R' Chaim Yona

00:07 Reb Chaim Yeino Lutsky was one of the chashuve Talmidim in Lubavitch. Was a big oved who davened for many hours a day, and he was also very into being hatzneh leches, to hide his great avoda. His seder was when he learned in the branch of the mechutmim that was in Shtetin, he would daven every day with, uh, great arichus, very long. He will start davening with everyone, with a minyan, and after the minyan finished, he will stay in the zal, in the corner, and continue to daven. And during davening, he would sing with tremendous deveikus Chassidishe nigunim. And because of his great deveikus, he didn't notice anything around him. Reb Shloime Chaim Kaseman related that that section in the yeshiva that was in Shtetin was supervised by the Chossid Reb Shaul Ber Zislin, which was from the Talmidim of the Mashpia Reb Shmuel Graynam. In Lubavitch, it was known that Reb Graynam highlighted mainly the avoda of the cheshbon nefesh bekirshus shel olamito. However, Reb Shillem, the mashgiach, would bimechanach his Talmidim to highlight avodas hatefillah during the day. Since Reb Shaul Ber Zislin was a Talmid of Reb Graynam, so he was mainly influenced by Reb Graynam, he w- he highlighted mainly the avoda of kirshus shel olamito. So Reb Shaul Ber Zislin once asked Chaim Yeino, "Why do you daven with so much merirus, with so much bitterness?" "When Chaim Yeino told me," says Reb Shloime Chaim, "years later when he told me about what Sh- uh, Shaul Ber Zislin asked him, 'Why

01:45 do you daven with so much bitterness?' He was surprised, and he said, 'Bitterness? I'm not sure what he's talking about. It was ta'anog. It was pleasure.'" Another thing Reb Shloime Chaim related that once Reb Chaim Yeino, when he was a bocher, he came to Lubavitch, and he asked the gabbai for a yechidus by the Rebbe Rashab. The gabbai didn't, didn't wanna let him in because he was a young bocher. So Chaim Yeino wrote a note to the Rebbe Rashab, and he asked the gabbai to deliver it to the Rebbe Rashab. When the Rebbe Rashab got the note, he right away told the gabbai to let Chaim Yeino in. During that yechidus, the Rebbe Rashab asked him, "Are there more bochurim in your branch of the yeshiva who daven be'avoda lechi?" "And generally," said Reb Shloime Chaim, "there were quite a few things that showed that the Rebbe Rashab had tremendous nachas from his own seder." Reb Falik Kahn related that Chaim Yeino was first, when he came to Lubavitch, he learned in the shiurim, which was the younger section. However, after a little while, when he tasted a taste of Chassidus, him and a few of his friends started making their own seder of davening many hours and being misboinen each day, which was different than the seder that was set for the rest of the Talmidim. At that time, it was under the supervision of Reb Shillem, Reb Shillem Dizner. And Reb Shillem told the Rebbe Rashab all about this, that there's this group

03:08 of bochurim who are having their own seder. And Reb Shillem was surprised to see that the Rebbe Rashab is sticking up for Chaim Yeino. So Reb Shillem wondered, and he asked the Rebbe Rashab, "W- why do you admire Chaim Yeino so much?" So the Rebbe Rashab said, "Ah, you don't know him." Reb Shloime Chaim Kaseman related that Chaim Yeino, while he was misboinen by davening, he forced himself to walk back and forth. And after davening, when he finished davening, he would force himself to stand in one spot for a while. Why? 'Cause he wanted to do itiskufia, and itiskufia is to go against your natural desire. Since when a person is misboinen, he's contemplating one thought, by nature, he wants to stay in one spot. So therefore, he forced himself to walk around. And after davening, when a person is not focused on one thought, naturally a person wants to move around, so he forced himself to stay in one spot. Reb Yisroel Jacobson related that my friend Chaim Yeino Lutsky davened very long every day and learned a lot of Chassidus, and he influenced quite a few of his friends that they should, uh, be noheg like him, to daven long every day. And it is during that period of time that the Rebbe Rashab once commented to their mashpia, Reb Shaul Ber Zislin, and he told him, "Your Talmidim are coming to me for yechidus with shailas of Reb Binyamin Klitzker." Reb Shloime Chaim Kaseman once said that Chaim Yeino was baki, he

04:40 was fluent in all the ma'amarim of the Rebbe Rashab word for word. And he explained that it wasn't because he forced himself to learn them be'al peh. Rather, it came to him naturally because his level of understanding Chassidus was on such a high level that the Rebbe Rashab himself ex- expressed himself about Chaim Yeino that he's on the level of Pnimius Binah, which is a very high level of understanding Chassidus. So b'meila, he remembered every ma'amar word for word. Reb Nachum Goldschmidt once related that when we were young bochurim, there were rumors going around that Chaim Yeino is a tremendous maskil in Chassidus. However, nobody was able to deny it or to prove it 'cause Chaim Yeino was very hatzneh leches, and he never showed off, and he never spoke to anybody about, in Chassidus. I tried a few times to walk over to him and ask him shailas in Chassidus, but I couldn't get him to speak. So one day, I was walking down the street, and I saw Chaim Yeino walking slowly and trying to carry two heavy suitcases. So I decided to use that opportunity, and I told him, "I see that you need help with your suitcases. Let's make a deal. I will carry the suitcases for you, and as a payment, you're gonna talk to me in Chassidus for one hour." So Chaim Yeino didn't have a choice, and he agreed. And Reb Nachum said that hour was unbelievable. The explanations in Chassidus I heard from Chaim Yeino Were amazing.

06:04 But exactly when it was 60 minutes on the clock, Cham Yeina stopped and he said, "That's it. It's an hour, and that's it." It is known that by some of the rebbeim when, when they would say a maimar, they had somebody standing right across from them, and they will look into their eyes. And that's how it was by the Rebbe Rashab. The Frierdiker Rebbe would stand in the front of the Rebbe Rashab, and they would look into each other's eyes the whole time. And when the Frierdiker Rebbe would be out of town, Cham Yeina will take him over. Reb Shlomo Cheim once related that as a result from the fact that Cham Yeina would daven very long every day, eventually that affected his health, and he became very weak. Because of that, the doctor told him that he's not allowed to daven ba'avoda anymore. He can't daven for so many hours. It's affecting his health. And he was forced to daven with a minyan. However, not somebody like Cham Yeina will give up on the whole in- of avoda and his boinunus. So therefore, if the doctor said that he can't daven, he moved the whole entire boinunus to kirsh mehalamito. He will lay down in his bed, and he will think siddus the whole entire night. And when he wake up in the morning, usually his pillow will be soaking from tears. Reb Zalachan once related, in the year of Taf Resh Ayin Zayin, Reb Cham Yeina became very sick. And he lived then

07:23 in the house of Reb Avrom Fradkin. And the, the Rebbe Shmal Sayad then, meaning the, the Rebbe Rashab, asked Reb Avrom, the host, that he should every day bring to the Rebbe Rashab a detailed report of how Cham Yeina is doing, his exact temperatures. Things became worse and worse until the professor who was taking care of him gave up on Cham Yeina's life, and he stopped taking care of him. They brought another professor, who also eventually gave up. So when Reb Avrom went into the Rebbe Rashab to report that both of these professors gave up on Cham Yeina, you're able to tell that the Rebbe Rashab was quite upset. And he said, "Such big professor and such a big fool? A doctor was only given permission to heal. He's not a baal habos over a person's life." And the Rebbe Rashab said that he should call a third professor who lived in a nearby village. And when that professor came and he heard what the first two professors said, he said that, "There's no point of me even going." And he didn't wanna go try to take care of Cham Yeina. Only after a lot of begging and after the Rebbe Rashab himself gave him his own kittel to wear while he's taking care of Cham Yeina, he agreed to go see Cham Yeina. And he found a certain medicine that, uh, was able to heal Cham Yeina, and he was healed. When he said someone to bring the medicine and he brought it, it

08:41 was very hard to give Cham Yeina the medicine to take it because it was very, very bitter, and it was very hard for Cham Yeina to swallow it. So the doctor went to the Rebbe Rashab and told him about it. So the Rebbe Rashab wrote a note to Cham Yeina that he's commanding him to swallow the medicine. And when Cham Yeina saw the note, he swallowed the medicine. After the stakkos of the Rebbe Rashab, once the Rebbe Rashab came to Cham Yeina in a dream, and he told him a deep biur in chassidus, explanation in chassidus. Reb Cham Yeina didn't think that that was anything special, and therefore he did not make a secret out of it, and he told somebody about it. And eventually the rumors went around that Cham Yeina had the Rebbe Rashab come to him in a dream and explain in chassidus. Eventually, the rebbetzin, Shterna Sara, heard about it, and she told her son, the Frierdiker Rebbe, about it. And Frierdiker Rebbe called Cham Yeina over, and he told him, and he was upset, and he told him that, "You should know that the Rebbe Rashab could have kept coming to you. But since you advertised it, people found out about it, you ruined it, and he's not gonna come to you anymore." Reb Shlomo Cheim once related that, "After my wedding, for a while, I didn't have any kids. And also my friend, Reb Cham Yeina, didn't have any kids. My friend Cham Yeina lived next to the ohel

09:58 of the Rebbe Rashab in Rostov, but I lived far from there. So Cham Yeina would go every Erev Rosh Chodesh to the ohel and daven for kids for himself and for me. One day, I got a letter from Cham Yeina, and he wrote in a letter, 'You should know that last Erev Rosh Chodesh, I went to the ohel, and that night I had a dream that the Rebbe came to me in a dream. And he said, "In regards to your davening about having a kid, your tefillah was mesrabel, and soon you're gonna have a child. And about your friend,"' meaning Shlomo Cheim, "'he already had a yeshua. So I'm asking you,' writes Cham Yeina in the letter to Shlomo Cheim, 'please let me know if your wife is actually already pregnant. If so, I will know that the dream was a real dream, and I will know that the brocha that I was given will also, uh, be fulfilled.'" "And vekak hava," says, uh, Shlomo Cheim, "my wife was then discovered to be pregnant. In that same letter, Reb Cham Yeina also said that, 'The Rebbe told me another thing, that I don't wanna write it in a letter, and next time I will see you, I'll tell you what the Rebbe told me.' But next time I saw him," said Shlomo Cheim, "he refused to tell me what the Rebbe Rashab told him." Reb Zalachan once related that in the Simchas Torah farbrengen of Taf Resh Peh Dalet, the Frierdiker Rebbe said, "There is

11:18 a yungerman standing here, and he's thinking to himself that if my father," meaning the Rebbe Rashab, "will still, will still be alive, he would ask him for a brocha for a ben zachar, for a son. And he's thinking to himself, 'How could he ask me for a brocha?' So he should know that this year he's gonna have a son." Now, the Rebbe didn't, the Frierdiker Rebbe didn't say who he's talking to, but all the people present understood that he's talking about Cham Yeina. After Pesach, uh, the Frierdiker Rebbe moved to Leningrad, and one day Reb Cham Yeina came to him, and he asked him uh, for a brocha for a son. So the Frierdiker Rebbe was surprised, and he said, "You still don't have a son?" So Cham Yeina said, "No." So the Frierdiker Rebbe thought for a little bit, and then he said, "Actually, you do have a son already." And when Cham Yeina came back home, he discovered his wife is pregnant. We'll finish off with the nigun of Yud Beis Tammuz that was composed by Reb Aaron Charetanoff. Reb Aaron Charetanoff composed this nigun when the Frierdiker Rebbe was in jail. And the first two parts of the nigun describe the, the taino of hayitochen, of how come such a thing happened. And the last part of the nigun, it brings out the, the bitachon and the tikvah and the hope and the shtarkheit that everything will end up all good.