A Documentation of the Life of Rabbi Zusha Rivkin

00:03 Speaker 1 Zusha was like that—he didn’t live for himself. He lived for everyone else. Once everything was taken care of, then he would also think about... leave a little corner for himself.

00:15 Speaker 2 Zusha looked after us like a father, too—taking us to the hospital, to Dad, and... there are no words.

00:27 Speaker 6 Chaim was more measured; he steadied him a little. Zusha was warmer—get it done, quickly, and do it well. Since they were giving the synagogue the Rebbe’s name, he wanted it done quickly. Whatever the contractor asked, let him do it.

00:44 Speaker 7 There was no chossid like him, and no one with Ahavas Yisroel like him, in our generation. And I say that without any... not because he was my father-in-law or anything like that. That’s who he really was. And the affection the Rebbe had for him was extraordinarily rare. I saw it from the moment I got married, in just about everything.

01:07 Speaker 6 People loved Zusha’s restaurant because of the holiness there.

01:18 Speaker 8 The beloved chossid Reb Zusha Rivkin, a"h, was born on 18 Kislev 5687 to his father, Reb Yechiel Yosef, who showed great self-sacrifice, and his mother, Mrs. Sheina, a"h. Reb Yechiel Yosef devoted himself to rescuing Jews from the Soviet vale of tears and saw to all their needs without payment and with great love. Reb Zusha inherited these qualities from his father, and they guided him throughout his life.

01:46 Speaker 7 I met a kindhearted man unlike anyone I had ever seen before. I had never encountered anything like it. Just a man who was kind through and through. Not only to his family—to everyone. He was always thinking about how to help, how to be of assistance. And... his kindness shone through in the most natural way possible.

02:09 Speaker 1 If Zusha wanted something, he would go through a wall for it. When it came to the needs of the community, he got things done. Nothing stood in his way.

02:21 Speaker 8 After arriving in Israel as a young man, Reb Zusha was among the founders of Kfar Chabad, the Rebbe’s village. Years later, he had the privilege of building the magnificent Beis Menachem synagogue together with his brother Reb Chaim, a"h.

02:40 Speaker 7 At first, a donor wanted to give fifty thousand dollars in exchange for putting his name on the synagogue. Zusha insisted and said, “No. We’re going to give it the Rebbe’s name, and we don’t need the fifty thousand dollars.”

02:57 Speaker 8 The beauty of the synagogue mattered deeply to Reb Zusha, and here too, as in everything he did, he worked with tremendous dedication to achieve his goals.

03:06 Speaker 7 Zusha and Beis Menachem were one and the same. It was an inseparable part of him. It was his home, it was what he thought about, it was his life. You could see that in everything.

03:19 Speaker 1 Someone else, who is no longer with us, had gone to the Rebbe and asked permission to call a synagogue Beis Menachem, and the Rebbe said, “Out of the question.” Then Zusha went and said that he was asking permission to give the synagogue the Rebbe’s name. The Rebbe said, “Of course.” He received permission to put up the name Beis Menachem. It was the first Beis Menachem synagogue in the world.

03:48 Speaker 8 Every moment of Reb Zusha’s life was devoted to carrying out the Rebbe’s instructions and his holy mitzvah campaigns. Spreading the wellsprings of Chassidus was in his very soul. Throughout his life, he acted like a faithful soldier who never missed an opportunity to bring another Jew closer. His greatest aspiration was to bring Jewish children closer to our Father in Heaven. He loved them with all his heart and soul.

04:11 Speaker 7 Dozens of children, whole groups of them, would come from school past the restaurant on Mazeh Street and go inside. They would say the verses, then get a candy and make a blessing. That was his life.

04:31 Speaker 9 Suddenly he would get a flash of inspiration, an idea, and he would carry it out. He got it into his head that it was a shame to waste the time he spent on the train. That was when he rested before work and after work. He took a tzedakah box, changed a thousand shekels into one-shekel coins, and gave every person a shekel. Some people put in money of their own, and if someone didn’t want to put in the shekel he had given them, he would say, “I’ll put it in for you. You’ll have a good, good day.”

05:05 Speaker 8 Out of concern for the spiritual and material needs of every Jew, Reb Zusha opened the Yeshurun restaurant at 4 Mazeh Street, in the heart of Tel Aviv, at the Rebbe’s instruction. There he provided strictly kosher food until his final day.

05:19 Speaker 10 The strength it took to run a restaurant—I think someone half his age would barely be able to do it.

05:26 Speaker 7 He lost more money there than he earned. But the Rebbe had told him to keep the restaurant open for the benefit of the public, so there would be a glatt kosher place to eat in Tel Aviv.

05:43 Speaker 10 When his driver’s license was taken away, he would carry vegetables, supplies, and meat in a bag on the train and travel to run the restaurant.

05:52 Speaker 11 In Tel Aviv.

05:53 Speaker 12 What do they have? Please.

05:57 Speaker 11 Say Shema Yisroel, Itzik.

05:59 Speaker 12 I want to hear it.

06:01 Speaker 11 Out loud.

06:03 Speaker 8 Children said Torah verses and many blessings there. Men put on tefillin, people in need received a proper meal, and everyone was greeted with a warm welcome and a broad smile.

06:14 Speaker 9 On Friday, he went to say goodbye to the restaurant. He didn’t tell me. He... he needed to check... go to Tel Aviv. He was going to Tel Aviv to see how the freezers were doing, whether everything was working. On Sunday, he didn’t go anymore.

06:32 Speaker 8 A special person in the lives of Reb Zusha, a"h, and his wife was their daughter, Mrs. Chaya Bracha Halperin, a"h, who sadly passed away before her time.

06:43 Speaker 13 His faith could have been shaken; even if it wasn’t shaken, it certainly need not have grown stronger. Especially after the Rebbe’s blessings and assurances and all sorts of things. But with him it was exactly the opposite. You could see his faith growing stronger. Not only did he have no doubts—quite the opposite. He was constantly thinking about how to do one more thing the Rebbe wanted, and then another thing the Rebbe wanted. That was how he was, right up to his final day.

07:09 Speaker 8 Reb Zusha will not be forgotten. For all of us, he was a living example of a chassidic Jew full of life, devotion and boundless love, limitless joy, and deep, palpable faith.

07:22 Speaker 3 There’s no reason or explanation for Zusha being up there now, except that he went to hurry the Rebbe along. I’m sure he’s nudging him up there. I’m sure of it. No question.

07:37 Speaker 4 We should learn from him what it means to be connected to the Rebbe, like a chossid who is utterly devoted to the Rebbe. And if the Rebbe tells him to do something that sounds outlandish, he knows that’s what he has to do.

07:52 Speaker 13 I think he embodied what the Rebbe showed us: give, give, and give. That’s what we need to do. I think if a generation that wants to learn from him takes that lesson, it’s enough. The faith, the strong faith he had; genuine chassidic Ahavas Yisroel, without limits, without... giving and giving. It really was... I have never met anyone with Ahavas Yisroel on his level. I just haven’t.

08:23 Speaker 9 Because that was Zusha. That was Zusha. There’s nothing to... You can’t take any of those things away from him, all the things he did.

08:32 Speaker 5 Sadly, Reb Zusha did not have children of his own. He devoted his life to others, especially the children of the village. Out of gratitude and to elevate his soul, let us learn from his ways and bring them into our lives: unconditional Ahavas Yisroel, devotion and steadfastness, giving wholeheartedly, and a deep, inner connection to the Rebbe. Because we are all Reb Zusha’s children.