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CONTENTS

744 Eastern ParkwayBrooklyn, NY 11213-3409

Tel: (718) 778-8000Fax: (718) 778-0800admin@beismoshiach.org

www.beismoshiach.org

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:M.M. Hendel

HEBREW EDITOR:Rabbi S.Y. ChazaneditorH@beismoshiach.org

ENGLISH EDITOR:Boruch Merkureditor@beismoshiach.org

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FEATURED ARTICLES

4 LIVING WITH THE REBBE IN 770

14 TORAH AND PHILANTHROPY Avrohom Rainitz

22 A TOWER OF CHASSIDIC STRENGTHShneur Zalman Berger

32 KEEPING THE DANCING GOING UNTIL DAWN

40 THE SIFREI TORAH THAT WERE SAVED AT THE LAST MINUTEMenachem Ziegelboim

46 BUILDING THE HEAVENLY SUKKA

WEEKLY COLUMNS 3 D’var Malchus12 Moshiach & Geula37 Parsha Thought49 News50 Tzivos Hashem

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NO TIME TO WAIT FOR THEM TO GET ITIt makes no difference whether it is within their capacity to assimilate it or not, and there is simply no time to wait until they can grasp it. * Chapter Three of Rabbi Shloma Majeski’s Likkutei Mekoros Vol. 2. (Underlined text is the compiler’s emphasis.)

Translated by Boruch Merkur

10. In continuation to what was said above regarding the shluchim (emissaries) of my revered father in-law, the Rebbe, leader of our generation, it is significant to note that the word “shliach” with the addition of ten equals “Moshiach.”

Now, “Moshiach” is the leader of the generation, nasi ha’dor (as will be discussed). Thus, when a “shliach,” the emissary of nasi ha’dor (“the emissary of a person is like the person himself”), devotes and adds “ten” – his ten soul-powers, meaning that he dedicates all ten soul-powers towards fulfilling the shlichus, the mission – he reveals within himself the aspect of the meshaleiach, the director of the mission, “Moshiach.”

To elaborate:The leader of the generation is

“Moshiach,” beginning with the simple connotation of “Moshiach” (“Moshiach Hashem”), meaning “mashuach – anointed,” for he is anointed and chosen to be leader and shepherd of the Jewish people.

Indeed, there are no qualms about interpreting “Moshiach” in the literal sense – Moshiach Tzidkeinu

– for that is the truth: the leader of the generation is the Moshiach of the generation.

In simple terms, the leader and shepherd of the Jewish people in our generation is the Moshe Rabbeinu of the generation, “the incarnation of Moshe in each and every generation.” Moreover, every true Torah scholar is called by the name “Moshe” – [as we see from the Gemara (Shabbos 101b), where Rav Safra, to express his esteem for Rava, addresses him as Moshe] “Moshe, have you then spoken well?” And since Moshe Rabbeinu is also Moshiach Tzidkeinu – “the first redeemer is the final redeemer” – it follows that the leader of the generation, the Moshe Rabbeinu of the generation, is also the Moshiach Tzidkeinu of the generation.

In this sense, when the leader of the generation appoints a shliach – “the emissary of a person is like the person himself” – and the shliach fulfills his shlichus, devoting and dedicating his entire being, his ten soul-powers to do so, then “shliach” with the addition of the number

ten (his ten soul-powers) makes “Moshiach,” meaning that within him is revealed the meshaleiach – “Moshiach.” And in so doing he brings about the revelation of Moshiach Tzidkeinu in the literal sense.

In any event, in response to those who argue that this manner of speech and these [allegedly provocative] expressions are beyond the power of their minds to absorb – it makes no difference whether it is within their capacity to assimilate it or not, and there is simply no time to wait until they can grasp it.

Rather, they may interpret the meaning of “the nasi ha’dor is ‘Moshiach’” however they please; the main thing is that they fulfill the shlichus of nasi ha’dor in disseminating Judaism and spreading the wellsprings [of Chassidus] outward, as well as the timely directive – to go and bring joy to other Jews on Simchas Torah and inspire them to add in all matters of Judaism, Torah, and its Mitzvos.

This directive includes strengthening faith in the advent of Moshiach and yearning for his arrival – “A king will rise from the

Continued on page 11

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D’VAR MALCHUS

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LIVING WITH THE REBBE

IN 770

From right to left: R’ Sholom Yaakov Chazan, R’ Avrohom Rainitz, Rabbi Akiva and Noam Wagner Photo by Zalman Vishnefsky

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INTERVIEW

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Two brothers, R’ Akiva Wagner – rosh

yeshiva in Toronto, and R’ Noam Wagner –

rosh yeshiva in Johannesburg, meet once a

year for a week at the Rebbe. * R’ Sholom

Yaakov Chazan and Avrohom Rainitz

interviewed them for Beis Moshiach’s Sukkos

issue, in the course of which the roshei

yeshiva provided an edifying view of what it

means to be devoted to the Rebbe, the inner

work needed in inyanei Moshiach, and about

the hiskashrus of bachurim today.

Setting up a meeting with both Wagner brothers is difficult. Both of them serve as roshei yeshiva,

but whereas R’ Akiva Wagner is a rosh yeshiva in Toronto, where he grew up, his brother R’ Noam lives far away in South Africa. They meet once a year for a week, during the Aseres Yemei T’shuva, at the Rebbe. They bring with them nearly all their talmidim so that their yeshivas essentially move to Crown Heights for ten days.

Although, generally speaking, roshei yeshiva set the tone for the learning of nigleh in yeshiva,

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while the Chassidic tone is in the hands of the mashpiim, with the Wagner brothers lomdus and Chassidishkait go together, supporting and strengthening one another. Even during the interview with them, which dealt with Chassidic topics, they brought proofs from the Gemara along with quotes from maamarim, because to them it’s all one thing.

During our fascinating conversation, the brothers shared their memories of Tishrei with the Rebbe, and from there we moved on to Tishrei of today.

Although we do not see the Rebbe, we feel the Rebbe’s presence in 770, but more than ever we need deep avoda p’nimis (inner work) in order to absorb the great revelations.

TAKE WHATEVER YOU CAN TAKE

We would like to hear from you about when you were with the Rebbe for the first time and what memories you have of those days.

R’ Akiva: I first went to the Rebbe for Rosh HaShana 5743/1982. I was not yet a bachur in a Chabad yeshiva, but the spiritual experience of a Rosh HaShana with the Rebbe was so powerful that I spent every Rosh HaShana since then with the Rebbe with the exception of one year when I was on shlichus in yeshiva in California.

Tishrei with the Rebbe is a unique combination of opposites. On the one hand, it is a time where everything happens on a large scale. A huge crowd comes and you don’t have the privilege of standing near the Rebbe without getting pushed, as was possible the rest of the year. In the summer months, for example, the number of people was small and it was possible to get very close to the Rebbe. In Tishrei it was all “b’rov am.” On the other hand, during Tishrei there were many personal moments, starting with Erev Rosh HaShana when

we passed by the Rebbe and gave the Rebbe a pidyon nefesh. That is a very personal, private moment.

There were other moments like that in Tishrei, but the most special moments were on Simchas Torah. The crowd was huge, bigger than on Rosh HaShana, but during the Rebbe’s hakafa, as the Rebbe danced with the Torah, he looked at each person, that’s how we felt.

These two aspects that comprised the spiritual experience of Tishrei, after just one time, made it impossible for me to consider Tishrei anywhere else ever again.

R’ Noam: I went to the Rebbe a number of times during the year, but I went for Tishrei for the first time in 5751. That year, each Yom Tov was three days of continuous holiness and it was

a special spiritual elevation. On the Sunday following Shabbos B’Reishis, the Rebbe gave out dollars for tz’daka and R’ Gershon Mendel Avtzon went past with a group of bachurim from non-Chabad yeshivos whom he had brought with him from Eretz Yisroel.

Since, the year before, I had learned in a non-Chabad yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel and had learned Chassidus with R’ Avtzon, he invited me to join his group. I stood behind him as he pointed at the bachurim who came with him and told the Rebbe, these are bachurim from non-Chabad yeshivos who came to the Rebbe for Tishrei.

The Rebbe’s response was: It should be with great success, and you should take along with you whatever you can take along.

These words impacted me strongly. It is a general instruction for every person and for every Tishrei.

The next year I went much earlier. That year I started learning in Oholei Torah so I was in 770 starting from 15 Elul. That year, the learning of Chassidus in the evening took place in 770. Ostensibly this was because of the riots in Crown Heights and they were afraid to have the bachurim walking at night on Troy where the yeshiva was. But the bachurim speculated that the real reason was that the Rebbe had been saying a sicha nearly every night and in order to prevent our having to run from Troy to 770 they arranged for us to learn in 770.

I can never forget the sicha of the third night of Slichos in which the Rebbe urged the farbrenging like the farbrengens in Lubavitch, when the Chassidim showed up for Slichos tipsy. The

Chassidim continue to come to the Rebbe not

because of what was, but because of what there

is now! The Rebbe is here and this is the reason that we

urge the bachurim to come, so they will spend Tishrei

with the Rebbe.

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INTERVIEW

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Rebbe also urged learning one of the maamarim of the Rebbeim about Slichos. After the sicha we went to Oholei Torah and despite the late hour, close to midnight, we all sat down to learn the maamarim and then we farbrenged all night.

My brother mentioned that within the vast crowding of Tishrei, each person has private moments with the Rebbe. One of my special moments was the night of Yom Kippur 5752. That day was unforgettable for anyone who was present. It started with a sicha after Mincha which lasted nearly an hour, despite it being Erev Yom Kippur. After the sicha, the Rebbe started the Hakafos niggun and gave out dollars. I did not pass by to receive a dollar but from where I stood, you could see the Rebbe’s glowing face, just like the parable of the king in the field who displays a smiling countenance.

After the birkas ha’banim in the small zal, I hurried downstairs

to the big zal for Maariv with the Rebbe. Since all of Anash had taken places and the bachurim had just come down from birkas ha’banim, it was impossible to go to your usual spot and so we all stood wherever we could find a place. I stood near the place the Rebbe passed on his way out after davening. On Yom Kippur they did not sing when the Rebbe went out after davening. A path was made for the Rebbe and there was an odd silence in the zal. A little boy stood next to me and when the Rebbe passed by, he stopped for a moment and made a strong, encouraging motion with his hand. I did not

know what I was supposed to do but that motion remains etched in me forever.

NEEDED: AVODA P’NIMISAlthough over twenty years

have passed in which we have not seen the Rebbe, you still come to 770 and even bring your talmidim. When you come, you are certainly reminded of those days and feel longing and for the Rebbe, but what about the bachurim who never saw the Rebbe – why are they coming?

R’ Noam: Chassidim continue to come to the Rebbe not because of what was, but because of what

Sometimes we too can delude ourselves into

thinking we are living with Moshiach and Geula

while we are bothered by the most exile-like sorts of

things. In order to truly live Geula and Moshiach, we need

to learn a tremendous amount.

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there is now! The Rebbe is here and this is the reason that we urge the bachurim to come, so they will spend Tishrei with the Rebbe.

At the same time, since we have not yet merited to see the Rebbe, to our great sorrow, we need deeper, inner work to feel that we are with the Rebbe, and in order to receive the tremendous inner hashpaa that the Rebbe bestows upon us during Tishrei.

R’ Akiva: Even when we saw the Rebbe, inner work was needed in order to absorb the lights and revelations of Tishrei, just like they would announce before the shofar blowing that we need to think about where we are and before whom we stand. For if we don’t think about it, then the effects are only in a way of makif and would be lacking the inner Chassidic sensitivity.

The Gemara in P’sachim relates, “There were three Kohanim – one said I received a portion the size of a bean, one said I received the size of an olive, and one said I received like the tail of a lizard. They checked into his lineage and found a smattering of a defect in his lineage.” These were three Kohanim who pushed to receive the lechem ha’panim, comparable in our generation to those Chassidim who push to be the closest to k’dusha. And still, when they wanted to describe the part they managed to get, one of them compared it to a lizard’s tail. This teaches us that you can stand the closest to the Rebbe and still look at everything in the

coarsest way.R’ Noam: True, when you

don’t see it openly, the work is harder, but when you are successful, you can attain levels of hiskashrus that are much higher than in the past. In a sicha that was published for Shabbos Chazon 5751, the Rebbe asks how a person can be inspired when the Beis HaMikdash is taken from him, when that was seemingly the source of inspiration.

The Rebbe explains that when the Beis HaMikdash stood, each person saw it according to his spiritual level and so the seeing was limited and sometimes had no effect. But since the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, and on Shabbos Chazon “the Mikdash is shown from a distance” – the vision is not limited by man’s abilities. Furthermore, when you know that the vision is only from a distance, just knowing this arouses a person to make more of an effort in his inner work.

It is certainly possible that a bachur who was at the Rebbe back then, who openly saw the Rebbe but did not invest in his inner work, was not actually at the Rebbe. A bachur who comes today and does not see the Rebbe but who does the inner work is with the Rebbe!

R’ Akiva: When talking about this, I cannot help but remember that refined young man who came every year for Simchas Torah by the Rebbe and even had a permanent place on our pyramid from where he could see the Rebbe during hakafos. But

he was unable to deal with the tremendous pushing and every year, before the hakafos began, he would go down. He got to see the Rebbe when he entered and exited, but aside from that he saw nothing. Every year we felt bad for him and tried to help him come back up to the pyramid but he couldn’t. I would look at him and think, what a pity. He is in 770 during the Rebbe’s hakafos, and he knows that the Rebbe is leading the hakafos right now, but his location makes him unable to see the Rebbe.

What is the avoda p’nimis needed in order to be able to feel the Rebbe and connect to him?

R’ Akiva: The very same inner work that the mashpiim demanded in earlier years, to increase in learning the Rebbe’s sichos and maamarim, and to be particular about fulfilling the Rebbe’s enactments and instructions. The Rebbe says that when you learn his teachings and fulfill his instructions, you are mekushar to him. When you are mekushar to him, you sense him.

Today, it is important to prepare properly to go to the Rebbe and to make the inner investment while at the Rebbe, more than ever before. This is because when we saw the Rebbe it had a certain effect, even for someone who did not prepare. Today though, when we don’t see the Rebbe, the main investment of energy has to be on the inner work of the soul.

THE TRIP – DEVOTION TO THE REBBE

If the main thing is inner soul preparation by learning the sichos etc. why not just stay home, in Toronto or Kfar

Whoever merely engages in analytic study of the

topics pertaining to Geula and does not learn the

sichos of 5751-5752, is like someone using a horse and

wagon instead of a car.

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INTERVIEW

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Chabad, and learn the sichos and maamarim and connect to the Rebbe? Why travel to 770?

R’ Akiva: In the maamer “V’chol adam lo yihiye b’ohel moed – 5723” – the Rebbe explains that on Yom Kippur an extremely lofty light shines, the essence of the day, and the job of a Jew is to bring down that point of “essence” into his personal life. This is why Yom Kippur has five t’fillos, so we can draw that point of “essence” into all aspects of the soul: the nefesh, ruach, neshama, chaya, yechida. Or as the liturgical hymn goes, “one above and seven below” – the lofty aspect of “one” needs to penetrate the person’s inner character which is made up of seven faculties, starting from the midda of chesed until the midda of malchus.

That means, we cannot suffice with the power of the day

itself without drawing this light into our vessels; contrariwise, we cannot successfully do the work with our limited vessels without the “essential” light of Yom Kippur.

The same is true for traveling to the Rebbe. When we are at the Rebbe, we receive a light of “essence” that the Rebbe bestows to whoever comes. But after we receive this light, we need to draw it down, and this occurs through inner work. Someone who wants to stay at home and do the inner work, loses out on the great and “essential” light that is to be found here, by the Rebbe. We need to combine both things.

R’ Noam: A similar question is brought in Kuntres HaHishtatchus where it asks why do we need to go and prostrate at the grave of a tzaddik when you can accomplish everything at

home without physically going to the tzaddik? It explains there that the point is that in order to receive the hashpaa from the tzaddik, we need to devote ourselves entirely to the Rebbe and set aside our own existence. This is expressed when a person leaves his place of domicile and goes to the tzaddik. He gives himself over to the tzaddik and this devotion enables him to receive hashpaos from the tzaddik.

Similarly, we can say regarding traveling to the Rebbe, a Chassid needs to know the Rebbe is here, in Beis Chayeinu, and he needs to nullify all of his existence and leave his place and go to the Rebbe.

THE HISKASHRUS OF THE T’MIMIM

After your talmidim spend Tishrei with the Rebbe, do you

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see any changes in them?R’ Noam: I’ll answer you

with a question (as a good Jew does). Thirty years ago, when the bachurim saw the Rebbe, was a change apparent when they returned to yeshiva?

R’ Akiva: Since we are talking about an inner change, you don’t always see it immediately and it certainly is not always apparent externally, even though personally, every one certainly feels it. I remember when I was a bachur, when I came back from the Rebbe there was a change in me.

Aside from that, generally speaking, you see the special chayus of bachurim at “Tishrei with the Rebbe,” and that itself shows a fundamental change. I am talking about American bachurim who don’t like the whole commotion of Tishrei, bachurim to whom comfort, order, and privacy are important, and yet they come here. That itself is quite amazing and indicates a fundamental change.

The wonder is all the greater in light of the fact that we don’t actually see the Rebbe. I mentioned before the man who went down from the pyramid every year and I always thought, what brings him back to the Rebbe when last year he didn’t see anything, and over there he sees only a little, when the Rebbe comes in and goes out; that was a chiddush to me. What should we say about all the bachurim who come year after year even though they see nothing?

It is a spiritual inspiration that the Rebbe himself bestows upon these bachurim and it is this which arouses in them the desire to come back again and again.

Is it correct to say that the hiskashrus of bachurim today is greater, despite the absence of

giluyim?R’ Akiva: They say that once

the elder Chassidim sat and spoke longingly about hiskashrus of Chassidim in days gone by. R’ Avrohom Pariz was there and he said: In the stories, it was all wonderful once upon a time…

When the Rebbe Rashab instructed that people should learn safrus they did not all stand at the ready to do his bidding. One learned, another had an excuse, a third had reasons… In the seventh generation, by contrast, the bachurim do the Rebbe’s bidding without excuses.

By the same token, we can say that with the bachurim of today we see a special devotion to the Rebbe, more than we had in our time.

R’ Noam: Take the Simchas Beis HaShoeiva as an example. The Rebbe said to start the simcha on the nights of Yom Tov even though you can’t use musical instruments. In the first years they did not dance all night, just for two or three hours. Today, they fulfill the Rebbe’s horaa b’hiddur and even on the nights of Yom Tov they dance until dawn, hundreds of bachurim and Anash. And those bachurim who danced all night go on Mivtza Dalet Minim during the day!

When I tell bachurim today that when the Rebbe came down for Shacharis on Simchas Torah there were only about 200 people in 770 because the rest were all exhausted after a week of Simchas Beis HaShoeiva, Tahalucha, and dancing hakafos the night of Simchas Torah, they look at me incredulously and cannot understand how it is possible that bachurim would sleep and not take the opportunity to see the Rebbe at hakafos on Simchas Torah by

day! In later years, although there are no giluyim, bachurim come to t’fillos with the Rebbe and 770 is full at Shacharis on Simchas Torah.

R’ Akiva: The bachurim’s care in attending t’fillos in the Rebbe’s minyan and their special chayus in singing Yechi before and after davening, are amazing. When we were bachurim and got to see all the giluyim, when the Rebbe encouraged singing with his hand motions, we sang with greater chayus, but the moment the Rebbe stopped encouraging us, all the chayus vanished.

The bachurim of today who don’t see the Rebbe encouraging the singing, sing with enthusiasm. This chayus does not come out of nowhere. It comes from the fact that the light of the Rebbe shines forth in them in a revealed way.

AVODA P’NIMIS IN INYANEI MOSHIACHIn the last sicha that we

heard from the Rebbe at the Kinus HaShluchim, the Rebbe said that all aspects of shlichus need to be permeated with Moshiach and Geula. As roshei yeshivos, how do you teach your talmidim to live with inyanei Moshiach and Geula?

R’ Akiva: The Rebbe said clearly that the way to live Moshiach and Geula is through learning about it. This is the very same point we spoke about – Chabad demanding p’nimius. It is true for the preparations for Tishrei by the Rebbe and for inyanei Moshiach and Geula.

When we delve into learning about the Geula, especially in Chassidus, we discover that the central point of everything is Moshiach. Then, even when we speak about hiskashrus to the Rebbe it automatically connects

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to Moshiach, and when speaking about G-dly revelation, it too is part of the discussion about Moshiach. It’s one central thread.

R’ Noam: Enthusiasm in inyanei Moshiach and Geula doesn’t come out of nowhere. You need to work on it, mainly by learning a lot. As the Rebbe said, when the mind is full of inyanei Moshiach and Geula, it will reach the heart (for the mind controls the heart) and from there it will have practical effects.

There was once a Chassid who stood on the corner of Kingston and Eastern Parkway and asked bachurim: You came to the Rebbe?

They did not understand what he was asking. After all, he could see them near 770, so of course they came to the Rebbe.

He explained: You can come here and still not have arrived. As the Rebbe himself once said, “L’chaim for those who did not come yet and l’chaim for those who are here and still did not arrive.” Or, in another version, “for those who think they are here but aren’t.”

The same is true for inyanei Moshiach and Geula. If you don’t learn it in a p’nimius’dike way, it can seem that we are living Moshiach and Geula but we are really very far from it.

R’ Akiva: They tell of a

Chabad Chassid who ended up at a tish of a Poilishe Rebbe on Shvii shel Pesach. Their practice is to mimic the “splitting of the sea” in which they pour some water on the floor and Chassidim sing and their Rebbe goes through the middle. When it came time for their Rebbe to walk through, he carefully lifted his bekeshe so it would not become wet. The Lubavitcher watched this and thought: Hmm, he is standing there in great d’veikus as though at Krias Yam Suf but he is concerned that his clothing not get wet.

Sometimes we too can delude ourselves into thinking we are living with Moshiach and Geula while we are bothered by the most exile-like sort of things. In order to truly live Geula and Moshiach, we need to learn a tremendous amount.

LEARNING THE FINAL SICHOS

R’ Noam: When speaking about learning inyanei Moshiach and Geula, the emphasis should be on learning the sichos of the later years which contain a wealth of inyanei Moshiach and Geula. It is especially important to learn these sichos, as we know what the Rebbe said about the special fondness for the last sichos we heard from the Rebbe.

In the sicha of 6 Tishrei 5749, the Rebbe spoke about his mother who would copy maamarim of the Rebbe Rashab and the Rebbe described the whole system of reviewing and writing the maamarim. He said that although there were earlier maamarim, to Chassidim there was always a special fondness for the last maamer that the Rebbe said.

R’ Akiva: Aside from the fondness for the sichos of 5751-5752, it is very important to learn them for that is where the Rebbe talks about the current reality. It is not just an analytic discussion about what will happen when Moshiach comes but where exactly we are holding in the Geula process and about how close we are to Moshiach’s coming.

Whoever merely engages in analytic study of the topics pertaining to Geula and does not learn the sichos of 5751-5752, is like someone using a horse and wagon nowadays. In 5751-5752 we moved on to completely different stages, which is why it is so important to learn these sichos, so we are aware of the great significance of the current era, the stage we are in now, and this itself inspires us with a chayus and great expectation for the hisgalus of the Rebbe immediately, now!

Davidic Dynasty, etc.,” a mortal of this physical world, regarding whom it is said, “Anyone who does not believe in him, or who does not await his arrival, denies not only the other prophetic writings but also the Torah and Moshe Rabbeinu, for indeed the Torah testifies about him, etc. … [Of course] in the words of

the prophets … all the[ir] works are full with this subject” (as Rambam rules in Laws of Kings, Ch. 11, end).

As an automatic result, doing so speeds up, draws near, and brings about the revelation and the advent of Moshiach Tzidkeinu, for (as expressed in the liturgical supplication and request, “Speedily cause the

scion of Dovid, Your servant, to flourish … for all day we have hoped for Your salvation” […]) faith in the coming of Moshiach and yearning for his arrival speeds up and draws the advent of Moshiach Tzidkeinu closer, in real terms.

(From the address of the night of Simchas Torah, 5746; Hisvaduyos

5746, pg. 342-3, bilti muga)

Continued from page 3

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MITZVAS HAKHEL AS A BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESSFUL CHINUCHBy R’ Gershon Avtzon

Dear Chassidim sh’yichyu,I write these thoughts, on

Motzaei Shabbos (of Parshas Nitzavim), after hearing the reading of the Torah by Mincha (Parshas VaYeilech) that speaks openly about the Mitzva of Hakhel:

Then, Moshe commanded them, saying, “At the end of [every] seven years, at an appointed time, in the Festival of Sukkos, [after] the year of release, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord, your God, in the place He will choose, you shall read this Torah before all Israel, in their ears. Assemble the people: the men, the women, and the children, and your stranger in your cities, in order

that they hear, and in order that they learn and fear the Lord, your God, and they will observe to do all the words of this Torah.

Of course, hearing these words once again made me think of the special year – 5776 – which just began, a year in which the aforementioned Hakhel would – and IY”H will – take place in the Beis HaMikdash.

Much has been written about this special Mitzva, and I would like to share some of my thoughts as well. These thoughts are raw and fresh, yet I will try to communicate them in a comprehensive way.

A small background:

It is well known, the answer of Moshiach to the question of the saintly Baal Shem Tov (on Rosh HaShana) “When are you coming”? To which he answered “When your wellsprings will be spread out!”

It is clear that the wellsprings mentioned mean the teaching of Chassidus. These are the teachings taught by our holy Rebbeim. The question – and there is much debate about it – is whether included in that directive is also the spreading of the TEACHER (i.e. the Rebbe) of those wellsprings?

In other words, is it possible that the wellsprings will have the desired effect on the one being taught, if he does not – eventually

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– know the real teacher behind the teachings?

This is the real lesson from the Mitzva of Hakhel: At a certain point, it must be known and recognized that the Torah being taught comes from the king! One can learn Torah and Chassidus in the comforts of his home and never learn about the existence of the king. So Hashem gives us the Mitzva of Hakhel, to teach us that at a certain point it must be clear to all the existence of the king and that all revelations to the Jewish people go through the king.

The wellsprings/teachings of Torah cannot – and therefore will not – have a lasting affect if there is no recognition of the king that is behind the teachings. He is the well itself from which the wellsprings come forth.

This is especially true in regards to Chinuch in our current time: We all know that it is a difficult challenge to raise Chassidishe children in a very technologically-advanced era, when the concealment is so strong.

Many try to fill this void with videos and descriptions of memories of the Rebbe. While these are very important, this will not provide the necessary strength to the young generation which is being tempted and spiritually attacked every day.

The youth of today need to know – and feel – that Chabad is current and that they have a Rebbe that they can have a personal connection with today. I have spent over ten years now educating and trying to inspire young Bachurim. There is

nothing more life-changing as when the young boy gets his first answer of the Rebbe through Igros Kodesh. In one second, he knows that the Rebbe’s mission and vision – doesn’t just belong to his father or eltere chassidim – but rather is current and connected to him.

A boy will find it very difficult to ignore the temptations in front of his eyes and heart for an ideal that he feels deep down is not real and current. As parents and Mechanchim, we must embrace the mitzva of “Hakhel” and bring our children to the Rebbe. It is not – so much – about the Torah that they hear from the king, rather the knowledge that there is a king! Only then will the stories about the king – or his teachings – have the desired and lasting impact.

We must explain to our children that at this point the Rebbe is “A king in the field.” We have a special chance to connect with him now, and only through connecting now (when the king in not revealed in the full glory of the palace), can we be with him in the palace when the Hisgalus happens!

In the spirit of Rosh HaShana: “Zichronos” is very important to mention, but only after you have “Malchiyos” (the knowledge that we have a king). When we live and educate in this specific order, we will merit “Shofros” – the Shofar of Moshiach now!

See you all in the Beis HaMikdash!

Rabbi Avtzon is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Lubavitch Cincinnati and a well sought

after speaker and lecturer. Recordings of his in-depth shiurim on Inyanei Geula

u’Moshiach can be accessed at http://www.ylcrecording.com.

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TORAH AND PHILANTHROPY

R’ Berel Weiss’ friends and acquaintances say about him that he was first a

Chassid and then a philanthropist. * From when he first became connected

to the Rebbe, he did not make a move in business before receiving the

Rebbe’s bracha. To him, whatever the Rebbe said was holy of holies. *

We spoke with some people who were close with him, who told us the

fascinating story of how he came to Chabad, about private audiences with

the Rebbe, and miracles that he experienced.

By Avrohom Rainitz

Four years ago, R’ Berel Weiss, the Chassid and philanthropist from Los Angeles, passed away at

the age of 85. R’ Berel had gone to LA after the Holocaust and was brought close to Chabad by the shliach, R’ Shmuel Dovid Raitchik.

R’ Berel had the privilege of supporting many Torah institutions and was in the forefront when it came to tz’daka and chesed. His home was open to all and he was known for his blessed work on behalf of the public.

HE ALMOST MET THE REBBE RAYATZ

R’ Berel came from a

Chassidic family in the Siebenburgen (Transylvania) area of Romania. He learned by the local rav, R’ Yosef the shochet. The melamed was a Chassidic Jew who incorporated Chassidic stories in his lessons and instilled love for Chassidus, yiras Shamayim, and love for tzaddikim in his students.

The melamed once spoke about the Baal HaTanya’s Shulchan Aruch. When R’ Berel asked him, what is the “Shulchan Aruch HaRav,” the melamed raised his hand and said, “The Shulchan Aruch HaRav was a student of the holy Maggid and the Maggid said about him, hilchasa k’Rav (the halacha is according to Rav).” R’ Yosef

said the grandchildren of the Rav lived in Lubavitch and they were Admurim. These few words later changed R’ Berel’s life.

After the war, R’ Berel was sick and he was hospitalized in a transit camp in Germany. As soon as he recovered, he began looking for ways to continue his Torah studies. He obtained Jewish newspapers and in one of them he saw an ad that said the Lubavitcher Rebbe was in New York. When he read this, he remembered what his teacher said about the Shulchan Aruch HaRav and his descendants in Lubavitch and he decided he had to go to America where the Rebbe was.

R’ Berel arrived in New York

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in the summer of 1948. During his first week there, his kalla suggested that they go together to visit her aunt who lived in Williamsburg. Her aunt and uncle were very happy to see that their niece had become engaged to a learned bachur and told him that their son learned in the Lubavitcher yeshiva.

Amazed by this turn of events, he told them that he wanted to see the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The uncle advised him that on Motzaei Yom Tov, when his son went to the Rebbe, Berel could join him. However, Hashem wanted otherwise and when Yom Tov was over, R’ Berel was so sound asleep that his relatives did not want to wake him up and

he lost the opportunity to see the Rebbe Rayatz.

He received an invitation from his uncle who lived in California to go live with him in Los Angeles where the weather was better for him. Thus, more years passed before he came to Lubavitch.

FIRST CONNECTION WITH CHABAD

R’ Berel married in California. About a year later, R’ Shmuel Dovid Raitchik went to LA on shlichus from the Rebbe Rayatz. R’ Raitchik’s Chassidic conduct reminded R’ Berel about authentic Jewish life in Jewish towns before the war and they formed a close bond.

In Elul 5717/1957, before R’ Raitchik went to the Rebbe, R’ Berel met him and wanted to send along a kvittel with him, as is customary among Polish Chassidim. R’ Raitchik took the kvittel from him along with a nice sum of money, and when he returned from the Rebbe he brought with him a piece of lekach and some mashke which he had received from the Rebbe, for R’ Berel. R’ Berel said l’chaim with R’ Raitchik and one could say that from this point on, he became mekushar to the Rebbe.

He began asking the Rebbe before doing any business deal and was outstandingly successful. Under R’ Raitchik’s influence, he began sending maamud money

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to the Rebbe and saw openly that from that point on, all gateways and channels were open for him.

R’ Berel was a big baal tz’daka and gave special attention to all, to a rosh yeshiva as well as to a homeless person. Even if he did not have ready cash, he would borrow money in order to be able to give tz’daka. He supported and helped R’ Raitchik and also gave him money to buy handwritten manuscripts for the Rebbe.

In general, R’ Shmuel Dovid would collect money for various projects of the Rebbe and would give the money to the Rebbe. One time, R’ Berel said to someone he knew, “When Raitchik comes to you, give him a blank check and the Rebbe will decide how much to make it out for.” The man listened to him and gave the check. A few weeks later, he received a call from the bank in which he was told that the check was made out for $4000. Although in those days that was a significant sum, he approved the check. Several weeks later he earned $40,000 in a business deal.

WHAT CAPTIVATED R’ BEREL

In those days, R’ Berel bought some old age homes as a result of which he wanted to buy a large quantity of beds instead of renting them. Someone

promised to lend him the money he needed, but after a while the person said he couldn’t give him the loan.

While R’ Berel thought about what to do next, the salesman from the bed company came to his office in the company of a gentile who was his supervisor. When he told them that he was looking for someone to lend him the balance of the funds, the gentile asked how much he needed. R’ Berel stated an

amount and the gentile said he had a fund that he used for loans to good customers. He did not know how much he had in the fund but he thought he would be able to lend him most of the money he needed. In the end, R’ Berel was able to get the entire amount, $10,000, as a loan, at low interest.

R’ Berel attributed his miraculous success to the Rebbe’s bracha and decided he must travel to 770. On Chol HaMoed Sukkos he went to 770 for the first time. He was used to what happens by Poilishe Admurim that a Chassid sees the Rebbe “to give shalom,” but R’ Raitchik explained that in Chabad it’s different and you could not just walk in and see the Rebbe. The next morning, on the third day of Chol HaMoed, R’ Berel saw the Rebbe for the first time.

Back then, there was no

special platform for the Rebbe yet, and he stood near the wall. R’ Berel took a spot where he could see and waited eagerly for Hallel. He was sure he would see a major production with the Rebbe’s naanuim (shaking of the lulav) as other Admurim did. He put his dalet minim aside and waited for the Rebbe’s naanuim. Surprisingly, the Rebbe took the lulav and esrog and did the requisite naanuim without any outlandish gesticulations. R’ Berel noticed that the Rebbe drew the four minim toward his heart which is not customary by Polish Chassidim. He also noticed that the Rebbe spent a bit more time on the words, “Ana Hashem, hoshi’a na.”

After the Hoshaanas, they sang “Hoshi’a es Amecha” with great vigor. After the davening, the Rebbe left the shul. Since outwardly, the Rebbe had not done anything special, no shaking of the lulav more than usual and not raising his voice, R’ Berel stood and watched the Rebbe’s holy face. Right after that t’filla with the Rebbe, R’ Berel realized that here was something entirely different.

During Maariv on Friday night, R’ Berel stood near the Rebbe. When the chazan finished Hashkiveinu, R’ Berel began to passionately recite V’Shomru, which is what Polish Chassidim do. It was only when he finished that he realized that he was the only one saying it and everyone else was silent. Later on, when he had yechidus with his daughter, the Rebbe gave her a T’hillim and said: This is according to all nuschaos (liturgical versions).

On Simchas Torah, R’ Berel took his son Yona Mordechai to 770. Before the farbrengen, R’ Raitchik told him that it was possible to go over to the

R’ Berel, who was greatly inspired, told the

Rebbe that he committed to giving the Rebbe

$100,000. That was a huge sum at the time. The Rebbe

merely responded with “l’chaim v’livracha” and showed

no signs of excitement. It was this cool response of the

Rebbe that captivated R’ Berel.

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Rebbe with a bottle of wine, as was the practice then. R’ Berel approached the Rebbe with the bottle and said l’chaim. The Rebbe gave him a piece of lekach and blessed him with success. R’ Berel, who was greatly inspired, told the Rebbe that he committed to giving the Rebbe $100,000. That was a huge sum at that time. The Rebbe merely responded with “l’chaim v’livracha” and showed no signs of excitement at all.

It was this cool response of the Rebbe that captivated R’ Berel. In other places, the Admur would have immediately said a good word and placed him on the eastern wall, while here, the Rebbe blessed him and that was all.

A few days passed and it was time for yechidus. R’ Raitchik guided R’ Berel and said that if we want to accept the Rebbe’s authority, we refrain from giving the Rebbe our hand and we do not sit.

When R’ Berel walked in, the Rebbe got up and asked him, “Nu Weiss, you rested up already?”

R’ Berel replied, “Yes, boruch Hashem.”

The Rebbe held out his hand and suggested he sit down. R’ Berel refused.

R’ Berel gave the Rebbe a kvittel and said that he attributed his successes to the Rebbe’s blessings. The Rebbe spoke to him about several matters, and at the end said, “Regarding the large sum you promised to give to tz’daka, the yetzer ha’ra will come and try to dissuade you. See to it that he is not successful in convincing you.”

When R’ Berel said that it wasn’t a problem for him, for the Rebbe would give him a bracha that the yetzer ha’ra would not prevail, the Rebbe smiled.

From that point on, R’ Berel began corresponding with the Rebbe frequently and received answers which encouraged and strengthened him. Upon his return from seeing the Rebbe, he bought a house that was very similar to 770. Indeed, it was a home that was especially open to anything associated with Lubavitch. R’ Kazarnovsky a”h would visit LA occasionally and all the farbrengens would be in R’ Berel’s house.

HE WILL PRINT SIFREI LUBAVITCH

With the atmosphere at home revolving around the Rebbe, it wasn’t surprising when the youngest son, Moshe Aharon, wanted to join his father on his trip to the Rebbe. R’ Berel consulted with R’ Kazarnovsky who said you don’t take little children to the Rebbe. However, in one of the private audiences, the Rebbe asked R’ Berel, “How old is Moshe Aharon?”

R’ Berel told the Rebbe that his son greatly desired coming to the Rebbe, but R’ Kazarnovsky said you don’t bring children to

the Rebbe. The Rebbe dismissed this and said, “Ah, you should bring him.”

R’ Berel told the Rebbe that his son’s desire to see the Rebbe was so great that in school he asked his teacher for a piece of paper and when the teacher asked what for, he said: To make a Lubavitcher Siddur.

The Rebbe said, “He will yet print Lubavitcher s’farim.”

Another year, it was very cold and although he had a high fever, R’ Berel would not forgo his trip to the Rebbe. However, he asked his sons to remain in California. When the Rebbe entered for hakafos, R’ Berel suddenly felt completely well. Afterward, in yechidus, he told the Rebbe why he had not brought the children. When the Rebbe asked him, how do you feel now, he said that when the Rebbe entered for hakafos, he suddenly felt like a new man. He hinted to the Rebbe about the famous story with the Alter Rebbe who ordered that all the sick people be brought to him for hakafos and the Rebbe smiled.

When R’ Berel told the Rebbe

R’ Berel Weiss with R’ Leibel Groner, the Rebbe’s secretary

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that his son Mordechai would be bar mitzva the following year, the Rebbe said it was an opportunity to come with the entire family. That is what he did.

Yona Mordechai’s bar mitzva was held in the sukka and the Rebbe told R’ Chadakov to participate. In yechidus of that year, the Rebbe no longer held out his hand and he did not offer R’ Berel a seat. Until then, for five years, the Rebbe always said he should sit down. R’ Berel understood from this that from then on, the Rebbe was treating him like a Chassid.

THERE WILL BE A REVOLUTION IN LIBERIA

R’ M. M. Labkovsky a”h, one of his close friends who learned with him regularly, told the following story:

We were learning together when the phone rang. I did not hear the person on the other end, just what R’ Berel said. I understood that the person who called him was asking him to join him in a business deal but R’ Berel said, “I can’t do it without the Rebbe’s consent.”

The person apparently continued to cajole him but R’ Berel repeated, “I don’t do anything without the Rebbe’s consent.” The person seemed to ask whether this obligated him

too, and R’ Berel said, “I don’t know about you. Maybe for me it is not good and for you, it is. You have to ask the Rebbe separately. Anyway, I can’t do anything without receiving the Rebbe’s consent and blessing.”

He once told me that when he does business deals without asking the Rebbe, he loses. In general, in anything having to do with the Rebbe, he was the first. He helped the Rebbe’s shluchim, sometimes by giving and sometimes with loans. I know that one time he wrote to the Rebbe that there were many shluchim that he helped, but the expenses were great and he did not have the wherewithal to support them all.

The Rebbe responded by saying that he bore the burden with Hashem, and then the Rebbe said to him the words “gar grois” (very large, apparently meaning to do things in a big way).

One time, R’ Berel told this incredible story:

Once, in yechidus, I told the Rebbe that I was considering investing money in diamond deals in Liberia. The deal involved millions of dollars. It had to do with several diamond dealers from Antwerp who were on Antwerp’s big diamond exchange. I told the Rebbe that I said to them that I would be willing to invest only after the

Rebbe approved of it.The businessmen, some of

them Chassidic Jews, who really wanted me to invest, asked me: And if the Rebbe says no, you won’t do it? They couldn’t understand it. Even though they also asked their Rebbe for a bracha, they had never asked for his approval of a business deal, for what does a Rebbe know about business?

The Rebbe listened and then told me not to get involved since there would be a revolution in Liberia. I responded with incredulity, for Liberia was known as the Switzerland of South Africa, but the Rebbe repeated what he said and added: If you still want to, you can invest, but on condition that you have the ability to take your money out immediately, whenever you ask for it.

When I relayed the Rebbe’s answer to the Chassidim in Antwerp, they were very disappointed and could not believe how there could be a revolution in the most stable country in Africa.

About a year later, I invested thousands of dollars in diamonds. I spoke with the diamond dealer and said he should buy diamonds for me in Liberia but then immediately get out. I gave him the money and he bought rough diamonds. A short while later a revolution began in Liberia. The diamonds remained there due to the situation and the dealer gave me back only part of my money. The other part was never returned. But boruch Hashem, I did not invest millions and I did not lose.

In another yechidus, I asked the Rebbe whether to take my company public on the stock market. I told the Rebbe that businessmen told me that by

I did not tell anyone of my decision; it was only in

my mind. Then, to my enormous astonishment,

at the farbrengen the next day, the Rebbe suddenly spoke

about the inyan of the “13 Tikkunei Dikna” and said there

were businessmen who think they will lose out if they

have a beard, but if they knew how much they would

profit and how successful they would be, they wouldn’t

think about it at all!

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doing this I could become a millionaire in a short time, “And I’ll be able to give a million dollars to the Rebbe’s mosdos.” But the Rebbe did not react.

After a moment of silence, he said, “Why do you need balabatim over you?” (for when you go public, the shareholders become the real bosses). In the end, the Rebbe gave his bracha. Then he suddenly asked, “What will you give me?”

I immediately answered, “Whatever I have, I am willing to give to the Rebbe.”

“The next time you come here, bring me a thousand blatt Gemara!” was the Rebbe’s answer.

HE EARNED FIVE TIMES AS MUCH

R’ Naftali Estulin, a shliach in California who knew R’ Weiss well, related:

One year, at the Simchas Torah farbrengen, the Rebbe said that when you commit to a large sum, Hashem gives five times as much. The Rebbe said: Better that Hashem owes you, than you owing Him.

The Rebbe added, whoever commits now that after Simchas Torah he will give a sum to tz’daka, Hashem will owe him.

Both of us, R’ Berel and I, were at that farbrengen. I knew that R’ Berel’s financial state wasn’t good at that time, but when we met on Kingston Avenue I was all excited and I said to him, “You heard what the Rebbe said! Now is the time to decide to give a lot of tz’daka!”

B’ Berel said to me sadly, “I want to, but I don’t have.”

I asked him, “How much?”He said, at least $100,000.I said that in that case, I

would take a loan from the bank on account of his future profits. He gave me a Chassidishe kiss, then and there, and I was able to obtain a loan for him and I sent the money to the Rebbe. A few months later, he earned five times the amount in a certain business deal.

***Another time, R’ Berel went to

the Rebbe and asked permission to do a certain deal. The Rebbe said, “R’ Berel, it’s not glatt.” On the table was a T’hillim and the Rebbe took it and said, “Print several thousand, that’s a straight deal.”

FAMILY MATTERSR’ Berel saw the fulfillment

of the Rebbe’s brachos in every area of his life, both family and business. R’ Berel told about one of these personal matters:

One year, before Rosh HaShana, I wrote to the Rebbe that I hope to relay good news and the Rebbe asked me in yechidus about the details.

Shortly after that there was the situation with my son, Moshe Aharon. He had a problem with his spine and the doctors wanted

to operate. However, they were afraid to operate because they were nervous about injuring major nerves. They hoped he would heal on his own, “and if he doesn’t heal, then we can’t do anything,” they said.

In the meantime, the child suffered terribly as a result of a pulled muscle. Medication to alleviate the pain did not help and he began using crutches. Now, in addition to the physical suffering, he was embarrassed. He was still little and was afraid the other children would laugh at him since he used crutches.

I wrote to the Rebbe about all this. At that time, I didn’t write to the Rebbe about business or about anything else, only about Moshe Aharon. I asked for a big bracha and the Rebbe responded with, “I will mention it at the gravesite.”

We went to the Rebbe for Shavuos. At the farbrengen on the Shabbos before Shavuos, the Rebbe spoke about the mitzva of tz’daka and mentioned the Midrash (on the verse, “He who is gracious to the poor, lends to Hashem”) which says that Hashem promises that one who revives the soul of a pauper,

R’ Berel with his friend R’ Naftali Estulin at a dinner for the Chabad house

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when his son needs salvation, it will come.

I sat at the farbrengen and immediately realized that the Rebbe was saying that in merit of tz’daka, I would be saved. After Yom Tov, I had yechidus and I asked the Rebbe on behalf of Moshe Aharon once again. The Rebbe told me to ask a rav about the matter, but I got up the nerve and said I did not want to ask a rav, I wanted the Rebbe to give a bracha that Moshe Aharon would be well.

The Rebbe said: Tell the doctors that you don’t want an operation.

I said: Good, I will tell the doctors that the Rebbe said not to operate, and the Rebbe agreed.

When we returned home, my son’s condition worsened so that the doctors wanted to hospitalize him again. I told them that the Rebbe said not to operate. They could not understand my refusal considering the child’s suffering, and they did not offer any other treatment.

The next day, the doctor said to me, I am waiting for you. It seems they had discussed my son’s condition at a meeting and one of them, a well-known doctor, had said he had treated a boy who came from Mexico who suffered from a similar problem in the spine and he decided it was too dangerous to operate. In the end, he healed the injury with radiation.

Under this doctor’s guidance, they decided to treat Moshe Aharon in this way and boruch Hashem, his condition began to

improve, but he still had problems with his feet. The doctors said again they needed to operate. The child came to me crying: They said they would not operate and now, I was at the doctor with Mommy, and they said they have to operate.

I thought of how I could calm him down. It was before Yud-Tes Kislev and I said: We will go to the Rebbe for Yud-Tes Kislev and then we will go to a top doctor. I meant Dr. Markov who was famous in New York.

We went to New York and my son was at the farbrengen and afterward he had yechidus along with my wife, in the course of which she told about the plan of seeing that doctor. The Rebbe agreed to this and said he wanted to know what the doctor said.

Armed with the Rebbe’s bracha, we went to the doctor and after hearing the story and about what had been done thus far, he said he wanted to conduct his own examinations. In order to do this, he said my son had to be hospitalized. My wife told the Rebbe what the doctor said and the Rebbe said to make sure that my son lit the Chanuka menorah in the hospital.

My son lit the menorah and it attracted a lot of attention with all the gentiles watching how my son lit the candles. They were moved and they hoped that in the merit of my son’s lighting, they too would be healed.

Dr. Markov finished his tests and told my son to throw away the crutches. He said the situation was not so dire and he

arranged for leg braces. My son asked the doctor whether he could go to school in New York and the doctor said yes. When my wife told the Rebbe, the Rebbe noted: Does the doctor know that the conditions in yeshiva are not so well organized from a physical standpoint?

My son remained in New York and was a talmid in Oholei Torah. Nearly a year passed and certain complications remained. After Sukkos, we had yechidus again and my wife cried about Moshe Aharon still not being all better. The Rebbe said to her: You can’t cry. I promise you that you will lead him, in good health, to the chuppa.

Boruch Hashem, the Rebbe’s blessings and promises were fulfilled in their entirety.

***Years later, Moshe Aharon

became a shliach and merited special kiruvim from the Rebbe. A few years after he married, he still did not have children, which was very upsetting.

In 5750, R’ Berel took this son to the Rebbe for Lag B’Omer. At the distribution of dollars for tz’daka which took place after Maariv, R’ Berel introduced his son to the Rebbe and said he was asking for a bracha for children for him.

The Rebbe said: Today we have with us R’ Shimon Bar Yochai.

But R’ Berel, as a seasoned businessman and a loyal Chassid, pointed at the Rebbe and said: We want a bracha from this Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.

The Rebbe’s face turned serious and he said loudly and firmly, “May he have sons and daughters.” The bracha was fulfilled and a few years later he had twin sons.

I told the Rebbe that businessmen told me that

by doing this I could become a millionaire in a

short time, “And I’ll be able to give a million dollars to

the Rebbe’s mosdos.”

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At the seuda following the brissin for the twins, R’ Berel told the story about the bracha given on Lag B’Omer and said now of course they were waiting for daughters. Sure enough, a daughter followed soon after.

OPEN RUACH HA’KODESHR’ Berel related the following

at a farbrengen:I want to tell the story about

my beard. In 1960 I wrote a letter to the Rebbe and asked for a bracha for Torah and g’dula (greatness, i.e. wealth). Some time after I wrote the letter, I had yechidus and felt that it was an auspicious time to ask again. I figuratively “banged on the desk” and asked, how come the Rebbe does not want to give me a bracha for Torah and g’dula?

The Rebbe suddenly turned serious and he looked as though he had entered another state. I prayed that the earth swallow me up because I was afraid that I had pressed too much.

Finally, the Rebbe said: For that, you need to grow a beard.

I wanted to immediately say that I agree but the Rebbe continued, as though reading my mind, that before making a decision like this, a person ought to consult his family and make the decision with a settled mind while at the same time remembering not to be ashamed by those who mock.

Indeed, my wife was not thrilled by the idea and the matter of the beard was dropped. Some years passed until the first day of Shavuos 5749/1989. During the davening with the Rebbe, I was feeling in an elevated state and that yechidus came to mind. I decided then and there to carry out what I said in that yechidus.

I did not tell anyone of my

decision; it was only in my mind. Then, to my enormous astonishment, at the farbrengen the next day, the Rebbe suddenly spoke about the inyan of the “13 Tikkunei Dikna” and said there were businessmen who think they will lose out if they have a beard, but if they knew how much they would profit and how successful they would be, they wouldn’t think about it at all!

Those who knew me, R’ Shmuel Dovid Raitchik and my other friends who were there at that farbrengen, told me afterward that they were sure the Rebbe was referring to me, but I knew that I had already decided to grow a beard the day before.

The Rebbe, with his ruach ha’kodesh, read my thoughts and encouraged me with this sicha and spoke as though directly to me.

Some time later, I went by the Rebbe for dollars and the Rebbe gave me thirteen dollars to correspond to the 13 dikna kadisha. For three years, when I passed by the Rebbe, he gave me thirteen dollars and said, “For the 13 tikkunei dikna kadisha.”

R’ Naftali Estulin concludes, “Two days before R’ Berel passed away, I went to visit him. He suddenly began to talk about the Rebbe. How characteristic of him that was.”

R’ Berel after he grew his beard

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A TOWER OF

CHASSIDIC STRENGTH

Whoever knew the Chassid, R’ Chaim

Shneur Zalman Kozliner, known by

the acronym “Chazak,” knows that

he was a different sort of Chassid.

He was strong, like his nickname, a

courageous Chassid who was afraid

of no one. Despite the suffering and

torture he endured the two times he was

arrested, he continued to live a Chassidic

life and spread Torah everywhere. * From

his childhood in the Chassidic town of

Disna and his learning in Lubavitch, to

his working as a secretary for the Rebbe

Rayatz, and then imprisonment and exile

to Siberia, the image of a Chassid.* To

mark his passing on 13 Tishrei.

By Shneur Zalman Berger

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CHASSIDISHE ROLE MODELR’ Chaim Shneur Zalman

Kozliner, known as Chazak, was born in 5661/1901 in Disna in White Russia. His father, R’ Boruch Yosef, was a teacher of Torah to young students. They said about him that when his students got older, they were the best students in Tomchei T’mimim in Lubavitch.

When Chazak was small, the mashpia, R’ Yisroel Noach Blinitzky lived in his parents’ home. He saw and absorbed from R’ Yisroel Noach what a Chassid is, and how he behaves.

Why did R’ Yisroel Noach live with the Kozliner family? He had married Sterna, daughter of R’ Itche Yaffe, who lived in Disna. After they married, the couple wanted to live in Disna near her parents, but they did not have money to buy or even rent a house. So R’ Boruch Yosef came to their aid. He was a dear friend of the kalla’s father and was willing to host the couple for several years for free.

So aside from the Chassidishe chinuch that R’ Chaim Zalman received from his father, R’ Yisroel Noach provided him with a role model of a Tamim from Lubavitch.

Disna in those days was called a “town of Chassidim” since all its residents were Lubavitcher Chassidim. Although they did not all conduct themselves punctiliously in all the Chassidishe minhagim, when it came to a Chassidishe farbrengen, they all participated with Chassidishe warmth and enthusiasm.

In those days, R’ Itche Disner became sick with typhus and he died shortly thereafter. The doctors forbade burying him in fear that all those who handled the burial would contract the

disease. The family was beside itself. They could not make peace with the fact that their father would be buried in one large communal grave with others who died of typhus, Jews and gentiles.

Once again, the family friend, R’ Boruch Yosef, came to their aid. He could not accept that his good friend would not be given a Jewish burial. What he did was drink a large cup of vodka. When he finished he said, “Now I’m clean (i.e. sterile). Typhus won’t harm me.”

He then buried his friend and miraculously did not contract typhus.

I GAVE YOU TO TOMCHEI T’MIMIM

At the age of nine, Chaim Zalman went with his father to Lubavitch where he attended the local elementary school. When he got a bit older, he entered Tomchei T’mimim under the direct leadership of the Rebbe Rashab. His brother Efraim was there too. His good friends in yeshiva later became famous Chassidic figures such as R’ Zalman Shimon Dworkin, later rav of Crown Heights, the mashpia R’ Nissan Nemanov, R’ Sholom Posner and others. These true friendships continued throughout the years.

He could not accept that his good friend would

not be given a Jewish burial. What he did was

drink a large cup of vodka. When he finished he said,

“Now I’m clean. Typhus won’t harm me.” He then buried

his friend and miraculously did not contract typhus.

Brothers – on the right, R’ Chaim Zalman and on the left R’ Efraim Kozliner

R’ Boruch Yosef Kozliner of Disna

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Now and then, his father would visit the yeshiva where he met with the maggidei shiurim and the mashpiim and had long conversations with them. Chaim Zalman was very curious to know whether his father was asking them about him. He asked one of the mashpiim whether his father was inquiring about his diligence in learning or his Chassidic behavior. To his great surprise, the mashpia said, “Your father never asked me about you.”

Chaim Zalman went over to his father who was still in the yeshiva and asked him why, as his father, he did not inquire about him. R’ Boruch Yosef replied, also in surprise, “I gave you over to Tomchei T’mimim. Do I need to ask about you? I rely on the hanhala of Tomchei T’mimim that they are educating you properly.”

Indeed, R’ Chaim Zalman was considered a lamdan among the talmidim of the yeshiva. His friends said that he was gifted with an eizene kup (head of iron).

THE REBBE’S SECRETARYWith the Communist

Revolution of 5677/1917, the yeshiva had to leave Lubavitch and wander among various towns. R’ Chaim Zalman wandered together with the rest of the talmidim.

In Tishrei 5684/1923, the Rebbe Rayatz sent word that he wanted the T’mimim to return from their places of study to Rostov where the yeshiva was reestablished.

R’ Chaim Zalman merited an unusual kiruv when, even as a bachur, he served for a brief while as the Rebbe’s secretary when he lived in Leningrad. His main task was responsibility for the monies of Yeshivas Tomchei T’mimim. R’ Chaim Zalman, who was by his very nature a closed-mouthed person, never spoke about the time he shared an office with the Rebbe Rayatz, but Chassidim related some episodes from those days.

While sitting there with the

Rebbe, they usually did not speak, because “the walls have ears.” Their communication was mainly with their eyes; hints from the Rebbe sufficed for him to know what to do. The great care and secretiveness of that era was necessitated by the reality of the times.

However, it once happened that they discussed an important topic and R’ Chaim Zalman expressed his opinion and the Rebbe said his, and thus began an analytic discussion of the views which were expressed. Suddenly, the Rebbe looked up and gazed at R’ Chaim Zalman who became silent. It was a moment when he realized that the subject was no longer up for discussion and that he had to obey with kabbalas ol.

One time, he took the opportunity and complained to the Rebbe that his gentile neighbor was making his life miserable. The Rebbe gave a short, sharp response, quoting the verse, “his spirit will depart, he will return to the earth.”

R’ Chaim Zalman, who understood what this meant, ran home in order to tell the neighbor that he’d be better off asking forgiveness before his life ended, but when he got home, wailing could already be heard from the neighbor’s house.

HE LEFT IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS SHEVA BRACHOS

Tuesday night, 15 Sivan 5687/1927, the police knocked at the door of the Rebbe Rayatz and after a protracted search, they arrested him. This was the beginning of the famous and terrible arrest.

R’ Chaim Zalman happened not to be in the area at the time, for he had married his wife Tzippa, daughter of R’ Chaim

In his later years In his youth

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Elozor Garelik, a few days before. The wedding took place in Rogatchov, where the kalla lived, and R’ Chaim Zalman was in the midst of the week of sheva brachos when it happened.

R’ Chaim Zalman was quickly called by the leading Chassidim to return to Leningrad in order to help get the Rebbe released. R’ Chaim Zalman did not delay.

By orders of the Rebbe Rayatz, he was entrusted with the “black notebook,” as he called it. This notebook contained a list of rabbanim, maggidei shiurim, mashpiim, melamdim, and mikva ladies in every city of the Soviet Union.

News of the Rebbe’s arrest spread quickly among the Chassidim of the Soviet Union, but time elapsed before the news also went beyond the Iron Curtain and reached the Chabad Chassidim in America. Nobody dared to write a letter abroad, especially not on such a sensitive matter, something which could have cost the life of the letter writer. The first who dared to write to the US was his father, R’ Boruch Yosef Kozliner, who was willing to endanger his life to save the Rebbe.

Although R’ Chaim Zalman knew that the secret police were nipping at his heels, he continued to work to maintain the yeshivos. He moved to Nevel where he joined the hanhala of the yeshiva and the beis midrash for rabbanim and shochtim. Together with him were other venerable Chassidim: R’ Shmuel Levitin, R’ Nissan Nemanov, R’ Yehuda Eber and R’ Zalman Alpert.

Dozens of bachurim studied sh’chita and rabbanus and after being ordained for these roles they were sent to various cities throughout the Soviet Union

to help the communities which were destroyed by the Yevsektzia (Jewish communists).

In the yeshiva’s good days, about eighty T’mimim learned there, and these years were “like a microcosm of Lubavitch” as R’ Yehuda Eber, the rosh yeshiva, later said, referring to the days when the yeshiva was in Lubavitch.

The Yevsektzia did not leave the yeshiva alone and the hanhala and the students suffered from persecution until Kislev 5689 when the yeshiva was closed down. R’ Shmuel Levitin, the top administrator, was arrested and the other administration and staff members went into hiding, as is described in Yahadus B’Russia HaSovietis:

“In Kislev 5689 some bachurim were arrested and vigorous searches were conducted to try to find the members of the staff. Some shuls where the bachurim had

been learning were closed even to those who davened there. The one who was in charge of this work was a Jew named Altshuler. He did not rest with his work of destruction. The yeshiva would have been completely destroyed if not for G-d’s kindness that the administrative staff managed to hide somewhere, and from their place of hiding they gave orders to the talmidim to leave Nevel.

“Groups scattered to a number of cities. One group went to Leningrad, led by R’ Nissan Nemanov, another group to Vitebsk, led by R’ Avrohom Drizin, and a group went to Yekaterinoslav.”

Everything that was done was reported to the Rebbe Rayatz, and he wrote about this in a letter dated 2 Shevat 5689, “Surely they have read about all that was done with the hanhala of the yeshiva in Nevel and the hanhala of the beis midrash for rabbanim and shochtim, may Hashem have mercy and may they soon

A Chassidishe farbrengen in Samarkand. From right to left: R’ Eliyahu Levin, Betzalel Shiff, R’ Berel Yaffe, R’ Chaim Zalman Kozliner, R’ Feivish Hankin

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go out in freedom. But thank G-d, in their stead there are now serving other appointees who are involved with the talmidim, many of whom traveled to other places.”

THE SENSIBILITIES OF A THREE YEAR OLDThe persecution of R’ Chaim

Zalman continued and increased, especially since he was one of the directors of the yeshiva. The secret police tightened the noose around him. It was at this time that his oldest child Mordechai was born, on Acharon shel

Pesach 1929. Shortly thereafter, the new father had to flee the city.

A month after the birth, Tzippa began to worry because it was time for a pidyon ha’ben, but her husband, whose mitzva it was, had disappeared. Not long after, she received a coded telegram from him which said, “Mazal tov on the purchase.” She understood that her husband had remembered the rare mitzva and had redeemed his son from his place of hiding.

Some time later, R’ Chaim Zalman returned home but the persecution and searches continued. In the home there was a constant feeling of underground activity and being

on the run, so that three year old Mottel already knew how to behave in troubled times.

One day, the police entered his home and began conducting a search. Mottel sat down on a suitcase which contained documents. These documents contained incriminating material that, were they to be found, would place his parents in grave danger. The police did not suspect a little boy, who was innocently sitting on an old suitcase and playing, of concealing anything.

That is how, with Hashem’s kindness, and thanks to a little

boy who grew up to become a mashpia, his father was saved.

A few years later, R’ Chaim Zalman moved to Shchyolkovo, a suburb of Moscow. Here too the fears did not subside and arrests were conducted now and then among the Chassidim.

One night, his fear was realized. There was pounding at the door and in walked men in black coats who brandished red certificates of the NKVD. They informed R’ Chaim Zalman that he was under arrest and took him away.

During the interrogations he realized that they knew his full name, Chaim Shneur Zalman Kozliner and not the shortened form, Chaim Zalman. It turned

out that they had been looking for a “Chaim Zalman” (that’s what it said on all the letters and documents of Tomchei T’mimim) but they hadn’t managed to figure out who this man was.

(In a similar vein, they say that one time policemen went to his house and asked him where is Chazak. He replied that his name was Chaim Zalman Kozliner and that Chazak lived nearby. He went outside with the policemen and showed them the way to Chazak’s house… The policemen left and he took his tallis and t’fillin and fled out the window for he figured they would soon realize they had been duped.)

After lengthy interrogations, suffering, and torture in the cellars of the NKVD, he was sentenced to exile in Siberia. After a long, exhausting journey he arrived at a labor camp where he spent a long time together with his friend, the mashpia, R’ Nissan Nemanov.

As was his way, he also kept this part of his life to himself, so not much is known about the interrogations and imprisonment.

When he returned home, his family members sensed that something was bothering him. When he was asked, he said he was troubled by having been contaminated by forbidden foods and he explained:

The prisoners in the labor camp worked primarily on chopping down trees. The work was backbreaking and dangerous. At the end of a day’s work each prisoner received a small portion of bread and treif soup. He and R’ Nissan would pour out the treif soup and would suffice with bread and water but the Jewish prisoners who they became friendly with begged for their soup. The two Chassidim knew

He complained to the Rebbe that his gentile

neighbor was making his life miserable. The

Rebbe gave a short, sharp response, quoting the verse,

“his spirit will depart, he will return to the earth.” R’ Chaim

Zalman ran home in order to tell the neighbor that he’d

be better off asking forgiveness before his life ended, but

when he got home, wailing could already be heard from

the neighbor’s house.

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that the hot soup was something the prisoners were halachically allowed to eat because they were engaged in hard labor in bitter cold conditions. Still, how could they knowingly give a Jew treif food to eat?

R’ Nissan just could not give treif food to these Jews while R’ Chaim Zalman could not withstand their pleas and decided that since it was pikuach nefesh he could give them the soup and save their lives. Every day, he gave them his soup and told them, “Just eat the soup, but don’t gnaw on the bones.”

Nevertheless, this bothered him more than all the suffering he had endured in the interrogations and the exile in Siberia. He felt as though he himself had eaten treif.

Even after both of them were freed from the labor camp in Siberia, the danger of another arrest was still a possibility. R’ Nissan hid in the home of his good friend, R’ Chaim Zalman. They provided him with a hidden room and every knock at the door sent R’ Nissan back to his hiding place which the family called “the freezer” since it had no heat and during the winter was freezing cold.

The good friendship between these two Chassidim led their friends to say about them, “R’ Chaim Zalman and R’ Nissan are one body and one soul.”

RESCUE MIRACLEIn 5701, the Nazis invaded

Russia and the great flight began. The residents of Russia tried to escape from wherever the German army was approaching. Civilians, especially Jews, fled to distant parts. Chabad Chassidim fled mostly to Central Asian cities like Tashkent and Samarkand.

At that time, R’ Chaim Zalman and his wife had three children, Mottel who was 12, Dreishke (Levin) who was 8, and Devorah (Vera Boroshanski) who was 3. The Kozliner family packed their meager belongings and left by train with other family members for distant Uzbekistan.

The train was packed with passengers and the terrible crowding made for suffocating conditions. Contagious diseases felled many of them. Many could not take the travails of the journey and died on the way.

Mottel and his two year old cousin Faiga Katzenelenbogen became seriously sick. There was no medicine and it wasn’t possible to rest on the train. The family constantly prayed that the children would survive at least until they arrived someplace civilized where a local doctor could treat them properly.

R’ Mottel became better but Faiga was still in serious condition. Having no choice,

her parents, Shimon and Mussia, got off the train with her and hospitalized her in Tashkent while the rest of the passengers, including the Kozliners, continued to Samarkand. Faiga miraculously recovered.

The refugees suffered from starvation and disease. The Chassidim who were already in the city did a lot to help the newcomers who were streaming into the city, lacking everything. They provided for both material and spiritual needs. A branch of Tomchei T’mimim was opened in Samarkand where distinguished Chassidim, including R’ Chaim Zalman, taught the students Nigleh and Chassidus.

R’ Berish Rosenberg was someone who became involved with Lubavitch at that time, thanks to those Chassidim. He got to know the Chassidim and their way of life and became attached to the ways and teachings of Chassidus. R’ Chaim Zalman was greatly

At a granddaughter’s wedding. From right to left: His son Mottel, His friend R’ Meilich Lebenharz (standing), R’ Chaim Zalman, his friend, R’ Mendel Futerfas

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MRS TZIPPA KOZLINER Mrs. Kozliner was a fearless woman who was not

afraid of the police. She was very involved in various important matters.

As related in the article, after she was arrested, she faced a severe sentence since she was accused of being a traitor to the state. As one of the organizers of the mass escape from Russia, the government wanted to sentence her to twenty-five years in Siberia, or worse.

Upon her arrest, the Chassidim who had left the country thanks to her efforts felt obligated to do something to have her released. Some Chassidim repeatedly asked the Rebbe Rayatz for a bracha but the Rebbe remained silent. It was only after more importuning that the Rebbe gave a blessing that she should quickly leave prison.

Indeed, the unbelievable happened. Her trial took place in Lvov, and it was clearly a prearranged show trial. She wasn’t even brought to the courtroom. A troika sentenced her to only ten years imprisonment.

It seemed obvious that she would be sent to Siberia where political prisoners were usually sent, but that is not what happened. From the prison in Lvov she was transferred to a way-station from where prisoners were sent to their places of exile. Here is where she first met with her family. They found it hard to recognize her. They were shocked to see her suffering from swelling all over her body.

For no apparent reason, she was sent to a labor camp near Lvov where she worked in a bulb factory. The location, in the center of Russia, was a great lightening of her sentence.

There were also dangerous criminals that were sent to this labor camp. She later told that at her last meeting, before being sent to the camp, she was given a package of kosher food by her daughters. But her cellmates wanted it and the first night, as she lay in bed, she heard the prisoners talking among themselves: let’s kill the Zhidovka (derogatory word for Jewess) and take her package. She got out of bed and gave the package to them and said she did not like the food they had sent her from home. That’s how her life was saved.

Her daughters, who were very concerned about her, asked their aunt, Mussia Katzenelenbogen, to try and get her sister released early. Mrs. Katzenelenbogen told about these efforts in So’arot B’Dmama:

“One day, my sister Tzippa’s daughters came to me and asked me to save her. I dropped my work and planned for a long trip. Before I took action, I received brachos from three Chassidim, including R’ Berke Chein. I could not wait for the Rebbe’s answer due to lack of time and the urgency of the matter.

“Tzippa suffered from heart trouble and was hospitalized in the camp’s main infirmary. I went to Lvov where I met her at the camp. She said the doctor was Jewish and he could be spoken to about her release. When I spoke to him, he maintained that she was a political prisoner and could not be released. He offered to try and get her another trial. For that I traveled to Kiev where they told me that the opinions of three doctors were needed who would say that she is sick and only then could she have another trial. I expended much effort until I was able to convince three doctors to sign off on her supposed sickness.

“During this period, I visited her in the camp several times. The last time we met she asked me not to come again because the commanders of the camp looked askance at this. ‘I am afraid they will arrest you too,’ she explained.

“At precisely that time, an opportunity arose to shorten the sentence. It was after one of the inmates had murdered someone. A special committee arrived which served as a sort of court, in order to sentence the murderer. It was rare for judges to go to a labor camp. The doctor who decided to help Tzippa exaggerated her condition and sent her file to the judges along with a recommendation that she be released as a dangerously ill person.

“The efforts bore fruit and her doctors soon informed her of her release. She was freed in 1949, two years and eight months after they had sentenced her to ten years incarceration. As the Rebbe Rayatz had predicted, she would not have to be there for long.

“She was released on Tisha B’Av 5709. The two of us happily boarded a train but then the camp commander asked his men to search for me. He wanted to take revenge on me for having successfully released Tzippa. He boarded the train and looked for me in all the compartments but I lay there with eyes closed and a different kerchief so he couldn’t identify me. It was only when the train began moving that I could breathe a sigh of relief. I thanked G-d for the big miracles He did for us.”

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mekarev him and would disclose to him where the farbrengens were taking place. In those days, the location of farbrengens was a secret but R’ Chaim Zalman, who knew that R’ Berish was very interested in Chabad, always told him.

The relationship between the two continued for many more years. Their friendship was so strong that when R’ Berish passed away, they did not tell R’ Chaim Zalman.

During the war years, the government drafted all men. They searched after those trying to escape being drafted and arrests were a daily occurrence. R’ Chaim Zalman himself was avoiding the draft. Whenever soldiers came to the house, he managed to hide. One time, soldiers knocked and R’ Chaim Zalman realized it was too late for him to escape, but his daughters saved him. They took the mattress off the bed, he laid down on it, and they put the mattress and blankets on top of him and quickly made the bed again. The soldiers searched for him unsuccessfully and left without him.

During the war, his mother Rochel Miriam was killed by the Nazis as well as his brothers and sisters in Disna. His father died a few years before the war.

THE FAMILY DISPERSESAt the end of the war there

was an opportunity to escape the Soviet Union. Many Chassidim left with forged Polish papers. Like many other Chassidim, R’ Chaim Zalman went to Lvov for the purpose of trying to cross the border. Here is where his and his family’s mesirus nefesh and courage came to the fore. His wife and some relatives worked very hard to help as

many Chassidim as possible leave Russia. They helped forge documents and with the organizational aspects of the escape. Although they could have crossed the border themselves early on, they decided to remain in Lvov to help others and only then escape themselves.

His brother-in-law, R’ Mendel Garelik, who was artistic, forged the passports. Tzippa would then go to the OVIR emigration offices to get the passports signed with the stamp that allowed Polish citizens to leave the country. She had dozens of forged documents on her. Whenever she visited those offices she knew that she was endangering herself, for whoever was caught smuggling across the border was exiled for years and some were even shot.

It was Friday afternoon, 28 Cheshvan 5707. Tzippa was on her way to the OVIR office. She was holding a small bag which contained dozens of passports. On the way, she realized she was being followed. She immediately ran to the public bathrooms so she could get rid of her bag, but she didn’t make it. The NKVD agent ran after her and caught her. She pulled Tzippa toward a waiting car.

While under arrest she was tortured but she did not reveal anything since she did not want to incriminate other Chassidim.

The next day, Shabbos morning, the secret police made wide-ranging searches, entered the homes of Chassidim and made arrests. When they reached the Kozliner home, Mottel opened the door. He told them he did not know where his father was. R’ Chaim Zalman had fled. Surprisingly, they decided to arrest Mottel, who was just 18 years old, in an attempt to get incriminating information from

him against his parents.Mottel was interrogated for

hours. They told him that they knew that Jews going to Poland were not Polish citizens and that they were continuing on to other countries. They also “informed” him that his mother was arrested and they had found the passports on her of those who sought to escape.

Mottel was released toward the end of the day. It was now his responsibility to care for his two younger sisters, since his mother was in prison and his father had disappeared into hiding.

Tzippa was sentenced to ten years of exile. That was a light sentence, relatively speaking (see box), as many others were sent to exile for decades and others were even killed for crimes like this.

Life at the Kozliner home was terrible. Their parents were gone. Mottel tried to live below the radar most of the time. His sister Dreishke was sent to Lvov where she stayed with a local family so she could be near her mother and bring her food packages. The younger sister Vera was passed around among Chassidishe families that were willing to have her. She spent a significant amount of time with the Lebenhartz family. Her hosts, who knew where her father was hiding, brought him to their home once every few months so he could see his daughter. He would come in the middle of the night, talk with his little girl and then go back into hiding.

ARREST AND TORTURETzippa was released from

a labor camp early, after about three years. Her joy was not long-lived for a few weeks later, the evil ones laid hands on her husband. He had sensed that

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trouble was approaching and he had consulted with his family about whether it was better to run away or to turn himself in and take all the blame in order to exonerate others. In the end, he decided to flee, maybe Hashem would have mercy and he would be saved.

The secret police continued to follow him. They did not arrest him because they wanted to see with whom he met. The wicked ones chose “to play the game with him” until the end.

One day, as he walked down the street, a policeman approached him and asked him for his passport. R’ Chaim Zalman innocently handed him his passport. The policeman eyed it briefly and then put it in his pocket and began walking away. The point was to hobble him, for with his passport in their possession, he could not escape anywhere.

He realized what was going on and worked to get a new passport. The forgers among the Chassidim asked him whether he wanted his real information on it or not. He said they should enter

the real details.Not much time elapsed and

he was caught again, this time with his forged documents. When they accused him of being in possession of forged documents, he said, “You took my passport and since I couldn’t go around without one, I had to make another one.”

It was years later that he revealed a little bit of the time he was arrested:

“When I entered the prison, I determined not to break and not to give them the name of a single Jew. I planned that if I felt I was going to break, I would make believe that I was revealing information but only give them made up details. As expected, they tortured me severely but in my mind I was like a dead man; no wife, no children, no life on the outside and no suffering; nothing interested me. That is how I survived.

“The torture intensified. They placed a branding iron on my shoulder and forced me to crouch with it, no chair beneath me, for days, with a jailer standing nearby. I knew that if

I did not do as they ordered, he would beat me. The suffering was tremendous but I did not break.

“Three weeks had passed since I was incarcerated. One night, at four in the morning, I informed them that I was willing to reveal the secret about who forged my passport. They immediately convened all the interrogators. They brought me into the interrogation room where there was a festive atmosphere. Everyone smiled. Kozliner had broken. He was going to tell everything.

“But I did not consider telling any of the truth, G-d forbid. While I was in jail, I remembered an old Jewish man who had married a gentile and had recently died. I decided to blame him for he had already died and wouldn’t be harmed. I said there was an old Jew who was an expert forger and he took care of my documents in exchange for a lot of money.

“They bought the story and went to search his house. After I left prison, I heard that they had turned the house over, but did not find anything. His gentile wife cursed her husband for having fooled her. For all those years she had thought he was an avowed communist and now she was told he had forged documents and was an enemy of the state. They searched his house, found nothing and were sure he had managed to destroy or hide all evidence of his forging.”

R’ Chaim Zalman was exiled to Siberia again where he did hard labor. Despite the circumstances, he kept mitzvos with tremendous mesirus nefesh.

The evil Stalin died in 5713/1953 and the oppression let up somewhat. Many political

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and religious prisoners were freed early including R’ Chaim Zalman Kozliner.

A BEARD AT ALL COSTSAfter he was released, he lived

with his family in Chernovitz. The mashpia, R’ Mendel Futerfas lived with them for a while. When the younger daughter, Vera, got married and moved to Samarkand, near her in-laws, R’ Mendel convinced him to move near one of his children. R’ Chaim Zalman agreed and moved to his daughter’s house in Samarkand. A short time later, R’ Mendel also went to Samarkand and R’ Chaim Zalman, his daughter and son-in-law, hosted him in their home for a long time.

Throughout the years, R’ Chaim Zalman had a beard even though this endangered him. When he was not in hiding, he

farbrenged with the Chassidim a lot and encouraged them to continue working according to the instructions of the Rebbeim, despite the enormous obstacles.

A MAN OF FEW WORDSHe received a visa at the

beginning of the 1970’s and made aliya with his family and settled in Nachalat Har Chabad. In 5737, when the Rebbe urged that mashpiim be appointed in every community, the residents of Nachalat Har Chabad wanted to appoint him as the mashpia but he refused. Even when the pressure increased, he adamantly refused. Finally, his brother-in-law, R’ Sholom Vilenkin, and R’ Michoel Mishulovin were appointed as mashpiim.

R’ Chaim Zalman was a happy, modest and closed-mouthed Chassid. When he visited 770, he refused his

friends’ request that he sit together with the elder Chassidim and mashpiim who sat behind the Rebbe. He said, “I cannot sit within the Rebbe’s four cubits.”

R’ Chaim Zalman was an extremely taciturn man. Only rarely did he tell about his life. When his children and grandchildren asked him questions, he answered briefly and obliquely. His family knew that to him, his past was behind a sealed wall. Even the little that they knew about his activities was learned from his friends in Russia and not from him.

This is why, what has been related here is only a drop in the bucket of the life and times of R’ Chaim Zalman.

He passed away on 13 Tishrei 5746, on the yahrtzait of the Rebbe Maharash. Incredibly, his father and wife had also died on the same date.

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KEEPING THE DANCING GOING UNTIL DAWNPeople know already, “Whoever did not see the

Simchas Beis HaShoeiva in Crown Heights, never

saw simcha in his life.” * Shraga Crombie spoke

with the man at the keyboard, R’ Yossi Cohen,

who has been playing every night of Sukkos

for twenty-five years. * About the first time,

and about the unforgettable moments when he

played in front of the Rebbe in 5753 and 5754.

“I’m going to sleep until Yossi Cohen. Wake me up at two, please.”

If that sounds strange to you, then I guess you haven’t been (at least in recent years) at the Simchas Beis HaShoeiva in Crown Heights. For thousands of Chassidim, this request is most reasonable. They go to sleep early, while the big band plays, and wake up at two in the morning when the band is replaced by one man: Yossi Cohen.

From the moment he gets up on the stage, they don’t miss a minute. They dance joyously to his singing and playing until six

in the morning and that’s only because the police come and open the street to traffic again.

But there is one person who doesn’t go to sleep until Yossi Cohen, and that is Yossi Cohen himself. He plays starting at eight o’clock at the Simchas Beis HaShoeiva in Boro Park. When he finishes at twelve, he goes to Crown Heights where he stops at home to wake up his children and the guests who asked to be woken at two.

I wanted to meet with Yossi and hear from him what it’s like to play for the thousands of people who come to the Rebbe for Tishrei, from which they

derive simcha for the entire year.How do you have the

strength to play all night, night after night?

When I think about it, I’m also amazed. It’s hard work that demands a lot of energy. It’s not easy being up all night on your feet. It’s definitely not easy doing this night after night, but here it’s different since I get kochos from the Rebbe. I have no other explanation for it. Although I don’t understand it, I feel the kochos flowing into me one hour after another, one night after another.

Let’s go back a bit. How did you become a musician?

Divine providence is wondrous. When I was nine, I stayed home one day since I didn’t feel well. My aunt watched me. She spent the time with her daughter who played a melodica which I found fascinating. I asked to try it. She let me try and I asked her to teach me a song. She taught me “Ki M’Tziyon.” That was the first song I learned and I could immediately see that I had a talent for music.

The next step was trying my

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mother’s accordion. She has a talent for music but did not develop it and her accordion wasn’t much in use until I started playing it. I continued to improve on the accordion, but in the years to come playing music wasn’t more than a hobby I did in my free time.

When I was in yeshiva, I would play music with friends. One bachur, who had a talent for chazanus, would sing, and I would accompany him. When we went to army bases on mivtzaim or to Evenings with Chabad, I would play Chabad tunes on the keyboard.

Did you study music?

I was given a great gift from G-d, a developed talent for music. I never took lessons, not as a child and not when I turned professional. Whatever I know, including notes, is self-taught, and boruch Hashem, I see that it’s better than anything I could have learned from others.

So how does a bachur who plays as a hobby, become a famous musician?

For a short while after I married, I still played only as a hobby or on mivtzaim, mainly for the shliach in Queens, R’ Shraga Zalmanov. In those days, he did many Evenings with Chabad for Israelis and I played for them.

I remember one time we did a Chanuka party at a radio station and I played “HaNeiros Halalu” and other holiday songs. Boruch Hashem, it was very successful.

I did not think about a career in music and I started a business in which I invested a lot of money. Unfortunately, it failed and I lost all my money and even more than that. I had no idea “from where my help would come,” until my wife suggested I become a one-man band. She said G-d gave me a talent and it was time to use it. I was nervous since I had no real experience in playing beyond what I did on mivtzaim, but I had nothing to lose and I put an ad in the Jewish Press.

I got a phone call from someone asking whether I could play at a sheva brachos and of course I said yes. It didn’t seem too challenging. Then he asked me whether I could sing too. The problem was that I had never sung and played simultaneously and I was nervous, but I took the job and was happy that there were a few months to go until the event. Boruch Hashem, I

I got a phone call from someone in Monroe who

said he was at that wedding and he was making

a bar mitzva for his son which would be attended by the

Satmar Rebbe. He wanted me to play at the bar mitzva

but only Chabad niggunim. I asked him if he was crazy.

How could I play only Chabad niggunim in Monroe in the

Satmar Rebbe’s presence?

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was successful and everyone was pleased. From then on, my name got around by word of mouth and I got more and more requests for events. From sheva brachos it turned into weddings and I became a one-man band.

So it’s thanks to your wife…For sure. Not only for

encouraging me to develop my musical career, but also for dealing with the work at home. It’s not easy when your husband is out of the house nearly every evening and you are left alone to handle the children.

But the truth is that it’s more than that. Here is an anecdote that shows what a sacrifice my wife makes. Ten years ago, I had a job playing at a wedding in Boro Park on a snowy night. In the afternoon, I went with my wife, who was in labor, to the hospital. Time passed and she still had not given birth. I was very concerned since I knew that at seven o’clock I had a wedding to play at. I had tried to find someone to replace me but was unsuccessful. I didn’t know which was worse – to leave my

wife in the hospital without me or a wedding without a musician.

My wife maintained that I had to go bring joy to the bride and groom and the merit of the mitzva would help her in giving birth. The Jewish doctor there said that if this is what she wants, I should go to the wedding and right after she gave birth he would call and update me. That’s what we did. A few minutes after the bride and groom went out to the dance floor, I got a phone call from the doctor telling me about the birth of my son. The simcha that night was double.

Why would a Lubavitcher musician be asked to play for a wedding that is not Chabad?

Not only is it not surprising, it’s very appropriate; and not only a Lubavitcher musician but Chabad niggunim! All groups know that Chabad niggunim are pure simcha and when you want a special simcha and not something empty, vacuous, then you request Chabad niggunim.

A number of years ago, there was a wedding in Crown Heights of a couple who became

interested in Chabad through Heichal Menachem in Boro Park. They came from well-known Satmar families. Before the wedding, the couple told me that they wanted Chabad niggunim at their wedding and no niggunim from other Chassidic groups, even if relatives asked for it. That made me a little nervous since I knew that many distinguished rabbis would be attending, but I promised to do as they said.

There were hundreds of guests wearing shtreimlach and I put in my best effort. The simcha was tremendous and I got a lot of positive feedback.

A few weeks later, I got a phone call from someone in Monroe who said he was at that wedding and he was making a bar mitzva for his son which would be attended by the Satmar Rebbe. He wanted me to play at the bar mitzva but only Chabad niggunim. I asked him if he was crazy. How could I play only Chabad niggunim in Monroe in the Satmar Rebbe’s presence? But he said this is what he wants and that is what I did. There

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too, the simcha was exceptional. Everyone danced and sang with great liveliness.

How did you become the official musician for the Simchas Beis HaShoeiva?

Simchas Beis HaShoeiva out on the street began on Sukkos 5741/1980 when the Rebbe spoke about it in a sicha. A few years later I saw that when it got late, the musicians were all tired. I spoke with Yisroel Shemtov who arranged the festivities and offered to replace them and play alone. He was hesitant. Back then, the one-man band hadn’t taken off yet and he wasn’t convinced that I with my keyboard could replace a band and be able to hold the crowd. In the end he was willing to give me a one night trial. The rest is history.

For me, the Simchas Beis HaShoeiva lasts all year, both because I take kochos and simcha from it for the rest of the year, and because I get feedback wherever I go. At weddings in frum neighborhoods, little kids

come over to me and ask me whether I am the musician from the Simchas Beis HaShoeiva. People on the street stop me and thank me for the great simcha during the dancing on those nights of Yom Tov.

Unlike weddings and other events when I plan what I will play, at the Simchas Beis HaShoeiva I don’t plan or prepare. I feel that the ones who decide what I should play is the crowd itself and I just go with that. Sometimes, they tell me there is a certain niggun that I always play towards morning. But I never noticed that; it just happened naturally. I see the joy of the crowd increasing as time moves on. I see the bachurim dancing on and on, nonstop, and my fingers find the right keys and the right niggunim that will keep them going.

I know and feel that I am only a channel, and my job is to do what I can, but the great simcha is something from heaven. For me, it’s a great z’chus to give such nachas to the Rebbe.

What was the highest point in your musical career?

No question, the highest point was when I played for the Rebbe, when the Rebbe came out on the balcony after Mincha in 5753 and 5754, and I would play Yechi with the Rebbe encouraging the singing.

How did you get that z’chus?In 5752, when the Rebbe

spoke about an increase in simcha and doing away with undesirable things with sixty days of joy, R’ Kuti Rapp a”h arranged dancing every night in 770. He asked me to play. I was happy to do so, and any night that I did not have a wedding or other event, I played in 770. On nights I could not show up, I found replacements. That is how there came to be a rotation among musicians. When the Rebbe started going out on the balcony in 5753, we continued the rotation of musicians with someone else playing every day in front of the Rebbe.

It was a huge z’chus and it was obvious that the Rebbe had nachas from it. When the Rebbe motioned with his hand to increase the singing, I had to increase the speed of my playing since the crowd sang Yechi faster and faster, over and over, as you can see on the videos of those days.

Those moments are etched in my mind forever, how the Rebbe encouraged the singing and the crowd had emuna shleima that the Rebbe was about to reveal himself and the Geula was beginning.

Today I pray that I merit this once again, to play at the true and complete Geula and to see the Rebbe encouraging the singing with both his hands.

Amen.

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GLOBAL WARMING OF THE FUTURE By Rabbi Heschel Greenberg

DON’T KICK YOUR SUKKAThe Talmud (Avoda Zara 3a)

discusses an intriguing dialogue that will take place in the future Messianic Age between G-d and the Nations of the world:

After discussing how they will testify that the Jewish people observed the commandments, they too will come and demand a reward. They will say:

“Master of the Universe! Give [the Torah] to us anew and we will observe it.”

The Holy One Blessed is He, says to them, “Fools of the world! Whoever toiled on the eve of the Sabbath will eat on the Sabbath, but whoever did not toil on the eve of the Sabbath from where will he eat on the Sabbath? Nevertheless, [I will accede to your request]. I have an easy Mitzvah and its name is Sukka. Go and perform [it].”

Immediately, each [member of the Nations] goes to construct a Sukka on the roof of his house. The Holy One Blessed is He pierces them with the sun in the Tammuz season. And each and every one kicks his Sukka and leaves.

The Talmud questions G-d’s tactic in proving the disloyalty of

the Nations to the performance of a Mitzvah. Even a Jew would be exempt from dwelling in a Sukka under these circumstances of extreme heat since the rule is that when one is in distress he is exempted from the Sukka. The Talmud answers that although a Jew would be compelled to leave the Sukka he would not kick it on the way out.

THE FOUR QUESTIONSMany questions have been

asked about this enigmatic story in the Talmud.

First, why did G-d choose the Mitzvah of Sukka specifically as a test of the Nations’ desire to fulfill the commandments?

The Talmud seems to address this question by referring to the Sukka as an “easy Mitzvah” because it doesn’t involve a significant monetary cost. But there are many other Mitzvos which do not involve major expense. Why this Mitzvah specifically?

Second, why did G-d then make it difficult for them to observe the Mitzvah of Sukka? Certainly it was G-d’s way of demonstrating that they were not serious about serving Him.

But, the fact that G-d made the performance of this “easy” Mitzvah difficult seems to undermine the initial emphasis that this was an easy Mitzvah. It turned out not to be so easy.

Third, why did G-d cause them to leave the Sukka as a result of the extreme heat? G-d could have poured rain down on their Sukkos, which would have yielded the same result.

Fourth, why did they build the Sukkos on their rooftops?

Rashi explains that in those days roofs were flat and people used roofs for many of their needs.

However while this explains how it was possible to build a Sukka on a rooftop, it does not explain why they chose the rooftops instead of their yards. And, more importantly, why were the Talmudic authors interested in reporting such an inconsequential aspect of the story?

TOTALITY!One way of approaching

this matter is to reflect that the Mitzvah of Sukka was chosen specifically because, despite its simplicity, it is one Mitzvah that comprises all the other Mitzvos, both subjectively and objectively.

From the perspective of the

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person who fulfills this Mitzvah, the Sukka is unique. When we perform this Mitzvah it encompasses the totality of the person. One enters the Sukka wearing his clothing and his boots. Even the Mikveh, which requires full immersion, does not involve one’s clothing. The Sukka is the sole Mitzvah that involves the totality of the person and encompasses all of one’s routine activities such as eating and sleeping.

SUKKA = 248The word Sukka, when

spelled phonetically [i.e., when we take each letter and spell it as it is sounded] adds up to 248, which is the number of positive commandments in the Torah. [There are a total of 613 commandments in the Torah of which 248 are prescriptive, the do’s, whereas the other 365 are proscriptive commandments, the don’ts.]

Another fascinating connection between the Sukka and the number 248 has been stated by the famous Chassidic Masters, Rabbi Chaim of Tzanz and Rabbi Avraham of Sochotchov:

The minimum dimension of a Sukka (in terms of Biblical law) is that it must have at least two

walls, each consisting of 7 by 10 t’fachim (handbreadths-about 3 to 4 inches). A third wall must be at least one handbreadth by 10. If we add the s’chach (the covering of branches), which is 7x7 it amounts to an additional 49 handbreadths. If we add on the floor space it gives us another 49 handbreadths. When we add up all these dimensions, 70+70+10+49+49, they equal 248!

Another connection of the

Sukka to the number 248 is in the Talmud’s association of the 248 Mitzvos to the 248 organs of the human body. When we enter the Sukka we enter with all of our limbs and organs, which symbolize all of the positive Mitzvos. Here we see how the subjective nature of the Sukka (entering with all of our 248 organs) matches the Sukka which represents the 248 commandments.

ENTERING G-D’S DOMAINConceptually, each and every

Mitzvah enables us to enter into G-d’s Sukka, i.e., G-d’s abode, one Mitzvah at a time. However, a single Mitzvah gets us only part way into the Divine Sukka. The Mitzvah of dwelling in a Sukka allows us to enter G-d’s Sukka

completely. We can now understand why

G-d will test the Nations with the Mitzvah of Sukka. When G-d tests these clamoring protesters he chooses to give them a Mitzvah that comprises all the other Mitzvos. If they were to pass this test they would be ready for all of the commandments. Otherwise, even fulfilling one Mitzvah would still not entitle them to the same reward the Jewish people are destined to receive for observance of all the Mitzvos.

On a deeper level, one may suggest that by giving them the one Mitzvah that contains all of the Mitzvos, G-d would expose them to incredible spiritual energy.

This then is the deeper significance of building the Sukka on their rooftops. The roof is the closest part of one’s home to the rays of the sun. These test-Sukkos will not be ordinary. The object of having the Nations perform this Mitzvah is to expose them to the powerful spiritual G-dly energy that is compared to the sun.

Contrary to the surface understanding of the story, the test here is not if they will respect the Mitzvah or be willing to do it. Rather, the test is whether they have the spiritual stamina to absorb the lofty warmth and heat of the cumulative power of 248 Mitzvos. G-d would not test them merely to see how faithful they would be. It will be G-d’s way of showing them they did not have the capacity to absorb the spiritual reward for all the Mitzvos.

THE REWARD OF A MITZVAH IS THE MITZVAH

This is based on a deeper

The test here is not whether they will respect the

Mitzvah or be willing to do it. Rather, the test is

whether they have the spiritual stamina to absorb the

lofty warmth and heat of the cumulative power of 248

Mitzvos. G-d would not test them merely to see how

faithful they would be. Rather, it will be G-d’s way of

showing them they did not have the capacity to absorb

the spiritual reward for all the Mitzvos.

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understanding of the reward for our observance of Mitzvos. Understood conventionally, a reward is something received in return for doing something meritorious. The true meaning of reward for a Mitzvah, however, is that the reward is the Mitzvah itself. Each Mitzvah generates a measure of G-dly light, which, when experienced fully, is the greatest form of bliss and pleasure.

In the pre-Messianic Age most of us cannot experience this bliss. The coarseness of the body and Animal Soul is an impediment to this feeling. Moreover, if every Mitzvah produced an immediate blissful state beyond any delight we can imagine, it would be virtually impossible to resist doing every Mitzvah possible.

Every Mitzvah we perform has a gradual impact on our bodies and souls that prepares us for the Final Redemption by conditioning us to absorb the powerful blissful energy that we generated by our own Mitzvos.

This thought is based on the statement of the Talmud (Nedarim 8b): “G-d will take the sun out of its sheath; the righteous will be healed by it, whereas the wicked will be punished by it.” In the Messianic

Age, the world will experience a spiritual form of “Global Warming.”

The sun’s effect on the wicked is not simply punishment, but a direct consequence of their sins. One who commits a transgression becomes resistant to the G-dly energy generated by a Mitzvah. As a result they will be ill prepared to tolerate and enjoy the incredible delight and magnitude of G-dly light that will be generated when G-d removes the sheath that has obscured the effects of the Mitzvos in the present day and age.

This then also explains the meaning of the phrase that G-d “pierces them with the sun.” This image is meant to suggest that they will be unable to tolerate the Divine radiance generated by the all-encompassing Mitzvah of Sukka.

One cannot just show up for the Messianic Age, unprepared by the performance of Mitzvos, and expect to bask in the G-dly light. Even if they are able to generate light in the Messianic Age, they will not be able to reap the full benefits because they will be unable to safely and comfortably absorb such

intense light.As the Talmud (in the context

of their demand for reward in the future), explains the verse: “You shall keep the commandments… which I command you today to do them”: “Today [in the pre-Messianic Age] was made to do them, and not tomorrow [the Messianic Age]. Today was to do them, and today was not for receiving reward.”

The Mitzvos (and particularly the Mitzvah of Sukka) we do today serve a dual function: They generate G-dly light and they refine and shield us so that we are capable of being exposed to the G-dly radiance and fully equipped to enter into G-d’s overarching Sukka.

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THE SIFREI TORAH THAT WERE SAVED AT THE LAST MINUTEPresented for Simchas Torah

By Menachem Ziegelboim

There was a very special man by the name of R’ Refael Chudaitov. He was a Bucharian Jew who

had a great love for Sifrei Torah. He would rescue Sifrei Torah from destruction, and he often endangered his life for this.

R’ Refael considered it a double mitzva to rescue Sifrei Torah and get them to safety and enable other Jews to use them. He did this despite the Iron Curtain which separated Russia from the rest of the world.

“As a sofer who lived in Samarkand,” said R’ Yitzchok Mishulovin, now of Crown Heights, “I also fixed Sifrei Torah. R’ Chudaitov often gave me Sifrei Torah to fix.

“He would bring me old Sifrei Torah that he got in all kinds of places, even from Siberia, and he

would pay me to check and fix them. Then he would send them to Eretz Yisroel.”

The following stories tell of this “simple tzaddik” and his soul connection with Sifrei Torah.

PART IAs told by R’ Gershon

Klivansky a”h:At the end of nine years which

I spent in a city in Siberia, the local Jewish community decided to express its gratitude for the spiritual help I gave them and gifted me with a rare Torah scroll. I was very moved by this magnificent gift. But I had a problem – how would I get this forbidden item across the Russian border?

One night, as I got ready to go to sleep, there was knocking

at the door. In Soviet Russia, when you heard knocking at the door late at night, your heat started beating rapidly.

There was no peephole and I called out, “Who is it?”

“Please open,” said the voice of an old man who spoke Russian. I was taken aback.

I opened the door and there was a man with a white beard who introduced himself as Refael from Bucharia.

“Would you please let me sleep here?” he asked.

That posed a serious dilemma. On the one hand, his appearance demonstrated that he was “kosher.” On the other hand, he could be a spy and imposter with a beard glued on. The principle, “respect and suspect” was very much accepted in Russia. That was the only way to live. In the

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meantime, he stood there and asked me again, “Please, allow me to sleep here near the door.”

My logic screamed out: How can you just let someone in? Why does he want to sleep near the door? Maybe he’s a thief who plans on robbing you and then fleeing in the middle of the night.

“Why are you thinking so much?” asked the mysterious man.

“I really have no reason to think a lot about it,” I said, “since it is not accepted to have a guest sleep near the door, especially someone as distinguished as you.”

But the man continued to plead to be allowed to sleep near the door and I finally agreed. For the next many hours I couldn’t sleep a wink in my nervousness.

In the middle of the night

I heard a rustling sound. I was petrified. Should I wake up my wife and children who would help me fight the thief? Maybe I should knock on the wall between my apartment and the neighboring apartment and wake up the neighbors? But they would surely mock me and go back to sleep. I decided to quietly get out of bed and see what was going on.

A weak light suddenly pierced the darkness. The guest had lit a candle, sat on the floor near the door and began conducting Tikkun Chatzos!

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Fifty years after the Communist Revolution, there were still Jews who went against the mighty current of heresy that swept the country and even conducted Tikkun Chatzos!

I went back to bed without revealing that I knew the guest’s secret. In the morning I asked him, “How did you sleep, R’ Refael?”

“Boruch Hashem,” he replied. “I slept well. But do me a favor. Call me just plain Refael. Don’t make me problems.”

I didn’t understand what he meant until he provided me with a convincing explanation.

“I am a simple Jew and I try, as much as possible, not to generate any big complaints against me in heaven after 120 years. It sometimes happens that I am successful, with Hashem’s help, in doing something good. But if I am called R’ Refael, what will I answer in the next world when they ask me, “Refael, in the lower world they called you

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‘rabbi.’ Did you deserve that title?”

I told him that I was about to leave Russia and he made me an offer. “The trip abroad entails many expenses. If you would like, I can give you a loan, whatever you need, on condition that you repay it when I arrive in Eretz Yisroel.”

I expressed my gratitude and said that I did not need money but I could use his help in smuggling out a Torah.

“That is no problem,” he said. “Give me a sum of money (for bribes in the right places) and the Torah will reach Yerushalayim before you do. This is not the first time I am doing this.”

Although I wanted to give him more than the sum he asked for, he refused and said he did not act as the middleman but just did it as a chesed.

The Torah did indeed reach Eretz Yisroel a short while later, thanks to him, and was given to a yeshiva in Yerushalayim.

PART IIFor many years, R’ Refael

dreamed of going to Eretz Yisroel and he made spiritual preparations toward this end. His preparations included sending Sifrei Torah and other holy ritual items out of Russia. He was successful in this holy and dangerous work because of his connections with many Jews all over Russia. One of those Sifrei Torah is housed in the Aron Kodesh in the beis midrash of the Machnovka Rebbe zt”vkl of B’nei Brak.

R’ Refael had the rare ability to make numerous personal connections, even with people he didn’t know. He was highly

energetic and never stopped his public work. He was always on the move, in the south or north, in Moscow or Tbilisi, in Kutaisi or Tashkent, in Andijan or Fergana. In all these places, Jews looked forward to the coming of R’ Refael the Angel. His frequent travels to distant places always concluded with his acquiring new friends.

When he traveled, he usually managed to make it back home before Shabbos, for he was particular about not setting out on a trip close to Shabbos. But there were times that he was on long trips and he had no choice but to spend Shabbos in an unfamiliar place. Then he would knock on a door of a Jew where he was usually welcomed with open arms. It was impossible to withstand his personal charm. That is how he acquired friends and the friendships were long-lasting.

R’ Refael not only traveled on the roads but also accumulated numerous hours in the air. He went to all parts of Russia including the Ural Mountains, and even distant places in Siberia like Vladivostok, which is on the Russian-Japanese border.

One year, he flew to Novosibirsk on business. He sold dried fruit, wine and liquors. As soon as he arrived, he found out where the local shul was and he rented a place to stay near the shul so he could easily attend there.

In the middle of the night a fire broke out in one of the wooden houses near the shul. When R’ Refael saw the flames approaching the shul and threatening to destroy it, he ran there quickly, jumped in through a window, and tried to save what he could from the Aron Kodesh. He found two small Sifrei Torah

R’ Refael (second from left) at the Kosel with family members

In the morning, relatives of the deceased came

and said that this forsaken place was previously

populated completely by Jews who were descendants of

Cantonists.

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and with great danger to himself, he managed to get them out of the shul before the structure went up in flames.

When the sun rose, he opened the two Sifrei Torah and to his amazement he discovered that they were new and written with special ink, different than any ink he was familiar with. When he spoke with the gabbai of the shul, he learned that they were written in Siberia and were not completed, for some reason.

He kept this to himself for years until the day he planned on leaving Russia. Then he had the idea of taking these two small Sifrei Torah with him to Eretz Yisroel. He went to Novosibirsk, met with the head of the community and told him: A number of years ago there was a fire here at the shul and I had the z’chus of rescuing your two small Sifrei Torah. Now I am about to immigrate to Eretz Yisroel and I want to buy these scrolls from you for a token amount.

R’ Refael continued: The Jewish community here is very small and these scrolls are not needed. If you send them to Eretz Yisroel they will be read over there in your merit.

The gabbai agreed and sold them to him cheaply.

R’ Refael brought the scrolls to Samarkand where he gave them to R’ Yitzchok Mishulovin to check and finish the writing. When the work was successfully completed, R’ Refael invited dozens of Jews to a festive farbrengen to celebrate the completion of the two Sifrei Torah.

“The simcha was great,” said his son Moshiach. “We all took off our shoes and danced quietly in the big room so as not to draw attention from potential snitches. I cannot begin to describe his

great joy with this big mitzva.”R’ Refael brought the two

scrolls to Eretz Yisroel. He gave one as a gift to the Bucharian community in Nachalat Har Chabad, and gave the other to his son Moshiach who gave it to his nephew, R’ Michoel Tairimov.

PART IIIAnother Torah scroll that

R’ Refael rescued and brought

to Samarkand was an ancient and unique one written on deer hide. Tradition had it that it had belonged to the Mezritcher Maggid. Here too, R’ Yitzchok Mishulovin worked hard on fixing the old scroll. Then R’ Refael sent it to the Rebbe as a gift. It was sent with Mrs. Brucha Niazov, the wife of R’ Chananya a”h, who fled Russia in 1930 and later lived in Crown Heights. At the end of the 60’s, she visited family in Samarkand and R’ Refael took the opportunity and asked her to take the precious scroll out of Russia as extra luggage which she would take on the plane, as a gift to the Rebbe.

At first she refused because she was afraid to take something precious out of Russia lest she be caught and accused of a crime. The fear of punishment in Russia, especially for one who had lived in that country, was embedded deep in their hearts. Nevertheless, this was important to R’ Refael who continued to importune her and said: Those who are emissaries to do a mitzva are not harmed. But she was still afraid.

A few days later, Mrs. Niazov went to Fergana near Samarkand. During the trip she was involved in a serious car accident and miraculously survived. In gratitude to Hashem she decided to accede to his request and take the Torah scroll to America.

The Rebbe called this Torah, the Bucharian Torah, and was very happy with it.

R’ Refael asked that it say the origin of the Torah on the mantel but the Rebbe said not to publicize that it had come from Soviet Russia since the sender still lived in Russia. It was only after R’ Refael left Russia and went to see the Rebbe that it could be publicized. That

Moscow June 18, 1969

Permit #004393 for the removal of valuable, cultural

items

1-Name of the person taking them out: Chudaitov, Refael

Niazovitz

2-Citizenry: Soviet citizen

3-Occupation: retired

4-Contents: Torah scroll written in Hebrew and without a

covering and without sticks (i.e. atzei chayim)

5-Destination: Israel as a gift for S (Shoshana) Kogan (daughter

of R’ Refael)

6 – Permit Issuer: Deakonova, authorized by the Ministry of

Culture, USSR

7 – Committee Conclusions: item is not particularly rare

8-Estimated Value: 150 rubles

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Shabbos, the Rebbe asked that they read from the Bucharian Torah. After that, now and then, they would read from it in the Rebbe’s minyan on Shabbos.

PART IV During World War II, R’

Yehuda Leib Levin fled Moscow and ended up in Bucharia in a little village by the name of Margalan. When R’ Refael went to Margalan on one of his journeys, he found R’ Levin and his family who were starving and had no Jewish ritual items. R’ Refael immediately brought them kosher food and sifrei kodesh. He helped them a great deal and they became close friends.

R’ Levin eventually returned to Moscow and was appointed the official Chief Rabbi of Moscow. R’ Levin now saw an opportunity to repay R’ Refael and helped him in many ways. For example, before Sukkos, R’ Refael would send his son Moshiach to R’ Levin to get esrogim from him. These esrogim were sent from abroad for Russian Jewry. R’ Levin would meet with R’ Moshiach in a quiet place in fear of “the walls have ears,” and secretly give him the esrogim. R’ Moshiach would quickly bring them to Samarkand for the community there.

One time, when R’ Moshiach went to R’ Levin on his father’s behalf, R’ Levin told him that as Chief Rabbi of Moscow he had received a letter from someone who lived in a tiny town in Siberia. The man wrote that

in their town there were some righteous converts and he was the head of the community. In recent years he remained the sole remnant of the Jewish community. He felt his end was near and he was afraid that the gentiles would take the Sifrei Torah and desecrate them. He requested that they send someone to take the Sifrei Torah and bring them to a Jewish community.

When R’ Moshiach returned to Samarkand, he told his father about it, who suggested they send R’ Berke Schiff. R’ Berke tells the story of how he rescued the Sifrei Torah:

One day, R’ Moshiach Chudaitov came over to me in Samarkand and told me he had just returned from a trip to Moscow where he had seen the Chief Rabbi, R’ Levin, on behalf of his father. R’ Levin told him about an old Jew by the name of Yosef Mayassin who lived in a small village in Siberia. The man wrote that he had three Sifrei Torah and he wanted to send them with someone to a Jewish community, for after he died there would be no one to watch over them.

R’ Moshiach said his father very much wanted me to take care of this. I told R’ Moshiach that if I had the opportunity in the near future to travel to Moscow, I would think of traveling from there to Siberia. I consulted with my mashpia, R’ Moshe Nisselevitch, and he encouraged me to do it.

I was in the middle of getting ready for a trip to Kursk at the

time. My brother-in-law, R’ Shmuel Rabinowitz, lived there and his wife had twin boys. My mother-in-law asked me to go there to help arrange the brissin. I knew that if I did not go, it would be hard for them to get a mohel.

When I arrived in Moscow, I asked Anash whether there was a mohel in Kursk, a night’s journey by train from Moscow. When I was told no, I hired a mohel in Moscow and went with him, traveling all night, to Kursk.

That was a Thursday. When we arrived, I met the new mother and she asked that the brissin take place secretly so that nobody but us would know about it. Only we three adults were present, the mother, the mohel and me, because my brother-in-law, father of the babies, preferred to stay away so that if he was questioned he could say that the mother did it on her own. So I had sandakaus twice.

After the brissin, I remained in their house to help them and I decided to stay until after Shabbos. I asked whether there were any Chabad Chassidim in Kursk and they told me there was one man by the name of Zalman matza zetzer (the one who puts matzos into the oven), the son of the famous Chassid, R’ Dovid Horodoker. I wrote down his address and went to his house on Friday afternoon.

I knocked at his door and it was soon opened by a young girl.

“Who are you looking for?”“R’ Zalman,” I said.She asked me to wait a few

minutes outside and then came back and invited me in. She directed me to the kitchen where she raised part of the wooden floorboard and told me to go downstairs. Down below I saw R’ Zalman who was standing and

“The locals gave me a lot of honor. They took a

sled, harnessed to three huge dogs, and put me

in it with the Sifrei Torah and all the remaining Jewish

items.”

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preparing candles for Shabbos.I introduced myself and said I

was a Chabad Chassid. He was stunned by this and said he did not believe me. I picked up my shirt and showed him my tzitzis. He burst into tears and said, “Who would have believed that nowadays in Russia there would be young Jews who wear tzitzis?”

I told him that in Samarkand there were many religious Jews, including dozens of young Chassidim who lived Jewish lives. I suggested that he try to go to Samarkand soon and join the Chassidic community.

On Motzaei Shabbos I went back to Moscow and went to the home of my brother, R’ Aryeh Leib. When I told him I was going to Siberia he was taken aback and said, “Are you crazy? You’re going to Siberia in the middle of the winter?”

I told him that I had promised R’ Refael Chudaitov that I would go to Siberia and I had to keep my word. My brother continued arguing with me and I finally said that I would look for a sign. If, when I go now to the ticket office I find a night flight to Kranoyarsk, I will go. Otherwise,

I won’t go. When I got to the ticket

office, I asked whether there was a night flight. I was told yes, in three hours. I went back to my brother’s house and said I was going to Siberia. I left all my things in his house, and only took empty suitcases so I could put the three Sifrei Torah in them. I arrived in Krasnoyarsk on a small plane for ten people and from there I took a small bus. There was snow wherever you looked and only the main highway was cleared.

I arrived in a small village by morning and asked where Yosef Mayassin lived. One of the people gave me a long look and then said, “I know where he lives but he just died.” I felt that divine providence was directing me.

I arrived at the house toward evening after a long day of traveling. In the dark corridor sat some women wearing black. When they saw me they burst into tears and wails, “Oy, what a pity he did not get to see you. You have no idea how he waited for you...”

I went to the living room

where, in the center, stood a table covered with a tallis and in a corner was an Aron Kodesh consisting of a wooden box covered by a handmade paroches. I opened the Aron Kodesh and saw three Sifrei Torah.

I stayed there all night. In the morning, relatives of the deceased came and said that this place was previously populated completely by Jews who were descendants of Cantonists who were all religious. The old R’ Mayassin was their rabbi and he was the last remnant of these Jews. They also said that he had been waiting eagerly for my arrival until his final moments, since R’ Moshiach had sent him a telegram saying I was going to arrive and take the Sifrei Torah.

I took the Sifrei Torah and put them in the suitcases. The locals gave me a lot of honor and took a sled, harnessed to three huge dogs, and put me in it with the Sifrei Torah and all the remaining Jewish items, and I made my way back to Moscow and from there to Samarkand. After many twists and turns I was finally able to bring the Sifrei Torah to the trusty hands of R’ Refael Chudaitov.

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BUILDING THE

HEAVENLY SUKKAA compilation of stories and aphorisms for Sukkos

HE PAID FOR HIS ESROG ON CHANUKADuring one of his farbrengens

in the summer of 5745/1985, the Rebbe said that the Rebbe Rayatz would pay for the esrog (since it needs to be “and take for you”) a while after Sukkos (for a reason known to him), and the seller knew about this from the start and bequeathed him the esrog with an outright acquisition and during Chanuka he would get his money.

R’ Yisroel Jacobson would bring the esrogim and some time after Sukkos he would give the Rebbe a report on the esrogim and then the Rebbe would pay him.

The Rebbe said: The first year I came here [Tishrei 5702], I asked the Rebbe [Rayatz] to pay R’ Yisroel before Sukkos so it would be completely “yours,”

and the Rebbe did not want to do this.

SIMCHA AND BITACHONDuring Sukkos be joyous

with the joy of a mitzva and with complete trust in Almighty G-d’s kindness, who heard our prayers amongst the prayers of His people, B’nei Yisroel, and gave us and all our fellow Jews and their families – a year of life and blessing.

(From a letter of the Rebbe Rayatz, Igros Kodesh, vol. 4, p. 416)

ESROGIM TO RUSSIAThe first night of Sukkos

5729/1968, the Rebbe revealed to those sitting around the table at the meal, “This year is the first time that the Soviet government allowed esrogim to be sent.”

He added, “Last year, a shipment of esrogim was also

sent to Russia, but it was done surreptitiously as though it was fruit. This time, this year, official permission was granted. Furthermore, when the esrogim were brought to the consul, he asked where are the rest of the minim – a goy knows that there needs to be the rest of the minim and they gave him the rest of the minim too!”

(HaMelech B’Mesibo)

ENTERING THE HOLYA description of Erev Sukkos:Upon his returning from the

Ohel [13 Tishrei], they would enter the Rebbe’s room and present esrogim for him and for him to distribute. In later years they did not bring them to his room but left them in Gan Eden HaTachton. When the Rebbe would return from the Ohel he dealt there with selecting esrogim.

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“R’ Yisroel Jacobson and his son-in-law, R’ Mordechai Altein (and after R’ YJ’s passing on 17 Sivan 5735, R’ Mordechai and his son-in-law, R’ Yitzchok Meir Gurary) brought esrogim to the Rebbe’s room.

“In addition … R’ Leib Bistritzky went in Erev Yom Tov to the Rebbe’s room and brought lulavim, hadasim and aravos. R’ Binyamin Gorodetzky also gave – through the secretariat – three esrogim that he obtained in Calabria.”

(Otzar Minhagei Chabad)

PARTICIPATE IN MIVTZA DALET MINIM

On 26 Tishrei 5717/1956, the Rebbe wrote to one of Anash:

“Even though you do not mention about Mivtza Dalet Minim, as the custom of Tzeirei Agudas Chabad in recent years,

surely this year they were also involved in this and with greater expansion as in the p’sak din of maalin ba’kodesh(ascending in holiness).

AFFECTING THE SUPERNAL REALMS

When a Jew sets up the walls of the sukka, the walls of the supernal sukka are set up. When he covers it with s’chach, he thereby covers the supernal sukka. When he sits in the sukka, all the lights and revelations of the supernal sukka are drawn down.

(Likkutei Dibburim)

NO SUKKA DECORATIONSIn Seifer HaSichos 5704, the

following exchange is recorded:Question: Did they make

sukka decorations in Lubavitch?

The Rebbe Rayatz: In Lubavitch they did not make sukka decorations, not under the s’chach and not on the walls of the sukka. R’ Zalke Persitz of Moscow once brought an artificial cluster of grapes to hang in the sukka and they did not hang it.

By my holy father, the Rebbe [Rashab], the sukka decorations were those who sat in the sukka. The fear of accepting the yoke of heaven on Rosh HaShana, the avoda of Erev Yom Kippur and Yom Kippur, and the joy of Sukkos were, for my father, experiences of the innermost soul.”

A LOT OF S’CHACHThe Chabad custom is to use

a lot of s’chach on the sukka. The Alter Rebbe would order them to make it denser. In order to fulfill

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the halacha that “the stars should be seen from within the sukka” they would poke a stick through the thick s’chach to create a hole through which they could be seen.

R’ Shneur Zalman Butman, who lived in Paris, heard from a Jew living there that one year the Rebbe celebrated Sukkos in that city. The Rebbe, who was submerged all day in the tent of Torah, introverted, quiet, was seen on the eve of the holiday on the street dragging a lot of s’chach in order to fulfill the hiddur to cover the sukka with a lot of s’chach.

SPIRITUAL PAUPERIn the holy Zohar there is

an unusual warning about the necessity to have guests in the sukka. One can say this means that even someone who is “poor” in the mitzva of sukka, i.e. he lacks the wherewithal to fulfill this mitzva, it is a mitzva to invite a “pauper” like this into the sukka and acquaint him with this lofty mitzva.

(Sicha 13 Tishrei 5736)

OUR CUSTOM IS NOT TO USE DECORATIONS

On Simchas Torah 5730, the Rebbe explained:

True, in his year-round home, when he wants to beautify it, he hangs a nice curtain etc. and why shouldn’t he do so in the sukka (“You should sit in it like in your residence”)?

But there is a big difference here. In his home there is no holiness, while in the sukka – there was holiness during the time of the Beis HaMikdash and now too.

On another occasion, the Rebbe explained that the

beautification needs to be in the very sukka itself and not in external things.

(Sichos Kodesh 5730; Yagdil Torah New York)

A SPECIAL MITZVAThe mitzva of sukka is a

special mitzva for it completely surrounds a person from head to toe, with all his clothing including his shoes. Furthermore, any activity done in the sukka (eating, sleeping etc.) is a mitzva.

To teach you: A person has the ability to serve his Creator not only when he learns Torah and prays but also when he takes care of his physical needs, and the matter depends solely upon him. When he truly desires it, he will gain the awareness that not only is this service possible but it’s even an easy service, as our Sages say regarding sukka that it is an easy mitzva.

(Likkutei Sichos vol. 2)

PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY

There are two contrasting aspects of the mitzva of sukka. On the one hand, the sukka is a temporary structure as the Sages say, “All seven days go out of your permanent dwelling and sit in your temporary dwelling.”

This world is like a sukka for it is a temporary dwelling, a corridor to the World to Come. A Jew must feel that matters of this world are only transitory.

However, when the matters of this world are not important to him and he uses them solely for the sake of heaven, he makes this “sukka” into a “dwelling for Hashem.” The world and what it contains become transformed into a “permanent dwelling” for Hashem.

(Likkutei Sichos vol. 9)

WHY THE USHPIZIN COME

The reason the Ushpizin appear on Sukkos and not on other holidays:

During the winter, it is harder to serve Hashem than during the summer. In the winter, the sun does not shine as much and it is explained that the sun alludes to the name YHVH, representing light and revelation (as it says, “for a sun and a shield are YHVH Elokim – the name YHVH is compared to the sun and the name Elokim to a sheath which encompasses it). Therefore, the Ushpizin come to us on Sukkos in order to give us strength and encouragement in our service of Hashem for the duration of the winter which is about to begin.

(Sicha of Sukkos 5712)

DERECH ERETZ FOR THE S’CHACH

The attendant of the Rebbe Maharash once entered the sukka while angry. The Rebbe said to him: You need to behave with derech eretz in front of the s’chach; the s’chach do not like anger.

(Seifer HaSichos 5704)

THE REBBE CAME TO THE SUKKA

One Hoshana Raba, the Mezritcher Maggid entered his sukka and was followed by his student, the Alter Rebbe. The Maggid said to him:

“Lock the door so no one comes in; and don’t become overly excited, the master [the Baal Shem Tov] is coming.”

That was the first time that the Alter Rebbe saw the Baal Shem Tov while awake.

(Seifer HaSichos 5705)

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VILLAGE RESCUER AND MISSIONARY CULT SURVIVOR COMING TO CROWN HEIGHTS A MUST ATTEND EVENT TO PROTECT OUR CHILDREN

In a special event taking place for one night only in Crown Heights, two special presentations will be given, arranged by Yad L’Achim.

Yoav Goldfein is an expert and one of Yad L’Achim’s top rescue experts – rescuing Jewish and women trapped in Arab Villages. Yoav is also an expert in counter missionary tactics and the deceitful practices of cults. For the first time in the United States, Yoav will present the firsthand dramatic stories of rescue – the mitzvah of Pidyon Shvuyim. The captivating stories are sure to leave a lifelong impression on all attendees. A short film depicting an actual rescue will be shown during the vent as well.

The same evening will feature the emotional and incredible story of the “Maharam Schiff’s grandson who returned”. A. Schiff grew up in a traditional Israeli household and through a series of events ended up

becoming a missionary for the “messianic Jews for J. cult in Eretz Yisrael”

A. will speak on how he was fooled into joining the cult and what finally caused him to leave.

In an important message, A. will also share important advice on how to protect yourself and your children from the missionaries who have begun

targeting Crown Heights. This important event, for both

men and women will take place on Tuesday Evening October 13th at 8:00 p.m. at Lubavitcher Yeshiva, 570 Crown Street.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO BOOK ADVANCE SEATS, CALL YAD L’ACHIM AT 866-923-5224 OR

VISIT WWW.YADLACHIM.ORG

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A ROYAL RIDDLE

By D Chaim

I woke up early in the morn-ing. After washing my hands I noticed a note lying near my pillow. I opened it curiously and this is what it said:

A deep matter which is in-spiring,

which reaches the lowest of all places.

On Rosh HaShana it is em-phasized,

and every year – every mo-ment anew.

Who put this riddle here, I wondered. I liked the idea. My friends know that I enjoy riddles and figuring them out in my free time. But here, in my cousins’ house? How do they know about my hobby?

Of course you don’t know who my cousins are and why I am at their house. And you probably want to know the meaning of this riddle. I will tell you everything from the beginning.

“Mendy!”My father’s voice from the

living room roused me from the book I was reading.

“Yes, Abba.”“Come sit on the couch. I

want to tell you something.”

Something in Abba’s voice made me very curious.

Abba looked at me with

a serious look and then said, “This year, G-d willing, you will become bar mitzva. Ima and I have decided that you are old enough to travel with me to 770, to the Rebbe, for Tishrei.” And just like that, Abba im-parted the exciting news.

“Wow! Thank you! How ex-citing!” I rejoiced. Abba did not want to cool off my enthusiasm. After I had calmed down a bit, he said, “Don’t forget that this requires something of you.”

“But I already donated most of my savings to the contest I organized with my friends in school. I don’t think I can pay for a ticket.”

My father smiled and said, “No, that’s not what I meant. A trip to the Rebbe requires preparation. Adding in con-centration in t’filla and learn-ing with more enthusiasm. It would also be good if you made a good resolution.”

The days passed by quickly and there I was, walking into 770 with my father. It was so special walking around 770 and seeing everything in person for the first time. This is the place of the Rebbe and there-fore, also the true home of ev-ery Jew.

After I learned a little, I felt tired because of the flight and

I told my father I was going to our relatives who were hosting us. My relatives welcomed me graciously and urged me to go nap. I went to my room and soon fell asleep and had Chas-sidishe dreams.

The next morning I woke up early and found the riddle that I told you about before. The last of my sleepiness vanished in an instant. I wondered who wrote the riddle and was glad I had something to work on. The riddle looked hard and I decid-ed I needed to find someone to help me solve it.

I chose Shloimy, a cousin my age. He is a bit tall and wears glasses. He’s smart and I was sure that together we could solve the riddle. At first I even thought he was the one who wrote the riddle and I decided I would tell him about it and if he played dumb I would know it was him.

That evening I went to his room and told him about the riddle. He excitedly said, “I have a book which has all sorts of ways to solve riddles. It’s in English and you won’t be able to read it but I will try to find a solution in it.”

When I returned to his room half an hour later, I burst out laughing. Shloimy was sitting

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o n the bed with a lot of books around him and every few min-utes he picked up another one. His glasses were on the end of his nose and he looked like a professor. Every few minutes he went through all the books once again.

The scene amused me but Shloimy sounded disappointed. “I did not manage to find even a hint to the answer. I guess it’s not an ordinary riddle.” We decided to push off working on the riddle until after Rosh Ha-Shana.

770 was packed during the Rosh HaShana davening. I was sitting with relatives but all the guests from Eretz Yisroel stood. You couldn’t find an empty spot in the entire shul.

The davening began and I was very moved by it. The special tunes for the Yomim Nora’im, the holy place of the Rebbe who was surely with us in 770, and the atmosphere of unity among the many Chassi-dim davening there. All of it together made me feel over-

come by emotion.The chazan worked hard

and even at the other end of the shul you could hear, “HA’MELECH.” I was sudden-ly reminded of what I learned in school. This is no ordinary t’filla. We were crowning Hash-em as King over us and accept-ing his malchus with complete bittul.

The words of the t’filla burst forth from me. Then it was time for the t’kios. My father motioned to me to look at the center of the shul and I saw a Chassid with a white beard go-ing up to the Torah bima.

There was silence and he said, “Rosh HaShana is a time when we coronate Hashem as King over us by blowing the shofar. The completion of Hashem’s malchus in the world is through Moshiach. So we will now all accept the malchus of the Rebbe with utter bittul to fulfill his instructions. We de-mand his immediate hisgalus and he will redeem us, with this proclamation: Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu v’Rabbeinu Melech

HaMoshiach L’olam Va’ed!”

The crowd repeated Yechi three times and the shofar-blower got ready to blow. Every-one focused on their machzor and read the chapter of T’hillim that precedes the blowing of the shofar.

I slowly read the words and felt a strong desire for the Rebbe’s hisgalus, for him to blow the shofar and take us all to the third Beis HaMikdash in Yerusha-layim. Wordlessly, I promised the Rebbe that from that day on, I

would try to think before every thought, word and action about whether it would give him na-chas. Yes, I accepted the Reb-be’s malchus.

When we returned home af-ter the davening, I remembered the exalted moments before the t’kios and it immediately hit me. That’s the solution! A deep matter which is inspiring – that is kabbalas ha’malchus that comes from a very deep place in the neshama; which reaches the lowest of all places – it affects even the most mi-nor of our actions; On Rosh HaShana it is emphasized – the time for coronating Hashem as King over us; and every year – every moment anew – we need to remember it and behave ac-cording to the Rebbe’s wishes.

After I told Shloimy the solution, I told my father all about it. He listened closely and then I noticed a mischie-vous smile on his face. I imme-diately realized who it was that had left the riddle near my pil-low.

ב יש לוימי ש צחוק: ב י רצת פ עה, ש חצי לאחר לחדרו י חזרת ש כן ה רגעים הוא עובר לעי מ י כ ים ומד ביבו ספרים רב ה, מס ט על המלם. רופסור מדפ מו פ חות על קצה אפו, כ קפיו מנ ש מ ש ספר אחר, כ בל כ על נוספת עם פ עבר הוא ר מספ רגעים כל ב ש היתה, התוצאה

פרים... הס

מעט מיאש: מע כ לוימי היה נש י, אך ש ע אותי למד עש ראה ש המחידה לא זו ראה נ כ קרוע, חוט קצה אפלו למצא מצליח לא "אני

נה. חידה לאחרי ראש-הש רגילה"... החלטנו לדחות את העסוק ב

עמוס היה 770פלות זמן הת מאוד בנה. ראש-הש ל שי בת יש אמנם אני קרובי ל ש קום מ בל כ אך י, חת פ משמהארץ האורחים אפן שום ב עמדו. ן למצא לא היה נתכל ב ריק מקום

נסת. ית הכ ב

ה החל ה פל התאותי ה ש רג והיא ינה נג המ מאוד.

מים לי יחדת המאי נמצא וד ב יח ש ש י מלך המ ל הרב דוש ש הנוראים, מראה מקומו הקמימים והת החסידים המוני ל ש האחדות ואוירת 770- ב אן כ נו עמי לת ד ת והש אותי להציף לרגשותי רם ג יחד הכל יחד. לים ל תפ המ

בור. ליח הצ אני עוקב אחרי ש ש חזור כ ל מתוך המ ל להתפ

קצה ועד רונו, ג מיתרי ל ש כלת הי בול ג קצה עד ץ התאמ ן החזמה י ב רת בת אחת נזכ -ל-ך!... ב ה: ה-מ עקה העמק מעה הז 770 נשה, פל ת סתם לא זו מעון: ש המורה אצל למוד-תורה ת ב י מדת ל שלים את רוך-הוא למלך עלינו ומקב דוש-ב ירים את הק עת אנו מכת כ

בטול מחלט. מלכותו ב

מעצמן. אלו כ ה, ני הש לאחר אחת י, מפ רצו פ ה פל הת מלות ן א סמ קיעות. אב יע זמן הת ך. לפתע הג ל כ ה היתה נעלית כ ש ההרגעל זקן לבן חסיד ב י ב נסת, והבחנת ית הכ ז ב ל לכוון מרכ כ לי להסת

ימת קריאת התורה. עולה על ב ש

אנו בו מן הז הוא נה "ראש-הש ואמר: תח פ והוא רר ת הש קט ש

למות ופר. ש ש קיעה ב "ה למלך עלינו על ידי הת ב ירים את הק מכתל עת נקב נו כ ל יח. לכן כ ש עולם היא על ידי מלך המ ל ה' ב מלכותו שמחדש, ליט"א ש יח ש המ מלך י הרב ל ש מלכותו את עצמנו על לותו התג את תובעים אנו הוראותיו. ובקיום לרצונו מחלט בטול ביח ש ינו מלך המ הכרזה: יחי אדוננו מורנו ורב דית והוא יגאלנו, ב י המ

לעולם ועד"!

על וה"ב 'יחי' עמים פ לוש ש הכריזו תוכם, ב ואני החסידים קהל חזור מ ב זים מתרכ ם ל כ ופר. ש ב קיעה לת הכנות ב התחיל תוקע" נה כו ב וקוראים ים הל הת רק פ את

ח"... "למנצ

יות את אט קראתי בי ת י חש ים ובלב ל המועמק עז רצון באותי. א מל מ שהרגע עוד ש הלואי ל לותו ש ה להתג נזכיח ש המ מלך י הרבדול שופר ג תקע ב י שלבית נו ל כ את ח ויקי ליש הש ש קד המללא לים. ירוש בי לרב י הבטחת ים מלל ד ת אש אני מהיום שרם לו נחת. בה, לחשב קדם האם יג בור ואפלו מחש ה, ד כל מעש ב

יח. ש י מלך המ ל הרב ל עלי את מלכותו ש ן, אני מקב כ

לפני ל ש עלים הנ רגעים ב י רת נזכ ה, פל הת לאחר ית לב חזרנו ש כ"ענין רון. ת הפ זה האסימון': לי 'נפל אחת בת ב ואז קיעות, התקום עמק יעה ממ ג מ לכות ש לת המ עורר" - זוהי קב מ נימי ועמק ש פיעה פ יותר" - היא מש חתון ב מוך והת יע עד הנ מה, "ומג ש נ מאוד במן ש" - הז נה הוא מדג ראש הש נו, "ב ל ה הכי קטן ש עש אפלו על המל רגע מחדש" - נה – כ "ה למלך עלינו, "ובכל הש ב רת הק ל הכת ש

ליט"א. י ש ל הרב פי הרצון ש מיד לזכר זאת ולהתנהג כ ת

א לאב י ת ש נג רון, ת פ ב דודי ן ב לוימי ש את י פת ת ש ש לאחר חיוך ב י הבחנת ואז רצינות ב לדברי יב הקש א אב הכל. לו י רת וספד בה חלף ומי ל מחש יו. רגע קטנטן ש זויות פ תנוצץ לו ב מ שובב ש

י... ל רית ש תב החידה ליד הכ יח את כ הנ י מי הוא זה ש הבנת

111 dhkhui nxw 757 | ~ |

איור: לאה

השנה. דה לאחר ראש טנו לדחות את העסוק בח

עמוספלותת שנה. י שבתרובי ל כארץאפןצאבכל

ה חלאותי ינההה נג

לימממייים

מת כלם בשופר. עה לתק בהכנות ל התח תוקע קקקוראי ווו

פ אאת ""למנצ

קראי ל מ ההרצון בבבבמ מ ששששלוא ההההה ננננזכי הרב

תק י ששח ווויקקד הההמירוש בבבים מל

ש

אאאאאאאאאאאאאיויור:ר: לל לללללללללללאאהאהאהאהאהאהאהאהאהאהאהאה

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