The Rebbe and My Zaide, His Melamed – Part II

Welcome to our weekly Mivtza Shabbos program. This is the second program, a continuation from last week, l'ilui nishmas [in memory of] the melamed of the Rebbe.

We're in the middle of sharing some stories of the Rebbe's younger years — stories that I heard from my Zaide, or that I heard from other people who heard them from him.

So we left off last week about the story that my Zaide had with the Rebbe, and today I want to continue. Once the council of Yekaterinoslav decided to build a park over the Jewish cemetery in Yekaterinoslav, Reb Levik had the task of supervising the reburial of the rabbonim who had been buried in Yekaterinoslav before him.

So when the diggers came to the grave of the previous Rav — his name was Reb Wolf Kosinkov [?] — somehow the diggers knocked on the covering of the body of the previous Rav. People were standing around, people were shocked. This was twenty years after the passing of Reb Wolf Kosinkov [?]. Twenty years, and they looked at him — his face looked exactly the same as when they had buried him twenty years before. It was unbelievable. So my Zaide said that when Reb Levik told him this story, he told it to his face — his face was covered with tears when he was telling it, his face was covered with tears.

My Zaide often went to [Reb ...]'s house [?]. He was the Rav of [a town], and he always spoke in terms of Kabbalah. Everything he saw, he saw through Kabbalah. Let's say he saw a table — he started to think about the table in Kabbalah. Or he started to speak about a chair, or about a house, in Kabbalah. Everything was Kabbalah. That's what they told me.

Now I want to share with you one more thing — it's very, very interesting. One time my Zaide's family baked matzah. They baked matzah, but they were poor — so poor that [normally], you know, they used mayim shelanu, water used for the matzah that rests overnight. Let's say you draw the mayim shelanu in a glass — that water remains overnight, and the next morning you bake the matzah with that water. But since my Zaide was very poor, he didn't have a glass vessel — he had a metal container, a barzel. I'm saying the word barzel — you'll know why. Barzel means metal. He had a metal container, so he didn't know what to do: can you use metal instead of glass? So he sent his seven-year-old son — my uncle, who later became a great [chossid?] — to Reb Levik, to ask him whether you can use a metal barrel for mayim shelanu.

So Reb Levik answered this boy, my uncle: "Better not — tell your father better not [to use it]." I don't know if that's exactly it, but I believe he said: barzel in Hebrew is roshei teivos for the four mothers — beis is Bilhah, the maidservant of Rachel; reish is Rachel; zayin is Zilpah, the maidservant of Leah; and lamed is Leah. In this combination, the maidservants are placed before the [primary wives], before Rachel and Leah. And since they are placed before, the essence of this is arrogance — which is the extreme opposite of baking matzah, and matzah represents humility. Matzah is humility, it's flat; [chametz represents] arrogance, it rises. And since the maidservants' letters were placed before the wives' letters, that shows arrogance — and now you're going to bake matzah, which is humility. So it's better not to use barzel. That's why he said, "Tell your father." Interesting word.

Now, going back — my Zaide was so close to Reb Levik. Reb Levik liked my Zaide; he was a lamdan, he had a good heart, and he was very [sensitive] — whenever my Zaide heard of [someone suffering], he couldn't take it. I mean, there are a lot of stories about that, but I'm not going to go into it tonight.

My Zaide — he always knew that whenever he had an extra minute, he went to learn Mishnayos. My Zaide often said that after 120 years, after the passing, they put the body on a board — he called it a "brettl" — before the burial takes place. So what does the body do in between? And it says [in the sources] the important thing to take away from this... anyways, this is what my Zaide always said.

And by the way, speaking about this, I remember he was the head of the Chevra Kadisha. He made the tahara — after he made the tahara on [someone] — he told us that the face of the deceased, you can see [the truth] on the face.

Now I believe this is why Reb Levik wanted my Zaide to be a melamed for the Rebbe.

Anyways, let's go further. The biggest simcha my Zaide had was when the Rebbe became a chosson.

Now let me tell you — before that, let me tell you, maybe I told you, I heard from other people a different version, I don't know if it's true or not, but I just want to say what I heard from Rabbi Chaim Lieberman. He was in [unclear] in his last years, and what Rabbi Lieberman, who was the mazkir of the Frierdiker Rebbe, said — that's all I can say. The other things he said about it, I don't know if they're true, but I just heard it from him.

He said that the Rebbetzin [Rebbe's mother] came to the Frierdiker Rebbe to speak about the shidduch for her son, and to speak it over. So she said to the Frierdiker Rebbe, "I want — I need — I want no dowry." You know, in those days they gave a dowry, especially for a good [family] — "I have a good [son] and I want no dowry." So the Frierdiker Rebbe said to her, "I would be glad to give you, but I don't have the money."

That the Frierdiker Rebbe — we all know, we've spoken about it many times in our previous programs — did not have the money waiting — that's what I heard from Lieberman. Then the Frierdiker Rebbe said — he had an older daughter — "there will be jealousy, how can I, how can I promise?" They're both waiting. Then [the Rebbetzin] said, "But give." That's all, that's the way I heard it — "but give" — I guess this means "give," that's what it means. So she was waiting, and he smiled. He says, [Yiddish phrase, unclear] — in time, they will already decide what to do — and that's what happened. This is exactly what I heard from Lieberman, and the rest, how else it happened, I don't know.

Now this reminds me — when the Frierdiker Rebbe told Lieberman, "Don't hang around" — you know, very [careful about it] — there was a time when the Rebbe was upstairs in 770, at a meal, I don't know which meal, [people] were pushing to see, there was a little commotion. So the Frierdiker Rebbe — there was a lot of commotion — he turns around to them and he says [unclear Hebrew/Yiddish phrase] — you know, Friday night you say [this] — in other words, he didn't tell them to leave, but even so, they all left.

Anyways, so — my Zaide was in Poland, I heard — at the Rebbe's wedding, the Rebbe's parents were not at the wedding — not Reb Levi Yitzchok, not [the Rebbetzin]. So my Zaide said, since Reb Levik couldn't come to the wedding, Reb Levik wrote an exactly 101-word telegram to his son, to the Rebbe, for his wedding — 101 words. He also noted that the paper on which the letter was written was soaked with tears. 101 words he wrote.

Reb Levik's neighbors were against religion. The guy was a neighbor, mamash — he was an engineer, and he distanced himself — I mean, the Rebbe's father had a problem, even sometimes when they came to the house, he made trouble, he disturbed them — yet he was very moved, this engineer, by the outpouring of emotion on the occasion of the day of the Rebbe's wedding. He decided even to help — he helped, the entire Jewish community turned out to participate, and gave presents to those who came to the house on the night of the wedding.

There was a big gathering that night, an atmosphere of [joy]. My Zaide was there with the family, Reb Levik, the night of the wedding — it was big, that night. And later, people found out that at the very moment the Frierdiker Rebbe said a maamer in Russia, at that same moment in Poland, in the middle of the dancing, my Zaide got up on the table. He jumped on the table, and his shirt was dripping with sweat, and he said, "I have the privilege, the great privilege, that my former student is becoming the son-in-law of the Rebbe" — the son-in-law of the Frierdiker Rebbe. So he was privileged to have been his melamed.

Next week we'll continue the third part of the program. Thank you.