Avremkeh Z'embiner (and a Niggun from the Chassidim of the Rebbe Maharash)

00:05 The Hasid Reb Avraham Landau, the Rav of Zhembin, known as Rav Remke Zhemirer. Many of the stories we will be relating about him were told by Reb Shmuel Groynom, the Mashpia in Lubavitch, which was Reb Avraham's Talmid Muvhak. So Reb Shmuel Groynom related that Reb Avraham was a wealthy businessman, and he had a whole business of, uh, shipping wood from Russia to Germany. Once he sent a big shipment, it was worth sixty thousand ruble from Russia to Germany, and all of it sank in the sea, and he lost all of his fortune, and he became a big Baal Chov. He owed a lot of money. That very much disturbed him to be able to focus during the learning, till he decided that in order that the, the... In order that those thoughts should stop to bother him, he set a specific time to think about it, and that's what he did. He closed his, uh, Gemara, he closed his Sefer, and he set aside a time to think about all of his Chovos. So and then when he, when he finished thinking about all his Chovos, he said to himself, "No, I don't have any more money 'cause I sold my house, and also the little bit of merchandise that I had, I also sold, so I have nothing else to think about. So I'm done." That's when he opened up the Sefer and returned to learning without being bothered by the thoughts. So once the people of Zhembin asked the Rebbe Maharash that he

01:29 should send them a Rav. This was right after Reb Avraham lost all of his fortune. So that's when the Rebbe Maharash sent him to be the Rav of Zhembin. You could understand that the salary of Reb Avraham as a Rav was not very big, and besides for that, he also had his own mother, uh, living by him, and his mother was used to eating very fancy foods because he used to be wealthy once upon a time. So now, Reb Avraham had a Halachic Shailah. Is he allowed to spend extra money to feed his mother those, uh, fancy foods that she's used to eating? But that extra money he's gonna use for that is money that he could have used to pay back people that he owes money to. A person is commanded to honor his mother, Kibbud Eim, from his own money, but not from other people's money. And the Take his Maskana was that, uh, Be'ezrat Ha'seter, he's not allowed to do that. And, um, for the rest of his life, he took away from his salary to pay back his debts, even though a bunch of the Baalabatim who he owed money to told him that they're Moichel all the debts. He told them that, "You are saying that you are Moichel me all the debt. That's because you know that I don't have any money to give you. But if you would find out that I do have money, then you would not be Moichel the debt." Reb Avraham related that in

02:48 the week before his Chasuna, he told his parents that he wants to be alone, and he asked them that they should not speak to him. That's how it was throughout the whole entire week. The Choson was alone by himself. However, a few moments before the Chasuna, his father walked into his room and he said to him, "Avremke, you see that we fulfilled our part. We stayed away from talking to you this whole week. Now I have just one request. Here is a comb, and comb your Payos." So Rav Remke took the Sefer HaZohar and he opened it up and he showed his father what it says in Sefer HaZohar, that when a person is Mesasel Be'sa'arah, he makes his hair nice, then he, he's Yoneg from the Sitra Achra. And another time, Reb Avraham related that, "Once I was by the Tzemach Tzedek together with a few other Hasidim, and amongst the, the thing that they were speaking about, the Hasidim said about a certain person that he is an Apikores." So the Tzemach Tzedek said, "He's not an Apikores. But in Inyanei Emunah, even a small Chisaron, even a Chisaron Be'mashu could damage." The Chossid Reb Avraham Zhemirer was the only Rav in his city, and sometimes they would come to ask him Shailas in the middle of davening on Yom Kippur. So Avremke said that, "The questions are not really disturbing me from the davening because they are asking me about Halacha. Halacha is Ratzon HaElion, so it's not really a disturbance from

04:13 davening. But when the Chazan starts to Naresh Machen zich to, you know, to go on and on, that confuses my davening." The following story, Rav Remke Zhemirer did not want to relate, and only one time he related it to Reb Groynem. And he said that HaRav Hakadosh, reb Nachman Mendel Horodoker said, "Ribono shel Olam, with what can I come to you? Only with Kirshon Shalamita." And the Biur that, uh, Reb Groynem gave was that the reason is because anything else, it's possible that he did it with Pneyus, with other motives. The only thing that it's not possible that was done with other motives is Kirshon Shalamita. At another time, Reb Groynem related, once Reb Avremke said, "Twice in my life, I cried. The first time I cried was after I lost all of my fortune, and the Rebbe Maharash told me that I should become a Rav in Zhembin. I was crying because I had to become a Rav. The second time I cried was after my brother passed away," which was a family member of the Rebbe Maharash. Reb Groynem once related that when Reb Avraham came to Zhembin to become a Rav, he told the Baalabatim that it's Mekubal in the world that the Baalabatim test the Rav to see if he's, uh, Roy to become the Rav of the city. "But I don't like that system. I wanna test all the people of the city to see if they are Roy that I should be their Rav." And he made an announcement

05:45 that he's asking that all the people of the city, young and old, should come to him and have a meeting with him, and he's gonna speak to each one of them separately, and then he will decide. So after all the people in the city passed through, the last, last Toshav in the city went in. Uh, poor young German whose parnassa was from guarding gardens and orchards. And he told Rav Avraham that he already went through the iron on the Sefer HaLikutei Torah and Im Rebbeinu, and he knows them ba'al peh. It's just that there are a few things there that he doesn't fully understand yet. And the young German ended off by saying, "I really hope that you become the Rav here, so then I'll be able to ask you my, uh, questions in chidush." So Rav Avraham called over the askonim of the city and he told them, "I spoke with all the people of the city, and I almost decided that I have nothing to do here, and I'm not going to become the Rav. But it's because of that last young German who spoke to me, I decided to become the Rav here." And Rav Groyman finished the story by saying that, "I am that, uh, young German." When Rav Avraham came to Zhembin, Rav Shmuel Groyman went into him, and he told him that his zeide was one of the chassidim of the Mitteler Rebbe. And once he went into Yechidus, and the Mitteler Rebbe told him, "When we say the

07:01 Krishna Shalamita be-yodcho afkid ruhi, we need to sigh." So Rav Avrahamke told him, "If I would come to Zhembin just to hear this vort, that would be worth it. That would be good enough. Dayenu." Rav Avraham had a minhag to send every year after Pesach a short imra, a short, uh, saying, a short pisgam to the goyim, Rav Shmuel Ber Borislav, a famous chassid. And he will call over one of the wagon drivers who would travel to Borislav, and he would tell them a line, and they should deliver that line to Rav Shmuel Ber Borislav. So one year, he sent him the following line: "Chametz be Pesach be mashehu, emunah be mashehu". When Rav Shmuel Ber Borislav received that vort, he said, "Now we could explain this vort for a whole entire year." After the Rebbe Ma'aras was nistalek at Gimmel Tishrei Taf Resh Mem Gimel, the chassidim had a little bit of a doubt in that town, in Zhembin, whether they should go to Lubavitch. At the Elul Taf Resh Mem Daled, I went in to Rav Avraham, says Rav Shmuel Groyman. Rav Shmuel Groyman is relating the story. He says, "I went into Rav Avraham together with my friend, the mashgiach, Rav Moshe the Chozer from Zhembin, which was a chozer in Lubavitch, and was also a talmid of, of, uh, of Avrahamke Zhembiner. Both of us were melamdim in Zhembin, and each year, in the end of the zman, in the middle of Cheshvan Elul, we will travel together to the Rebbe

08:30 Ma'aras. But now the Rebbe Ma'aras was nistalek, and both the Rebbe Rashab and the Razoh refused to accept the nasius, so we were wondering whether we should go to Lubavitch. But Rav Avraham told us confidently that we should continue to travel just like every year. And he said, 'This, uh, solution of just giving some money to tzedakah, that doesn't help. Imagine a person who will go on Shabbos and will find a wallet with money, and he will say to himself that even though there is a isur to carry the wallet, he's gonna take the wallet in order to give it to tzedakah. Obviously, it's asur.' So Rav Avraham added and he said that he also wants to travel, but since he's old and weak, he's not able to travel." Rav Groyman once related that Rav Avraham had many hidurim and chumras. For an example, he had a minhag to learn every day Masachas Challa before the seudah. So the seudah every day would be counted as a seudas mitzvah. On Shabbos, he was very much makpid not to look out the window at all. That way, he shouldn't see somebody who is, uh, driving. And even though all the Yidden in the city were shomrei Shabbos, Rav Avraham was afraid maybe he will see a Goy who's traveling on Shabbos. And he said that even seeing a Goy traveling on Shabbos, that is a chillul of, of the kedushah of Shabbos because seeing it makes a pgam in the nefesh. Another thing was that Rav

09:49 Avraham used to eat on the first night of Pesach shmurah matzah, and the rest of the Pesach, he would eat regular matzah. Not shmurah matzah, but round and oveid es yad, handmade. And when a few people in the city, uh, started to be mehader and to eat shmurah matzah the, all the days of Pesach, so they were afraid maybe this will be counted as a yuhrah to be machmir in something that even the Rav is not machmir in. So they went over to the Rav and they asked, "How much shmurah matzah should we bake this year for the Rav?" And they were basically trying to hint to the Rav that, you know, do you want also to get shmurah matzah for the whole Pesach, hoping that he will say yes, so that way they will also be able to be mehader like that. But he answered them that, uh, no, throughout the whole Pesach, just eat regular matzah. And this went on for a few years. One year, they hinted to the Rav that it's good idea we should be more mehader and to start eating shmurah matzah all the days of Pesach. So Rav Avraham stroked his beard and he said, "Hmm, Avrahamke wants to start being mehader this year and to eat shmurah matzah the whole Pesach. This means that Avrahamke changed and became on a higher level?" So again, he looked in his beard and he said, "No, no, Avrahamke still did not become on a higher level, and he could still

11:03 eat regular matzah the whole Pesach." In other words, even though he was a big machmir and a mehader, he only took upon himself hidurim and chumras which fit his level beruchniyus. Rav Shmuel Groyman once related that Rav Avraham passed away on Chol Hamoed Sukkot. Before that, on Erev Yom Kippur, the doctor told him that this year he's not allowed to fast on Yom Kippur. So when I entered his room on Erev Yom Kippur to visit him, he told me, "The doctor told me that I'm not allowed to fast on Yom Kippur. So let's say that as a doctor, he understands my sickness, but does he understand what's Yom Kippur? Does he feel the importance of Yom Kippur? However, you, Shmuel, you understand and feel what's Yom Kippur, and you also understand my sickness. So therefore, I'm asking you, do you think that I should fast this Yom Kippur?" So I answered him, "It is known that the Mizrachi Maggid himself did not fast for thirteen years on Yom Kippur. And also, even if you will not fast on Yom Kippur-" You will fulfill the will because it's the same Torah that tells you to fast on Yom Kippur that tells that a sick person should not fast. Eventually, Rabbi Avraham accepted it and he did not fast on Yom Kippur, and he even said that he thinks that this came to him as a punishment for the fact that when he was a Rav, he was usually machmir whenever it came to shailas about fasting

12:26 on Yom Kippur. And therefore, he's accepting upon himself that if the will help him and he'll be to recover from his sickness, he will not be machmir anymore on shailas on fasting on Yom Kippur. However, he did actually pass away a few days later. The first day of Sukkah, Rabbi Avraham asked that he should take him to the Sukkah, and he took him to the Sukkah lying in bed. Also in Chol Hamoed, he asked that he should take him to the Sukkah, and that's what he did. And when he felt that his time is close, he's about to pass away, he told me, said Rabbi Shmuel, that I wanted to continue until after Simchat Torah in order to end all the days of the Yom Tov. But Baruch Hashem, at least I managed to bench on the and to mitzvah Sukkah. When they would call Rabbi Avraham Jebener to the Torah for Aliyah, he had to go from his place by the Mizrach in the front of the shul all the way to the bimah. And since it was hard for him to see how everybody get up from their places in his honor, he would cover his face with a tallis. However, when he came to an old age, he wouldn't cover his face with a tallis anymore. And he would say, "Now it doesn't disturb me anymore that they are getting up for me," because that's what it says in the Torah, . So there being to get up for an old person.

13:37 Rabbi Shmuel Greiman once related that Rabbi Avraham Jebener said that the that he wishes for himself is to understand in Likutey Torah all the with all the . We'll end off with a nigun from the Chassidim of the Rebbe Maharash.