Avrohom Shaye Shapira was known as Shaye Korolevitcher in Lubavitch. An emeser Chasidishe Yungerman, his Hiskashrus to the Rebbe Rashab N"E knew no bounds. His daughter Mrs. Rivka Raskin of London tells her life's story in "סוערות בדממה", a recently-published book by Menachem Zigelboym, a unique book in that it tells the story of the women who were either left behind when their husbands or fathers were taken away or were imprisoned themselves. Her story is one "for the books", a tear-jerker no matter how many times you read it, and one that not many of us would be able to tell.
She tells of her father who was a Talmid of Teymchei Tmimim in Lubavitch and who risked his life so that he and his family should lead a Jewish life in Soviet Russia. He wouldn't send his children to Government Schools for fear of them being indoctrinated, and despite the fact that had he been caught his children would be taken from him, and he and his wife arrested or worse. He had Mesiras Nefesh for things like CHOLOV YISROEL, that's right CHOLOV YISROEL,and if no CY was available האט מען נישט געטרונקען! His Mesiras Nefesh for Kashrus during the siege of Leningrad in 1941-1942 is what led to the demise of him, his wife, and three of his four children.
Oh, and please don't tell that al pi din he had no right to have mesiras nefesh for kashrus.
I will iy"h speak more of this remarkable Yungerman, but for now I'd like to stress a certain point.
This story brings to mind an occurence that I was witness to over 2 summers, 5 and 6 years ago. There was a Yungerman in the bungalow colony where my wife worked, who was one of the Melamdim for the older children in the daycamp, what you might call a professional Rebbe, good with children, and a good teacher, a typical ישיבהמאן who spent his free time doing good things. What shocked me was that Cholov Yisroel products NEVER crossed the threshhold of his bungalow, and I imagine his house neither, and were never served on his table. Everything from Milk, to muffins, to crackers, to cookies, to cereal, were all CHOLOV AKUM.
We all know about the Tshuvah in Igros Moshe where he's supposedly "matir" cholov akum, and maybe if he lived in Indiana or Arkansas I'd be OK with it, even if he spent all of his summer in the Catskill mountains where Cholov Yisroel is readily available. But a MELAMED, a ben Teyreh? is saving a few cents so important? and we're not even speaking about a Kolel Yungerman here, but rather a man, a Kley Keydesh, with a good-paying job and without 12 kids either!
That, in a nutshell is what separates a Chasidishe Yungerman from a nisht-Chasidishe, and it's not meant to belittle this melamed. This Yeshivaman's accomplishments and devotion to Teyre will be duelly recorded, but נישט דאס מיינט מען!
26 comments:
what was a Chassidishe yungerman like you doing in sucha treife colony where they have such a treifenyak as a melamed???
1) don't worry, my kids didn't learn by him.
2) How was I to know when we decided to go there?
3) is that your whole impression of the story?
thats the problem with those snags.First they are kofer in cholov yisroel,then are kofer in the nosi hador...oy vey, who knows how far it could go...
'Oh, and please don't tell that al pi din he had no right to have mesiras nefesh for kashrus'
Why should I not say so?
I have not gone over the sugya in sometime:Just some pointers:Hunger which is not because of goyim forcing you to eat treif, is similar to a sick person eating treif as a refua (sha'as hashmad, you have to be moiser nefesh)It's a machoikes rishoinim if someone wants to be moiser nefesh on issurim, other than the 3 cardinal ones, some say a special person (baal nefesh)is allowed to be machmir according to the Rambam even, but I don't understand why the wife and kids have to included in this, specially that min hastam the kids were still 'ketanim'
The real story was that they probably did not have food and died like hundreds of thousands of other people.I'm also curious if you meant the siege of STALINGRAD and not Leningrad
Btw, a Lakewood or yeshivisheh yungerman will generally not eat ' cholov stam'so your story is probably about a modern guy.(though they surely have what to rely upon)
There is a special heter for cholov stam nowadays, don't you know?The milk cows we drink from today are mostly erliche Chassidishe cows,they go in Chassidishe levush,black and white.So biderech klal it's Chassidishe milk.From a para aduma we don't usually drink.Unless you hold that people that are not Chassidish should bidavka only drink from modern cows?
VML
1) Stalingrad was a battle, hence "The battle of Stalingrad", which the Russians ultimately won, and which was the beginning of the end of the Nazis yms"h in Europe. Leningrad was a siege, the Germans bombed the living h--- out of it, bombing all the bridges leading to the city, and choking it almost to death. Only at the outset of the winter of '41, when the lakes froze, were they able to transport over the ice food for the city. That food was mostly treyf, and RAY would have none of the chocolate or meat that they distributed. Only when he saw that his children were literally dying of hunger did he allow them the questionable food like chocolate, but never the meat or other non-Kosher items. For himself however, bread and water was enough.
2) This yungerman lives in an exclusively-Yeshivishe neighborhood, wears only white shirts, has a beard, and is a Melamed. He is a full-fledged Yeshivishe yungerman. Is that considered "modern"?
3) There's a story told of the Tzemach Tzedek and Reb Itzelle Volozhiner at the Rabbinic conference in S Petersburg in 5603. The Rebbe insisted on basically "Yeherog V'al Yaavor" on a certain new decree that they wanted to implement, something that seems minute these days, like Limudei Chol for Rabbonim. The Rebbe was threatened that he'll be arrested, which he was, and was threatened of worse. Reb Itzel asked him " איר זייט דאך א מאבד עצמו לדעת " on which the Torah says that you have no share in Olam HaBoh! The Rebbe answered him, וואס פאר א לעבן וועט דאס זיין? If we stay alive in this situation, what will we be left with, it isn
t worth it. This is what drives people like Avrohom Shaye Shapira, a life of living with Macholos Asuros and Chilul Shabbos iz kein leben nisht.
bewildered
are you in the eastern time zone of the US?
I like the Chasidic levush vort
:-D
nu bewildered, other than leitzonus have you got anything of importance to say?
HT
I fail to see how this pinpoints the difference of them in *todays* terms (and maybe even in last decades).
I fail to see how you think that the image of R Avrohom S Shapiro is descriptive of the"chassidishe" yungerman today to illusttrate the difference of the chassidishe yungerman *today* and the "yeshivishe" today.
In addition to the fact that many yidden of many stripes have sacrificed their lives for macholos assuros in many difficult times, like in the shoa (as corroborated by Rav Oshri),
and even if i'll probably agree with you, tha L. in Russia meaning Talmidey Hatmimim were mostly ingrained with the messirus nefesh for these things,
i fail to see how this illustrates the difference of their descendants in 2006!
While you may decry the akshonuss for them not to drink CY when it's readily available (and i concur with you to a degree on the akshonuss), some of them might feel that this "mutor" legamri as they follow rabbis even before Reb Moshe in the USA,
food
Whatever happens in 2006 is not from learning Chassidus or doing any other inyonim that the Rebbe asked of us. I would believe that this yungerman who IS a ben Teyre, and who knows better, his actions come davka from his learning, that פאר א פאר דאלאר anything is allowed.
The truth is that point of the post was not so much to degrade this yungerman but rather to prove the opposite.
HT,
I am also not interested to "Degrade" the community and the one who heads a particular mossed. My main point is that your analysis and your conclusions are flawed.
You ascribe the chesronoys of the "Ben teyre" "who should know better" that they come "davka from his learning, that פאר ש פאר דאלאר
anything is allowed"; while for the chesronoys in our backyard it is not a result of the outlook of those who have these chessronoys (for of course it is not the inyonim that that the Rebbe asked us to do):
The reality is: (that while the "ben teyra" can also claim that his mentors have not taught that he sholud sell himself for a few dollars and therefore his doing is not a result of "his learning", most important):
That what is done now by us cannot be said to be done in a "Vaccuum" "yesh meayin" but is a reasult of a mindset that was inculcated and ingrained in us.
And yes: "פאר ש פאר דאלאר" is something that is found by us as well (ubearich anpin). After all the example i gave you was "dinner" to honour a individual who gives a "Few dollars" and that is fine!
since you did mention this i will say: that this mentality comes from an outlook that "...for the Rebbe and his mosdos", anything goes!
Of course, this is *not* what the *Rebbe* wants and not what the REbbe has instructed, but those who interpretated the Rebbe's directives for decades (and it ranges from right to left) have given this interpretation, and therefore the decadence in standards of chassidishkeyt, plain yiddishkeyt and more: because the "end" ("for the Rebbe") justifies the "means" (yidishkeyt).
food
I would venture to say that you may have a point about making mixed dinners, but that would only strengthen my point re: Misnagdic institutes. Have you ever been to one of these dinners for the Yeshivos Kedoshos in the Waldorf?
Food
being that HT is being so nice about it, I'll take his place on this one.
The Rebbe Rashab N"E once sent someone in the pouring rain on Sukkos night to see if the Tmimim are eating in the Sukkah. When the messenger returned he told the Rebbe that the bochurim are sitting and farbrenging in the Sukkah. The Rebbe said "מ' זעהט אז חסידות האט געפועל'ט אף די בחורים" . Shtelt zich di Shayleh, of what importance is that? Why is something like eating in the rain, which according to many if not all is of NO IMPORTANCE WHATSOEVER, why is that the culmination of Chassidus translated into Mayseh B'Payel?
I await your answer?
HT,
Does half of lakewood go to these dinners? But this does not make your point any stronger regarding the initial point you're proposing (namely "mah beyn bnee") where you supposedly claimed that others do x y z for money mah sheyn kehn...
Actually, the example you chose (cholov akum) lean"d is a very poor one; for it does not seem that the neglect is due to money, as it is probably due to other reasons and hanups.
ne that as it may: the result of "for a pohr dollar" we sell our principles or better make it our new values and principles is quite alive by us...there are many examples "avol eyn kday lefortom".
Avremel,
whatever the importance, certainly. the result of chassidus in maysee bepoel certainly revolves at small and big things, and certainly making a big deal about eating in the rain goes hand in hand with seeing that chaissdus has helped us in not translted in a maassee bepoel that enhances hepech hatzinoos and so on...
food
you have an issue, I can understand it, but you're bringing in an irrelevant point, although the point is important.
My grand uncle Feter Yisroel Alperowitz was a pashuter Chassidishe (Lubavitcher) baal abos in Kurenitz (his children were tmimmim) , who in in the period of 1941 was with the Partisans in the White Russian forrests. He too refused to drink stam chalav or eat ANYTHING except for potatoes. When someone brought him his teffilin and tallis(at great personal risk) it was like getting a rifle in the partisans. He too chose to die al kiddush asjhem for kashrus and indeed he died of starvation in the forrests.Zecher Zaddik Livrocha
My uncle Hatamim Reb Zalman Kurenitzer also behaved the same way in Leningrad and he knew the halacha being the Mashgiach on Nigle in Nevel.
Mistama these people knew their work.
"layder" I have no connection to their madreigos, such a yerida !
what was his relation to Chaim Mayshe Alperovitz of EretzYisroel?
actually we were not related In White Russia Alperowitz was a very common name.
Some were Chassidim and others not.
OK, thanks for that piece of info.
Avraham yeshaye shapiros's two surviving daughters grew up alone. they b"h escaped russia and made it to england where they raised beautiful chassideshe families. but the hardships of their youth left its mark.
while the homes, and the homes of their children are chassidish, they are not necessarily happy, emotionally, balanced homes.
and as the third generation grows up, not all of them are following in the ways of their illustrious grandfather.
so, did Rabbi AY do his children a favor by being Moser Nefesh?
it's tough to continue a conversation from over 2 years ago, and it's even more difficult to do this with an eynikel, but I think the question is a silly one. One doesn't make chesbonos like that.
I am also an ainikel of Reb AY Schapiro and can proudly say that I am certain that the level of Yiddishkeit and Chassidishkeit of his children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and greatgreat grandchildren are related to his Mesiras Nefesh. The one story related was not the limit of Mesiras Nefesh... I am sincerely proud to be his descendant and proud to name by children after him, etc.
The emotional difficulties of any children of holocaust survivors, or others who suffered terrible conditions in Europe is always noticeable. Please also remember that each of his daughters married two different people and as parents we know we both contribute to the wellbeing of our children, to think that bc he was Moiser Nefesh his children suffered is pure ignorance and downright insulting.
May we merit to have the same level of dedication and commitment to HKB"H and his Torah that these CHassidim had, and thereby bring Moshiach now.
Rav Avrohom Yeshaya Shapiro is my mother's father and it was LENINGRAD. And Stallin's Russia was gzeiras hashmad even as a million people died in that city over the 900 day siege. More importantly, my zeide who was first and foremost an oived Hashem al pi chassidus Chabad and left behind two keilchdike yesoimim, my mother and her sister at ages 8 and 11--and they remained frum, chassidei chabad and eventually parents of Chassidher children and grandchildren and b"H greatgrandchildren, many of whom are on shlichus all over the world, who ALL drink only cholov yisroel amongst other things. And one of Avrohom Yeeshaya's great-great grandchildren can be seen milking a cow by hand in Paragyei to get cholov Yisroel in the link below. And on another note my zeide OH did keep his beard which was also mesiras nefesh as evident by those who did not . . .
(On the permissability of being mosser nefesh beyond the the three avairos: it has been the practice of thousands of yidden to be moser nefesh in this way for all of Jewish History, including yidden who fasted yom kippur, put on Tefillin, lit menorah, shofar and on and on, in the concentration camps where many were actuallt killed for this. The pilpul has therefore not been halocho lemaaseh for a very long time.)
http://collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=33491&alias=jewish-life-in-paraguay
The answer is that ANYONE who endured the war passed that stress etc to the next generation. Giving in and lowering standards made no difference for those that did so during the war years. ALL of their children were affected this way. And to those with a complaint I say your complaint is ONLY to hitler ym"s and stallin ym"s and their henchmen.
The answer is, each and every person who Endured the war passed down those kind of stresses to the next generation. The extent of their observance is completely not relevant. Ask the children of any survivor of the war anywhere in the world and you will see that that is true. The difference is that those survivors who let go, just take a look at their children, grandchildren -if they are still Jewish-and contrast that with The Descendants of this great man.
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