Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Today's Pics


(Reb Mordche Shulman, later R"Y of Slabodka, Bene Beraq, as a student in Ponovizh, 1914)


From Here


(The Chofetz Chaim in 1917)

I always thought that he never wore Rabbinic garb, and only wore the Kasket of the simple folk. Why then the Rabbonishe Shtraymel here?

Here

38 comments:

Anonymous said...

speculation; i think yitzchok in r mordechai shlumans letter is r hutner who was his childhoos frined and went to learn in e.y.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

I think Rav Hutner would've been six years old at the time, a bit young to be going to Israel, even for him.

Anonymous said...

rav hutner was born in 1906

Anonymous said...

rav hutner was born in 1906

Anonymous said...

The rabonishe shtraymel looks like a generic fur hat worn in those places to keep the upper head warm.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

was it that cold indoors that he needed to wear?

Anonymous said...

He was afraid it'll get stolen. Same reason why galitzianers wear rezhvulkes indoors. I'm sure they have a pshetl with makifin to cover for it too.

Neil Harris said...

Amazing photos. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

That is most definately not a very widely seen or known picture of the Chofetz Chaim. Wow! What are your sources?

Anonymous said...

The photo is from a little known bio of the Chafetz Chaim by the late rabbi Shmuel Pliskin of Baltimore. Pliskin was a talmid of Radin and father of the well known author and translator.
This is a short but eidele bio, in Yiddish which I do hold in my private library.
PLiskin 's mother married a Lubavitcher chasid in my father's hometown of Kurenitz and my father got to know rav Pliskin.
As was the case with most Litvishe yeshiva men, he was clean shaven. When he came to his new step father for the first time for a yontev, his step father threw him out as he did not want a "giluach" in his house. Pliskin then emigrated to the US. Here he had a bekavodike rabbanus in Baltimore.
Because of a beard (or lack of it) his life was saved.
History is starnge and I recently learnt that a grandson of Pliskin married the sister of the Chabad shliach here in Washington Hts Reb Yankev Kirshenbaum.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

click on "here" right above the picture of the book.

Mottel said...

It might be an Ushanka, but I'm not sure if it was used by Yidden -nor in that part of region (Though I've seen it in use in Lithuania, the users tended to be of Russian extraction. What is more, in Poland almost no one wore them)
It looks like a spudik to me.

Anonymous said...

Call it spodik or shapka, it's a close cousin of what Rayatz wore in Otwock. Ushanka is a much later term and invention.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

if it's a close cousin then it wasn't worn for the cold, right?

Anonymous said...

What else do you think it was worn for ? Of course they needed an excuse to wear a furry thing indoors so there is plenty of furrevisionism, but truth remains unscathed.

Lucky Wolf said...

is that a real photo of the chafeitz Chaim?

Anonymous said...

Tzig
I don't know whether it is a Rabbinische hat or not,BUT,what are you basing yourself on before you have a kasheh why the Chofetz Chaim is wearing rabbonishe garb?
It's probably like the 'kutchmeh' that I wear in the winter.

Izak said...

He was simply cold, silly.
The Chofetz Chaim had mud floors in his house so what does that tell you about how he must have felt during those Polish winters? Especially when he was learning Teiroh and writing his seforim all through the cold Polish and Russian nights.

Most body heat is lost through the head, it's a fact, so keeping the head warm is a huge part of keeping the body warm, as most people in cold climates know.

Today people attach too much superficial attention to head-gear and clothing. In Europe it was not so. Have you seen what many older Russian men strolling the streets of Brooklyn nowadays wear in Winter? They look like they're wearing "spodiks" and a lot like what the Chofetz Chaim is wearing in this yellowed aged fuzzy picture, but guess what, their kids won't be wearing that type of headgear associated with Europe.

So it's most probably a European style of head-gear and has little to do with rabbinic garb. Even Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn wore a spodik, so why didn't his son-in-law? Guess the heating was a lot better in 770 than in the shtetlach of the alte heim.

Anonymous said...

Firstly, the picture IS my Zaida zatzal - and secondly he wore this hat during the cold winters.

Otherwise he wore his famous cap (which my father still has). The same cap as the Rogatchover zatzal.

Anonymous said...

Are you the son of Rabbi Mendel Zaks Zecher Tzadik L'vrocho?

Anonymous said...

elliot zaks comments on this and not on the Abish Brodt post? I don't get it.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

Eliyahu

is this a more accurate picture than what the CC Heritage Foundation uses?

Anonymous said...

The pic the CC Heritige foundation uses has no conecction to th CC, according to the Family

Anonymous said...

Shimie Deutsch was into the Chofetz Chaim real picture awhile ago ,does anyone remember his article, and where it was printed?

Anonymous said...

Deutsch's article was printed in DER BLIK. And my good friend Reb Shimmy should forgive me , it was a lot of speculation and nonsense.
Next the cap worn by the Chafetz Chaim and the Rogochover was worn by all Orthodox Jewish men in Lita, White Russia and the Ukraine from 1850-1920, and we ahve hundreds of family portraits extant to show this. Gedolim like the Rashab wore this (as testified to me by the RACHAL, he told me what materials were used for the vochedike cap and for the Shabesdike cap)). Reb Simcha Zelig Riger, the son of the Bobroisker rebbe Reb Mendel,rEb Nachum of Horodna etc all wore this cap (we have photos of them all). After 1920only "gor" frume Yidden kep it up , like most Chabad people. After Ww2 it was gone even though reb Nissan wanted to keep this custom.

Anonymous said...

My grandmother told me many times that the picture which is known "kukt nit vi der malach is ois gekukt" (exact quote)

We have two other pictures which are not publicized as well.

We also have his set of malbim chumashim with his notes on the sides, as well as some other interesting items.

We also had his "glass" kiddush cup - until it broke a few years ago.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

why not print the notes on the Malbim?

did the Kiddush cup have a Shiur Chazon Ish?

Anonymous said...

R. Zaks,

Is that the famous Kiddush cup that no one will use today because the shiur is too small? Why not publicize the other pics?

Schneur,

When did the Rashab wear a cap on Shabbos and weekdays? The picture is with a hat. Didn't he wear a spudick on Shabbos?

By the way, their is a picture of the Beis Yisroel of Ger wearing a cap in Poland.

Anonymous said...

Rashab was an oifgeklerter mentsh and what he wore doesn't mean much.

Anonymous said...

u' n'

The Rasha"b? Surely you jest.

Please explain yourself.

Anonymous said...

Schneur,

S. Deutsch wrote speculation and nonsense? When did he not?

Anonymous said...

Ailmesher,

Take a look at the only existing picture of Rashab. A well groomed, respectable portrait of a person in a hat, a necktie, a vest and a golden chain with a watch. Not your usual chonnyokishe rebbe with a shtreymel or a kolpik and who knows what else. He was an intelligent person who even maintained contact with Freud.

The problematic thing that we can bill as an error in retrospect is that he and his son have seriously antagonized the new Bolshevik rule against Yiddishkeit. While Tzar's government made his life and life of Jews in all of Russian Empire a living hell - May Laws in particular - when Bolshevik's came to power, Chabad leadership chose to get mixed up in politics and antagonize the new power in so many ways. This cost many people their life and/or freedom. It's easy for us to speculate of course, but it can be argued that if all the rebbes and rabbonim didn't preach so loudly their total rejection of the Soviet power, maybe Kremlin wouldn't be so eager to assume every frum jew to be an enemy of the soviet state by definition.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

Natchalnik

You've outdone yourself with that last comment. If I didn't know better I'd say you hung around Nesivos Olom too much.....

Anonymous said...

Who is Nesivos Olom and why would I hang around there ? And what fault do you find with the last comment more so then with others ?

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

If you don't know what Nesivos Olom is then I guess you don't hang around there. Then again, I should've known you were a loner....

I'm surprised because it seemed like you limited your disrespectful comments to Lubavitch of this generation, but here you go way back. I guess I shouldn't be surprised after all.....

Re: Monsey,
How are you so knowledgeable about all that goes on there? are you a resident of the area? do I ride the bus with you?!!!!

Anonymous said...

Tzig, if you're unable to distinguish between analyzing outcome of historically important events and actions and disrespect, you are just proving further your being retarded and inability to digest a single bit of information that doesn't conform to the lies that you spoon-fed yourself for years. If I wanted to be disrespectful, I would state so in a clear and unambiguous way - like I do with you; here, you're accusing me of something that's not even there. Can't you find a real accusation to go with that you have to go ahead and invent lies and distort truths ? I thought I gave you enough ground. Where did you see a shred of disrespect towards Rashab ?

Anonymous said...

"why not print the notes on the Malbim?"

It's not enough to print, although my father is considering putting a small kuntres out with various letters and writings never before seen.

My grandmother carried these possesions around with her during the war.
Truly amazing...

"did the Kiddush cup have a Shiur Chazon Ish?"

No clue.
I can tell you, that he used a glass only because he was extremly poor and could not afford a silver becher.

Short story: When my zeida (rav Mendel Zaks) got married he spent the first pesach at his shver (C"C).
He showed up to the seder with a silver becher, which my great grandfather bought him when he got married.

The chofetz Chaim's eyes lit up when he saw the becher - and humbly asked his son-in-law "can I please use it for the pesach seder"?
Natrualy, the becher was given to him.

Can you imagine in the year 2007 if a shver would be asking his eidim for permission to use his becher at a seder?!

This is where we have come to.....

Regarding his regular hat (cap), my father allows people to place it on their heds for a second on Purim.

Anonymous said...

U'N',

You sound like a Lubavitcher in exaggerating the importance of Lubavitch. The Soviets were out to destroy all religions including Judaism and I don't think that they were very impressed with a Rabbi who had some followers.

The Rasha'b in the picture seems dressed like a Russian Rebbe, similar to the Stoliner and others. I've never heard anyone call the Rasha"b a modern Jew. You must be a right wing wacko smoking some good stuff. And I'm far from a Lubab.