Chapter 71: Nachum and Devorah and the Daughter Who Was Born

00:02 Devorah told her husband, Reb Nachum, the good news: they were going to have a child. Reb Nachum received the news with mixed feelings. On the one hand, he was overjoyed to hear what he had waited so long to hear. On the other hand, he felt a certain heaviness in his heart. He remembered well the words of the mekubal Rabbi Moshe Gershon and knew that his end was near, for his happiness had grown at precisely this time. Of the two blessings he had received, it was long life that would be taken from him. Reb Nachum did not think it right to tell his wife, since he did not want to distress her. But he spent more time alone and devoted himself increasingly to teshuvah, prayer, and Torah study. Every day he wept a great deal and even recited the confession of sins. Yet when he left his room, he tried to appear cheerful and encouraging so that Devorah would suspect nothing. Day by day, Reb Nachum felt his strength ebbing away. Two months later, a great weakness overcame him, and within a few days he passed away. When Devorah’s pregnancy came to term, she gave birth to a daughter, who was named Nechamah after her father, Reb Nachum. In accordance with Reb Nachum’s will, his estate was divided into three equal parts. One part was to be distributed to charity as Devorah saw fit. Another was given to Devorah herself, and the third was set aside for the child who was to be born. Reb Nachum also left a sealed letter, which he instructed them to open on the day the child reached the age of mitzvos. Devorah raised Nechamah in the same spirit in which she had educated herself. From Nechamah’s earliest childhood, Devorah made sure that special tutors taught her Torah as well. Meanwhile, twenty-five years had passed since Devorah had come to live in Vitebsk, and during that time the city had undergone a great spiritual change. The number of Torah students had grown, as had the number of yeshiva students. The spiritual life of the women had changed greatly too.

03:01 Most of the women could now daven on their own, and some even understood the content and meaning of the prayers. Through the book Tze’enah Ure’enah and other works in Yiddish, the women became familiar with a range of fundamental subjects in Judaism. By the time Nechamah reached bas mitzvah, she had already acquired considerable knowledge of Jewish studies, and the time had come to open Reb Nachum’s sealed letter. The letter revealed the story of the mekubal’s blessings. In it, Reb Nachum also asked that Devorah establish... that Devorah establish a yeshiva in the name of the child who would be born, and that the yeshiva be supported by the child’s share of the estate. And so, in 5457, a yeshiva was established on the great bank of Vitebsk in the name of Nechamah, daughter of Reb Nachum, son of Reb Tevel [?]. People called it “Devorah’s Nechamah Yeshiva,” in honor of the widow. Among the great Torah scholars living in Vitebsk at that time was one named Reb Simcha Zelig, also known as the ilui of Stvisk. For ten full years, he had secluded himself and studied Torah. This ilui was appointed head of the yeshiva named for Reb Nachum’s orphaned daughter, and within two years the yeshiva already had 130 students and three teachers. Reb Simcha Zelig did not, however, remain at its head, since he preferred to study Torah on his own. Despite all this, Vitebsk had still not reached Minsk’s standing as a center of Torah. Nor could it compare with Slutsk and Brisk, which had many yeshivas, and certainly not with Vilna, which was already a great center of Jewish life. The Minsk community also helped spread Torah throughout the surrounding region. The yeshivas in towns such as Smilovitch and Smorgon were founded by students who had studied in the yeshivas of Minsk. We turn now to Minsk. Baruch learned about Minsk and its yeshivas, and about its influence on other communities, only when he came to Dobromysl for Pesach to stay with the blacksmith Eliezer Reuven. It was then, too, that he learned of the respected standing his grandfather had held in Minsk, where

05:49 his grandfather Reb Moishe had lived. The idea of visiting Minsk at the first opportunity then took root in Baruch’s mind. Baruch, who had kept his distance from his family all this time, was now filled with a longing to draw close to them again. He also felt a desire to learn more about his mother, who had died giving birth to him and who, as Baruch recalled, had been very learned. During Pesach that year, Baruch learned a great deal about the world and its inhabitants in the home of Eliezer Reuven the blacksmith. He also learned much about Eliezer Reuven’s own interesting character. Every Friday, summer and winter alike, Eliezer Reuven would stop working and close the smithy an hour before midday. All the peasants from the surrounding villages knew that Ruvke, as they called him, would do no work after that hour. On Fridays they would come early in the morning, even before Reb Eliezer Reuven returned from Shacharis at the first minyan, and wait at the workshop door for him to do the work they needed. For his part, when Eliezer Reuven finished his Friday work, he would offer every peasant present in the smithy a small glass of spirits and a slice of cake. He would say that the non-Jews, too, should know about our holy Shabbos. Afterward he would go to the bathhouse. When he returned, he would lie down to rest for an hour or two, then begin preparing for the holy Shabbos with great devotion and concentration. Eliezer Reuven was a tall man with a dignified face, adorned by a snow-white beard. A faint smile always hovered on his face, adding to his charm. When he put on his Shabbos clothes late Friday afternoon, freshly bathed and carefully groomed, he made a deep impression on everyone who saw him. The Friday Baruch was there was the eve of Shabbos Hagadol. As usual, Eliezer Reuven went to the bathhouse after finishing his work, taking with him his son-in-law’s brother, a boy

08:27 of nine named Yisroel Chaim. The boy had come to stay with the blacksmith for Pesach. A long time passed, however, and Eliezer Reuven still had not returned from the bathhouse. Suddenly the boy, Yisroel Chaim, appeared and related that while they were at the bathhouse, a cry had gone up: the town’s rabbi, who was there at the time, had fainted. Panic broke out. The blacksmith and the boy dressed hurriedly and rushed with the crowd to the shul to say Tehillim and pray for the rabbi’s recovery. Later, Eliezer Reuven went to the cemetery with some other Jews and instructed the boy to go home. The boy knew no more than that. Baruch and one of Eliezer Reuven’s sons-in-law went into town to find out how the rabbi was doing. The incident had shaken the entire community. Everyone knew who the rabbi of Dobromysl was, and all recognized his greatness, his distinguished lineage, and his illustrious past. He was Rabbi Zevulun Mordechai, who had succeeded his father-in-law, Rabbi Gavriel, as rabbi. Rabbi Zevulun Mordechai was loved and revered by every member of the community. It was no wonder that when he was suddenly stricken with paralysis at the bathhouse, great alarm spread through the town. A short time before candle-lighting, the good news arrived that the rabbi had opened his eyes and regained consciousness. His power of speech had returned, though speaking took considerable effort, and most of his body remained paralyzed. The rabbi summoned Dovid Moshe the dayan and his grandson Shloime. He asked that Shloime deliver the Shabbos Hagadol sermon in shul the next day, and that Dovid Moshe help him prepare it, since such a sermon was ordinarily expected to display exceptional Torah scholarship. The rabbi also asked that ten Jews go to the shul, ask forgiveness of one of the Torah scrolls, wrap it in a tallis, and bring it to his home accompanied by a minyan, so that he could daven with the congregation and hear the Torah reading.

10:57 The rabbi said that he had never missed a single prayer with a minyan in his life, and he wanted to pray with a minyan now as well. The dayan and the grandson fulfilled his request. For this purpose, they chose the Torah scroll known in Dubromysl as the Rich Orphan’s Torah Scroll, or Elimelech the Chossid’s Torah Scroll. A remarkable story was connected with this scroll. It was in the year 4807. A wealthy Jew named Yeshayahu Shlomo settled in Dubromysl, accompanied by his wife, their four-year-old son, and a relative named Naftali, who served as Yeshayahu Shlomo’s assistant. Some said that Yeshayahu Shlomo was among those expelled from Spain. Others said that he had come from Germany and was among those expelled from Frankfurt. Four years passed, and Yeshayahu Shlomo died. His son Elimelech was raised by Rabbi Naftali. The boy showed great talent and a strong desire to learn, but when he reached bar mitzvah age, he suddenly adopted a new way of life. He refrained from mundane conversation and kept away from other people. His relative and guardian Naftali, as well as all his teachers, tried to turn him away from this path, but they could not. When Elimelech grew older, he would agree to marry only a poor orphan. His marriage lasted five years. During that time they had a son and a daughter, and then Elimelech told his wife that he wished to divorce. He explained that he wanted to be free of the family obligations incumbent upon him according to the Torah. He gave her a large share of his property and undertook to support their children. Rabbi Naftali left Dubromysl, and it then became clear that Elimelech did not want to benefit from his money at all. He turned his house into a lodging place for guests. He himself went to live with Tanchum the shoemaker, whose house stood near the beis midrash. Elimelech spent all day and much of the night in the beis midrash, learning Torah and davening. Every evening, after everyone had left the beis midrash, he would take a broom and sweep

13:43 the floor. Throughout the week, his only food was bread and water, except on Shabbos and Yom Tov. In the year 5440, Rabbi Gabriel assumed the rabbinate of the city, and it was from him that Reb Elimelech learned of a G-d-fearing Torah scribe and kabbalist in Polotsk. So Elimelech went to that scribe, Rabbi Shemaya Zerachya, brother of the kabbalist Rabbi Betzalel Uri and grandfather of the righteous Rabbi Yisroel of Polotsk, a student of the Maggid of Mezritch. Elimelech commissioned a Torah scroll from Rabbi Shemaya Zerachya. Four years passed before Rabbi Shemaya Zerachya finished writing it, and Elimelech stayed with him the entire time. A proofreader named Pesachya then checked the Torah scroll. When everything was complete, Elimelech took the scroll back to Dubromysl and gave it to the rabbi, who placed it in the beis midrash. When Elimelech’s children came of age, he arranged marriages for them with respected families and gave them large sums from his property. He himself continued in his way, avoiding mundane conversation and eating nothing but bread and water on weekdays. He passed away in 5495 at the age of seventy-nine. His Torah scroll remained in the possession of the community, bearing the name the Rich Orphan’s Torah Scroll. This was the scroll now brought, as mentioned, to the home of Zevulun Mordechai, the rabbi of Dubromysl. On that occasion, Baruch learned the remarkable, though also tragic, history of the rabbi’s family. Zevulun Mordechai was a descendant of Rabbi Moshe Isserles, the Rema. The head of the family, the gaon Rabbi Zechariah Yerucham, who had studied Torah under the Rema himself, settled with his family after many wanderings in a village near Nemirov. There, all the family members worked the land and lived communally, with a single fund shared by everyone. Because they lived in true brotherhood, they were given the name “the Yonim.” For three generations, the Yonim lived this way—a striking example of Jewish family life.

16:40 Eventually, the family grew to seventy or eighty households, and they moved into Nemirov itself. There, the Yonim continued their communal way of life. The older members, who had already worked hard for many years, devoted themselves to Torah and the service of Hashem, while the younger ones worked the land, enabling them all to support themselves.