תכירו: "אמשינאוו-בארא פארק-בית שמש" רבי אויף א בליץ-באזוך אין דער פופצענטער עוועניו שטיבל

B'hemshech to our previous Amshinov-BP post; Here's what a devoted reader sent us from yesterday's kabbolas ponim at the 15th Avenue shtiebel. This Rebbe is a brother of the one who will fill his father's seat in Boro Park. His place is Beit Shemesh, where he recently hung out his shingle. Now he needs our help to help his fledgling mosdos, so he's come all the way to America.

At the time we wrote about his brother, the Sadigerrer Rebbe was still alive. Now, he's the first cousin via marriage of Reb Yitzchok Yehoshua Heschel of Sadiger (Bnei Brak), who is the son-in-law of Reb Osher Sternbuch, the Amshonover brothers' uncle. How is he their uncle? He's their mother's brother. Their maternal zeide, Rav Eliyohu Sternbuch of Antwerp, brother of Rav Moshe Sternbuch of Yerushalayim, was the son in law of the Sereter (Vizhnitz) Rebbe, aka Mekor Boruch, who passed away in 5724/1963.  

Rav Dovid Soloveitchik is married to their sister.

See what B'hadrei recently had about his grand opening in BeisSheymesh.

According to the above article, the young man has a bright future ahead of him. 

We wish him the best of success.

Seated second from right is the Amshinov-BP Rebbe from Beit Shemesh. 

Rav Osher Sternbuch, left, at the Sadiger wedding in Shvat, 5778.

חתונה של הרב אלי' שטרנבוך בשנת תשט"ז. מימין גיסו הגרמ"ד הלוי סולובייצ'יק שליט"א

הרב שטרנבוך בשנותיו האחרונות

Back to the kabbolas ponim...

Pouring some l'chaim for the BP-Alexander Rebbe.

Nice to see that Beis Vorka sticks together...

 

ותחי רוח אמשינאוו ד'בארא פארק - finally getting around to finishing this

Amshinov in Boro Park - what? you never heard of it? It does exist, squeezed in between the big Bais Yaakov/Bobov45 building and the Korn's bakery trucks blocking 15th Avenue - has sprung to life again! This past Shabbos, Parshas Shelach in America, they had the largest crowd ever to pack in to the confines of shtiebel.

Here's how I see it, and correct me if I'm wrong. Some 30 years ago I once walked into the tish of Reb Itzikel of Amshinov, in his apartment above the shul. If there were 25 people there it would be an exaggeration. He said Torah for a few seconds and the oylem was content with that.

The next time I was there was 20 years later, for a family simcha. I have no recollection of the then-Amshinover Rebbe. He passed away a few months ago - a victim of coronavirus.

Reb Itzikel, son of Reb Yosef (d. 5696/1936), was a nephew of Reb Shime'le of Amshinov, who passed away on the 19th of Av, 5714/1954. Reb Shime'le's son Reb Meir went up to Eretz Yisroel with his father's aron and stayed there. He passed away in 1976. The Current Amshinover Rebbe in Bayit VeGan is a grandson of Reb Meir. His mother was a daughter of Reb Meir. Reb Chaim Milikovski, father of the Amshinover Rebbe, was a Mirrel Talmid who escaped to Shanghai, as did the Amshinover Rebbe. 

The Rest is history.  

The young Rebbe, Reb Menachem Kalish, a grandson of Rav Eliyahu Sternbuch of Antwerp, is also a Vizhnitzer eynikel. Rav Sternbuch was a son-in-law of Reb Boruch of Seret-Vizhnitz, later in Haifa. Those in the know foresee a great and bright future for the Amshinovers of Boro Park. The young Rebbe, a son-in-law of the previous Zutchker Rebbe of Bnei Brak, had been living in Eretz Yisroel, and even started his own independent chassidishe yeshiva last Elul, but is expected to relocate to Boro Park.

I did hear, from my Chabad sources, that the current Rebbe - while a talmid in Rachmistrivka Yeshiva in Yerushalayim - learned Chassidus Chabad with a Lubavitcher mashpia.

As it should be done.

י"ט מנ"א - יארצייט כ"ק אדמו"ר רש"ש קאליש מאמשינוב זצ"ל ומנו"כ בעיה"ק טבריא תובב"א

למעלה מן השמש - ראיון יחיד במינו עם כ"ק האדמו"ר מאמשינוב שליט"א

   קרוב אליך - עבודת ה' ברוח החסידות by Hirshel Tzig on Scribd

POTD - צוויי פיילישער רבי'ס

L-R, Reb Itzikel Of Amnshinon-Boro Park; Reb Yankel Alter, then son of the Gerrer Rebbe, currently Gerrer Rebbe. Reb Itzikel was a nephew of Reb Shimele Amshinover (who was in Japan and Shanghai during WW2) and had a small shtiebel on 15th Avenue in Boro Park. You could've lived around the corner your whole life and never seen or heard of him. That's how low-key he was.

And here's a sefer, recently published, about his father zt"l and older brother hy"d:

דרשת הגאון רבי חיים שמולעוויטש אצל חתונת כ"ק אדמו"ר מאמשינאוו שליט"א

"איני יכול לשאת שיהודי מתאמץ בשבילי"

A story about the Rebbe Reb Shimon Sholom (R' Shimme'le) of Amshinov who spent Rosh Hashonoh 1940 in Vilna. He eventually escaped via Russia to Japan and Shanghai, China. Agav, the idea that he fasted two days on Y"K 1941 because he was in doubt - due to his crossing the International Dateline - is a myth. He was by that time already in mainland Shanghai. What he did about Shabbos is another story, which we'll leave for a later time.

א כוח"ט און א גוט געבענטשט יאר

ליל א' דחנוכה ביים אמשינאווער רבי'ן, ר' איציקל זצ"ל אין בארא פארק

גליון שיח חסידים עם תמונה - עש"ק ויגש תשע"ה

בס"ד

 אנו שמחים להגיש לפניכם את הגיליון "שיח חסידים" פר' ויגש תשע"ה. מצורפת תמונה מבר מצוה של כ"ק מרן אדמו"ר שליט"א, כל היודע פרטים על תמונה זו אנא יודיענו. כל המדפיס את הגיליון ומזכה את הרבים, תבוא עליו ברכה 

א גוט שבת 

מערכת שיח חסידים

No 12 foot banners. No wine decanters and silver goblets. No gabboyim standing behind the Amshinover. No six rows of tables for Rebbishe kinds of every level. No bleachers. No 30 man choir. Just plain old simplicity. Amshinov. Prshischa. Next to the Amshinover Rebbe sits Rav YY Piekarski z"l.

Box.com link

פוילישע פערל ווערטער

We sometimes forget that before Yiddishkeit was represented by the (wannabe) Litvaks and Hungarians there was something Peylishe Chassidus. That's "Polish," for those who have a hard time understanding accents other than their own. Most of them were born out the schools of Peshischa, and later Kotzk and Vorke. This sefer, aptly named "ימות עולם" - from the previous Amshinover Rebbe in New York, Reb Itzikel - gives us a glimpse into what was once a world of Jews, the likes of which G-d Almighty has ceased to create. We've referenced this sefer before,  and again, here,  and plan on doing so sporadically in the near future, be"H. Ignore the page numbers and the אותיות, they're in no specific order.

Recent news items regarding all kinds of leaders, באבות, and similar people getting into all kinds of trouble got us thinking about the current system, and how many people look elsewhere (outside the leaders of major yeshivos and chassidisen) for leadership and guidance BECAUSE they're so disgruntled by the mainstream Jewish leaders whose only claim is a famous last name and garments that are long out of style. Which is why you see Hungarian hats hanging out  - front and center - by Sefardic so-called mekubalim, by the hundreds! Some of you have told me that it's time to go back to the old system of "semicha," where in order to become a member of the society of Admorim you need to be ordained by a current Rebbe. That would at least keep the charlatans from becoming leaders who take peoples' hard-earned money. Yet, here we see that the Rebbes themselves, the pure-breds, will have their own problems to contend with...  and this goes back a ways...אוי וויי

The above page discusses the Rebbe R' Shmuel Shloime ליינער of Radzin, hy"d, and how he became Rebbe. He was married to the daughter of Reb Yosef (brother of Reb Shimme'le) of Amshinov. Pictured below is the Rebbe (c) with the black beard on the streets of Poland.

בענין לצרף יהודי שאינו ש"ש ר"ל למנין

No, this isn't a tshuveh in Igros Moshe or Minchas Yitzchok, and not even Tzitz Eliezer, and maybe we don't pasken shayles in halochoh from stories of tzaddikim. (maybe we do?) But it's still nice. It's from Reb Itzikel Amshinover's memoirs. Reb Yaakov Duvid was the first Rebbe of Amshinov. And those who'd like to can use this as additional proof. Additional to other proofs we've brought here in the past. Like Shlomo said: "In Vorke loving people was the most important thing in the world."

and here we thought Shlomo made it up...

Well, he does use poetic license a wee bit. Scary stuff. But the story is still the same. Kind of. Then again, the Amshinover version looks abridged.

 

הרה"ק ר' שמעון שלום קאליש זצ"ל אדמו"ר מאמשינאוו באטוואצק - ששים שנה

רבי שמעון שלום קאליש, בנו של רבי מנחם וחתן דודו רבי ישעיהו מפשיסחא. לאחר פטירת אביו הקים חצר חסידית באוטבוצק. בתרצ"ט, עם פרוץ מלחמת העולם השנייה, נמלט לוילנה, שם התרכזו פליטים רבים שנמלטו מפולין. מווילנה ברח ליפן, יחד עם תלמידי ישיבת מיר ולאחר שהיה של כמה חדשים הוגלו לשנחאי בסין שהייתה אז תחת שלטון יפני, שם שהו עד לסיום המלחמה‏[4]. אחרי המלחמה הגיע לארצות הברית, ויסד מחדש את חצר אמשינוב בבורו פארק. הוא תכנן לעלות לישראל, אך נפטר בי"ט באב תשי"ד לפני שהספיק לעשות זאת. נקבר בארצות הברית על תנאי וכעבור שבועות ספורים הועברו עצמותיו לבית הקברות העתיק בטבריה בחלקת תלמידי הבעל שם טוב. מדברי תורתו כונסו מאמרים רבים בספרים אמרות טהורות ומשמיע שלום

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