R' Yosef Tumarkin (and "Der Pastuch")

00:07 Speaker 1 Our goyen haChassid, Reb Yosef Tomarkin, was born Yud Ches Teis, Taf kuf ayin taf, to his father, the goyen, the Chassid, Reb Eliyahu, which was from the Chosidim of the Alter Rebbe. Reb Yosef Tomarkin was a tamid of the goyen, Reb Nechemya Dubrowner, the mechaber of the Divrei Nechemya, which was also from the gedole chassidim of the Alter Rebbe and the Mitre Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek. It is told that the Tzemach Tzedek once told Reb Nechemya Dubrowner, "Ich, du, Yashe, bei uns is a under learner," meaning me, you and Yashe. Yashe is Reb Yosef Tomarkin's nickname. By us, the learning is a different type, different type of learning. Reb Yosef once related about his Seder Halimud with his rebbe, Reb Nechemya Dubrowner. Says, "During the summer days, we would wake up early before alos hashachar, and we'll do all the hachanos for davening, and when it came time to davening, we would daven not too much ba'arichus, and then we'll eat something for breakfast, and then we'll sit and learn for 18 hours straight until the latest possible Mincha time. We learn Gemara and Rishonim, but we wouldn't learn according to the seder of the, of the dapim, of the blots. Rather, we will learn by sugyois. For an example, we learn the sugyah of roiv and chazakah, the sugyah of sfekah de'oraysa and sfekah derabonon. And between each sugyah, we would play chess in order that the previous sugyah shouldn't mix in and shouldn't confuse us before we start the next sugyah. And my

01:42 Speaker 1 rebbe, Reb Nechemya, would tell me, 'You can go first in a chess game. Let's get straight to the point.' And when he saw that I'm about to win, he would say, 'Okay, Yashe, let's switch the board around, and let me take your pieces and you take my pieces.' And despite that, it never ever happened that Reb Nechemya won me in chess. And he would say, 'The Rosh was able to learn a whole mesechta. I am only able to learn one daf.'" Reb Yosef Tomarkin was also one of the three chassidim who worked on writing down the t'shuvias of the Tzemach Tzedek. The other two were the Maharim, Reb Yisroel Noyach, the son of the Tzemach Tzedek, and the son-in-law of the Tzemach Tzedek, Reb Levi Yitzchok. The Fidele Rebbe writes in one of his reshimos that in the winter of Taf Res Yud, Reb Yosef Tomarkin was for three months in Lubavitch, and the Tzemach Tzedek was very much mechabed him, and he allowed him to copy a few of his t'shuvias in Chidushei Torah from his Sefer Tzemach Tzedek, which wasn't yet printed at that time. Reb Yosef related to my rebbe, to the RashBa'atz, that one day the Tzemach Tzedek called him and he showed him a halachic shailah that arrived in the mail. And the Rebbe told Reb Yosef Tomarkin that he should go to his son, Reb Yisroel Noyach, and to his son-in-law, Reb Leivick, and all three of them should be me'ayen in this shailah, and tomorrow evening you should,

03:09 Speaker 1 you should come back to me and tell me your opinion. The shailah was very hard, and the Rav who sent the shailah was a huge lamdan who knew Bavli and Yerushalmi, Rambam, and many Rishonim and Acharonim fluently. And the shailah was a very long, arichus dike shailah with very deep s'varas. "So for the whole entire night and the next day, we toiled on this shailah," said Reb Yosef, "and we couldn't get to the bottom of it. Therefore, Reb Yisroel Noyach went to his father, the Tzemach Tzedek, and he asked him for an extension of one more day. On the third day of the discussions, it was Wednesday in the evening, we were zoche to go into the Tzemach Tzedek and to hear the Tzemach Tzedek's Chidushei Torah and explanations on this shailah. And the Tzemach Tzedek finished off by saying that this is what my Zeide, the Alter Rebbe, revealed to me about this sugyah. Later on, the Reb Yisroel Noyach told me," says Reb Yosef, "that on Thursday, when he went into his father, the Tzemach Tzedek, and he spoke to him again about this shailah, so the Tzemach Tzedek told him, in the zechus of the printing of the Likutei Torah, that so now two Yidden could sit down and learn the ma'amarim of the Zeide with the hagahos. I was zoche, and zechus of that, I was zoche that the Zeide should reveal to me the secrets of Torah. You cannot be mesayer, you cannot estimate the great nachas ruach that we

04:29 Speaker 1 cause someone in Gan Eden when they learn his Torah. The whole entire heichal of the tzaddik shines from the simcha, and the bracha of the tzaddik protects the children and the children's children." The Chossid, Reb Mordechai Yael Duchman, once related that Reb Yosef Tomarkin, which was the Rav of Kremenchug, once asked the Tzemach Tzedek, "Why is it that when it comes to nigleh, I have what I need?" Meaning he understands things well. "But in Chassidus, it's not so." So the Tzemach Tzedek answered Reb Yosef Tomarkin, "Not every person is zoche to two shulchanes, to two tables." Meaning not everyone's zoche to be both a Baal Nigleh and a Baal Chassidus. So Reb Mordechai Yael would finish off the story by saying from the Tzemach Tzedek's answer, it's mashma that to one table he was zoche, table of Nigleh. Reb Yehuda Chidirig once related that once chassidim farbrenged by the Tzemach Tzedek, and amongst the chassidim present was Reb Hillel Paritcher and Reb Yosef Tomarkin. Reb Yosef started to describe the avoda of each of the great chassidim who were present. And when he went on to describe the avoda of Reb Hillel, Reb Yosef said, "He does not know of any civil service. He only knows of military service." And the Tzemach Tzedek, who was there, who was there then, his face shined. He liked that line, and also the chassidim liked it. Now it is known that Reb Hillel Paritcher accomplished that his body would not hear- Anything that people speak about him. So

06:04 Speaker 1 therefore, when, when Reb Yosef was describing Reb Hillel, Reb Hillel physically did not hear what he said. But when he looked around and he saw that everyone's faces are shining, so he asked them that they should tell him what happened. What did Reb Yosef say? But nobody told him. When Reb Yosef's daughter came to the age of Shidduchim, there were three serious Shidduchim offers, the Rogatchover, Reb Chaim Brisker, and Reb Yitzchok Yoel Rafaelovitch. So Reb Yosef Tomarkin decided to test each one of these, uh, young elite to see which one is a fitting Choson. The end, after testing all three of them, he went to the Rebbe Maharash, and the Rebbe Maharash told him that he should take Reb Yitzchok Yoel Rafaelovitch because he's a Chassidishe Yingerman. Years later, when, when the Rogatchover lived in Kremenchug for a while, so he told one of Reb Yosef's descendants that when your Zayde tested me, he was a big lamdan, and he said, "When he tested me, he asked me a shailah in Tosfos somewhere, and Ich hab gut oysgemacht. I answered well. And he pinched me in mein cheek. And from the way he asked me the question, I understood that he knows how to learn." Once, Reb Yosef met a person in a mikveh, and a person that he did not recognize, a stranger. So that person told him, "You're for sure going to travel soon to Lubavitch, right? So please send regards to the Rebbe from me." So Reb Yosef asked him, "And who

07:32 Speaker 1 are you?" So he said, "Tell the Rebbe that he has regards from the Deitchel." Deitchel means the German, but it was also an expression of describing someone who was modern at that time. So when Reb Yosef heard that, he figured that this is probably not simple. He's probably not a simple man. So right after Shabbos, he traveled to Lubavitch, and he went into the Rebbe, and he gave him the regards from the Deitchel. So the Rebbe got up on his feet, and he said with his payos with excitement, "Azoy, azoy, you saw the Deitchel?" And the Rebbe repeated it three times. We do not know who this Deitchel was, but it's probably one of the hidden tzaddikim at the time. Reb Don Tomarkin, which was the grandchild of Reb Yosef, related that, "My Zayde was very passionate about the mitzvah of Pidyon Shvuyim to an extent of Mesirus Nefesh mamash. Throughout all the years of my Zayde being the Rav of Kremenchug, no Jew was ever taken to the army. Always when a Jew was about to be taken to the army, my Zayde collected the money and bribed the right people and make sure they don't get drafted. And for that purpose, he founded a Pidyon Shvuyim fund that all the wealthy men of the city were partners in it. In Kremenchug lived a famous Chassid, which was also a Gvir, Reb, Reb Yehuda Leib Zlotopolsky. And when my Zayde opened the fund for Pidyon Shvuyim, Reb Yehuda Leib gave my Zayde a key

08:54 Speaker 1 to his safe, and he told him, "Whenever you need, just open up the safe and take whatever you want." In the year of 5614, the government in Russia made a decree to draft all young people from the age of 21 and up, and Reb Yosef couldn't handle it, and he told his Mekoravim, "I will not be able to handle seeing Yidden being drafted to the army." Suddenly, four months before the decree was going to take place, he just passed away, and he was 55 years at the time. About the way he passed away, it is told that Reb Yosef's mother lived in Kiev. And when Reb Yosef would travel back from Lubavitch home to Kremenchug, he would always stop by Kiev to visit his mother. And the last time that he visited by the Rebbe Maharash, this was around Shavuos 5614. So the Rebbe asked him before he left, "Which way are you planning on traveling?" And he said he's planning on traveling as usual through Kiev. So the Rebbe Maharash told him, "It's better not to travel through Kiev. Just go straight home." And before the Rebbe Maharash sent him off, he repeated it again, "It's not good to travel through Kiev. Just go straight home." After Reb Yosef went up to his wagon, the Rebbe Maharash repeated it a third time. However, Reb Yosef still traveled through Kiev to become the mitzvah of Kibud Eim. And he came to the city of Kiev, and he was staying by his sister's house. He suddenly

10:19 Speaker 1 felt very ill, and he passed away in Kiev. We'll finish off with a nigun that's called Der Pastach, The Shepherd. It's a heart-taking nigun from Nikolaev. It is also known as the Varshavar nigun. That's because when the Frierdiker Rebbe was in Warsaw, though they sang this nigun a lot when the Frierdiker Rebbe was there. During the Second World War, on the Shabbos of Parshas Pinchas 5700, the Frierdiker Rebbe started to speak about the great maila of Niguna and what Niguna could accomplish and, and then the Frierdiker Rebbe said, "Now let us sing the nigun, the famous nigun from Warsaw, with I say to this Pnimius, so we could be mamshich here through the nigun, the talmidim of Tomchei Temimim that are w- that are in Warsaw." And at that time, the Frierdiker Rebbe was already in the United States in the Greystone Hotel. And the talmidim of Tomchei Temimim that he was referring to were in Warsaw being bombed by the Nazis. This nigun is nigun Samech and Sefer HaNigunim. We'll play this nigun song by Project Seder HaNigunim.

11:32 Speaker 2 Ah, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ya, yi, di, ma, yi, da. Ah, ma, ya, ma, ma, ma, yi, da, ma, yi, da, ma, yi, da, ma, yi, da. Ah, ma, ya, ma, ma, ma, ma, yi, da, ma, yi, di, ma, yi, da. Ah, ya, ya, ma, ma, ma, ma, yi, da, ma, yi, di, ma, yi, da