שבעים שנה מאז שנעקד"ה רבינו ה"חקל יצחק" מספינקא זצ"ל הי"ד

JDN
  אלץ ספינקער תלמיד איז דער טאג ביי מיר א "טאג." עס רעדט צו מיר. ובפרט ווען עס רעדט זיך פון אזעלכע געפערליכע אומשטענדן. הייסען הייסט אז ער האט מבטיח געווען צו זיינע באקאנטער אז "ספינקא וועט ברענען-פלאקערען ביז משיח וועט קומען" כאטש אז בשעת מעשה האט עס זייער שמאל אויסגעזעהן. כאטש אז דער גרעסטע הצלחה זעהען די אייניקלעך פון די הוררויץ זייט, נישט פון די בני אחר בן. וואס אלץ קינד און אינגער בחור איז עס ביי אונז געווען לא יזכר ולא יפקד. פונקט ווי ביי אהרן סורסקי אין זיין "שושלת בית ספינקא." אבער אזוי האט ג-ט ב"ה געוואלט.

הי"ד

!אשריך ר' משה לייזר

l-r: Reb Gershon Neuman, RMLZ and the Pupa Rebbe of Boro Park 

Reb Moshe Lazer Zigelman, who was jailed for not willing to testify against a fellow Jew, was finally released on Monday, after spending 7 months in Federal prison. The prosecutor had jailed him for contempt, but finally released that keeping him locked would do no good. This after already spending some 2 years behind bars for his role in the Spinka debacle. At his home a little celebration was prepared for him, where he donned his shtreimel as a sign of joy. The next day Stoliner Cheder in Boro Park celebrated with RMLZ. They had davened for his release every day for months and he came to thank them for their tefillos.

First a few words about Reb Moshe Lazer himself. Being a Spinka talmid I can tell you that I've known him for close to 30 years. He's a real gentleman, and that we need more people like him, people who practice what they preach. As far as I know he was א זעקס און פופציגער that came to the Holy Land from Hungary as a boy and either he or his family were part of the מורדים who were chucked from וויזניץ by the late Rebbe once when his father was out of the country. Ask your local yenta what that was about. רעדט א פיינעם אונגאריש, אויב איך געדענק גוט. That being said, Reb Moshe Lazer's kanous was on his own cheshbon, not on yenem's. He adopted the Yerushalmi dress, more or less, but is quite "cosmopolitan," to borrow a term from the hippies. At first he had a job in the gashmius of the yeshiva, and then later, when the current Rebbe ascended to the his position after his father passed away on Chol haMoed Pesach 5747, RMLZ was asked to become gabbai. You might say it was a fine choice. Most - if not all - of his father's gabboyim were Israeli, since he lived in Israel for most of the year, so the Rebbe needed a local gabbai. Being a vareme chassidisher yid, as well as a talmid chochom you might say that he increased Spinka's stature in the world of Chassidus. I do not know when he got involved with any money matters, so I cannot comment on why he was first incarcerated, but I'd guess that he had little if any טובת הנאה from the crime that sent him to jail in the first place.

בכל אופן, what we want to discuss here is the "crime" that sent him to jail the second time, and what we can all learn from this. He was willing to sit in jail for as long as it takes, anything, really, all he asked is that he not be forced to testify against his fellow Jew. How many of us would stand up to that pressure? Not many. You don't like me speaking for you, then I'll speak for myself. I highly doubt that I'd be able to. The haters - who B"H have plenty to write about us these days - pile on him, and the Munkatcher Rov, for the little celebration the MR had for him the after he was released. They cannot relate to celebrating another Jew - or any man's  - simcha, because they are miserable people. All they know is misery, and that's what they wish on others, so that their miserable existence isn't as bad in comparison. They also cannot relate to helping a fellow who has fallen on hard times, be it financial or legal. So this too is a crime. And they sure as heck cannot relate to going to jail to protect another man who may very well be guilty! A noble like act like that is BEYOND them, because they're so concerned about "justice," you see? Celebrating a brother's release from prison is now a crime somehow. I guess we tuck tail and quietly just go away? And when I say haters I don't just mean the obvious ones. You who lectured to us and told us how to care for our kids (even though you have none of your own, or you left your wife and kids when you decided that OTD is the way to go...) דיר מיינט מען אויך. Yes, there is a need for change, but spare us the righteous indignation, thank you very much.

Color these glasses "Chabad"

Here

The Spinker Rebbe of Yerushalayim, Reb Mordche Duvid Kahana, zt"l, was niftar yesterday. Most people never really knew him. He had a tiny shul on Rehov Salant in Meah Shearim, and if you blinked you could miss it walking by. (This is not the Spinka I grew up in, in case you're wondering.) RMD was a great-grandson of the late Rav Nachman Kahana, Rov of Spinka, the author of the "Orchos Chaim," who was a SIL of the Imrei Yosef, the first Spinker Rebbe, and who traced his yichus, ben achar ben, to the Baal Kuntres HaSfeikos, the brother of the "Ketzos." (The same Kahanas who fought the Teitelbaum Rabbonim in Sighet...) RMD was known - those that knew him - as a Masmid and Talmid Chochom who was on staff - like his father before him - of the Otzar HaPoskim, meaning he worked for a living... On another, more cosmetic note, he was one of the last Rebbes who would smoke in public, mostly because he could not go for more than a few minutes without a cigarette. על פי דרך הטבע you might say that the smoking killed him, since he suffered terribly the last few years, but he never could kick the habit...

The Spinka Rebbe was known as an Ish HaShalom who never - or rarely - got involved in politics. Despite being very Conservative when it came to his own life and family, he never took that to others, meaning he never yelled and screamed that all others were living in sin by doing what they do. In politics he also was not heard from, although the Eda HaCharedis saw his as of their own. However, he was heard from when it came to the danger of giving land to Arab Terrorists/Hamas, and he was part of the group "Vaad HoRabbonim L'Inyonei Pikuach Nefesh," a Rabbinical group that saw it as its mission to make known to the world the dangers of giving land to Arabs/Terrorists. Which makes perfect sense, since JEWISH lives should be beyond politics, and whether or not you're a Zionist shouldn't matter. The fact that the group is dominated by Lubavitcher Rabbonim also didn't seem to bother him, or the Erlauer Rov, shlit"a, or Rav Zalman Nechemiah Goldberg, SIL of the late Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zt"l. They too were very active in the group, despite its "Lubavitcher connotations."

Which brings me to the issue at hand. Many of you nice people complained about the lack of coverage that Chabad sites gave and continue to give to the passing of Roshei Yeshiva and Rabbonim in the Charedi world. That proves to you that Chabad is "outside the realm." Whatever that means. To tell you the truth I was a bit surprised at all the coverage he got in all the Chabad websites, maybe I've been influenced by some of you here. It seemed like pandering to me, or that he pandered to us so we'll pander back... But then I realized that we all do this, not just Lubavitch. "ער איז געווען דבוק אין רביה"ק זי"ע" is a common line when it comes to obituaries in the Satmar-Yiddish press, which is "code" for "he was worthy of an obituary in our paper." In the Litvishe press they would write "מרן ראש ישיבה אמר עליו שכל כולל חזו"א עומד בזכותו," or something like that. So in Lubavitch "code" that would translate into "הי' מקושר בלו"נ לכ"ק אדמו"ר זי"ע." In the Spinka Rebbe's case; I guess Lubavitchers also liked the fact that he was a Talmid of the Yeshiva Toras Emes in Yerushalayim and that he would attend 19 Kislev functions at the Lubavitcher shul on Rehov Baal HaTanya. As much as we'd like to think that we're different we're very much the same. So maybe Lubavitch is "in the realm" after all...

Shmais

COL on his passing

Another story on COL about his connection to Rabbonei Pikuach Nefesh

Shturem also has the Pikuach Nefesh angle

As well as blurb about him learning in Toras Emes Chabad in Yerushalayim

What I just read - and you must too!!

I picked up the book - not sure why - and could not put it down. From the cover you figure that it's a novel - a fictional one - so why bother? Maybe it was recommended by someone else in the house who had read it, I cannot remember now. But from the beginning this book is a tear-jerker, I tell ya. From the moment you pick it up you're engrossed in the story, in the tragedy that was the life of this girl, her mother and her family. There is one surprising aspect to the book, and that is that names are used - real names - when it comes to very delicate situations, which surprised me. In short, the story is like this: A young woman loses her husband. Her three children leave their "backwards" city in Transcarpathia/Marmures and leave their Yiddishkeit behind as well. She remarries, but her husband is drafted and gets TB while in the army. He dies and leaves her with a 6-month old child, but not before he makes her promise that she'll never abandon her child. Ever. The poor woman gets a job picking grapes in Hungary - menial labor, to say the least - for a Yiddishe Frau.

While working she gets a splinter, and ignores it. Soon enough the pain is too much to bear and she needs to be rushed to a Hospital in Budapest, Selish/ Nagyszollos/Sevlus doesn't have what it takes to do the job. Before she knows it her arm is (oyf kayn shum Yid gedacht) amputated in a very crude way, and she's almost helpless. Relatives of her husband convince her to leave the child with her so that she can recuperate without the child being a burden for her. And if it's at all possible - there starts her real trouble. Read all about the bravery, persistence, trust and strength of a woman on a mission to retrieve her child, as well as the child's amazing story of survival during WW2, when she manages to elude the Nazi murderers at the last moment and live out the war in hiding - in a very unusual way. The memoirs were only published posthumously for that reason. I'll let you guys in on a little secret: I cried often in this book. You cry for the mother, for the young heroine, and for the those that were rounded up and gassed, HY"D. And maybe most of all, you cry when she gets to the Holy Land after ww2 and meets up with family that was lucky enough to get out before it all was destroyed. I'd tell you more, but then you wouldn't read it on your own... Get this book!

אידן ארבעטן שווער אין די מארמורעש

Stayed in Hungary - for now... (Part V)

The new building you see was built after I left. A building on the right - not seen here - was at first the pre-school and later the Mesivta, where shiurim and meals took place.

It seems like I didn't keep my promise, after all. At the end of part IV I promised not to make you wait very long for Part V, but I guess I got caught up in other matters and never did get back to "myself." So all this talk about Spinka reminded many of you about my memoirs, and I got lots of requests to continue them, which I'll begin doing right here.

Mesivta Shem MiShmuel of Mattersdorf sits at the corner of 19th Avenue and 50th Street. The fact that they added "Mattersdorf" to the name shows you where they were heading. Before that there was no Mattersdorf on the building, or even on the stationery, AFAIK. Yes, the Roov was the Mattersdorfer Rov, or "miLefnim Ab"D Mattersdorf," but it wasn't some Mattersdorfer franchise that he was running. But in the late 80s somebody decided that the only way they could continue having a mesivta and yeshiva gedola was to give it a franchise name. Things worked out for a while, and for several years the mesivta was running just fine, but only for a few years. For a few years many of those who learned in the Cheder and came from places like Flatbush and Staten Island, would stay on for Mesivta. But that would soon come to an end. A few years after I arrived an entire class from Mesivta got up and left after 11th grade. The Beis Medrish (Yeshiva Gedola, zal) was not to their liking and they all decided that they would not be going there. IIRC there was no 12th grade at that time, or 3 years mesivta was the normal setup then, I forget which, so after 11th grade you had to go to Beis Medrish, and many of the boys were not willing to do that - for several reasons.

Rav Shmuel Ehrenfeld, late Mattersdorfer Rov and Rosh Yeshivah, with his son Akiva, who took a more Litvishe route in life.

The Beis Medrish at that time was made up of mainly holdovers from the old days. Lots of extended family and old talmidim. There was no official kolel by then, but a lot of the old timers came and learned there. The Beis Medrish uses the actual shul that serves as the shul for Baaleibatim on Shabbos. In short, it wasn't a very pleasant situation for those Flatbush and Staten Island kids. But I'm getting way ahead of myself, talking about years later! First we need to discuss what happened while I was there, and some of the personalities I had the pleasure of getting to know. People like Rabbi Gurewitz, zg"z, who was menahel of the mesivta at that time, a Novardhikker with a car from the 60s and a man who I would've liked to have known better while I was there. I was too young to get to know him, just as I was in Spinka, and he left - IIRC - a year after I arrived there. People like Reb Hershel Cohen, z"l, a Talmid of BME and a Yid a true Yerei Shomayim, who I merited to have as a maggid shiur. Rabbi Cohen suffered terribly later on as Parkinson's ravaged his body and took his away (what we see as) before his time. He was a true Rebbi and taught as as we were his own children, caring about our progress in learning and in midos tovos and yiras shomayim.


So when I say I stayed in Hungary I need to actually be a bit more clear. Yes, Mattersdorf - in the Sheva Kehillos - does fall into the category of Hungary, but it sure was different than Spinka. As different as an "Emberrer" from Budapest was to a chossid from Selish. The goyim might speak Hungarian in both cities, but boy was life different, and boy were the Yidden different there. In Spinka there were Litvishe Maggidei Shiur, yes, but we had one only for Shiur Bekius ("Girseh" in Lubavitch lingo) The older bochurim had people like Reb Gershon Neuman and Reb Yerachmiel Ungarisher full time. We had Chassidishe Maggidei Shiur most of the day, and the Litvishe were there only to teach and to instill a derech haLimud, not to make policy, chas vesholom. (Ironically enough they both are quite un-Litvish, with Neuman a Viener and Ungarisher a Litvak only from his mother, who was a daughter of Reb Ruven Grozovsky.) In other words they didn't dictate policy or set the tone there. In Mattersdorf they reined supreme. In Mesivta we had all Litvishe Maggidei Shiur - as far as I can remember - with one Chassidishe Maggid Shiur for Shiur Bekius. Yes, the Roov came ocassionally to give a shiur or shmuess, but that didn't set the tone, and neither did Shalisheedes in camp, it was the boys and the staff, and if you closed your eyes it could've been a Mesivta in Lakewood or Flatbush.