Monday, January 4, 2010

(book review) ויותר דב לבדו Part I



So I'm busy now reading the fairly new Feldheim publication וילכו שניהם יחדיו, which are memoirs by the deceased Rabbi Dov Cohen z"l. Reb Dov (aka Benny) was a kid from Seattle whose mother wanted him to be a yeshiveh bocher. Her father had been an erliche Litvishe Yid, and her zeides were mamesh tzaddikim. The family had moved to America at the turn of the 20th century from Di Litteh to seek their fortune there a few years before he was born, and had been living in Seattle for a while now. Benny's older brother Yaysef (Joe) had been at RIETS in New York and had returned home, saying that he was through with Yeshivah. His mother was devastated. Her dream of having yeshiveh boch'rim as kids was - for now - shattered. There were Rabbonim in Seattle - learned men, alumni of the great Yeshivos in Di Litteh - who eitzeh'd her to go to Israel, then Palestine, and to enroll him in a yeshivah there. A certain Rabbi Winograd, who was a Rov in Seattle but was originally from the Holy Land, and whose father was the Rosh Yeshivah in Yeshivas Toras Chaim HaKlolis in the Old City, told her to enroll her son there. So Mrs. Cohen took her fifteen year-old son one morning, packed him up and took him on a train to New York. Her husband had no idea. She telegramed him from New York (or somewhere along the way) that they were en route to Palestine and Benny didn't see his old man for another 20 years.

When they arrived in the Holy Land four weeks later they soon realized that there some kind of misunderstanding here. Toras Chaim was no place for an American boy who went to Public School and who had private tutors as Gemoroh teachers. It was a yeshivah for Yerushalayimer guys who learned full time, often zeides joining sons, joining grandsons. Until his dying day Reb Dov had no idea what R Winograd was thinking when he sent them there... Needless to say Mrs. Cohen was shattered. (Mr. Cohen is absent from the whole ordeal, one cannot be sure what he thought of the whole idea) She was ready to take him home when she met Reb Meir Berlin, son of the Netziv and uncle of Reb Chaim Brisker, zt"l. RMB had met Mrs. Cohen when he visited Seattle while traveling the world for some Zionist or Mizrachi cause and recognized her, asking her what she was doing her and how he could help. Reb Meir suggested she enroll her son in the Tachkemoni school in Tel Aviv where both his son and Rabbi Zev Gold's (founder of Torah VoDaas in the US) son studied. (RZG had since left New York and made aliyah.) Tachkemoni was not a Yeshivah Kedoshah by any stretch of the imagination, they studied more secular studies than Kodesh, but it had good staff there, and it was better than Public School, so Mrs. Cohen relented, but she stayed in the Holy Land with her son, making sure everything was OK. When Benny's year was up at Tachkemoni she decided that this was not why she journeyed across the Atlantic and decided that she was taking him after all.

I'd like to pause here and discuss what we know up until his his first year was over at Tachkemoni. This may not be very obvious, but other than him and his sister, who married a frum guy named Katzman, it seems like all others left the fold. Which makes Mrs. Cohen's sacrifice that much greater! It seems like once the Cohen's arrived in di goldene medineh they each had different ideas as to how to raise their children. Mrs. Cohen had very choshu've zeides (and a father that died young) and wanted her children to follow in their ancestor's ways. Mister Cohen, on the other hand, was busy making money, Shabbos aher Shabbos ahin, IYKWIM. The whole time all she's worried about - this Litvishe Yiddene - is that her sons grow up to be Talmidei Chachomim. So she sends Joe to RIETS, where he supposedly would become a fine Talmid Chochem, but Joe gets tired of learning and quits. The reader can deduce that there was no way that Mister Cohen would allow his young son to go to Eretz Yisroel, but the wife is not deterred. She packs him up without her husband's knowledge and shleps him 9000 miles away. Such is her Mesiras Nefesh for Teyreh. To call this commendable would be a gross understatement. The only comparable thing I can think of is when Reb Elya Lopian zt"l refused to join his parents when they left Lita for America, saying that "Amerikeh iz a treyfene medineh." He was 9 or 10 years old at the time.

To be continued...

22 comments:

chchick said...

ooh, I love a cliff hanger

Yanky.KanTzivo said...

Please!
We need posts about Lubavitch,The Rebbe,Hafotzas Hamaayonos,Pirsum Rishons.Real discussions.Not advertisements and blurbs to go out and buy books by Feldheim/Artscroll(something I try not to do ),even if this book had any history that would interest Ana"sh.
Whatever.I hope your next post is a good one.
I"m still a committed reader, sometime poster.

sam said...

the father was somehow related to a very wealthy and prestigious american family.

Cant recall the name now.

Anonymous said...

there you go with the 'di' again. it is der lite not di liteh (thankfully you are correct in the case of the di goldeneh medineh)
your nitpicker
(p.s. thanks for the post)

The reader said...

Seems that anything Snaggy,Munkatchy,Hungarian gets most of the time on this blog!
Nu?Efsher, you post something for Chabadniks also?

Michoel said...

2 of 5 comments from Lubavitchers complaining about an interesting post dealing with frummer Yidden who are not Lubavitch.

Tzig, for all his partisanship, machlokes and trouble-making, at least clearly as an affection for Klal Yisroel. You guys need to learn something from him.

schneur said...

I bought the book , although I have not yet read it it looks very interesting and the pictures are wonderful. Many of us enjoy your reviews of new Orthodox books etc, and urge you keep it up. I am not opposed to include new Chabadsker seforim as indeed you have done.

Anonymous said...

R’ Avrohom Pariz was born on Purim 5649 (1889) in the city of Bobroisk, a city rich in a heritage of Judaism and Chassidus. His father, R’ Boruch was a businessman and was not a Chassid.

After a number of fires that broke out in Bobruisk, which destroyed large sections of the city, R’ Boruch Pariz decided to emigrate to America, meshane makom meshane mazal (change your location, change your fortune). He packed, and in the winter of 5663 (1903) he and his wife Zlata and his children – Leiba, Itche, and his daughter Leah – left for Odessa to sail from there to America. They planned on picking up Avrohom along the way but he told them, in no uncertain terms: “Go in peace. I’m staying here in Lubavitch.” He was all of 14 at the time.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

anon

I knew the reb Avrohom Paris mayseh, and I thought of putting it in, but the difference in years (9/10-14) and the fact that Reb Elya was in no misgeres like Lubavitch is what tipped the scales here. But Reb Avrohom's feat is just as commendable.

berl, crown heights said...

I am certain that Tzig allowed the incredibly moronic comments from the alleged lubavitchers complaining about the content of this (very interesting) positive non-lubavitch post in the same spirit that he allows constant moronic comments from the haters of lubavitch – למען ידעו

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

nitpicker

Lita is a medineh just like America. If it's di treyfeneh medineh, then it's Di Litteh as well.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

Berl

right on, brother!

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

Yanky "kan tzivoh"

you need to broaden your horizons a bit. the Rebbe was very interested to know what was going on in every other kreiz. so should you.

Yanky.Kan Tzivo said...

Tzig
The comparison to the Rebbe is not in its place.The Rebbe as leader of Klal Yisroel had to know and interest himself in what was going on everywhere including the gentile world.We as chasidim need to know what's important for us and that is Toras Chabad nigleh and nistor.All these biographies in my humble opinion have no drisas haregel in a chasidishe house.Sy because of who publishes it and sy because if you have time to read you should be perusing many books that have been put out by Lubavitch on subjects that are good for ligher,non learning time.There is no dearth of good kosher and chasidishe material like that.

Berl,I think you need a little avoido on "yeshus" vedai lechakima vechulu..

Anonymous said...

sorry hirshel, but you're wrong. do a simple google search you will see authentic yiddish works use der litteh while modern israeli yiddish speakers in hyde park write di liteh...
(der doesn't refer to the medina but to the Littah as a name, which has nothing to do with the word medinah being nekeiva as in di goldene medineh. please just admit it...)
nitpicker

Anonymous said...

Yanky,
what are doing Bichlal on Internet?
are you done with all your shurim ?

Menachem said...

Anon,
What ARE YOU doing on the internet??
Mind you own beeswax, he has as much of a right as you have

Anonymous said...

he claims to be so chasidish that he can"t take a little outside knowledge, so what his he doing spending time on the internet?

Anonymous said...

Another interesting anecdote that I saw in the book is that he was a first cousin to R' Hresh Cohen chief rabbi of Montreal in the early 1900"s. For an extensive biography on the above mentioned R' Hersh Cohen read the book "Rabbis And their Community's" by Ira Robinson.

baalbatish said...

Yanky.Kan Tzivo is just horsing around and you guys went for the bait!

Beit vagan astolog said...

his son r tsvi cohen is a best selling writer...tevalas kalim etc...another son, r simcha cohen is also a great darshan.....he lived in beit vagan...

schneur said...

Rabi Cohen of Montreal is the grandfathe rof leonard Cohen , poet , singer and guru ! Listen to his who by fire its fantastic !