ר' אברהם'ס יארצייט

[ A Guest book review on his biography - by Schneur, in honor of Reb Avrohom's 20th Yohrtzeit, 10 Nissan. ]

with the Rebbe, zy"a, 5750

Every once in a while an important and unusual book appears on the scene. We are familiar with books that are biographies of famous Rabbonim and gedolim.These have become common place in our days. These are published in Hebrew and English. While they are at times criticized for playing with history, they do an important service in serving as Mussar seforim and showing how great Jews lived their lives and devoted themselves to Avodath hashem. Lubavitch has also been blessed with many biographical studies both of the 7 Rebbes and of individual chassidim. Most of these have appeared in Hebrew and have not been fully appreciated by the reader not at ease with Hebrew. The book under review is a first it is written in an excellent English and portrays an important personage in 20th century Lubavitch history. Years ago a friend of mine who is a devout Bobover chasid told me that as a teenager older Bobover chassidim told him to go over to 770 during Yamim Tovim and see how the elder Lubavitcher "hoben farbracht". The older Chosid referred to these men as the talmidei haBesht. Indeed they were such! Indeed these men were the talmidim of the Rashab and many of them spent years in the Soviet Union where they practiced Judaism under the worst of conditions.

Rabbi Avrohom Drizin, known as Avrohom Mayorer, was an unusual chosid indeed; that he was not only a chosid of all 3 Lubavitcher Rebbes in the 20th century, but also excelled in all 3 areas of Jewish service. If the Rebbe stressed an inyon Reb Avrohom was there to implement this inyon. Indeed he was a major league lamdan who served as a Rosh Yeshiva in the Central Lubavitcher Yeshiva in Nevel. He was a devoted Oved hashem and chasid. he spent long hours at prayer and studying chassiduth. He was also as mentioned mekushar to the Lubavitcher Rebbes of his time. In the years of persecution in the Soviet Union , he also excelled in gemillas chassadim, practicing "Eys La'asos lashem hefeiru torasecho". He became a pillar of chessed, and gemmillas Chesed to the Chabad community in the Soviet union. He was not a "zaddik in Peltz" but cared about his fellow man and Jews. But his service was not limited to the spiritual and personal level, for years he acted as the director of the Lubavitcher yeshivos in the Soviet union and made sure these schools and their students had food, and the proper material items needed for their survival. This at great personal cost. In fact Reb Avrohom was a one man communal institution representing Chabad in the Soviet Union.

 




At a farbrengen in Israel, 1950's


Later Reb Avrohom came to Israel where he helped build the yeshiva in KFAR CHabad, and in fact helped build Kfar Chabad itself serving in many executive and spiritual positions. In the US Reb Avrohom became the symbol of a true Chabad chasid, someone devoted to the Chabad community, to his Rebbe and to the legacy of Chabad. This volume explores all these facets of Reb Avrohom's life and much more. We learn about his family back ground and his home town of Mayor in White Russia, We learn about the social and cultural conditions that shaped his early personality and that sent him to study in the Lubavitcher yeshiva in Lubavitch. We aslo learn about his father in law, Rabbi Zalman Moshe HaYitzchaki who was a "farzaitike" Lubavitcher chasid whose farbrengungs are legendary. Though not a Tamim, Reb Zalman was a fiery chasid completely mekushar to the Rabbeim. The book written by a grandson of Reb Avrohom, is finely edited, well illustrated and well footnoted. All facts are well documented. Though the book is written by a grandson, there is little attempt made at portraying him as a super man . He was a man who lived in difficult times and though never compromising his Jewish and Chabad beliefs, coped with the reality of various situations. And the author does not hide this. I also think the book portrays the life of the White Russian shtetel in a manner that an American reader can understand what exactly was going on in those times. The religious and political forces at work and how this affected the general Jewish community and the Chabad community. I think every reader will read with fascination the chapters dealing with Reb Avrohom's life under Communism . His leadership role, his messiras nefesh and the miracle of being able to stay one step ahead of the authorities . It seems that Reb Avrohom was always inspired and led by the thought of how would the Rebbe act, how would he want him to behave; and Reb Avrohom was adept at receiving these moral and spiritual instructions from the Lubavitcher Rebbes.

with Teimaner Kinder in the Lubavitcher Yeshivah in Lod, 1950's
What comes across in the book is also Reb Avrohom's tremendous ahvas Israel to all Jews, not only chabad chasidim. I have met people from the YU community who were highly impressed by his personality when spending time with him in the Catskills during the summers. He was an ish Ha-Eshkolith, as I mentioned. But he was also a true Chasid contemplating his behavior and his person. As the author relates in a wonderful story in the preface to the book as to how when the situation called for it, he could farbreng with no one else but himself ! And yet this same person set the gold standard for farbrengungs in Crown Heights with many in attendance. But for him the quantity was of no importance it was the quality even if it was only himself. The volume also depicts Reb Avrohom's doros - his children raised under Communist persecution yet developing into proud Chabad chassdim and many serving as shluchim in various parts of the world. Reb Avrohom represented Chabad at its best. many of us are only familiar with the great Chabad Rebbes, but what made Chabad ever great is the quality of chassidim who these rebbes produced and chose to follow these rebbes in fire and water.
Although not a Rebbe , Reb Avrohom was a true Chasid.I think this volume can serve as not only a lucid account of chabad history in the 20th century but also an inspirational account for the younger generation of Chassidim of all stripes today. A few final words of full disclosure , I did have a minor role in the production of this volume and I was honored to do so. In addition my late uncle Reb Zalman Alperowitz was a friend of Reb Avrohom who was also part of the hanhola of the Lubavitcher yeshiva in Nevel serving with reb Avrohom.. As we appraoch the 20th Yarzeit of reb Avrohom on the 10th day of Nissan , we know that just as he was a devoted chosid in this world he remains so (maybe even more so) in the sublime spiritual world. I pray that many will avail themselves of this volume and read about the life and times of Reb Avrohom and be inspired as these days are not only his yortzeit, but also the birthday of the Lubavitcher Rebbe whose leadership continues to inspire the Jewish world.

Book Review (Pt. II)

Reb Avrohom as a younger man

See Part I

(I started the first part of the review because I felt that I owed it to the author, since he had sent me the book as soon as I agreed to review it, and several days had gone by since I finished reading it. Which is why all that you saw was a general, one-paragraph review, without any clear references to the actual content. )

As was mentioned before much effort went into attaining as much information about Reb Avrohom and his family as is possible. The same goes for his wife's family, the HaYitzchokis from Nevel, who traced their lineage back to Rashi HaKodosh. In the spirit of full disclosure all family pictures are displayed, even those that aren't very flattering for the family of a famed chossid and mashpia. Many of you "truthers" out there will be pleased by that. We're all adults here, we know what the matzav HaYahadus was like in Russia post WW1, and we ca take the fact that this brother didn't grow a beard or that aunt didn't cover her hair. I may have misunderstood one picture in the book, but IIRC there's a picture where Reb Avrohom and his family went to visit relatives of his on Rechov HaYarkon in TA, who seemed to be on the modern side, and the caption reads something like "Reb Avrohom and family with relatives that he called only "di kroyvim fun rechov haYarkon," which would seem to indicate that he wanted to shield his children from these "kroyvim," I guess because of their lax religious observance.

But here I am, getting way ahead of myself again. Let's get back to the review, shall we?

The book reads like a regular mussar sefer, you'll excuse the term. We're used to chassidim being medakdek b'mitzvos to the extreme, and we're used to them being nizhar from any chashash issur like it was a roaring inferno, but in this case there's more. Reb Avrohom managed to raise a chassidishe family - a very large one - in the USSR under those conditions, as did hundreds of others, but there's more to that than just that fact. There's the fact that for well over a decade he was a wanted man, plain and simple. They were looking to arrest him just like all the others that were sent away and never came back or came back after years in the gulags. Yet, somehow, they never got to him. And all that time he managed to help others that were less fortunate, hide other wanted people, and raise and have a connection with his family. I realize that we haven't spoken about his earlier life very much, whether it be pre or post Tomchei Tmimim in Lubavitch days, but right now, looking back at what I read a several weeks ago, that's what stays fresh in my mind. Besides, you'd be hard-pressed to find a Yid like Reb Avrohom talk about himself and about what he accomplished. If anything, he'd talk about the Rebbe, his chaverim and mashpiyim in Yeshiva, and about what he saw and heard. There are no "we finished gantz shas together waiting on the lunch line" stories here like you may find elsewhere...



Reb Avrohom being osek in avodas hatfilloh in zibben zibetzig.

I'm not an official book reviewer, so I still have a hard time figuring out exactly what it is that I need to do when it comes to a review, but I assume that a review shouldn't (just) repeat nice stories or anectodes that he sees in the book. I speak to the general body of work. I'd like to thank Moshe Rubin for taking the high road when it came to he style of writing he uses in his zeide's story. Unfortunately, in the world of Chabad English literature today it's commonplace to cater to the unaffiliated and to forget about those that don't need a glossary and all Hebrew words in havara sefaradit. Rubin manages to keep the original old world flavor without alienating those that have no connection to the old world. (come to think of it, I may have made that point last time as well. In any case, it's worth repeating.) The style of writing ensures that you continue and finish the book. Every chapter in RAM's life, even the relative menucha here in the US, is interesting, if not riveting. You're no less intrerested in his keeping the KGB at bay than the fact that later in life he would travel all across the US collecting funds for Lubavitcher Yeshivos without knowledge of English - and we're talking towns that many of us Yankees would be very uncomfortable in, small American cities, not just Chicago and L.A. And of course, his farbrengens here in the US - or at the least the descriptions thereof, make for very good reading material as well.

[I'd like to highlight some of the stories in the book in the next segment of the review. B'ezras hashem and if time allows for it. I hear that the book is selling very well, in all Jewish neighborhoods in NYC, and that makes the Tzig happy, seeing that Rubin's hard work is being rewarded by good sales.]

[Many of the books were that were written about the difficult times in Russia were written by the people involved. In this case Reb Avrohom had long since passed on, but most of his children are alive and well, so a very clear picture can be presented about their life in the USSR, as well as life in the Holy Land and in America.]

With Teimaner Kinder that he taught in Tomchei Tmimim in Lod


In his final years, receiving a dollar from the Rebbe

Book Review: R' Avrohom Mayorer (Pt. I)

One of the few perks of maintaining this blog - other than interacting and meeting with so many fascinating people, of course - is that every once in a while somebody appreciates what you do, values your opinion, and wants to hear what you think about a certain subject/matter. If that weren't enough, an author or publisher will want you to read what he wrote and share it with the readers! Which is what happened here. We got the book so that we review it here on the blog. After several days of reading I finished, and can now share my humble opinion with you all.

For starters, Rubin did a very thorough job, going back several generations to find the roots of the Drizin family. Father, father's father, brothers, sisters, cousin, town Rov, and so on are all described in as much detail as possible, not much is often known. Mayore's Rov (which is why he was named Mayorer - from Mayore) was also an Oylimisher, as was the case in Chassidishe shtetlach all over Russia. Reb DovBer Pianko, HY"D was loved and respected by all, and considerable attention is given to the details of his death at the hands of the local goyim, who made him and example, as well as the mesiras nefesh - literally - that Reb Avrohom's uncle had to bring the Rov and a family member (I forget which) to kever yisroel. Even before getting to the story, much effort is made to credit absolutely anybody and everybody who helped make the book possible - from Zalman Alpert to parents and spouse, which tells you right off the bat that this work was one of thoroughness, and that what we have here is something that can be Oleh al shulchan melochim. I also think that the fact that the book was written by a rechter eynikel of Reb Avrohom makes it so much worthwhile; the love for the protagonist, the respect, even the longing for him, is evident in every page.



New York, 1950s. Reb Meir Itkin standing, left. Is that Zelig Levin sitting in the middle?!

I'll leave it for now and post this as part I, since I'd like to get this review going and not wait for the whole thing to be done before I post any of it. It makes it better for all parties involved.