The Rebbe and My Zaide, His Melamed

Welcome to our weekly Motzei Shabbos program. Next week, or in a week and a half, is my zaide's yahrtzeit — he was the Rebbe's melamed, I believe. So I want to dedicate the next maybe four programs l'ilui nishmas my zaide.

We are well familiar with many stories, many events that he — the Frierdiker Rebbe — wrote about his own young years. The Rebbe Rashab's years were also written about; the Rebbe Rashab also spoke about it. So there is a lot written, but there is nothing about the Rebbe's young years. The Rebbe did not write anything, and we don't know — it's not known.

So people asked me, since my zaide was the Rebbe's melamed, the Rebbe's teacher — maybe I heard something from my zaide. So I want to share with you what I heard from him. He didn't speak much, but when I was by him I wrote down things that my zaide said. Also what my zaide told other people, also what my zaide told my father, and certain things I experienced myself being by my zaide.

So I want to share with you today how and when the Rebbe became a talmid of my zaide, and how the Rebbe was in the class, and who was in the class, and also later on, when my zaide arrived in America with [unclear]. So I'm going to share these four programs about my zaide and the Rebbe.

But first I want to begin with the Rebbe's father. The Rebbe's father — everyone called him, I don't know why, but that's the way he was called — Reb Levik. He lived in Podbrank [?]. My zaide also lived in Podbrank [?]. They were very, very close.

The Rebbe's father was a Rav, and my zaide was a melamed, and the Rebbe's father only ate from [my zaide's home?] because he felt he was [reliable]. The Rebbe's father was offered a position as Rav in Yekaterinoslav, so he moved there. He was there a few years. The Rebbe was born. The Rebbe became about five, six, seven years old.

My zaide gets a letter from Reb Levik that maybe he could become a melamed, a teacher, for his son. "I need you, so please come." My zaide hesitated, because first of all he had a cheder, and he already had parnassah, and the parnassah of the cheder would be more than the teaching, so he didn't agree. I don't know, maybe a few weeks, a few months, he gets another letter from Reb Levik, and Reb Levik begged him. He says, "Please, I need a teacher for my son." Of course, if my zaide would have known that he's teaching the Rebbe, he would have come right away. But who knew?

So anyway, my zaide decided — you know, he was very close to Reb Levik, and since Reb Levik was asking him so much, so many times — he would try. Also, Reb Levik told him that after teaching his son, if he wants, they could look for a position for him afterwards too, but that's besides the point.

So my zaide decided to move to Yekaterinoslav. The Rebbe was about six or seven years old already, and Reb Levik dressed him very neat. Every day he used to come with clean pants, clean shirt — mamash very neat. They used to go to my zaide's home and learn with my zaide.

The first day when they started to learn — I don't remember whether Reb Levik was at my zaide's house or not — but the first day, Reb Levik said that the Gemara says in Bava [Basra] that the teacher of Rebbi [unclear name] said that one must have "Shivisi Hashem l'negdi tamid" — I have placed God before me always. Every teacher must understand that; to be a proper teacher, students must embody that principle — to always keep Hashem in mind. This is how children should start learning. Children should start learning always — it's not just to know the words, but to know that.

And by the way, as an aside, I remember — I think I once mentioned it — that there was a Rav in Crown Heights, and I heard once at a farbrengen of his that years ago, in the old country, before a child started to learn, they would say certain words, and when teaching children one must always keep in mind that the child is precious, and then he will grow up. That's how a teacher should be.

So Reb Levik said this word first, when he brought him to learn. Reb Levik asked him — he has two more children, one was Berel and one was Leibel — can they join the class? Not to learn in the same class, because the Rebbe was older and had much more knowledge, but could they sit in the class and be in that environment, for two reasons. Number one, because, you know, they were little children, maybe four or five years old, and they were playing games in the house, so he wanted them to be in a learning environment. And number two, because in those days they went to great lengths to keep the children out of public school — they were required to attend, but this way they wouldn't have to be there; they could stay home learning instead.

So the Rebbetzin asked my zaide, can they be in the room while you are learning with the Rebbe? Now, my zaide had two more students besides the Rebbe: one was named Gold, and one was Berel Rackman. One of them later also lived in Israel. The Rebbe later said to my zaide, "You can take pride — your talmidim are all over the world" — he meant them also.

Anyway, so my zaide said to the Rebbetzin, they can come, we'll see how we can handle it.

My zaide said that the Rebbe was unusually engrossed in study as a child. The Rebbe was quieter than other children. He did not mingle with other children or socialize much. And when they played — sometimes marbles — sometimes the Rebbe joined them, but the Rebbe was mostly alone. The Rebbe was always into learning.

And, as an aside, my father-in-law told me that when the Rebbe came to America in 1941, he wanted to sit and learn all the time — the Rebbe loved learning — but he was told, "In America, you know, things are different," so the Rebbe started to be the head of Merkos and started to work. Otherwise, the Rebbe would have just sat and learned. He wanted to sit and learn.

The Rebbe had such sharp questions that they confused my zaide, many questions. He said that Leibel, the Rebbe's brother, also had an amazing head for learning. People in Yekaterinoslav used to say that "Hashem imo" — in Russian it means [unclear] — Mendel is the Rebbe, Berel is Dovber, Leibel is Leibel, I believe.

Now, he spoke a little bit about the Rebbe's brother Leibel, which I have no time for today, but not much about his other brother Berel.

So how did my zaide handle the class? In the beginning of the day, my zaide learned privately with the Rebbe — I don't know the exact hours, maybe in the morning till the afternoon. The younger children were around. In the afternoon, he learned with Berel and with Leibel — maybe; I don't remember exactly whether they learned together in the afternoon. In the afternoon, while the younger ones were occupied, the Rebbe was reviewing (chazering) what they had learned in the morning, and also preparing for the next day. What did my zaide teach? This is all written: Chumash with Rashi, Mishnayos, and Tanya.

My zaide said that when he learned with the Rebbe, he also learned Tosfos — hard Tosfos. My zaide wanted to skip some of it — I mean the Rebbe was seven, eight, nine years old — he didn't want it to be too hard — but the Rebbe did not let him skip. The Rebbe said, "Why are we skipping this Tosfos?" So he had to learn the Tosfos, and my zaide was shocked by the Rebbe's understanding — the way the Rebbe understood. That's what my zaide told me. My zaide was a very good baal mashpia, he explained very well. And by the way, I want to say that my zaide was a good teacher — the Rebbe was also a good teacher.

Also, when my son Zalman was born, after the bris my father-in-law went in to the Rebbe for the mazel tov. The Rebbe gave the mazel tov, and the Rebbe said, "What's his name?" My father-in-law said, "He's named after my zaide." So the Rebbe said, "He put me on my feet." Can you imagine? The Rebbe said, "My zaide put me on my feet."

The Rebbe learned with my zaide for about nine zmanim — a zman is half a year, like from Pesach till Sukkos is one zman, from Sukkos till Pesach is another zman — meaning from about age six or seven until about bar mitzvah.

Reb Levik began to be a Rav in the year 1909, and he faced opposition — some people slandered him to the authorities to have him removed. He had a lot of problems, and I don't want to go into that over here — maybe another time. He had a good salary as a Rav, he lived in a nice, big apartment. He even had a telephone, which not too many people had in those days. And he was very devoted to hachnosas orchim — there was always cooking going on, people used to come, and they knew that this was a home where they could eat, and sleep over too. I know of a household that hosted many guests — and by the way, I saw somewhere — my zaide didn't tell me this — that the reason the parents merited to have such a son as the Rebbe was because of their hachnosas orchim.

Since my zaide was very close to Reb Levik, he once related what Reb Levik told him — and I'm going to mention a couple of things Reb Levik said to him. There was a Rav who gave a shiur in Ein Yaakov, and Reb Levik asked him, "Do you give a shiur in Ein Yaakov?" He answered yes. Reb Levik asked, "What is it on?" He said, "It's my morning shiur." Then Reb Levik asked him, "Where is the shiur up to?" He says, "Page two." "You've only learned two pages? How long have you been giving this shiur?" He says, "Two months." So Reb Levik said, "What can you say about the first page that takes so long — two months, one page?" The Rav mentioned that he had a lot of comments and explanations on the mishnah of the first page — he had many comments, and he told Reb Levik all his comments. So Reb Levik said to him, "When the mishnah was said, he didn't have all these comments in mind, but they are true — surely this explanation is included in what is being said."

Another thing — this Rav gave a shiur in Gemara, and one time a person got up and asked him, "Rebbi, do you think that Rashi had in mind whatever you said? Is that really what Rashi had in mind — it's very deep?" So Reb Levik answered, "I don't know, but everything Rashi says was said with such precision that surely this explanation is included in what Rashi is saying." That's why he answered him that.

One more thing I'll tell you — my zaide said Reb Levik was in a certain town, and it says that rabbanim used to give drashos. The Rebbe's father had a custom of giving a drasha, wearing a tallis, in the afternoon — at three-thirty, four o'clock. In the morning people davened and ate, and then people came — it was packed — people came to listen to the drasha. That's the way he used to speak, a long time — like the Rebbe did the same. I guess others didn't speak long, but the Rebbe also spoke very long, an hour, two hours.

So Reb Levik, after an hour and a half, stopped, and he said, "I don't know if people understand what I'm saying," but he pointed out that this boy — the Rebbe, who was about nine, ten, eleven years old — was standing in the back by the door, and he pointed to the Rebbe and said, "He understands what I'm saying," and there were bigger, older people sitting there. So this is what I heard from my zaide a few times.

So this is the first program that I wanted to share about my zaide. Next week we'll continue with our second program. Thank you.