachim 49a

7 The mystics teach that a couple’s true matchmakers are their heavenly ancestors, who arrange their descendants’ marriages based on the terms of destiny. Ours is a match planted a century ago in the vineyards of our ancestry. As Shaina’s great-grandfather records in his well-studied memoirs, he was a student of my own grandfather’s grandfather, the sainted and martyred Rabbi Yehoshua Lein of Beshenkovitz. In 1906, Zeideh Yehoshua taught a lad whose great-granddaughter would represent a popular Talmudic teaching.

While Moses fathered two children, the Torah considered his nephews, Aaron’s sons whom he instructed, to be his as well.2 For views a teacher of Torah as his disciple’s spiritual father. Thus, if I am to marry a daughter of scholars, then I am to be blended with a grape of a timeless reciprocal vintage.

Tradition reveals that the souls of our dearly departed attend the weddings of their progeny.3 In composing this anthology, it is my hope to introduce you to some of these figures. I wish for you to take home the stories of the lives that will inspire the building of our home.

The marriage ceremony culminates with the shattering of glass in remembrance of . We pray that G-d raise His children up whole, that we all experience the sensations promised by our prophets: “There speedily be heard in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and the sound of happiness, the voice of a groom and the voice of a bride.”

Finally, as we encounter the Talmudicaly told coalescence of antiquated clusters, I thank and praise G-d...”creator of the fruit of the vine.”

Getzy Markowitz 10 Shevat 5770, Hong Kong

2 Rashi’s commentary to Numbers 3:1 3 At a wedding the groom customarily repeats a Chassidic discourse that was taught by the . The study is based on the original discourse that was delivered by the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe at “the Great Wedding,” of his daughter Chaya Mushka, to the Rebbe Menachem Mendel, on 14, 1928, in Warsaw. Before beginning the consequential talk, the Previous Rebbe addressed the assemblage of hundreds of Europe’s most prominent rabbis, and Jews who had traveled from across the continent to attend the wedding of the Rebbe’s daughter: “The souls of a couple’s forebears come from the World of Truth, to attend their wedding. Generally, three generations are present, but for some additional generations arrive...” (Free translation) Having made the introduction, the Previous Rebbe went on to effectively introduce the souls he was likely referring to. In his talk, addressing the theme of a Jewish wedding, he quoted explanations of all the preceding Chabad , giving rise to their presence, for “He who repeats words of Torah in the name of their author should regard it as though their originator of the insight is present before him.”

8 Chapter II

The Tzadik of Chaifa Rabbi Tanchum Donin

“Yehuda Ben Teima used to say: ‘Be bold as a leopard, light as an eagle, swift as a deer, and strong as a lion to do the will of your Father in heaven.’ ” -Ethics of the Fathers 5:20

Israel’s third-largest city is built on the slopes of Mount Carmel, and its pulsation of Jewish life is set upon the shoulders of Jewish giants. In terms of Torah establishments and institutions, Haifa, on the Mediterranean coast, was once a parched wasteland. Today, she is a jewel on the oceanfront, and on the forefront of Jewish communities in the Holy Land.

My uncle and aunt’s house overlooks the city, and it offers a breathtaking view of the area, sea, and port by which countless Jewish immigrants arrived to the British Mandate. However, the reflective outlook when one stands in their home is ever more spectacular. From there one sees the life and accomplishments of one man who glorified Torah, and gave it a haven in Haifa.

Rabbi Tanchum Donin’s undertakings preceded my uncle and cousin’s Chabad Houses as a bastion of . His incomparable contribution came before just about anyone.

A grandson, father, and grandfather of Chabad Chassidim, Tanchum himself conformed to the Lithuanian-Torah lifestyle, categorized by a disciplined and devout life of Torah study and observance. Still, as did his father, Tanchum prayed according to the customs of Lubavitch. In classic Chabad fashion, he worked tirelessly to strengthen and promote the observance of Judaism, even before the adaptation of this model within the Lithuanian camps. Once asked by a visitor

9 what had brought him to build a Mikva4 in the courtyard of his home, Saba5 Tanchum smilingly replied, “I am the sixth generation of Chabad Chassidim, our forefathers were followers of the Admor Hazoken6.”

The odds were against the young Tanchum ever amounting to much. He lost his mother when only a four-month-old infant, and grew up in an environment not hostile, but certainly not hospitable, to religious life. Yet, the boy grew to become, and remain, reverently referred to as “The Tzadik of Chaifa.”

Tanchum, along with his three siblings, first stepped onto the soil of the Jewish homeland in 1920. His father Reuven brought his children to Eretz Yisroel7 after resolving to leave his native Russia, for the dream of emigrating to the land of our forefathers. Like the Israelites in the wilderness, the family took a long and roundabout route to the promised land. They sojourned in Asian wastelands, and Egypt, before crossing into what would later become Israel.

As a twelve-year-old new arrival to Chaifa, Tanchum found himself in an environment which did not posses the highest standards of Jewish observance that he had been raised with. So, even though a youth, Tanchum arose early one day, and as Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkanus8 famously did, he slipped away, setting out for Jerusalem.

Subsequent to Tanchum’s mysterious disappearance, someone mindful of the boy’s resolve and enthusiasm suggested that perhaps he had taken off to study at a . He was right. Following the risky trip to Jerusalem, Tanchum enrolled at the Yeshiva Etz Chaim. Given the precious few Jewish academies established then, even in Jerusalem, they discovered Tanchum at Etz Chaim, where the new arrival was excelling.

Tanchum was observed by the Yeshiva’s leadership who took interest in the talented student - an investment that would yield great gain for the city of Haifa, and for Israeli Jewry. The renowned Rabbi Aryeh Levin,9 dubbed the “Tzadik of Jerusalem,” and “father of the prisoners,”10 took particular interest in Tanchum.

4 Ritual bath 5 Lit. Grandfather 6 Lit.the Old Rebbe. A title of the first Rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi Shneur Zalman. 7 Lit. Land of the Jews 8 A prominent sage during the Tannaic era (1st and 2nd centuries). Eliezer was born to a wealthy Jewish family not far from Jerusalem. Eliezer worked his father’s lands, as was the family occupation, yet the young Eliezer yearned for Jerusalem and her Torah academies. One day, seizing an opportunity to leave home, Eliezer made off, leaving behind a life of privilege, for the hope of the privilege of studying Torah. Rabbi Eliezer grew to become one of the greatest sages of Israel. He married Eymah Shalom, the daughter the Nassi (leader of the Jewish people) Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel. During the Roman siege of Jerusalem, Rabbi Eliezer was one of the disciples that carried the coffin of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai when he made the daring escape to plead with Vespasian. Eliezer eventually established an academy in Lod, Israel. 9 Rabbi Levin became the spiritual supervisor of Etz Chaim in 1925, when Rabbi became the Yeshiva’s dean. 10 After conquering Palestine, the British Mandate established a central security zone in Jerusalem’s . In response to the movements of the Jewish underground, the British imprisoned members of the , , , and the . In 1927, Rabbi Aryeh Levin began visiting Jewish captives who were mostly accused of smuggling arms. At the request of the British Mandate, Chief Rabbi appointed Rabbi Levin as the official Prison chaplain. Rabbi Levin served the Jewish inmates and their families faithfully. He refused to accept wages for the position, and through his sincere warmth, offered the prisoners hope and a Jewish environment in detention.

10 The two developed a close relationship, and the young orphan found a new home and place in the family of the Jerusalem saint. Later, Tanchum would remark “I acquired all of my spiritual wealth from R’ Aryeh.”

Rabbi Levin’s relationship with Tanchum would carry on well after their respective lives on earth. The Rabbi’s daughter would marry Rabbi Yoseph Sholom Elyashiv,11 who would become the predominant leader of non-chasidic Jews. Tanchum’s own daughter, Fruma, would later marry Rav Elyashiv’s eldest son.

After accumulating wisdom and coating himself in the armor of Torah and heavenly reverence, Tanchum returned to Chaifa, resolved to remain in the tent and luminescence of Torah. After an unsuccessful search for a place and partner for study, Tanchum turned to Rabbi Marcus, Chaifa’s Chief Rabbi. Tanchum would study for a few hours each day across the table from the Chief Rabbi, who appreciated his young study-mate.

After some time, a Lithuanian Jew named Rabbi Dov Meir Rubman emigrated to Chaifa. He wished to establish a Yeshiva based on the standard of the dominant academies in his old country. Naturally, the immigrant turned to Rabbi Marcus for direction.

The Chief Rabbi introduced Rabbi Rubman to whom he considered to be a fine first recruit for the new school. Tanchum became the first student to be received in Tiferes Yisroel, and by extension, a pioneer for the future of Torah in northern Israel.

Although he was steeped in Lithuanian influence, Tanchum retained a part of his Chassidic tradition. It has been noted that Tanchum only prayed from a Chabad Siddur that had been bequeathed to him by his father. When the prayer book had become tattered, Tanchum would not exchange it, as a replacement was not available. Additionally, Tanchum would don Teffilin according to a distinctly Chabad custom, despite being surrounded by pairs who did otherwise.

Many have relayed that Tanchum would often walk a great distance to immerse in the sea before morning prayers. The practice is typical of students of the Lubavitch persuasion, and unusual for non-chasidic, Lithuanian Jews.

When the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yoseph Yitzchak, visited the Holy Land in the summer of 1929, Tanchum travelled to Tel Aviv to meet him. The details of the private audience are unknown, but, we do know that the Rebbe handed Tanchum a particular package. Nobody knows exactly what the contents of the article were. However, the story illustrates the inner and grounding contents of the packet’s recipient.

Rabbi Rubman was a disciple of Rabbi Shmuel Ben-Tziyon Kagan, the dean of the choice Slobodka Yeshiva at Kaunas, . When Tanchum became of age to be married, his mentor suggested that he marry Rabbi Kagan’s daughter, Faiga

11 Rabbi Elyashiv is considered by many Ahkenazik Jews to be the paramount authority on Jewish law in our time. 11 Raiza.12 I knew her as Safta Faiga. She and her husband would raise four children together.

Tanchum was hired as a teacher at his alma mater. His position as an educator revealed an exceptionally gifted instructor and spiritual director. Tanchum developed close ties with other “giants” of the Lithuanian Torah world, Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Desler, a spiritual counsellor and lecturer at the supreme Ponovezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, and Rabbi Eliya Lupian, one of the most prominent Rabbis of the Mussar movement. The two sages would frequent Tanchum’s home as guests, during their visits to Chaifa. As well, Tanchum was a welcome figure in the homes of the faculty of the Chevron Yeshiva, including Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna13, the Yeshiva’s dean, Rabbi Meir Chodosh14 its spiritual supervisor, and Rabbi Aharon Cohen a popular lecturer.

Tanchum’s pupils remained his students for all of his life. Fifty years after leaving his classroom, Tanchum could recall all of them by name. And, as the following story relates, Tanchum students fondly remembered him as well:

One of Tanchum’s grandchildren once visited the offices of an insurance company in Tel Aviv. Upon presenting the forms and paperwork to the clerk, the gentleman asked, “Your name is Donin? Do you have any relation to R’ Tanchum.” Immediately, the man related a disquisition on the particular week’s Torah reading, concluding, “This is a Torah lesson that your grandfather taught us in his classroom over twenty years ago! Each week, I relate a Torah thought of the Parsha15 that I learned from Rabbi Tanchum...”

In addition to his teaching at Tiferes Yisroel, Saba Tanchum established his own elementary school, which he named “Tanchuma.”16 Outside of these institutions, Tanchum educated and aided the masses.

In protecting and furthering the virtues of modesty, Tanchum implemented the separation of men and women on a section of Chaifa’s beach, so that all segments of the community could enjoy the Mediterranean during the summer. He worked tirelessly to preserve the sanctity of the Shabbos, and formed a group of activists to uphold the cause. He prevailed on his bid to close the wholesale market in lower Chaifa on the holy day, and effected the same end in other businesses.

Tanchum did things quietly, but with forceful effect. When there was a delay in the construction of the city’s Mikvah for men, Tanchum picked up a shovel and dug a hole on his property. He would eventually construct a Mikvah there that

12 I visited Kaunas during the High Holidays of 2005. On the day after Rosh Hashana, a local Jew lead me to a number of former Jewish sites that had fallen during the Holocaust. I related most to the small Chassidic synagogue that my tour guide attributed to Chabad, still standing on a hill upon the entry to the city. However, later when I was taken to the site of the “Mother of Yeshivos,” at Slobodka, my Lithuanian lineage flamed within me. I did not know Safta Feiga well, as I only met her once as a young boy, but my standing at the ruins of her father’s Yeshiva was my personal tribute to her, and the legacy that I must carry on. 13 Successor to Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, founder of the Slobodka Yeshiva. 14 Legendary supervisor at the Slobodka Yeshiva in Lithuania, and later at Chevron. See The Mashgiach; The life and times of Rabbi Meir Chodosh, (ArtScroll publications) 15 The Torah portion 16 A Midrashik work named after, although not necessarily compiled by, Rabbi Tanchuma

12 would be used for many years. Even after Chaifa had a communal Mikvah built, many prestigious Jews would frequent the Donin Mikvah often explaining, “This, Mikvah was built through self sacrifice.”

When I asked my father to relate some stories about his late grandfather, he travelled back to his summer breaks which he spent in the home of his grandparents. “Saba Tanchum prayed at the crack of dawn, in the Vasikin minyan, for over sixty consecutive years,” my father began, “when I would stay in Saba’s home he would wake me up to join the quorum, and often I would delay getting out of bed and fall back asleep.” Once, when my father had missed the early Minyan, he asked his grandfather why he hadn’t wakened him. Saba Tanchum replied, “I did wake you, yet you fell back asleep. One must be ready to jump out of bed to pray as soon as he awakes. In fact, one should not require a watch or alarm clock, but should awake to serve G-d on his own.”

A while later, Tanchum underwent a procedure in a Jerusalem hospital. Due to a mistake in administering the sleeping gas, Saba Tanchum nearly suffocated. When he returned to the hospital to undergo a necessary surgery, he asked his eldest grandson, my father Nachum to accompany and keep watch over him. 17

Following a successful operation, the doctor told my father that his grandfather would be sedated for an entire day. At dawn, my father, upset as the doctor had told him that the patient would sleep through Vasikin, watched his Saba who would, under normal circumstances, awaken to pray. To his shock, Saba Tanchum briefly opened his eyes and muttered the Moda Ani: “I offer thanks to You, living and eternal King, for You have mercifully restored my soul within me; Your faithfulness is great.” Following his short prayer, Saba fell back asleep.

Concluding the account, my father fiddles his fork and whispers to himself, “He prayed Vasikin for over sixty years.”

Sabba Tanchum and Safta Feiga were blessed with six children. Fruma (Aduka) married Maran Yoseph Eliyashev’s eldest son, Rabbi Shlomo. Shmuel married aunt Shoshana, and died suddenly and untimely. Reuven, the celebrated and consummate Chossid, married Rivka Zonnenfeld. Avraham married Rochel Sussunkin; the couple are Shluchim to Moshav Tanach in Israel. Sara and Yoseph Abrams live in South Florida where Yoseph serves as senior mentor and lecturer at the Rabbinical College in South Beach. Safta Zahava married Saba Yitzchak, the son of the Nurer Rav18, Rabbi Yaakov Mordechai Markowitz.

17 In those days, autopsies were routinely performed in Israel. Fearing that the earlier incident with the gas could repeat itself, and he would not be as fortunate, he asked his grandchild to stand watch and in the eventuality, reject an autopsy. 18 Rabbi of Nur, before WWII. See next chapter.

13 Chapter III

The Nurer Rav Rabbi Yaakov Mordechai Markowitz

“When the Tzaddik resides in a city he is its glory, its light, and its splendor.” -Rashi’s commentary to Genesis 28:10

In the summer of 2007 I travelled from Cyprus to Israel, to be scrutinized for Rabbinical Ordination. On my journey to becoming a rabbi, I visited Bnei Brak, a city filled with some of the greatest rabbis known to the Jewish people.

Among the sons and scholars of modern-day Bnei Brak is a poet and philosopher. He is versed in Torah and a versifier of her content. His grammatical works have educated myriads of schoolchildren, and his poetry and prose excite the studious. Although the average man stands taller than he, his humility, despite his profundity, makes one feel small in his presence. Some call him Rabbi, and others refer to his doctorate. I have the good fortune of calling him my grandfather, Rabbi Dr. Yitzchak Markowitz.

My visit to Saba Yitzchak placed me in my element before my exam in Jerusalem. One is overcome by the grandeur of Torah, and in my case the grandness of a living legacy, when conversing with my paternal grandfather.

Saba was penning a new book expounding the intricacies and qualities of the Sabbatical year. I had just mastered the great tomes of Jewish jurisprudence, but found difficulty in understanding Saba’s mastery of language. He sat and discussed his treatise, while I sat and learned from my treasure.

In the course of my visit, Saba and I delved into a deeply profound discourse of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.19 In it, the Rebbe illuminates the Bible’s narrative concerning Korach, who challenged Moses’ authority.

19 3 Taamuz, Parshas Korach, 1958 14 Saba pauses from the esoteric and says something simple and accurate: “Getzy, why couldn’t Korach be a Rebbe like Moses?” Then smiling as he gestured Saba answered,“Because the verse reads ‘and Korach took...20’ a Rebbe does not take. A Rebbe gives.”

Later, I peered through my grandfather’s most cherished work, “Mitoroso Shel Raban Shel Yisroel,”21 where he structures classic Torah commentary into rhythmical poetry. In an entry based on the story of Korach and his rabble-rousers, Saba features the example of his late father, Rabbi Yaakov M. Markowitz, who bravely fought quarrels within his own community.

Before arriving to the Holy Land, Saba Yaakov Mordechai served as the senior Rabbi and Jewish authority in Nur, Poland. At a certain point during his tenure, a vicious war of words and libels broke out in Nur. Prominent community members and activists became entrenched in a bitter argument that cost the town its peace.

Rabbi Markowitz worked tirelessly to bring all parties involved in the dispute to reconcile. Despite all of his efforts to end the fight, the passionate groups continued to enflame Nur with their conflict.

On one evening, after an extended period of confrontation within his community, Saba Yaakov Mordechai summoned the antagonists to his home for a hearing. However, when the individuals arrived they discovered that the Rabbi and ’s home-goods and personal effects were packed away. Confused, they asked their Rabbi why his belonging were packed in trunks and cases.

The “Nurer Rav,” as Rabbi Yaakov Mordechai Markowitz was affectionally known, replied: “Since I have exhausted my energy and done all that I could to end the arguing, and I see that the fighting is increasing and its circles are growing, I have decided to leave Nur. I relinquish my stipend, and bid you all farewell!”

Hearing their prized Rabbi offer his resignation, the feuding residents of Nur turned remorseful. Many of the men burst out in bitter tears, and begged forgiveness from the Rabbi and his wife for having distressed them. Then, together, the individuals committed themselves to resolving their differences and restoring peace and brotherhood to Nur.

Rabbi Yaakov Mordechai and his family eventually would leave Poland for the Holy Land in 1935. It had always been the Nurer Rav’s dream to spend his days piling over holy books in prayer and study, in the . An alumnus of the famed Lomza Yeshiva, where his teachers suffused him with a deep appreciation for Torah study, the Nurer Rav felt destined to dwell in the land of the Bible. The dean at Lomzah, Rabbi Yechiel Mordechai Gordon, as well as the spiritual mentor Rabbi Moshe Rosenstein22, invested in Yaakov Mordechai, whom they “loved”23 and considered among their finest students.

20 Numbers 16:1, referring to the group Korach amassed to confront Moses 21 A five volume series 22 Author of “Yesodei Hada’as” and “Ahavas Meishorim,” two books on Mussar. 23 As described in a booklet published in honor of the Nurer Rav’s thirtieth anniversary of passing. 15 The Markowitz’s emigration to the British Mandate was providential. As one of the last Rabbis granted endorsement by the British to enter Palestine24, Yaakov Mordechai’s family were saved from the Holocaust. Many of the rabbis who had applied after, and were not granted entry, would later be murdered by the Germans.

Rabbi Markowitz settled in Bnei Brak where he was highly regarded by the community as a whole, and individually by the people who fondly knew him as “Der Nurer Rav.”

All of Bnei Brak’s Torah giants and authorities knew the Rav of Nur. He was a close friend of Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, known by the name of his magnum opus “Chazon Ish.” Aside from being a frequent visitor to the Chazon Ish’s home, Saba Yaakov Mordechai would join the leading Rabbi, when the Chazon Ish would examine the students at the Yeshiva “Tiferes Tziyon” on their academic achievements.

“Der Nurer Rav,” was part of an inner circle of rabbis, including Rabbi Yaakov Yisroel Kanievsky,25 Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Kahaneman26, Rabbi Nachum Meir Korelitz, and Rabbi Shmuel Grainiman, and other greats of the era.

Aside for being a lecturer in the study halls of Yeshiva Beis Yosef,27 the Rabbi would sit in all seasons and at all hours and study in the Eliyahu Hanavi Shul, adjacent to the Great Synagouge. The Nurer Rav was a figure in the small congregation, and it was widely known that at a very late hour one could find the Nurer studying by the light of a flickering candle. It has been speculated that on those late evenings Saba Yaakov Mordechai would study the “hidden” aspects of Torah, namely, the teachings of Chassidus.

Anyone who remembers the Nurer Rav describes his passion for Torah, and his love for the “city of Torah,” Bnei Brak. When he first arrived to Bnei Brak, the city was home to just 2,000 families. In a post Holocaust world that brought destruction to the learning centers of Lithuania, Bnei Brak would be described as the “crown of the Torah world,” and Saba Yaakov Mordechai was said to be a “precious stone in the crown of Torah.”

Most people who knew of the Rabbi’s diligence in study, knew of his wife who they simply referred to as “the Rebbetzin,” Safta28 Masha. Masha kept a small grocery out of their apartment to support the family as a breadwinner. “Without bread there is no Torah,”29 and Safta Masha was responsible for her husband’s spiritual success.

When my father, Nachum Markowitz, studied at the Yeshiva Ohr Yisroel in Petack Tiqwa, he learned more than texts. He learned about the impetus for his grandfather’s tirelessness. Often, the Yeshiva’s dean Rabbi Yaakov Naiman would

24 Rabbi Abraham I. Kook, Chief Rabbi of the British Mandate at the time personally arranged the Markowitz’s entry visas. 25 The “Steipler” 26 The “Ponevizher Rav” 27 Under the leadership of Rabbi Matisyahu Ze’ev Shtigel, Beis Yosef was the only Yeshiva in Bnei Brak at the time. 28 Lit. grandmother 29 Ethics of the Fathers 3:21 16 announce during his lectures, “Nachum, do you know who your grandfather is? I still remember running out as a youth to parks and study halls to learn together with your Saba. In the winter, while we studied, we would take a break and run out into the snow to hurl snow balls as to warm our bodies through movement.” The two prodigies studied together at the Lomza Yeshiva, and used every free moment to learn as companions. Rabbi Neiman would tell my father that he and Saba Yaakov Mordechai would study Torah by memory, particularly the “Shev Shmaitza,” an advanced commentary which they both learned by rote.

Saba Yaakov Mordechai was gifted in that he was able to bestow the gift of an appreciation of Torah living and scholarship on others. Aside from his responsibilities and entrenchment in Bnei Brak, the Rabbi would often travel to various towns to promote Jewish observance. In addition to his bolstering faith within others and himself, the Nurer Rav provided Kosher certification for the “bread of faith,” Matzot, that was used by leaders of the Jewish communities in Israel.

What most inspires me about my paternal great-grandfather is a quality that my mother always instilled in my siblings and myself: “Always stand up for what is right.” The Nurer Rav was well known for sticking to his principles and doing what he believed to be the correct thing, no matter the price.

Back in Nur, Polish ministers demanded with the full force of the law of the Rav, that he teach the Jewish children of Nur in a Polish national school. In addition, the government demanded that the pupils be taught from textbooks which the Nurer Rav considered a poor influence.

In a brazen move, Saba Yaakov Mordechai wrote a sharp letter to the appropriate authorities in Warsaw: “I am in shock at the demand that you have made of me to teach from books that are in conflict with my convictions. The Rabbi who regulates religious life in a city is he who yields the authority over these matters. No other individual has the right to insist that he teach according to another standard. I am willing to teach without pay, only to be able to instruct my students by means of books that I deem ‘kosher.’”

Three months after having sent the letter to the capital, an answer arrived from the Ministry of Education: “We recognize the correctness and truthfulness of your words. You therefore have permission with the authority of the law, to instruct according to your will.” In addition, the Ministry enclosed his salary that had been suspended during the intervening time.

There is one bone-chilling story which captures the personality and the mystery of Rabbi Yaakov Mordechai Markowitz.

17 At a certain point, a terrible plague broke out in Nur, claiming the lives of adults and children alike. As his congregation lay in danger of death and illness, the Nurer Rav understood that the outbreak was not happenstance. Yaakov Mordechai believed that there was a reason, beyond medical science, for the epidemic.

After a vigorous investigation, the Rabbi learned of an immoral relationship that punctured the walls of holiness and family purity. Immediately, Saba approached the individuals involved in the disgrace and pressured them to rectify their behavior.

At the height of the plague, Saba walked into the room containing the corpse of its newest victim. In front of all of Nur, the Rabbi did “something particular and shocking which frightened the culprits and inspired them to repentance.”

What Saba Yaakov Mordechai did is obscure. The only description I have ever heard was “he stood between the living and the dead...”

It is said that the righteous in their death are considered alive. The great piety and righteousness of the Nurer Rav is surely elevating him through the chambers of heaven. It is surely animating the actions of his son Yitzchak, and his descendants, who are ever mindful of their progenitor from Nur.

18 Chapter IV

Shea-Beshenkovitze Rabbi Yehoshua Laine

“He gives great Yeshuos30 to His king, and bestows kindness upon His anointed, to David and his descendants forever.” -From the grace after meals

On a sunny afternoon during Sukkot in 1964, a group of students took to the busy streets of Tel Aviv. They were on a campaign to help fellow Jews perform the Mitzvah of blessing and taking the Four Kinds. The boys, stationed on Allenby Street against the backdrop of the Great Synagogue, stopped pedestrians as they bid them holiday greetings and offered them to take hold of their heritage.

One of the students out promoting the richness of our Jewish tradition would himself encounter the magnificence of his own background. Lazer Laine was canvassing the area together with his peers when they were approached by a gentleman. In a distinctly British accent, the man enquired whether the pupils were Lubavitchers. In London, he had witnessed the sight of Lubavitcher Chassidim doing just what they were. Many Jews happen upon the uniquely Chabad practice in metropolises across the world.

When one of the boys proudly confirmed their identity, the man introduced himself as “Shmuel,” and asked if anyone in the group was familiar with the “Laine family.” Directing him to Lazer, he said, “He is a Laine!”

A few months before meeting the young Laine, Shmuel had encountered a man with the same surname, but the latter had been killed twenty-three years before the experience.

30 Lit. deliverances. On Shabbos and Jewish festivals the phrase is rendered to “He is a tower of deliverance.”

19 Shmuel had travelled along with a delegation from the Jewish Agency in the to Rudnia, Russia, to exhume a mass grave containing hundreds of Jews who were buried alive by the Nazis. Unearthing the victims, excavators were shocked to discover the fully intact remains of one man who looked “as though he was napping,” and was clutching a book of Psalms in his hand. Rushing to the locals, they asked an elderly woman who had lived in Rudnia before Nazi occupation to identify the find. Hysterically, she shouted “Rabin! Rabin!”

They had discovered the town’s Rabbi: the indefatigable, saintly and scholarly Yehoshua Laine. My Zeide’s paternal Zeide.

The sun reflected off of the Great Synagouge’s windows which are replications of those of Jewish houses of study and worship that were destroyed by the Nazis. An inner flame burned in Lazer as he heard about a sleeping epic, whose legacy he carries.

In his landmark memoirs, Rabbi Mordechai Perlow explores the wedding of Rabbi Shmuel Shneersohn,31 the son and successor of the third Lubavitcher Rebbe. Among the honored guests recorded to have attended the grand wedding of the Rebbe’s son was Peretz Chein, the Rabbi of Beshenkovitz.32

Peretz was a man of eminence, prominence, and distinguished parentage. A descendant of Europe’s celebrated rabbis and sages, and legatee to a heritage that was painted upon the backdrop of Jewish history. He was a Chein, meaning “gracious” in translation, and royalty in implication.

Studying the Cheins is “researching the royalty of the kingdom of David, the sagacity of the Babylonian academies, the nobility of the Jewish princes of Spain, the aristocracy of European Jewry, and the piety of the elders of Lubavitch.”33 The Cheins arise with the ascendancy of King David. Their forbears are the key figures of the Davidic dynasty. They were the Kings of Jerusalem, the Exilearchs of Babylon, and the prominent Rabbis of Europe.

During a private audience with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, a relative of mine expressed his pride of being married to a descendant of Peretz Chein. The Rebbe wondered if the man was aware that Peretz was preceded by “over eighteen generations of Rabbis and Gaonim.”34 Adding when the man responded that he was uninformed, “it is an obligation to know this.”35

31 The Rebbe MaHarash 32 Lekutei Sipurim pg. 131 33 Nobility and Piety, Chapter II, (memento from the wedding of Ari and Rivky Markowitz) where I present a more diligent study of the Chein family 34 Lit. geniuses. In ancient Babylon, Gaon was the title of the dean of the Talmudic academies of Sura and Pumpedita, a capacity filled by Chein ancestors. 35 A detailed account of the conversation was published in Magazine, issue 670, page 44

20 The previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, referred to Peretz Chein’s grandchildren as “children of the holy exalted,”36 among other dutiful titles.37 Thus, while a look at the over eighteen generations that came before Peretz Chein would certainly make a great title, I wish here to reflect upon some of those who succeeded him.

When Rabbi Yehoshua Lein-Chein became Rabbi of Beshenkowitz in 1911, the residents of the town cited the Biblical verse “and the fourth generation will return hence,”38 in recognition of the Rabbi’s assumption of his great-grandfather’s position.

Like his grand predecessor, Yehoshua was an erudite. He developed from childhood prodigy to rabbinical sagacity. Born in the Chassidic stronghold of Nevel, circa 1881 to Tzivia and Chaim Dovid Lein, he was brought up in the spirit of Chasidism. Infused with a love of G-d, Torah, and fellow man, the pervasion of these qualities in his being must have been the force behind his defiance of the Bolsheviks, and devotion to his people, following Red October.

At the age of Bar Mitzvah, Yehoshua’s loving parents sent him to board and study in Chernigov at the home of his great-uncle Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Chein, the famed RaDatz. There, young Yehoshua continued the tradition of gifted Cheins who under the tutelage of the family’s saintly and scholarly senior figure.

The RaDatz developed not only Yehoshua’s competence, but also his character. Jewish law requires firstborn males to fast on the eve of Passover, unless they can hear or say a “Siyum,” from someone who has concluded the study of a tractate of Talmud. Although he was only Bar Mitzvah age, Yehoshua concluded the study of a full tome of Talmud in time for the fast of the first-born and intended to execute a traditional recitation of the material in synagogue. However, the RaDatz prohibited him from presiding over the confab, aiming to hedge off any feelings of haughtiness in the adept child.

A deferential Yehoshua chose to fast instead of delivering the review that would absolve him from his firstborn duties. However, his mentor directed him to hear a “Siyum,” as would all the other firstborns, from someone else who had mastered a tractate.

Eventually, Yehoshua travelled to study at the hub of Chabad Chasidim, in Lubavitch. There, he met Rabbi Sholom Dovber, the fourth Rebbe, for the first time. The Rebbe requested that Yehoshua remain close to him and blessed him that G-d almighty grant that he have the desire and capacity to study, and most importantly that he be a G-d fearing Jew.

As a young man Yehoshua joined a select group of advanced students who studied at the Rebbe’s court in Lubavitch. Once Tomchei Temimim, the United Lubavitcher Yeshiva, was formally established, Yehoshua proudly carried the label “Tomim,” the distinct title given to a student of the Rebbe’s Yeshiva. 36 of the previous Rebbe, Vol. 2, page 303 37 Ibid, Vol. 16 page 134 38 Genesis 15:16 21 Once while the Rebbe Rashab presided over a public gathering of Chassidim, he announced that, “Yehoshua is mine.” Indeed, Zeide Yehoshua’s self abnegation, and perfect dedication to the Rebbe is noted. He was to his beloved as his beloved was to him. After marrying, Yehoshua visited the Rebbe to receive guidance for his spiritual life and direction for serving the Creator. Until his last day, Zeide Yehoshua selflessly served the one G-d, and the needs of His singular people.

Among Lubavitcher Chassidim, the year 1906 has become a symbol of sentimentalism. It was the year when the Rebbe Rashab39 delivered some of the most sublime dissertations of Chassidism. Until this very day, clever students explore the world of Chassidic thought, eager to amass requisite knowledge and training to study the masterly treatise known simply as “Samach Vov.”

In the same year that the Rebbe Rashab delivered “Samach Vov,” he dispatched Zeide Yehoshua to the Lithuanian Chassidic fortress of Dokshitz to establish a branch of Tomchei Temimim for a select group of students.

Among Zeide Yehoshua’s sixteen gifted pupils was Shaina’s great-grandfather, Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Perlow, the author of Chabad’s cherished Lekutei Sipurim. In his book, Zeide Mordechai quotes a number of stories in the name of his teacher, and describes Zeide Yehoshua as a man who could articulate all of Talmud, and the major works of Jewish jurisprudence including their commentaries, from memory.

At the Rebbe’s insistence, Yehoshua became Rabbi of Ostravna, a town near Vitebsk. In 1911, Yehoshua was crowned Rabbi of Beshenkovitz, the former placement of Peretz.

When a blaze destroyed Zeide Yehoshua’s certificate of rabbinical ordination, the pious rabbi discontinued his own official service. This meant that he no longer would officiate at weddings, or oversee kosher certification. Word of what had happened soon reached Rabbi Yosef Rosen, the Rogotchover Gaon. The razor sharp sage immediately issued a new document reinstating Yehoshua as rabbi. It is telling that the late Lubavitcher Rebbe is said to have been among the precious few who were ordained by the genius of Rogotchov.

As the blaze of Communism swept across Russia, Jewish religious figures were forced into hiding. Fleeing Beshenkovitz, Zeide Yehoshua found temporary refuge in his parents’ home in Nevel. Although he was on the run, Yehoshua used his modest area of the house to establish a new branch of Tomchei Temimim.

Flouting the baleful shadow of the Soviets, Yehoshua preached and taught publicly. His fiery oratory invigorated the residents of Nevel, who he taught and inspired until he fled avoiding arrest.

39 The fourth Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch

22 The Leins’ final residence would be Rudnia, where Yehoshua served as the underground Rabbi and ritual slaughterer. These were difficult times in Russia, and aside from being persecuted, Zeide Yehoshua barely earned his livelihood. A devout Jew, Yehoshua would pray for hours, effectively minimizing his clientele who would not linger and wait for the fervent supplicant to slaughter their fowl.

Social conscience and altruism helped the already penniless leader maintain straitened circumstances. When Rabbi Yehoshua would determine that a particular chicken was not kosher, his ruling would be accompanied by funds so that the man or woman could buy a new bird. This helped prevent their finding other means of slaughtering the fowl out of desperation. Additionally, as the Soviets routinely arrested or exiled Jewish parents, often sending them to harsh labor camps, the Leins would shelter their left-behind children. Many of the stories of Zeide Yehoshua were preserved and relayed by Rabbi Sholom Ber Notik, who was one such child to have found haven in the Lein home.

Zeide Yehoshua’s public homiletical Talmud lessons, sermons, responsibilities, defense and promotion of Judaism led to his eventual arrest. He was charged with “counterrevolutionary activities,” and falsely accused of attempting to blow up Rudnia’s rail-bridge.

During Yehoshua’s eight long months of incarceration, his wife Risha sent a petition of clemency to Stalin. In it, she pleaded for the tyrannical leader of the Soviet Union’s mercy and pardon.

When he was released, Yehoshua called on his son and daughter in-law, my great- grandparents Aharon Leib and Doba Raiza, in Leningrad. They held a celebratory and thanksgiving ,40 and Zeide Yehoshua returned to his family and post in Rudnia.

Leningrad served as the capital of the Russian Empire until the October Revolution. Following the communist takeover, the large city proved a hostile environment for Jews. If conditions were precarious in the small towns and provinces, then the Jews in Russia’s second largest city faced additional unique difficulties. In the interest of providing his son with exposure to a more normative Jewish environment, Aharon Leib Lein sent his eldest, our Zeide Michel, to live for a while with his grandparents in Rudnia.

To be sure, Rudnia was hardly a Jewish utopia, but offered a more normative Jewish life for a boy growing up in the big city. was the language of the town’s indigenous Jewish population, and was spoken by many of their gentile neighbors. The effects of Zeide Michel’s stay with his Zeide, influences five generations later, as we grandchildren and great-grandchildren draw from the impact of the man who was Yehoshua Lein.

The period he spent with Zeide Yehoshua and the example of his loving and beloved father were constant motivators and sustainers of Zeide Michel’s faith.

40 A gathering of Chassidim 23 On a Shabbos afternoon while I was having tea with my grandfather, Mr. Yitzchak Skoblo, a family friend, stopped in for a visit. Zeide reminisced about the time he accompanied Zeide Yehoshua and his son Peretz, to our visitant’s grandfather’s house in Rudnia, to slaughter a “black sheep.”

Witnessing a ritual slaughter of stock for the first time, and watching the gushing blood, caused young Michel to feel faint. Mr. Skoblo respectfully criticized the Rabbi for having brought the young child to witness the gory scene. Yehoshua firmly explained that he had brought the child so “that he may see that Jewish food is different.”

Yehoshua taught his children how to live as Jews, even if that meant showing them how to die as Jews. When an elderly Jew once passed away in Rudnia, Yehoshua brought his son Peretz and grandson Michel to stand by, as he, along with the Holy Society, prepared the deceased for Jewish burial. When the other senior men demurred the presence of such tender children and asked their Rabbi why he had brought them along, he insisted “that they should see that a Jew dies differently!”

Zeide Yehoshua lived a life of distinction, and indeed died differently, barbarically, and given the horrifying standards of the time, Jewishly.

The haunting find amid the bones and corpses interred in Rudnia showed a man who, even after his demise, watched over his flock. He was first to be buried there, and cryptically, the last to die.

When the Nazis took Rudnia they ghettoized the town’s Jews. On or about 30 Tishrei 1941, like sheep led to their slaughter, the Jews of Rudnia were marched to a field outside of town. Their faithful shepherd Rabbi Yehoshua and his family were at their head. Anyone who tried to save himself by running was shot and thrown into a gigantic pit that had been dug. The others were forced into the mass grave and were buried alive. The Nazis waited beside the site, waiting for the earth to stop quaking before they moved on to their next victims. Among the approximately one thousand Jews who were killed was Zeide Yehoshua, his wife, and their children Nessah and Peretz.

Those who unearthed Zeide Yehoshua discovered a man who seemed alive, despite his demise in Rudnia’s liquidation. We descendants have always known him the same way. Our Zeide Michel never let his Zeide die. So long as we ask, or listen, Zeide uncovers the legend that was Rabbi Yehoshua Lein of Beshenkovitz.41

41 The previous Lubavitcher Rebbe testified to Zeide Yehoshua’s being what his great uncle and teacher the Radatz was called by the Rebbe Maharash: The Beinoni of . This class of saintliness is the central subject of the Tanya, Chabad’s foundational text, and its attainment is the aspiration of Chassidim.

24 Chapter V

Zeide Aharon Leib Lein

“My eyes are upon the faithful of the land to dwell with me; he who goes on the way of the innocent, he will serve me.” -Psalms 101:6

Rabbi Yehoshua Lein’s eldest son, Aharon Leib, once travelled to join the Purim festivities at the court of the Previous Rebbe in Leningrad. Making the trip from Yeshiva in Poltova, the boy took in the sights and sounds of the exultations and eruditions of Rabbi Yoseph Yitzchak Schneerson of Lubavitch. When Aharon Leib was granted a private moment with the Rebbe, Rabbi Yoseph Yitzchak asked his student if he had absorbed and internalized the thoughts and insights which the Rebbe had delivered. Aharon Leib’s response was that he had come to request a blessing. The Rebbe then told the boy, “A Jew’s blessings in general are significant. The blessings of a scholar are certainly considerable. The benediction of a son of holy and pure righteous men is then most extraordinary.” The Rebbe went on to ask, “However, what is a blessing?” and continued, “A blessing is rain. If one properly sows and plows their field, it will bear good fruit . . .”

Aharon Leib Lein “sowed” and “plowed” in the motherland that would one day claim his life. To fully describe the life and living legacy of our grandfather’s father would require a volume telling of a life short lived, but everlastingly sustained. In my own hundreds of hours of breakfasts, thousands of teas, and miles of walks with Zeide Michel, I have attempted to absorb the figure in his life that has never died.

Born in Beshenkovitz on the fifth evening of Chanukah, 1905, Aharon Leib was destined to become a great man, the magnitude of which he filled during his ephemeral life, and continues to fill posthumously. He was skilled, had a beautiful melodic voice, and was a strikingly handsome man. Witnesses speak of how the young Aharon Leib would “get lost in prayer,” so intense was his devotion to G-d.

25 Getzy’s maternal great- Getzy’s maternal great-grandmother Shaina’s maternal great-grandfather, grandmother Bube Rosa Rubashkin Bube Doba Raskin-Lein Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Perlow

Getzy’s maternal great-grandfather Shneur Shaina’s maternal grandfather Shaina’s paternal great-gradfather, Zalman Yissochar Getzel HaLevi Rubashkin, Zeide Dovid Perlow Zeide Aharon Gopin Zeide Getzel

Getzy’s maternal Getzy’s paternal great-grandparents Shaina’s paternal grandparents great-grandfather Saba Tanchum and Safta Feiga Donin, Zeide Baruch and Bubbie Genesha Gopin Zeide Aharon Leib Lein HYD with their son Reuven

L-R Getzy’s maternal grandparents Safta Danya Shaina’s paternal Shaina’s maternal great-grandparents, and Zeide Michel Raskin-Lein. Getzy’s parents great-grandfather, Zeide Rabbi Betzalel and Mashie and Nachum Markowitz. Getzy’s Moshe Zalman Kaminetzky Bube Chaya Wilshansky paternal grandparents SabaYitzchak and Savta Zahava Markowitz Getzy’s paternal great-grandfather Getzy’s paternal great-grandmother Getzy’s maternal great-great- The Nurer Rav, Safta Masha Markowitz grandfather Zeide Shloma Raskin Rabbi Yaakov Mordechai Markowitz

Getzy receiving a Brocha from the Rebbe at “Dollars.” Shaina receiving a Brocha from the Rebbe at “Dollars.”

The Rebbe officiates at the Chupa of Getzy’s maternal grandparents, The Rebbe holding the Megilla and silver case Michel and Dania Raskin-Lein that were gifted to him by Zeide Getzel

The Rebbe’s letter of Mazel Tov and The Rebbe’s letter of Mazel Tov and The Rebbe’s letter of blessings for the blessings for Getzy’s birth blessings for Shaina’s birth marriage of Getzy’s parents Zeide Michel often speaks of a time when he returned home early from school to discover his father wrapped in a talit and tefillin. Oblivious to his son’s presence, Zeide Aharon Leib was facing the wall and sobbed as he prayed with an intensity that his son had never seen before. Zeide Michel was transfixed as he watched the amazing scene, until he too began to cry.

Zeide’s wail brought his father out of his trance. Aharon Leib approached and asked his son, “Michel, will you grow a beard?” In Soviet Russia, with an impending world war, where it was illegal to be a Jew, the unswerving Chossid was concerned that his son should look like a Jew.

Zeide Aharon Leib died of starvation during the German onslaught of Leningrad. Some have said that he gave up his meager rations to other hungry Jews. However, while we may not know precisely how he died, we do know how he lived. Zeide Aharon Leib would feed from his own kindness, even if it meant starving. Despite living in abject poverty, he was legendary for his passion of doing a favor for his fellow Jew.

On one occasion, a communist provoked Zeide by insulting his being Jewish. The consequences of reacting did not figure in Aharon Leib’s judgement as much as defending his status as a Jew. He hit the scoffer, violently knocking him to the snow covered ground.

If it was illegal to practice Judaism, then Zeide Aharon Leib was a repeat offender. His son Michel was forced, as millions of children, to join the Pioneers, pledge himself to the motherland, and to his “father” Stalin. Once a child had joined the youth club, he was given a red tie as a sign of membership. Zeide Aharon Leib demanded of his juvenile son that he not wear the shameful neckwear, which he referred to as “rags.”

When little Michel attended the next club meeting, he forced himself into the back of the room as to delay his turn in swearing to be a Pioneer. His teacher noticed the roving child and asked him to explain his behavior. Michel burst into tears and explained that he had to walk a great distance to take part in the communist meetings, and that he was afraid to wander alone.

The boy, heeding his father’s earnest request, was excused from further attending the Pioneer convocations.

Aharon Leib and Doba lived in an apartment complex that housed other Jewish families. One of the residents was a Jew whom people suspected of being an informant for the secret police. Sometime before Pesach, 1941, the man approached Zeide Aharon Leib with an inquiry. He wondered whether the Leins would be holding a Pesach Seder.

28 The man explained that his father would be visiting with him over the holiday. However, as he did not observe Pesach, he needed a place for his father to attend a Seder. He wondered if Aharon Leib would host his father on the chance he was going to have a Seder.

Aharon Leib and Doba were certainly going to hold an illegal Seder on Pesach night. Aharon Leib was worried that the arrangement was a set-up. He was equally concerned that perhaps the man was sincere, and that turning him down would cause his father to be without a Seder on Pesach. So, Zeide Aharon Leib made a moral concession. He would gladly have the visitor at his family’s Seder. However, secretly, Aharon Leib himself would leave Leningrad, and spend Pesach with his in-laws, Shloma and Basya Chaya Yente Raskin, in Gorky.

Ultimately, Zeide Aharon Leib would forgo his last Seder with his wife and children, to potentially accommodate another Jew.

Uncle Berke was with his father in Gorky and remained there when Aharon Leib returned to Leningrad. Bube Doba, who was pregnant with Benzion, travelled there with their son Chaim Dovid soon after, while Michel remained with his father in Leningrad. At the outbreak of war Aharon Leib sent Michel to Gorky, while as a reserve he remained behind in Leningrad.

Later that year, Shloma Raskin received a telegram from Leibe Rubashkin, whose son Betzalel42 was married to Shloma’s daughter. In the letter, Leibe informed the Raskins that his son had passed away on 12 Shevat after sustaining fatal injuries in a bomb raid. Leibe woefully informed them that their other son-in-law, Aharon Leib, had died of hunger on 10 Shevat.

Aharon Leib shares an anniversary of passing with the Previous Rebbe who would pass away on 10 Shevat 1950. A year later, on 10 Shevat 1951, his son-in-law and successor, the Rebbe, accepted the mantle of leadership.

With honesty, honor, and literary license, I attest to Zeide Aharon Leib’s transition into eternal life on 10 Shevat. On the Shabbos preceding his father’s Yahrtzeit each year, Zeide Michel encourages his grandsons to publicly read the Torah portion. Through the Torah of life, the living take to heart. Zeide Michel eternalizes his father by continuing the task he began since learning of his passing. That is, standing in as the patriarch, and cloaking us all with the responsibility of perpetuating Zeide Aharon Leib’s memory.

42 For more on the Rubashkins see chapter VIII

29 Chapter VI

Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Perlow

“The Torah of Hashem is perfect, restoring the soul...” -Psalms 19:8

At midday during the Australian summer, one becomes easily worn out. The heat and mugginess call for a siesta. On one particular day while studying at the Rabbinical College of Australia and New Zealand in Melbourne, I chose to escape the afternoon lecture to indulge in a daydream, as I stared out onto the sunny Yeshiva quadrangle.

My reverie was broken as my teacher too drifted from the books to indulge us in tales of another time. I cannot remember how Rabbi Schmerling got into the storytelling, but I recall him saying, “Imagine that...he was in Lubavitch when the Rebbe Rashab delivered .”

Two years from the publication of these biographies, Chassidim will mark the centennial of a treatise that was delivered and transcribed in 1912. Rabbi Schmerling was relating the story of a renowned storyteller who was present at the conveyance of “Ayin Beis,” and whose memoirs give us significant insights into those times. To a student in a Lubavitch Yeshiva, “Ayin Beis,” is not merely a holy book to be studied, but a revered goal to climb to. To hear about a person who was present when “Ayin Beis” was transmitted is to become transitioned to another time.

As I had missed the beginning of his fascinating story, I asked my teacher to start again. In a soft voice and careful detail, he told us about “Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Perlow,” Shaina’s maternal great-grandfather.

When I would years later become engaged to Rav Perlow’s great-granddaughter, and interview his descendants particularly for this project, I would again experience the attentiveness to details. So respected are the memories of their grandparents that Shaina’s family are careful as not to alter a point or feature of their grandparents’ lives. In their stunning reverence to their Zeidies, they are

30 hesitant, and offer precious few particulars. That perceivable honor alone speaks volumes.

On the ninth day of Kislev, one day before my birthday and proposal, I called my uncle Avremy Raskin from Melbourne, to notify him of the coming Simcha. Avremy, able to conduct a conversation from ten thousand miles away as if he were standing before you, mapped out a history and biography of some of my intended’s family. The long-distance phone call was a priceless exchange about sages and saints who were instrumental figures in the shaping of Australian Jewry, and the forebears of my bride-to-be.

Avremy’s main source of information about Shaina’s maternal Zeidies Chaim Mordechai Perlow and Betzalel Wilshansky, is his father in-law, Mr. Label New. I could remember Mr. and Mrs. New speaking about the two figures who indelibly affected their lives during the many times that I was a guest in their open home. What I remember most from the endless stories at the New table were the tales of Zeide Perlow’s uniqueness as a storyteller.

As the Melbourne Chabad community’s senior rabbi, Rav Perlow would never admonish a community member, or a congregant in the “Yeshiva Shul” that he led. Instead, the Rabbi would relate a story that would somehow bring across the message he wished to relate and instill.

Rav Perlow’s stories are still told today. Although most people do not know the source, the accounts of Lubavitch’s early years, and the formers and figures of the movement known to our generation, were handed down by a giant of the earlier generation. He wrote a book of memoirs of the stories he preserved. Rav Perlow would relay a story to get a point across. Similarly, if one wishes to learn of him they need simply open his Lekutei Sipurim, and read a tale of the righteous men and pivotal times he chronicles, to discover an unofficial autobiography in the third person.

Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Perlow was born in Charson, Ukraine circa 1889. His parents Dovid and Miriom Rivkah. were residents of special colonies that were established in southern Ukraine by the third Chabad Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek. Geographically, Chaim Mordechai was brought up on “Lubavitch soil,” spiritually, he was educated of the tangibility and importance of his Jewish soul.

In 1904, Chaim Mordechai was accepted as a student in the central Chabad Yeshiva in Lubavitch. Within a short period after his arrival, Chaim Mordechai had already earned the respect of his peers who referred to him as “Mordechai the scholar.” The Rebbe Rashab himself was said to have instructed his students to learn the meaning of assiduousness from the example of Mordechai Perlow.

Chaim Mordechai studied under my great-great-grandfather, Rabbi Yehoshua Lein, at Dokshitz, in 1906. When Zeide Yehoshua was a student in Lubavitch, the Rebbe Rashab had announced at a public gathering of Chassidim that, “Yehoshua

31 is mine.” Being as Rabbi Shalom Dovber pointed out Chaim Mordechai’s diligence at a similar gathering, surely the youth had learned how to be “the Rebbe’s” as well.

On the average day, Chaim Mordechai would learn between sixteen and eighteen hours. His passion was the study of Talmud and the major works of Jewish jurisprudence, whose content he could communicate in silver-tongued fashion. Later, Chaim Mordechai Perlow would become a leading Torah authority within Chabad, and an important expert to address Halachik issues unique to a post- holocaust world.

Rav Perlow would routinely study the Mishna and works of Chassidism by heart, in accordance with an unusual request of the Rebbe Rashab. The Rebbe’s directive made Chaim Mordechai a “genius,” in Chassidic discourses, and the Mishna.

In 1912, Chaim Perlow married Shaina Baila,43 the daughter of Rabbi Avraham Ber, Chief Rabbinic authority of Shadova, Lithuania44. Following their marriage, the couple lived in Shadova, only returning to the Ukraine in 1918 where Chaim Mordechai was appointed Rabbi of Berislav, near his native Charson.

A year after their arrival in Berislav, Rav Perlow became dean of the Lubavitcher Yeshiva in Charson. While he certainly was an example of a Biblical prophecy, a day when civilization will thirst for G-d’s word45, the realities of a devastating famine forced the rabbi out of the Ukraine in 1922. The Perlows moved to Kulash, Georgia, where Chaim Mordechai shared the rabbinate with his brother-in-law, Rabbi Avraham L. Slavin.

After some time, the Perlows moved to Satshili where Rav Perlow established a day school and built a Mikvah ritual bath. Eventually, they had to move. They took up residence in Sateschari to bolster Jewish observance, and for Chaim Mordechai to become the town’s rabbi. During his tenure, the Perlows worked to engage youth, encouraging them to maintain a level of observance, and to honor the Shabbos. In so doing, a number of young Jews failed to show up to work in the city’s factories on the weekends, and Rabbi Perlow was incarcerated for influencing the illegal affair.

After a year of imprisonment, Rabbi Perlow was released, and moved to Kutaisi where he ignored the strong elements of danger that opposed his holy work. Continuing to support Jews and strengthen Judaism, he was eventually arrested. In 1936, Rav Perlow was sentenced to ten years of exile in Siberia.

It was his long banishment to Siberia that revealed to the Rabbi why the Rebbe Rashab had asked him to study Torah by heart. Bereft of holy books, he constantly studied and reviewed the Torah that he had stored in his mind. Once, at a gathering, the Rebbe Rashab handed Chaim Mordechai “six or seven” pieces of bread. Years later, Rav Perlow would appreciate the portion and measure. He understood it 43 Shaina’s namesake. 44 A town near Kaunas. 45 Amos 8:11 32 to be the provision of spiritual strength for the nearly seven years that he would serve in the frozen wasteland.

After six-and-a-half hard years in Siberia, the rabbi was miraculously released, and managed to leave Soviet Russia after World War II.

Following the Holocaust, the status of Jewish marriages and important matters of sanctity were a great concern. People could not verify whether their spouses had survived the war. Others were marrying, although under their circumstances, Jewish law forbade their unions. As these matters turned more complicated, a committee of major rabbis was established in Germany called the “Vaad Harabanim,” for the sole purpose of handling the situation.

Rav Perlow was appointed to the new council along with Rabbi Dovid Shapiro, formerly the Chief Rabbi of Warsaw, Rabbi Shmuel Snieg of the famed , and Rabbi Goldman of Krasna. Rav Perlow would later author a Halachik work expounding a number of the difficult cases these Rabbis were faced with.

While living in the refugee camps, Rav Perlow continued to flame what the Nazis wished to extinguish. He brought fellow Jews closer to their Father in heaven, and encouraged the observance of Shabbos.

In 1949, Rabbi Perlow became Rabbi of the Yaakov Synagouge in Milan, Italy. One of his great accomplishments during his tenure in Milan was constructing a Mikvah in accordance with the strict standards of “Bor Al Gabei Bor.” The only existing Mikvah known to have been built according to those guidelines at the time was constructed by the Rebbe Rashab himself at his court in Rostov, Russia.

Included in the published letters of the Lubavitcher Rebbe are a number of correspondence between the Rebbe and Rav Perlow. In some of these letters, the Rebbe directs his emissary in Milan as how to reach out to fellow Jews in Italy, showing them the ways of Torah, through the beauty of Chassidus.

In 1959, Rav Perlow was replaced by Milan’s current Chief Chabad Rabbi, Gershon Mendel Gorelick, after Rabbi Chaim Mordechai asked the Rebbe for permission to join his only son, Zeide Dovid, who was settled in Melbourne, Australia. In Australia, Rav Perlow was appointed Rabbi of the Chabad community, and spiritual mentor at the Yehiva Oholei Yoseph Yitzchak.

As a modern-day witness to days of Lubavitch antiquity, and an encyclopedic mind filled with invaluable stories and lessons, Rav Perlow was urged by many people to pen his memoirs. The Rebbe himself would write to Rabbi Perlow, encouraging him to put his memories into writing.

While he was in his mid-eighties, Rav Perlow had his fingers crushed in the door of a car. With him was Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner, who rushing to the senior rabbi’s aid was confused. Considering the pain he must have been in, Rav

33 Perlow seemed rather calm. Rabbi Chaim Mordechai told Rabbi Groner that he had received a letter from the Rebbe urging him to pen his book with rapidity. Considering his elderly age, Rav Perlow assumed that his time would soon come. However, injuring his hand, albeit painful, was also a relief. The Rebbe must have been pushing the completion of the memoirs due to the impending injury, not death.

Once Rabbi Perlow concluded his title, the final draft was sent to the Rebbe before publishing. Soon after receiving the book, the Rebbe quoted a story while mentioning the author, at a mass gathering of Chassidim.

Rav Perlow often visited the Yeshiva in Melbourne where I later studied and first learned of him. When the Lubavitcher Rebbe dispatched a group of post-seminary Rabbinical students to Melbourne to reinforce the faculty and community, Rabbi Perlow greeted them, and would spend many hours in conversation and study with the young emissaries.

Years later, I learned about the author and authority in the library of an institution where those boys were sent. A proper biography has never been written about Rabbi Perlow. Now, as I learn to refer to him as “Zeide,” and read his masterpiece, I have discovered that he had written his life story by writing about what permeated his being. Namely, G-d, Torah, the Rebbes of Lubavitch, and the people he selflessly lived for.

34 Chapter VII

The Raskins Zeide Shloma Raskin “The world stands on three things - the study of Torah, the service of G-d, and deeds of kindness.” -Ethics of our fathers 1:2

On June 22, 1941, Germany launched the largest military offensive in history. Over four million Axis troops invaded the Soviet Union across an 1,800 mile front. As part of Operation Barbarossa, the Baltic States were pounded, and Leningrad was assailed. The two-and-a-half-year siege of Leningrad claimed the greatest loss of life ever known in a modern city.

Zeide Aharon Leib Lein was one such victim. Fighting for a country that persecuted him as a Jew, against a force that sought the extermination of his people, Aharon Leib was martyred by both Germany and Russia on the tenth day of Shevat, 1942.

At the onset of the invasion, Aharon Leib, conscripted and concerned, placed his eldest son Michel onto a Gorky-bound train. Zeide Aharon Leib’s pregnant wife Dobba, and two sons, were already in Gorky at the home of Dobba’s parents. Although Gorky was east of Leningrad, it was essentially their first perilous journey westward, to the free shores of the United States.

Bubba Doba, Zeide Michel, his brothers Sholom Ber, Chaim Dovid and Bentzion stayed in Gorky in the home of Dobba’s parents, Shloma and Basya Chaya Yente, from 1941-46. Bentzion was born in Gorky, and sadly never knew his father.

Bentzion was named for Zeide Shloma’s father, Betzion (Bentche) (1864-1938). At age nineteen, Zeide Bentzion married his cousin Dvonya. They settled in her native G’zhatsk, near Moscow.

In a time where it was traditional to marry young, Bentche expected his children to follow suit. When his son Shloma was eighteen years old, he was considered an eligible bachelor, having offers of eight distinguished proposals for marriage.

35 Bentche was an absolute Chossid and consulted Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohnm, the Rebbe Rashab46 about life’s important matters. With a decision as significant as his son’s future, Bentche travelled to the court of the Rebbe in Lubavitch to seek his counsel.

Attestation to the standing of the family was their accessibility to the Rebbe’s inner chambers. Recorded to have been on a Thursday evening, Bentche entered Rabbi Sholom Dovber’s study and presented the shortlist thought to contain the name of his son’s potential spouse. Benthce expected the Rebbe to choose a young lady from the list for his son. However, having glanced at the roll a single time, Rabbi Sholom Dovber set the paper aside and indicated that none of the suggestions were suitable matches. “Some will not be scrupulous about covering their hair,” insisted the Rebbe, “and others will not know how to provide their children with a proper Jewish education.”

Having heard the Rebbe cite a number of objections, the offers were rendered null. Bentche remained in Lubavitch for Shabbos to be in the company of Chassidim, and hear the conveyance of “words of the eternal G-d,”47 from the Rebbe. 48

Upon the conclusion of Shabbos, Bentche was approached by a man who proposed the daughter of Yechiel Michel Vigon for Shloma. Yechiel Michel’s family lived in Shtcherbin, a rural farming settlement some 30 kilometers from Lubavitch, and were Chassidim of outstanding parentage and personage.

Bentzion returned to the Rebbe with the new offer. This time, the Rashab was enthusiastic, “Michel of Shtcherbiner is a sincere devout Jew, and his wife is Reb Yehoshua Elya’s49 granddaughter...” The Rebbe encouraged the match.

Returning to G’zhatsk, Bentzion announced the Mazel Tov to his family, accenting the Rebbe Rashab’s agreement to the match. However, his son was disinclined to accept the news. It was most small town boy’s ambition to discover the greater world. One was more likely to succeed by marrying a “city girl,” or a young woman from a larger town. In this case, the maiden lived in a tiny, primitive village.

Bentzion traveled to Lubavitch two months later and was immediately received by the Rebbe. Upset that his son was disinterested in Yechiel Michel’s daughter, he informed the Rebbe of the situation.

The Rebbe could not understand, and repeated verbatim what he had told Bentzion two month’s earlier, “Michel of Shtcherbiner is a sincere devout Jew, and his wife is Reb Yehoshua Elya’s granddaughter...” adding, “why would he dismiss it?”

46 Fifth Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch 47 A designation for the teachings of Chassidus. 48 The Rebbe Rashab is affectionally known as the “Maimonodies of Chassidsm,” due to his organization of Chassidic instruction. His compendiums are standard curriculum in Chassidic academies. 49 According to an entry in “Lubavitcher Rabbi’s Memoirs” (Kehot publications society), Yehoshua Elya was the Rabbi of Horki, White Russia. He was an adherent of Rabbi Menachem Mendel, the third Rebbe known as the Tzemach Tzedek. Three letters in the Tzemach Tzedek’s handwriting mentioning Yehoshua Elya are still extant. In one, the Rebbe refers to Yehoshua Elya as “my beloved friend, the distinguished veteran Rabbi.”

36 Bentche was taken aback. The Rebbe carried tremendous weight on his shoulders. Why was he so concerned and intent on the match going forward? Braving his environment, Bentche asked the Rebbe if indeed the girl was Shloma’s intended.

“Yes, yes,” replied the Rebbe in a resolute tone.

“What should I do if Shloma is still unbending?”

“Then bring him here,” replied the Rebbe.

Having been guided by the Rebbe in such certain terms, Bentzion returned home to a still reluctant son. Shloma was adamant, and so Bentzion took him along on his next trip to Lubavitch. This time, in honor of , the New Year of Chassidsm.50

Shloma and Bentzion were received by the Rebbe following the day’s observances. As he entered, the Rebbe asked, “Young man, what is it that you want?”

Shloma had methodically prepared his argument, “My father wants me to marry. Firstly, I am too young. Secondly, I have not yet passed the draft.51 Thirdly, if matches from large towns are being suggested, why should I compromise for one living in a small farming community?”

Having heard the young man explain his hesitance, the Rebbe engaged him. “Regarding being too young, you will grow older, G-d willing. With respect to not having served in the army, I guarantee you that you will not be recruited. Concerning your offers from ‘big towns,’ would it be better if she were from Vitebsk or Smolensk? I assure you that would certainly present her with further faults.” Then, as he had said twice before, the Rebbe concluded, “Michel of Shtcherbiner is a sincere devout Jew, and his wife is Reb Yehoshua Elya’s granddaughter...why would you not want it?”

Following his encounter with the Rebbe Rashab, Shloma agreed to become engaged to Basya Chaya Yente. A few months later, the Raskin’s traveled to Stcherbin for the wedding, by way of Lubavitch, where they stopped to receive the Rebbe’s blessing.

Bentche and Shloma were welcomed into the Rebbe’s home by his wife, the Rebbetzin Sterna Sarah who announced them to her husband. The Rebbe Rashab was eager to bless the bridegroom. Zeide Bentzion would recall the awe-inspiring aura of the moments spent in the Rebbe’s presence. “His [the Rebbe’s] face was aglow,” to the extent that Bentche, who so often would meet with the Rebbe, began quivering.

50 On the 19th of Kislev, 1798, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of -- a leading disciple of Rabbi DovBer of Mezeritch and the founder of Chabad Chassidism -- was released from his imprisonment in the Peter-Paul fortress in Petersburg, where he was held for 53 days on charges that his teachings threatened the imperial authority of the Czar. More than a personal liberation, this was a watershed event in the history of Chassidism heralding a new era in the revelation of the “inner soul” of Torah, and is celebrated to this day as “The Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism.” (Chabad.org) 51 For the Russian army 37 Straightening and buttoning his frock coat, the Rebbe began repeating himself: “It is stated in a work of Torah, in a Torah work it is stated,” and continued, “when one stands beneath the Chupa, one should think about drawing upon oneself acceptance of the yoke of heaven - upon oneself, one’s wife, and the children that G-d will grant...and this helps for fifty years.”

The Rebbe then twice repeated the unusual blessing, with the same reiteration at the onset. By the time he had finished the third repetition, Bentche and Shloma felt that they would pass out, given the intensity and solemnity of the moment.

Shloma and Basya Chaya Yente settled in Gorky,52 where they were among the few religious families, and certainly the only Chassidic one. They were blessed with seven children.

During the war years, their home would be filled by seven of their grandchildren who had lost their fathers, including Zeide Michel and his brothers. I asked Zeide to describe his Zeide Shloma, in an instant he looked up at me and said, “A Yid a Tzadik,” - a righteous Jew. He then went on to chronicle the years he spent in the home of his late grandparents.

“Zeide knew all of Tanya by heart,” he began.

“What kind of person was he?”, I asked.

Zeide paused, and disconsolately responded, “he was nervous.” Adding as he looked ahead desultory, “What would you expect? He lost two sons-in-law and had two widow daughters at home with a combined seven orphans...and it was war times, young one.”

Shloma worked to sustain his family. “These were hard times,” Zeide recalls. “people were starving, not as bad as in Leningrad, but there was a shortage.”

The government would allot a daily meager 2 kilograms of bread per family. With a family as large as the Raskins, Zeide Michel along with his aunt Riva and uncle Sholom would hop onto trains to visit outlying villages and towns to barter for food.

Most often they would exchange goods for potatoes. “Once we asked for a cabbage,” Zeide remembers. You can sense the appetite in his expression, “But she wouldn’t give it.” “I would Shlep upwards of fifty pounds of potatoes back to Gorky.” I have seen Zeide carry such weight in his produce market, so I quip, “You’re used to this sort of thing.”

Zeide turns serious, “I was 12 years old.” Then with a grin he describes his technique, “I would balance the weight by placing the sack on my shoulders, dividing half of the potatoes to hang to my rear, and the other half in front.”

52 Currently Nizhny Novgorod

38 Zeide never let go of the weight he left behind in Russia, and permeated that sense into the children and grandchildren that he always places before him.

When he finally did reach the Unites States in his early twenties, Zeide Michel entered Lubavitch world headquarters at for the first time. Entering the small study hall, across the corridor leading to the Rebbe’s private office, he was greeted by Rabbi . In his youth, Rabbi Jacobson lived through Lenin’s coup, and the deposition of the tsarsist regime. He also had met Zeide Michel’s grandfather, a man who disregarded the rise of the Soviets, and the dangers that resulted.

Following the Russian Revolution, a period of anarchy pervaded through parts of the communist republics. The regime change and its emerging party principles were especially vicious to the Jews. Young Yisroel Jacobson had been waiting to board a train amid the chaos. There, in the station, he met Shloma Raskin. The young man told Shloma that he had not yet put on Tefilin53 as he was frightened of the violent mobs. Zeide Shloma stood tall and composed and ordered Yisroel, “Stand next to me and don your Tefilin! You have nothing to be afraid of!”

In an environment of lawlessness that would consider him an outlaw, Yisroel prayed in the shadow of a man whose bearing intimidated their would-be harassers. Shloma would be described as lionhearted by many, who either found protection at his side, or refuge in his home.

Despite having to provide and care for his large family in those dreadful times, the Raskin home was basically a public house. Countless refugees and other guests could rely on food and shelter with the Raskins.

In The Man Who Mocked The KGB, Rabbi Moishe Levertov offers an invaluable look at those times, and into the home of Shloma and Basya Chaya Yente, who hosted his sister Sima while she studied in Gorky:

In Gorki, Sima stayed with Reb Shloma Raskin and his family, the only home where she knew it was certainly kosher. Few Jews lived in Gorki, and the Raskins were probably the only Chassidic family there. They helped her in everything she needed. Despite the alien environment, the Raskins had true self-sacrifice to observe Yiddishkeit under such difficult circumstances. All their children remained devoted Chassidim — a worthy testament to the family’s devotion to the Torah.

The Raskins were renowned for their outstanding hospitality. Any Jew passing through Gorki knew that the Raskins’ warm home was always wide open for giving them a meal or a place to sleep.

In 1939, thousands of Polish Jews had fled into the USSR. Many were interned in Siberian labor camps. After Germany attacked the USSR in 1941, the Soviet government joined the Allies against Germany — which

53 Phylacteries worn by Jewish males during morning prayers. 39 included the Polish government-in-exile in London. As a gesture of goodwill, the USSR released all interned Polish Jews, permitting them to settle wherever they pleased. Yet how could these impoverished refugees now start anew in life without money or even food to eat?

Many Chassidic families played an indispensable role in helping large numbers of such refugees and other Jews in need. They welcomed the unfortunates into their homes, often providing them with funds and other needs to make their life easier. The Raskins, in particular, distinguished themselves by generously hosting many such Jews in their home and finding other ways to help Jews staying elsewhere.

My grandparents taught us the art of hospitality not just by speaking of its importance, but by their example. Apparently our teachers were taught the same way.

Zeide Shloma passed away on the Eve of Shavuot, 1944. Basya Chaya Yente passed away in Gorky some time after the conflict. With G-d’s help, their children survived the war. Zeide Michel’s uncles and aunts, Leiba, Tzivia, Shaul, and Chasia, emigrated to the Holy Land, where they remained for the rest of their lives. Uncle Sholom Ber still lives in Kfar Chabad, Israel. Aunt Luba remains in , NY, allowing us to know and learn from our grandfather’s aunt.

After the war, the Raskins’ eldest, Dobba, left Gorky for Moscow with her sons. Her oldest, Michel, became his brother’s surrogate father. They eventually escaped from the Iron Curtain and settled in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the seat of the Lubavitch movement. Dobba passed away on 4 Cheshvon 1973. Her tombstone also serves as a memorial to her husband Aharon Leib. Their descendants serve as a monument honoring their sacrifice.

40 Chapter VIII

The Chosson’s Namesake Shneur Zalman Yissochar Getzel HaLevi Rubashkin

“Be wholehearted before Hashem your G-d.” -Deuteronomy 18:13

On a cold winter afternoon in 1987, a tribe of relatives packed an international arrivals hall at Kennedy airport. The flight that they were waiting for had been delayed. Patiently, they waited for a passenger arriving from the Soviet Union.

Then, out she walked into a greeting party of a multitude of her assembled kindred, most of whom she had never met. Their presence welcomed her into a unified embrace. These were her sister and brother-in-law’s descendants. For some of our first time, we met our great-grandmother’s sister, Sara Feiga Aronov, whom we fondly called Tzutza54 Fanya.

Following her greeting at the airport, the entire family filled my grandparents’ home for a formal reception, where Tzutza Fanya addressed us all. She choked with emotion as she recalled the time when her sister had brought her children to her parents’ home55 in Leningrad to bid their final farewell before their flight for freedom. “We held each other for a while and cried.” Tzutza Fanya was overwhelmed as she continued in Russian, “After they left, we wondered what would become of them. However, as I look around this beautiful room and see all of the beautiful people, I see what became of them.”

54 Lit. Aunt in Russian 55 Zeide Hershel and Bube Zelda

41 As members of the tribe of Levi, the Rubashkins have always possessed the endowment of the Levites: “He will have no inheritance among his brothers, for G-d Himself is his inheritance.” Indeed, all the accounts of the family’s long and full history illustrate the heritage they claimed, protected, and treasured. Theirs is truly the language of faith.

I am adorned with the name of my maternal great-grandfather, Shneur Zalman Yissochar Getzel HaLevi Rubashkin. Although I am not of the tribe of Levi, I am by birthright a member of the Rubashkin family. Gratefully, all that a Rubashkin represents is my inheritance.

Zeide Getzel was born in Nevel, Russia, to Sholom and Gutel Rubashkin on 30 Menachem Av, 1899. In the Russian Empire and post-reformation, the Rubashkins were considered to be wealthy, in terms of their means, and their demeanor. I have been wont to say that their children cannot practice charity, for their parents have already perfected the art. Yet, regardless of their holdings, a Rubashkin bears an enduring legacy.

Sholom was the second of five sons56 of Menachem Mendel and Badana (nee Rothenburg57) Rubashkin. All five brothers worked together in harvesting raw furs. They were industrious in their enterprise and equally so in communal affairs. Despite their impressive diligence in the latter, they performed their duty with ease and honor.

In 1913, Zeide Getzel visited his elderly paternal great-uncle Baruch in Polotsk. Boruch was considered “An Honorable Citizen” of the Russian Empire, a title that was carried by members of the Schneerson family, the Rebbes of Chabad.58 Having lived in the generation of the Tzemach Tzedek, the 96-year-old held on to the tales from his past and the history of Lubavitch. As well, Baruch possessed a document chronicling his family’s line of descent which conveyed their lineage from the saintly SHaLoH59.

56 Leibe, Sholom, Hillel, Chaim Kifke, and Shimon 57 A descendant of Rabbi Meir Ben Baruch. Called the “Father of Rabbis,” and “Light of the Exile,” he is popularly known as the MaHaRam of Rothenburg. Recognized as the leading Talmudic and Halachik figure of his time, the MaHaRaM’s many notes and expositions are studied widely studied today. When the MaHaRam sought to escape hostile Germany with his family, they were discovered by an apostate who identified the Rabbi. The Archbishop of Mainz had the MaHaRaM arrested, by order of King Rudolph. King Rudolph held the MaHaRaM for ransom, certain that the Jews would deliver a large sum to rescue their beloved Rabbi. Indeed, the Jewish community raised 20,000 marks to free the Rabbi. However, the MaHaRaM forbade the ransom, and chose to remain imprisoned. The Rabbi understood that once the evil tactic would succeed, the King would order the arrests of other prominent rabbis, forcing similar exchanges. MaHaRam Rothenburg was locked in the Ensisheim fortress for seven years until he passed away. His body was returned fourteen years after his death, in exchange of a heavy ransom. 58 The title was earned by Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the founder of Chabad in recognition of his support of the Czar during the Napoleonic wars. Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the “Alter Rebbe,” intervened on high, as well as providing practical assistance to the Czar by sending Rabbi Moshe Meisels of Vilna to serve as an interpreter for the French High Command, and relaying strategic information to the Czar’s generals. Rabbi Shneur Zalman was awarded the title of “Citizen honored for posterity.” Five generations of Chabad Rebbes made use of the honorific on behalf of Russian Jewry. 59 Rabbi Yeshaya HaLevi Horowitz was known by the acronym of his great book “Shnei Luchos Habris,” or “Two Tablets of the Covenant.” He was born in Prague, in 1558 and is buried in Sefad, Israel. The Saintly SHaLoH served as Chief Rabbi of Prague as well as Rabbi of Posen, Cracow, and Frankfurt. After the passing of his wife Chaya, the SHaLoH settled in the Holy Land. He arrived in the “Good Land,” (as he refers to the Land of Israel in a letter to his children chronicling his 22 day journey across the Mediterranean) in 1621, and was welcomed by Jerusalem’s Ashkenazi community as their Chief Rabbi.

42 As descendants of the holy SHaLoH, the Rubashkin family’s name was changed from Horowitz, the original patronymic, to evade Czar Nicholas I’s infamous conscription decree60. Rescuing their young from the grips of an uncertainty filled with certain peril, the Horowitzes adapted Rubashkin as their surname from a family of Kohanim61 in Nevel.

Getzel studied in Nevel until the age of 14 when he left to study trade from his uncle Leibe, in the exclusive Russian City of Cholma62. At the time, the central Chabad Yeshiva, Tomchei Temimim, was at the court of the Rebbe in Lubavitch. Still, Leibe’s son Betzalel was considered a “Tomim,” one who studied in the Rebbe’s Yeshiva, as the Rebbe Rashab would send private teachers to study with the young man. When Getzel arrived to Cholma he joined his cousin’s sessions and studied under R’Chatche Feigen and R’Yuda Eber. Hence, Getzel’s great-great- grandchildren, who are privileged to study in branches of the Lubavitcher Yeshiva, are fifth generation “Temimim.”

With battle looming, Getzel returned to Nevel before Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914. Soon, the institution he was an alumnus of, but had never been to, would relocate in a step that would bring Tomchei Temimim to the Rubashkins’ hometown. In 1916, Nicholas II evicted scores of Jews from towns and cities near the western frontier. Included in the Jewish population that would be forced eastward were the Chassidim of Lubavitch.

Following the expulsion, the Rebbe Rashab resettled in Rostov and his Yeshiva moved to Kreminchug. The brutal world war led into the Russian Revolution, and the period between the two conflicts were chaotic times in Russia. Soon, Tomchei Temimim would again be relocated.

In 1923, the Previous Rebbe dispatched Rabbis Binyomin Gordetzky and Asher Susunkin to Nevel to prepare the move of Tomchei Temimim to the city. As communal leaders, Zeide Sholom and his son Getzel facilitated the accommodations and study hall. Aside from the tremendous responsibilities they accepted to bring the Yeshiva to Nevel, they took great care of the students of “the Rebbe’s Yeshiva.”

When my parents became engaged, Rabbi Susunkin tried impressing upon my father the nature of the family he was marrying into. “There were no Coca-Cola machines in Nevel,” quipped R’Susunkin, “but there were the Rubashkins, who besides their own milk cow, bought a second one so that the Yeshiva students could always have milk and cheese.” Rabbi Susunkin continued to describe the Rubashkin home which was always open to, and full of, guests. “Many families

60 During the reign of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, Jewish children were victimized and propagandized. Some of their own people, referred to as the “Kontonistim,” would snatch Jewish youth and deliver them to government bodies to fill a quota of ten boys mandated by law. These children would be torn from their family and their Jewish environments. In their youth they would be tried and pressed to the limits. Physically overburdened and mentally tormented, the unfortunate children who survived the terrible conditions and circumstances were drafted into the Czar’s army upon turning eighteen. In an attempt to convert the Jewish youth to Christianity, the boys would be enlisted for twenty-five years. While the edict did not directly target Jews, gentiles were required to fill a smaller quota, and enjoyed greater exemptions and privileges. 61 Jewish priests who are the descendants of Aaron. 62 One had to pay high taxes to live in Cholma, and Jews were imposed with even higher levies. 43 would host Yeshiva students for their daily meals at great expense, but the Rubashkin family would always be open to hosting more.” My father had no trouble imagining such hospitality, as he had been a regular Shabbos guest at the home of Yisroel and Rochel Duchman, Zeide Getzel’s son-in-law and daughter.

Our relatives who have returned to visit Nevel since our family’s settlement in the United States have reported the Rubashkin house to still be intact. Indeed, while the physical structure still stands, what filled it is an everlasting home. My mother and her siblings were accustomed to sleeping on the floor in their parents’ bedroom as guests occupied their beds and rooms. My cousins and I grew up visiting our grandparents not only to see them, but to help serve the dozens of guests that fill their Shabbos table on a weekly basis. My grandmother’s siblings too have distinguishably “Rubashkin homes.”

A Rubashkin descendant can be stirred by the sight of their relative tending to a guest, even as they themselves are practicing such hospitality across the table. These qualities were instilled in us by our parents, whose parents learned them in the home of their rearing, from their parents, Zeide Getzel and Buba Rosa Rubashkin.

Rasha Rosa was from the town of Gorodok, about 60 kilometers from Nevel. She married Shneur Zalman Yissochar Getzel HaLevi Rubashkin in Elul of 1926. Their wedding was celebrated in a town that was between and close by to their respective hometowns. Ever since, wherever a descendant of theirs has established a home, the lessons and spirit of Nevel have been close by.

Following Red October Russia’s already-broken economy was crippled, as the Revolution had deprived the nation of industry. To prevent the total collapse of the economy, Lenin introduced the New Economic Plan, allowing small businesses to reopen for profit. Zeide Getzel and Bube Rosa moved to Ostashkov where Getzel opened and owned a leather factory. The couple spent the first two years of their marriage in Ostashkov, until Stalin abandoned the NEP and Getzel and Rosa returned to Nevel.

Stalin’s rise to power most notably increased the scope of the Soviet secret service and intelligence network. Aside from the implications of these actions on an international scale, within Russia itself citizens were closely scrutinized and monitored. All Russians were required by law to carry identity papers on their person always. If someone were to visit another town, they would have to register at the local municipality by presenting their state-issued identification. When the documents would expire, new ID’s would be distributed. Being without the proper documentation was outlawed, and therefore exceedingly dangerous.

At a certain point, the administrator overseeing Nevel who was approachable, and for that matter bribable, was replaced by a new executive who was unwelcoming and inaccessible. Soon after the new supervisor arrived, new documentation was

44 distributed. For some inexplicable reason all of Nevel received their new papers, except for members of the Rubashkin family.

Not having been given their papers placed a great deal of anxiety on the Rubashkin family. To be sure, communism in a sense already robbed one of his individuality, but being stripped of even that pall of an identity meant possibly being robbed of your residency within the hub of the Soviet Republic, or worse.

Not knowing why this fate had befallen them, or what they could do to put things right, Getzel approached three senior Chassidic figures in Nevel. With the physical unreachability of the Rebbe at the time, Getzel would honor the Rebbe’s directive of posing and placing ones questions and burdens on a , or spiritual mentor. Zeide Getzel approached Rabbis Itche Laimes, Leibel Karasik, and Yona Kahn.

Getzel and Rosa Rubashkin’s home was constant host to a Chassidic atmosphere. Yeshiva students could enjoy a good meal, while their hosts took in the Torah lessons that the boys repeated. There were festive meals the Rubashkins would throw in honor of Jewish and major Chassidic holidays. Theirs was a model of a home built on the foundations of Torah and the illumination of Chassidus. Therefore, the mentoring trio suggested that Getzel do the most natural thing, and “make a Kidush” in his home over Shabbos. Chassidim live by the dictum that, “That which a Chassidishe Farbrengen can achieve, even the angel Michoel cannot.” The throngs of people that would attend the Shabbos gathering would surely bless the Rubashkins as they toasted L’chaim and engaged in Judaism’s most powerful force: brotherly love and unity.

Following Shabbos morning prayers, people began to pack into the Rubashkin home. They filled the house with song, words of Torah, and heartfelt blessings and wishes upon the family. By the time Shabbos was out, the guests still had not left. Having finished all the meat in the house, and staying long enough to pass the six hour interval after consuming meat, they moved on to a dairy Melava Malka63. By the time Sunday morning came around, there was not a morsel of food left in the Rubashkin home.

Needing to feed her family, and expecting the usual unexpected guests, Rosa and her father-in-law, Zeide Sholom set out for Sunday’s market day to replenish the pantries. At the market, Rosa ran into a good friend, whom she had not seen in a while. The friend, noticing Rosa’s weight loss and apparent stress, wondered why her friend was so distraught.

Rosa unloaded the episode on her attentive friend, describing how all of Nevel, save the Rubashkins, had received updated documentation, and how the new supervisor carried his position in full formality.

63 Lit. escorting the queen. The name of a meal customarily held after Shabbos

45 Unexpectedly, Rosa’s confidant informed her that her friend was romantically involved with the said supervisor. She would make it her duty to assist the Rubashkin family.

Bube Rosa’s friend did approach the man responsible for Nevel. When she approached him, he seemed relieved that someone he trusted could inform him about the Rubashkins. He had a number of questions about the subjects under discussion. “What kind of people are they?”

“They are very fine people.”

“How do they earn a living and how would you speak to their honesty?”

“They work extremely hard for their livelihood and are descent, honest people.”

Alleviated of a heavy weight, the supervisor explained that when he had taken up his new post he received a letter placing the Rubashkins under suspicion of illegal activity. It turned out that the family’s neighbor who would regularly visit Bube Gutel, and was a recipient of the Rubashkins’ kindness, orchestrated the affair. Despite her always leaving the Rubashkin home well fed, and carrying packages of food to take home, the covetous and bitter woman pointed out the family’s wealth and recommended that they be investigated.

With their identities restored, the Rubashkin family resumed their regular life in Nevel, until they would need to flee because of their Jewish identities. When the Nazis took Nevel in 1941, they mercilessly murdered the Jews who would not or could not escape. Thank G-d, the families of Sholom and Getzel Rubashkin had fled the German advance. For many weeks, the Rubashkins walked across Russia, sleeping in fields, and making every effort to survive. They walked over 300 kilometers until they could board trains heading to Rosa’s sister Danya’s town of Chelyabinsk, at the center of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

They arrived on the eve of Sukkot, 1941. Moments after lighting the Shabbos candles, Bube Gutel called for her daughter Rosa. Exhausted and ill, with Rosa’s name on her lips, Bube Gutel succumbed to sickness, passing away shortly after arriving to Chelyabinsk.

At the end of Sukkot, about a week after their long and perilous journey and burying their matriarch, the Rubashkin men would need to set out once more in order to recite the mourner’s Kadish in the company of a Minyan64.

Following the Soviet annexation of eastern Poland in the early stages of WWII, opposition to the new rule was quelled by means of extrajudicial executions and the mass deportations of Polish citizens to Siberia. Included in these transports were large numbers of Polish Jews who would be interred in Stalin’s Gulag Archipelago. After Operation Barbarossa, the Soviets were forced to recognize the Polish Provisional Government in Exile in the United Kingdom, to secure

64 Quorum of ten adult Jewish men required by Jewish law to perform certain religious obligations.

46 Western aid and alliance. In a gesture of goodwill, Stalin paroled Poles held in his work camps. Many Jewish prisoners moved southward to the warmer climate of Uzbekistan, whose Muslim population hardly abided with Soviet law.

With the large concentration of Jews in the Uzbeki cities of Tashkent and Samarkand, Zeide Sholom, Getzel, his brother Avraham Menachem Mendel, and son Avraham Aharon, departed on a 6000 kilometer journey to find a Minyan in Samarkand.

A seasoned traveller, Zeide Getzel had packed his Talis and Tefillin in a personal bag. At a central transit station a man greeted him extending a warm “Shalom Aleichem,” asking where his fellow Jew was coming from as he extended both of his arms. Zeide Getzel lowered his bag to extend his arms in return. The man turned out to be a thief, and as he held Zeide Getzel, an accomplice snatched his bag and made off. Those who were with Zeide Getzel on the journey tell of how after losing his mother, the loss of his precious Talis and Tefilin left Getzel inconsolable.

Later, Bube Rosa and her children would join the men in Samarkand. Many Jews would find refuge in Samarkand and remain there until the end of the war.

Rabbi Moshe Levertov was a student when he arrived to Samarkand. In his book, The Man Who Mocked The KGB, he details his arrival in the unusual city:

...For the six-kilometer ride from the train station to the city, I hired a donkey-driven wagon. Soon we were alone on a road that led through empty desert Imagine my shock when the gentile driver suddenly stopped and demanded full payment of the fare. I meekly complied and he took me further, but dropped me off at some distance from the yeshiva’s address I had given him. At least he had done me no harm, thank G‑d. I was forced to drag all my baggage quite a way to the yeshiva.

On the way, I was overwhelmed by a sight I had never before witnessed — a Jewish marriage ceremony! A groom and a bride were being led under the chupa canopy, surrounded by a large crowd of Chassidic Jews singing aloud a deeply moving melody. After the chupa, the festive meal and spirited dancing and singing continued for many hours into the night, the joyous voices reaching the far ends of Samarkand’s Jewish quarter.

This fearless Jewish celebration was unlike anything I had ever seen, and it filled me with deep emotion. After all my years of dread, it was so heartwarming to see such a fearless and large Chassidic celebration. The Chassidic families of Reb Getzel Rubashkin and Reb Uziel Chazanov (son-in-law of the well-known Chassid, Reb Meir Simcha Chein of Nevel) were uniting in marriage.

47 Rabbi Levertov witnessed the marriage of Getzel and Rosa’s eldest, Avraham Aharon to our aunt Riva. At their union they managed to impress upon the young refugee the majesty of Yidishkeit, even though he himself was an observant Jew. It is a reaction they elicit in countless people who are enchanted by the eloquence and expressiveness of their language of faith.

Samarkand and the eventual flight from Russia is a long chapter in our family’s history, and someday a book must document it. Before they fled the Soviet Union, Rosa took her children to bid farewell to her family in Leningrad. Then as did thousands of Jews at the time, they headed to Lemberg, Ukraine, some 70 kilometers from the Polish border.

Lemberg, or Lviv, was an exit port for many Polish Jews, as well as an exodus route for Russian ones. Since the trains carrying the refugees would leave from Lemburg, a committee of Chabad activists formed there to facilitate the daring escapes. They altered and forged Polish passports and arranged massive bribes to secure passage for their fleeing brethren.

All refugees had to surrender their valuables to the committee so that goods and cash could be exchanged for the passage of other Jews. At the time, the Rubashkins were carrying a considerable amount of money, and turned their assets over to the council. While it was a necessary sacrifice, Zeide Getzel would not hold on to any of his money before crossing over into an unfamiliar and uncertain world. Others had kept some petty cash on their person, but the Rubashkins relinquished theirs in congruity with their upstanding decency, honesty, and bravery.

After a stay at a displaced person’s camp, the journey to America continued. In 1947, the Rubashkins arrived in , France, where Zeide Getzel ran a grocery shop, and Bube Rosa served as a cook at the girls school.

When they arrived in New York, in 1954, Bube Rosa continued to serve as cook at the Beth Rivkah school in Brooklyn, and at Camp Gan Israel for boys, in the Catskills.

A classic story which sums up both Zeide Getzel’s and Bube Rosa’s life occurred on a summer’s night at Gan Israel. A couple that had been driving through the curving and dark mountain roads with their infant stopped when they saw the camp. When they entered the grounds, they noticed a light on in a particular unit and approached to ask for help.

Zeide Getzel and Bube Rosa were in the kitchen when the couple entered. They asked if there were nearby accommodations where they could spend the night while taking a break from the unfamiliar roads. Getzel and Rosa looked at each other and then told their visitors that there was a room on grounds where they could stay, and excused themselves to prepare the quarter while the couple waited.

48 In middle of the night, the guest’s baby awoke crying. The husband went to the kitchen where he had met the kind and hospitable couple earlier, to get some milk for the baby, and was astonished. “The couple were sitting asleep at a small table in the kitchen resting their heads on their arms, which were folded atop the table.” The vacant room that they were given was the one occupied by the exemplars of loving kindness.

Zeide Getzel was the consummate Chossid. At Chassidic gatherings, when elders would be seated on the platform behind the Rebbe, or at tables among the crowds, Zeide Getzel opted to stand among the young students. As a “soldier,” he would not be seated before the “general.”

The diadem in the life of the “crown of our head65,” was the Rebbe’s acceptance of Zeide Getzel’s special gift to him. During the 1960’s, Getzel had saved enough to purchase a Megilla66. His friend, the veteran scribe Rabbi Yeshaya Matlin retired from writing, but supplied scrolls that were written by other expert scribes. Getzel’s Megilla was written by Rabbi Eliezer Zirkind, a accomplished scribe and Chassidic figure.

When Zeide Getzel came to Rabbi Matlin to collect his scroll, he asked the dealer what he thought of the handiwork. As Getzel’s dear friend, Rabbi Matlin disclosed that even the Rebbe did not have such a beautifully written Megilla.

Getzel and Rosa decided to make a gift of the Megilla to the Rebbe, encased in sterling silver. Instead of delivering the gift to the Rebbe’s secretariat, as the Rebbe did not ordinarily accept gifts, they sent their grandson, my uncle Arik67, to deliver the Megilla on the day before Purim. The Rebbe’s wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka opened the door and received the gift.

On the eve of Purim, as the Rebbe’s Shul at 770 packed with thousands of Jews to hear the Megilla reading, the Rubashkin family waited with expectancy, hoping that the Rebbe would be holding the new Megilla. To their disappointment, the Rebbe entered the main sanctuary with his familiar Megilla.

Early Purim morning, Getzel received a phone call from Rabbi Chodakov, the Rebbe’s personal secretary. It seemed that the Rebbe had not returned home before the previous night’s Megilla reading, and therefore had not received the gift. Rabbi Chodakov told Zeide Getzel that the Rebbe was grateful for the Megilla, but insisted on remunerating eighteen dollars for an item to be used for a Mitzvah. Once Getzel would receive payment, the Rebbe would be honored to use the Megilla.

From that Purim onward, the Lubavitcher Rebbe exclusively used the Megilla that had been given to him by his beloved Chossid.

65 Lamentations 5:16 66 Scroll of Esther read on Purim 67 Named after Zeide Aharon Leib Lein (Chapter V)

49 Tzuza Fanya addressed her family in a packed house which routinely entertains large amounts of people. My grandparents, Michel and Danya (nee Rubashkin) Raskin are famous for their insatiable appetite of feeding, hosting, and caring for their fellow Jew. They, their siblings, and collective family’s generosity are matched only by the home where they learned the skill of warm hospitality and solid love.

Today, Getzel and Rosa’s descendants fill the word with their numbers, thank G-d, and with good “old-fashioned” goodness and kindness. As Abraham, the paradigm of kindness, Zeide Getzel was to all appearances blessed with the promise of Almighty G-d, “Please look heavenward and count the stars...That is how your descendants will be68.”

68 -Genesis 15:5

50 Further Reading

“One who quotes something in the name of its author brings redemption to the world” -Ethics of the Fathers, chapter six

Shney Luchot Habrit. Urim Publications 2000.

Avnei Chein. Laine, 2001.

Nobility and Piety. Markowitz, 2009.

Saltellvs Haggadah. Saltellus Publications, 2002.

The Shaltiel Manuscripts Catolonia 1061-1481. iUniverse 2004.

Shaltiel, one family’s journey through history. Academy Chicago Publishers, 2005.

Likutei Sipurim. Perlow, new edition, 1992.

The Man Who Mocked The KGB. Levertov, 2002.

Mitoroso Shel Raban Shel Yisroel. Markowitz 2000.

Tractorist Shel Harabi. Donin, 2009.

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