מוקדש לזכות החתן הנעלה והמצויין חבר מערכת של גליון זה הרה"ת ר' לוי יצחק וזוגתו מרת חי' מושקא שי' דובאוו לרגל חתונתם בשעטומ"צ ביום ו' תמוז תשע"ה

כ״ף מנחם-אב יום הסתלקות כ"ק הרה"ג והרה"ח המקובל וכו' ר' לוי יצחק ז"ל שניאורסאהן

Encounters with HoRav Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, the Rebbe’s Father

“I was happy to receive your letter...especially after hearing so much about the activities that you did during those years for my father. This assistance brings very great blessing, to fulfill your heart’s desires for good, for you and for your relatives.”1 This letter is one of the many instances that the Rebbe expressed his gratitude to those who merited to assist the Rebbe’s father, HoRav Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, especially during his years of exile in Chi’ili and Alma Ata. Often, at farbrengens in conjunction with Chof Av, HoRav Levi Yitzchak’s yom hilulah, the Rebbe would instruct them to say l’chaim, and bless them that the merit of the baal hahilula bring much revealed good for them and their families. In honor of Chof Av this year, we present our readers with the stories of some of the individuals who merited to be with HoRav Levi Yitzchak during those difficult years, and had the opportunity to be of assistance to him and Rebbetzin Chana. µ The interviews published here are transcripts of conversations conducted by Jewish Educational Media’s My Encounter with the Rebbe project, which has documented thousands of interactions with the Rebbe. Our deep gratitude goes to Rabbi Elkanah Shmotkin, Rabbi Yechiel Cagen and the My Encounter team for making these priceless memories of the Rebbe’s father available for this publication.

38 | A CHASSIDISHER DERHER “I was happy to receive your letter... especially after hearing so much about the activities that you did during those years for my father. This assistance brings very great blessing, to fulfill your heart’s desires for good, for you and for your rel at ives .” 1 This letter is one of the many instances that the Rebbe expressed his gratitude to those who merited to assist the Rebbe’s father, HoRav Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, especially during his years of exile in Chi’ili and Alma Ata. Often, at farbrengens in conjunction with Chof Av, HoRav Levi Yitzchak’s yom hilulah, the Rebbe would instruct them to say l’chaim, and bless them that the merit of the baal hahilula bring much revealed good for them and their families. In honor of Chof Av this year, we present our readers with the stories of some of the individuals who merited to be with HoRav Levi Yitzchak during those difficult years, and had the opportunity to be of assistance to him and Rebbetzin Chana. The interviews published here are transcripts of conversations conducted by Jewish Educational Media’s My Encounter with the Rebbe project, which has documented thousands of interactions with the Rebbe. Our deep gratitude goes to Rabbi Yechiel Cagen and the My Encounter team for making these priceless memories of the Rebbe’s father available for this publication. PHOTO: KEHOT VIA JEM/THE LIVING ARCHIVE / 2973 VIA JEM/THE LIVING ARCHIVE / 2973 KEHOT PHOTO:

AV 5775 | 39 Rabbi Leibel Raskin

and arrived in Alma Ata. Our family, along with other families of anash, came to the train station to meet HoRav Levi Yitzchak and Rebbetzin Chana. We children were told that this was the Tzemach Tzedek’s grandchild, and the Rebbe’s mechutan. [As youngsters, we all knew about the [Frierdiker] Rebbe; we often wished “L’chaim, der Rebbe zol zein gezunt.”] After their arrival, an apartment was PHOTO: JEM / MY ENCOUNTER PHOTO: rented for them. Hirshel Rabinovitch was Rabbi Leibel Raskin a”h, the Rebbe’s shliach to Morocco, was 11 years old when the one who helped HoRav Levi Yitzchak his family came to Alma Ata, and they merited to be with the Rebbe’s father. the most, but the rest of Anash were involved as well. Our family, my sisters and my brothers, were very close with Bringing HoRav Chassidim—was in order to come to him in particular. HoRav Levi Yitzchaks aid.) Levi Yitzchak The Message of Matan Torah Alma Ata was a very large city; at the In the year 5704 we found out that At the time, HoRav Levi Yitzchak time, it had over a million residents. HoRav Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, the would often sit and speak for hours When we would walk down the street, we rav of Yekatrinoslav, had been exiled long, sometimes taking a person’s name would see almost only women; all of the to Chi’ili, Kazakhstan, and his five year and explaining its inner meaning with men had been drafted to the war effort. sentence was set to finish in the coming gematrios, etc. But as I was a young child, My brothers were all old enough to be in February or March. I did not understand his words. the army, and my father was eligible as The law in Russia at the time stipulated well. It was with the Frierdiker Rebbe’s There was one occasion, however, that I that someone who was sentenced to five bracha that they managed to evade the did understand his message: years of exile must serve an additional draft. five years after he completes his initial In Alma Ata we had a shul, located in a term. That being the case, it was essential With us in Alma Ata were two brothers, cellar, and I remember that HoRav Levi to arrange that HoRav Levi Yitzchak’s Hirshel and Mendel Rabinovitch. Mendel Yitzchak came to daven there on Shavuos sentence be terminated before the had previously served in the military, [5704]. He recited Akdomus, which stood culmination of the five year sentence, so where he had sustained injuries. He out in my memory, since in our home, we that he should not be subject to that law, still wore his military uniform—which were careful to follow minhogei Chabad, and be able to leave his place of exile in enabled him to do many things that and we therefore never recited it. (I later the near future. regular civilians were not capable learned that the Rebbe would also recite of—and he and his brother were both it on his own every Shavuos.) The vast majority of Chassidim were immensely dedicated to HoRav Levi Afterwards, HoRav Levi Yitzchak living at the time in Samarkand [after Yitzchak. fleeing the advance of the Nazi armies delivered a drasha. It was a speech that in the west]. There were just a few It was Mendel who organized the entire even we—young children—were able families—including ours—that were scheme to save HoRav Levi Yitzchak. to understand. (Aside for myself, there located in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, which He traveled to Chi’ili over Pesach that were a few other young children in Alma was relatively close to Chi’ili. (My father year, and while there he arranged that Ata; one of them was Gedalia Zeideh, a told me that he later understood that HoRav Levi Yitzchak should be freed grandchild of the Shpoler Zeideh.) the reason, b’hashgacha pratis, that we immediately after Yom Tov. HoRav Levi Yitzchak spoke then about were located in Alma Ata—instead On Isru Chag, the day after Yom Tov, matan Torah. He spoke mainly to the of in Samarkand with the rest of the they traveled together through Zumarda children, saying that we need to know

40 | A CHASSIDISHER DERHER HE SAID THAT EVEN OUR FRIGHT FROM THE GOVERNMENT MUST NOT HINDER OUR ACTIVITIES. that we cannot be nispoel from anything My father was a mohel, and he would around us, we need to grow in limmud often secretly do brissen for children who Hatorah and fulfilling mitzvos, and not were already a year or two old. A few be afraid of anyone; our will must be the weeks after the histalkus, an individual Aibershter’s will. He spoke very clearly, came to my father and requested that elucidating his idea very well. Since I he perform a bris for his child, who was JEM / MY ENCOUNTER PHOTO: was a young child, I do not remember already two-years-old. RABBI LAIBEL RASKIN (L) AND RABBI DOVID RASKIN (R) TOGETHER WITH THEIR FATHER, RABBI YAAKOV all the details, but his main message was My father agreed, and he left our home YOSEF RASKIN (C). that we have to behave in a way that even with his chalat and his milah instruments. our fright from the government will not That night, six o’clock arrived, seven another Schneerson, and again you are hinder our activities. o’clock, and my father still had not making ‘Schneerson’ issues!” The day after Shavuos they discovered his returned. Ten o’clock, twelve o’clock, we They then proceeded to relate the entire illness; in Russian they called it shatucheh. began to consider going out to search for drasha that HoRav Levi Yitzchak had To our dismay, the illness worsened from him. spoken on the past Shavuos, about day to day. I remember that my brothers Around six o’clock in the morning, my chinuch, about Shabbos and about would go to his house every day to assist father returned. He was unrecognizable; kashrus. him to put on tefillin. while he had been away his hands and My father related that they had tortured The histalkus was on Chof Menachem- feet hand been tied and his beard had him the entire night. Every hour they Av; he was 66-years-old. been shorn. We only recognized him by would allow him a break for a half-an- his voice. Immediately after his passing it was hour; he would fall asleep and then they necessary to find a place for his burial. He told us, that as he had been getting off would wake him again and try to pry the My father was the shliach to go to the the tram car, he was accosted by a man names of his acquaintances from him. cemetery to locate a burial plot. My exiting a vehicle who began shouting at As dawn approached, someone (with a father bought six plots, and he later him: “You are a thief; you have stolen Jewish countenance) entered the room acquired a significant amount of metal from the kindergarten.” and said, “Her zich ein; we will let you (which was quite an accomplishment My father protested that he had nothing go now, on condition that you sign that during the war years) to create a barrier to do with a kindergarten, but the man you will not disclose anything we have around the kever, so that there would be ordered him to enter the vehicle and spoken about here. Additionally, you some sort of Ohel. dragged him inside. He was taken to the must become ‘one of ours.’ If you sign the During the levaya, I remember my father central NKVD headquarters where he document, we will let you go.” tearing kriah, and announcing that those was locked in a cell. Two weeks after he was released, my who want to touch the aron should first In middle of the night, he was called to father put a tichel around his face, took go to the mikvah. an interrogation, and they told him: off his glasses, and escaped together with A Night With the KGB “Raskin, what have you done again? my sister to Moscow. The rest of my family remained in Alma Ata until Teves After HoRav Levi Yitzchak’s histalkus, the What have you brought here, again a 5705. anash families in Alma Ata ‘merited’ to a Schneerson story?” This was already ‘Shabbos’dike guest’—every week, a KGB seventeen years after the Frierdiker Rebbe informant would come spend Shabbos had left Russia. with us. “We thought we got rid of him, he is already in America; and here you bring

AV 5775 | 41 THE DEALINGS WERE BEING DONE WITH THEIR FINGERS; SHE Evsey Neymotin DID NOT SPEAK THE KAZAK LANGUAGE, AND HE DIDN’T SPEAK RUSSIAN

in Alma Ata, they didn’t have a rav, so my PHOTO: JEM / MY ENCOUNTER PHOTO: father made arrangements that certain Reb Evsey Neymotin is a retired nuclear scientist and former refusenik living in individuals should go to Chi’ili, and bring Columbus, Ohio. HoRav Levi Yitzchak and Rebbetzin Chana back with them. This was no easy His father, Reb Yosef Neymotin, was one of the activists secretly spreading task, since he had been exiled there, and Yiddishkeit in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan he was forbidden to leave the square kilometer of his location. If he were to leave, he would immediately be arrested permission to leave. Life in Alma Ata and sent to prison. Additionally, this was My parents lived in Leningrad in the He made the distant journey deep into Russia in a time of war, where one could 1930s, where being an observant Jew was the depths of Russia, and he miraculously not move from one place to another very difficult; there was a six day work managed to find my mother somewhere without official permission. week, and everyone was required to work in Kazakhstan. Together they traveled to Before obtaining the permits however, on Shabbos. My parents tried various Alma Ata, which was not far from their they had to find out where HoRav Levi tricks to be able to get off of work, but location and was considered safe from Yitzchak was living. They calculated that they didn’t manage to earn money that the onslaught of the war. Additionally, if Rebbetzin Chana was living there, way, so they had practically nothing to Alma Ata was home to a considerable they should be able to locate her at the eat. group of anash families. marketplace on Friday, as she would be At the time, my mother had a brother While living in Alma Ata, the Chassidim buying food items for Shabbos. They living in Crimea, where there was a heard that there was a rav, HoRav Levi went to the Chi’ili bazaar, as it was Jewish settlement for agricultural work. Yitzchak Schneerson, living in Chi’ili, called, an indeed, they met an obviously This was a new accomplishment of where he was exiled after he was arrested Jewish woman negotiating with a Kazakh the Soviet Union; they were trying to and tortured in 1939 for spreading merchant over some goods. The dealings encourage Jews to work the land, and in Yiddishkeit and teaching Torah to Jewish were being done with their fingers, as she that region food was easier to come by. children. did not speak the Kazakh language, and Since they did not have anything to eat in Chi’ili is a suburb of Alma Ata, but it he didn’t speak Russian. Leningrad, my uncle brought my mother does not compare at all. It is a terrible They immediately approached her, to his settlement in Crimea, while my place to live. It is a purely a Kazakh place, and they confirmed that yes, this was father stayed in Leningrad. where only Kazakhs live. They did not Rebbetzin Chana. Sometime later, the Germans attacked speak Russian, so the Rebbe’s parents Now that they found HoRav Levi Leningrad, and my father, along with came into an environment where they Yitzchak, my father arranged that the other individuals, searched for ways to could not communicate, and it was a location of his exile be switched from escape, which was practically impossible terrible life. Chi’ili to Alma Ata. As I said before, at the time. Somehow, he was able to this was no small feat, but my father was bribe a police officer, and he obtained Food for Shabbos an outgoing man, and he was friendly While there were many Chassidim living

42 | A CHASSIDISHER DERHER with many police officers. I remember my father asked the doctor why HoRav renewed matzeivah to the Rebbe, and he these parties in our house, where all the Levi Yitzchak looked so pale. The doctor approved of it. Russians and Jews would be drinking answered, “Do you want me to tell Over the years, my father arranged that a together and befriending each other, the truth? I really can’t tell you.” That mikvah be built. We had a one-and-a-half kissing each other, as if we are all friends. was because HoRav Levi Yitzchak had story home, and in the basement of the It was all a lie, there was no friendship; become terminally ill. house, my father, with the help of people it was simply a show. But with these Once, my father entered their house, and from Tashkent, built the mikvah. It was connections, and with the aid of a bottle he saw that Rebbetzin Chana had a very the only mikvah in all of the three Soviet of vodka, my father was able to arrange serious look on her face, and HoRav Levi Republics. that HoRav Levi Yitzchak’s place of exile Yitzchak was crying. Rebbetzin Chana be moved to Alma Ata. People from all over that would come to asked him, “Why are you crying?” he daven at HoRav Levi Yitzchak’s tziyun, answered, “Who am I leaving you with? would come to toivel in our house An Everlasting Merit I’m crying about leaving you alone.” This Now that they were coming to Alma beforehand. Additionally, women who was the last time my father saw HoRav needed a mikvah would travel to our Ata—which is a very good thing—what Levi Yitzchak before he passed away. are they going to eat? They need food; for house as well. food you need money, and it was a very In the years after the histalkus, my father I remember my father working very hard poor neighborhood. would tend to the grave of HoRav Levi to heat the mikvah. The insulation of the Yitzchak. He would clean it and repaint basement was not good, but he always Therefore, every week—usually on the letters when they faded, and he Friday—my father would go around to put in a lot of effort to heat it, especially arranged for others to take care of it when women would come to use the all of the Chassidim living in the area when he was unable to. and collect money, which he would then mikvah. give to HoRav Levi Yitzchak. He did so At one point, the matzeivah needed The existence of this mikvah, in fact, was even after the histalkus of HoRav Levi to be completely repainted, and my the reason the Rebbe did not allow us Yitzchak, until Rebbetzin Chana left father, along with Hillel Liberov, did not to leave the Soviet Union for a very long Alma Ata. know if they were permitted to touch time. He felt that if we left, the mikvah the matzeivah. In the end, they hired a HoRav Levi Yitzchak became the de- would be destroyed and women would Russian to do the job, which he did very have nowhere to go. facto rav of the community, and he did well. Later they sent a picture of the everything a rav usually does. Once, while describing the characteristics of the various people in Alma Ata—this person is strong in Torah, this person is strong in this, etc.—and about my father he said, “Yoskeh is a chassidishe bayndeleh.” My father was very happy with this description. He wasn’t expected to become a big Torah scholar or anything, and he was fine with his capabilities. On a different occasion, my mother was privileged to receive a bracha from HoRav Levi Yitzchak. The Histalkus At some point, HoRav Levi Yitzchak asked my father to get a certain medicine from the pharmacy. While he was there,

THE TZIYON OF HORAV LEVI YITZCHAK IN ALMA - ATA, KAZAKHSTAN AV 5775 | 43 HIS COUNTENANCE WAS SO STRIKING, ALL OF THE NON- JEWS, THE KAZAKS, WOULD BOW THEIR HEADS IN Moshe Brandler DEFERENCE UPON SEEING HIM PHOTO: JEM / MY ENCOUNTER PHOTO: in deference upon seeing him. Other Reb Moshe Brandler was a young child when his family arrived in a city near Yidden who lived in Alma Ata, even the Alma Ata. non-religious, who initially did not want At eleven-years-old, he had the merit to be with HoRav Levi Yitzchak, and to speak to him, began to be drawn to to assist him periodically. Although they were not a family of Chassidim, his him. After beholding his appearance, family, along with many others, gravitated towards HoRav Levi Yitzchak, being and hearing him talk to others, they also that he was the bastion of Yiddishkeit in that remote region. began to come and ask his advice, and to appreciate his warmth and depth of understanding. Mincha With In general, his style of speech was very Years later, when I told the Rebbe that the Rebbe’s Father serious. Whenever he spoke, it was I had the merit to be together with his always regarding Chassidus or the father, he blessed us that the zechus zol When HoRav Levi Yitzchak lived in parshas hashavua; one would never hear aich beishtein. At the time, my wife had Alma Ata, he was generally too weak to him taking part in a regular conversation. become pregnant at an older age, and walk to shul, and he would have a daily His countenance was very serious, all of the doctors warned us that she minyan in his home. and he would dress just as he did in will miscarry. I told my wife that if the I lived then in a suburb of Alma Ata Yekatrinoslav, with a black sirtuk, etc. Rebbe said that we have the merit, then called Ili, which was a two or three hour This was very uncommon at the time, everything will surely be alright. Sure train ride from the city, together with and I do not know how he managed to enough, with Hashem’s help, a healthy a Lubavitcher Chassid by the name of obtain such clothing. baby girl was born, after many years of Leizer Leningrader and his son, who His countenance and appearance were waiting for a daughter. was a skin doctor and went by the name so striking, that when he would walk Shkovlanov. They would often travel to down the street, all the the city to see HoRav Levi Yitzchak, and I non-Jews—the Kazakhs— would sometimes join them. would bow their heads While there, we would join his minyan for mincha. When there were not WHEN HE WAS IN EXILE, HORAV LEVI YITZCHAK HAD NO ACCESS enough people, we would go ask others TO INK AND PAPER WITH to join, and we had a set list of who WHICH TO WRITE HIS TORAH, we knew we could ask and who we SO REBBETZIN CHANA HAND- PRODUCED INK FROM VARIOUS could not. Between mincha and maariv PLANTS, AND HORAV LEVI HoRav Levi Yitzchak would give a shiur YITZCHAK WROTE HIS TORAH ON in Mishnayos. On one occasion, he THE MARGINS OF SEFORIM. AS THE INK WAS HAND-MADE FROM performed a wedding while I was there, THE PLANTS AVAILABLE, THE and I merited holding one of the poles of HA’AROS ARE WRITTEN IN MANY the chupah. DIFFERENT COLORS.

44 | A CHASSIDISHER DERHER would come to shul, we would simply Gedalia Mazal daven, and do nothing more. That day was no different. However, when the davening was over and HoRav Levi Yitzchak began to speak, we understood that this was something different, something special. We felt that this wasn’t just an external dignity, but a truly pnimiusdiker nobility and holiness. Akdomus

PHOTO: JEM / MY ENCOUNTER PHOTO: One story that stands out in my mind happened on Shavuos that year: Reb Gedalia Mazal was a child living in Alma Ata during the period of HoRav Levi Yitzchak’s exile there. Our minyan in the makeshift shul was made up of Yidden from all backgrounds, His father, Reb Yisrael Avraham, was a Chossid who lived in the city who had each with his own unique set of the merit to have a close relationship with HoRav Levi Yitzchak. Young Gedalia minhagim. On Shavuos, a discussion therefore merited to see and hear, and retain memories of, much of what was began as to whether to recite Akdomus going on in HoRav Levi Yitzchak’s surroundings. or not. My father, being an ohev Yisrael par excellence, proposed that instead of arguing back and forth we simply put the in mitzrayim, they did not change their Golus Mitzrayim question to HoRav Levi Yitzchak, and do names, language, or dress. This was During the time that we lived in Alma as he will direct us. already three or four years into the war, Ata, my father had a close friend by and people had lost everything, including My father went over to HoRav Levi the name of Hirshel Rabinovitch, with their most prized possessions. My father Yitzchak, who told him (I couldn’t hear whom he would often converse with for example, no longer had his equipment it at the time, but so it seems) that we regarding his parnassah among other that he used in his profession as a should recite it. [Years later I found subjects. One day, I think it was towards photographer (a line of work in which he out that the Rebbe would say Akdomus the summer, Hirshel told my father that was able to work independently, and was quietly, to himself every year.] they are trying to arrange for HoRav therefore able to keep Shabbos). People Levi Yitzchak to be able to leave Chi’ili When everyone heard what HoRav Levi were under terrible pressure, and no one and move to Alma Ata. Indeed, within Yitzchak had said, a small commotion dressed properly or allowed themselves to a short period of time—yet with an erupted. One of those present, a buy new belongings. immense amount of effort—HoRav Levi chassidisher Yid named Tzalke, who Yitzchak and Rebbetzin Chana arrived in Within all of this chaos, a Jew suddenly would review a maamar at shalosh seudos our city. appears, dressed in a dignified manner, every week, went over to HoRav Levi with black rabbinic garb and a hat. Yitzchak and told him that in Lubavitch, My younger sister often reminisces about All this, in addition to his saintly by the Rebbe, the custom is not to recite the impression HoRav Levi Yitzchak countenance, caused heads to turn in his Akdomus. made upon her and her young friends direction. We constantly saw how, when when he arrived in the city. He had a very The room fell silent; it was possible walking in the street, non-Jews would unusual appearance, even in comparison to hear a pin drop, and we all heard remove their hats and bow their heads in with other rabbonim which we knew. HoRav Levi Yitzchak’s reply. He asked deference to HoRav Levi Yitzchak. Tzalke, “Tell me, do you remember what It was a time of terrible oppression. I remember the first time he came to our was done by the Rebbe on the night of HoRav Levi Yitzchak once commented shul—which was a simple room, half Shavuos? that S.S.S.R. (in Hebrew) is b’gematria sunken into the ground. In those days, mitzrayim, and while the Yidden were “Do you know why Akdomus was not people did not converse much; when we recited by the Rebbe? It was because we

AV 5775 | 45 TODAY, HORAV LEVI Present at the simcha were about ten or who wasn’t. But HoRav Levi Yitzchak YITZCHAK SAID, fifteen people, which was a considerable continued: crowd in those days. We realized that Everyone thinks that Hitler and Stalin WE HAVE TWO HoRav Levi Yitzchak had not been are two opposites, since they are fighting SUCH STICKS: ONE broken or affected by all that he had each other, but in essence they are one BELONGING TO endured in Yekatrinoslav and Chi’ili, but and the same: their goal is to get rid of we still hoped that he would not express the Yidden. A proof for this is in the HITLER, AND ONE all of his thoughts in such a public gematria of their names; both Hitler and BELONGING TO setting. This was especially relevant on Stalin have the same mispar katan2. this occasion, for present there was a STALIN. Jew who wasn’t very intelligent, and was HoRav Levi Yitzchak spoke much more known to tell over everything he saw to on that occasion, however due to my had to hear the maamar, then review the his family. This individual had a son that young age at the time, I do not remember maamar, go to mikvah, say the entire seemed to have ties with the authorities, most of it. Tehillim, recite Tikkun, and review the and over time we began to realize While he was not arrested after that talk, maamar once again. So what time was that whatever occurred in the father’s my father—and I’m sure others as well— left for anything else? presence would later be mentioned spoke to HoRav Levi Yitzchak, asking “And what have you done this past night? during interrogations that would take him to remember where he came from, Did you review a maamar twice? Perhaps place in the following months. My father and what could lie in store for him. himself experienced the effect of this even once? Did you go to the mikvah? [After the histalkus, I witnessed a few informer. Were you awake the entire night reciting occasions where ‘they’ came to ‘speak’ Tehillim and Tikkun?” However, our hopes were for naught. to my father. Being that he was not a Needless to say, everyone became quiet That week was parshas Matos Mas’ei. In Lubavitcher Chassid and he had been and recited Akdomus. his talk, HoRav Levi Yitzchak said that very close to HoRav Levi Yitzchak, the throughout Jewish history there have KGB tried to pry out of him details Our Enemies been many different matos—sticks; there of the activities within the Chassidic After HoRav Levi Yitzchak settled in was the staff of Moshe Rabeinu, and then community in Alma Ata, as well as Alma Ata and recovered a bit of his there are sticks which are used to break details regarding HoRav Levi Yitzchak. strength, he began to leave his home from Yiddishe beiner—Jewish bones. Today, My father ultimately had to flee, and was time to time. I remember once that he HoRav Levi Yitzchak said, we have two not even present at my bar mitzvah]. came to a simcha of one of the Chassidim; such sticks: the one belonging to Hitler, Hirshel Rabinovitch’s brother. In fact, and the one belonging to Stalin. Sheineh Elteren it was this brother that was entirely A few weeks later, on Shabbos Parshas Everyone present began immediately dedicated to HoRav Levi Yitzchak and Bechukosai, everyone was walking looking around the room, taking into did his utmost to assist him in every way together to some specific location, and account who was present at the talk and that he possibly could. my father and I were walking together

HORAV LEVI YITZCHAK WAS EXILED FROM HIS HOMETOWN IN YEKATRINOSLAV TO CHI’ILE, AND LATER TRAVELED TO ALMA ATA - A DISTANCE OF OVER 2,000 MILES. 46 | A CHASSIDISHER DERHER with HoRav Levi Yitzchak. HoRav Levi his voice, and it seemed that he was not Due to the situation at the time—the Yitzchak spoke to my father about the talking to the people around him, but exile, and the war—every person was parshas hashavua. Why is it, he asked, rather upwards, to an entirely different wary of his friends and neighbors, that the tochecha, the rebuke to the ‘address.’ and even his own relatives, so no one Yidden in our parshah, seems to finish At some point he stopped whispering, expected such a huge turnout. Yet people by the verse “Vezacharti es brissi—and I and he asked my father to bring him negel turned up from all ends of the city, and will remember the covenant with Yaakov, vasser. Then he said—my father told this even beyond. The levaya took place with etc.,” but then suddenly continues for a to me numerous times—the following the coffin being carried on shoulders all few more verses, “Uvaah haaretz, e tc .” words: the way to the cemetery. I remember that Why is it that in middle of the tochecha those who did not go to mikvah that day our forefathers are suddenly mentioned? “M’darf zich greiten iberchappen oif yenne were not allowed to touch the coffin. zeit—we must prepare to go over to the My father began to think about the other side.” Every year when Chof Av comes around, question, but HoRav Levi Yitzchak I am pained by the fact that I did not continued: When we—the young children—were have the understanding and the regesh woken up early the next morning, we “I will tell you, Reb Yisrael Avraham. to retain more of the memories of my were shocked to hear that HoRav Levi encounters with HoRav Levi Yitzchak. Those who have sheineh elteren, those Yitzchak had passed overnight. We were who have good forefathers, forefathers told that our help was needed. The burial 1. The Rebbe’s letter to Reb Hirshel Rabinovitch, like Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, zey had to take place that very day, and being 17 Menachem-Av, 5721; Toldos Levi Yitzchok vol. shmeist men merer, they get whipped that there were no telephones, the Yidden 2 p. 644 more; they get a tosefes, an additional of the city all needed to be notified. 2. A mispar katan is a form of gematria in which portion. the total sum is added up against each other. I was all but eleven-years-old at the time; The calculation of HoRav Levi Yitzchak seems “I am telling this to you, Reb Yisrael, for my sister went around to tell all of the to be according to the Russian pronunciation of you are a grandson of Reb Zushe. But as I Jews living in the immediate area, while I Hitler and Stalin (as Rabbi Mazal pronounced them during his interview), as they are spelled in tell it to you, I am thinking about myself traveled to the city with the tram. I went Yiddish: as well.” around to the shuls and to the houses of גיטלער = 322 = 7 סטאלין = Yidden that I was acquainted with. The 7 = 160 The Merit Will Stand By You message I relayed was, “My father asked My father was present on the night of the me to tell you that HoRav Levi Yitzchak histalkus of HoRav Levi Yitzchak; he was was nistalek.” THE PIYUT OF “AKDOMUS” RECITED IN MANY right beside him during those COMMUNITIES BEFORE KRIAS HATORAH ON SHAVUOS. last hours and minutes. He later told me that he realized that HoRav Levi Yitzchak was whispering something the entire time. He did not raise

THOSE WHO HAVE FOREFATHERS LIKE AVRAHAM, YITZCHAK AND YAAKOV, ‘ZEY SHMEIST MEN MERER’

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