R' Pinye Rakshiker (and the Nusach before Kadish for Musaf on Rosh Hashono)

00:06 This episode is in honor of Aharon Yehichiel Volosov. May you have a successful year in cheder, in learning, in davening, in Avodas Hashem, b'simcha ub'tuv levav. Dedicated by his parents. Rebbe Yisroel Pinchas Schreiber, known as Pinye Rakshiker. He was one of the Chashuvei Temimim in Lubavitch. Later on, he was a mashpia in Poltava. Later on, when he ran away from the communists, he was a mashpia in Malachowka and some other cities around Moscow. And during the Second World War, he escaped to Samarkand, where he continued being a mashpia. He was the one who was mekarev to Chassidus, the famous Chassid, Reb Yoina Poltaver. In the yeshiva in Lubavitch, there were two talmidim from Rakshik, and both of them had a name Pinchas, and both of them were called Pinye Rakshiker. And, uh, hanal, the talmidim made themselves different signs to be able to tell which one is which. Afterwards, when, uh, the communists took over and Temim CheTmimim went underground, they separated their ways. It happened once, and a group of young communists went into a hiding place where Temimim were learning. So the bochurim started to run away to escape, and one of the young communists was chasing after Pinye Rakshiker. Eventually, he caught him, and when Pinye turned around and looked in the face of the one who's chasing him, he was shocked to see that that's the other Pinye Rakshiker, who unfortunately went off the derech and became a communist. So when the other Pinye Rakshiker, the one who was chasing, saw

01:47 who he just caught, he apologized and he said, "It just was, was a lot of peer pressure for me. That's why I joined." So he asked him, "How did you get to such a place? Like, why, why did you become a communist? Didn't you learn in Temim CheTmimim, learn Chassidus? You know the truth." So the other Pinye answered, "Yes, I know the truth. However, it was too much of an nisayon for me, and I think that the reason why I didn't stand the test is because when I learned Chassidus, I learned Chassidus just for the sake of haskala, just for the understanding, where I never applied it to my day-to-day life, and that was the beginning of my downfall." Another time, Pinye Rakshiker met the other Pinye on the street, and he was not wearing a yarmulke. So Pinye asked him, "Why don't you at least have a yarmulke in your pocket? So if once you have a hirhur teshuvah, you have a yarmulke on you on the spot, you'll be able to put it on." So the other Pinye who went off the derech told him, "If I will have a hirhur teshuvah, I will tear off a piece of my shirt and cover my head with it." Reb Berel Keselman described once a debate that took place between Reb Pinye and Reb Nissan Nemanov in a farbrengen Chavdalat Teves that happened in Russia. It was during the hard times in Russia, and people bare-barely had any time for learning. And Reb Pinye, by

03:06 the farbrengen, which Chavdalat Teves is when we split up the Shas, he demanded that everybody around the table should take a masechta for the Chalukah shel Shas. It's one of them in Hagim. And Reb Nissan argued and he said, "If somebody has one free half an hour in his day, it's better that he should learn Chassidus during that half an hour." So Pinye turned it back to Reb Nissan, "Mi samcha? Who appointed you?" Meaning, why are you saying that this is more important? Who are you to decide which minhag is more important? Another fact that may be related to this, may, may be not, is that Chassidim say that when Reb Pinye was running away from the KGB, he took with him a Gemara. And, uh, when Reb Shmuel Avigdor was running away, he took with him a Imrei Bina. Maybe it's related to the same point as the last story, maybe not. Reb Shloime Chaim Keselman described the avoda of Reb Pinye, and he said, "Every Friday night, Reb Pinye Rakshiker finished his davening at a very late hour, and when he came home from shul, he would go to his family, who are already sleeping in bed, and wish them a good Shabbos in middle of their sleep, and then he would go to the table and have a seuda by himself." And they once asked Reb Pinye, "Why, why are you trying to wake up your family? They're in the middle of sleeping." So he answered them, "Don't they also have to

04:22 feel the kedusha of Shabbos?" In other words, that he wanted that the effect of the Chassidus and the davening that he just had Friday night should, uh, penetrate his family too. Once, when, uh, by a certain gathering, somebody mentioned a certain inyan in Tanya, so Reb Pinye pointed out which perek in Tanya it's found in. So they asked him, "Why are you showing off? Isn't that yeshus? Isn't that gaava?" So he answered, "Halavai that this should be our yeshus. This should be our show-off, that the yeshus of the person should be from his learning and not from any other stuff, that we should be excited about the learning." On Yud Tes Kislev, Tof Shin Beis, in the city of Samarkand, there was a farbrengen, and eventually they ran out of lechaim. Chassidim thought, who should go and buy more lechaim? Eventually, they appointed two women, Esther Teitelbaum and Ita Dvora Levin. They sent them because for a man to go around the night was a danger, 'cause maybe he will be drafted to the army, so they sent them. So when they came back with a mashke, Reb Pinye, who was there, said, "The whole inyan of a farbrengen is to make peiros, to make fruits," meaning that they should bring to a good result in Avodas Hashem. And so these two women who just got us the lechaim, they also deserve to have fruits in the farbrengen, that they should have kids. And takeh, after a short while, both of them gave birth for

05:43 the first time after a few years of not giving birth at all. Reb Pinye once related that, "One of my elder zeidies was called Reb Moshe, and he lived in the times of the Alter Rebbe. Him and his brother, Reb Micho, learned Torah day and night. However- Learning Nigleh didn't satisfy their thirst, and they were looking how to serve Hashem better. They wanted to travel to the Alter Rebbe, but they were afraid that they will be put in cherem by their community. So therefore, they just learned Chassidus secretly in their town and didn't travel to the Alter Rebbe. Eventually, his-- my zayde's family found out that he's learning Chassidus, and, uh, they tortured him for that until he couldn't handle it anymore, and he escaped to Liозno, to the Alter Rebbe. However, his father and his father-in-law traveled after him to Liозno and demanded him to come back home or to divorce his wife. So he went into the Alter Rebbe and he asked him what to do. So the Alter Rebbe told him, "Go back home." So when he came back home, his father and his father-in-law were afraid that maybe he's gonna escape again to the Alter Rebbe. So therefore, they forced him to make a neder in public that he will never travel to the Alter Rebbe. And, uh, he was forced to do that. He made that neder in public. However, his desire to go to the Alter Rebbe grew bigger and bigger, and he was debating whether the neder is

07:14 valid 'cause he was forced into it. So therefore, my zayde decided that the only one who'll be able to answer him whether the neder is valid or not is the Alter Rebbe. So he traveled to Liозno, and he asked the Alter Rebbe if the neder is valid not to go to the Alter Rebbe. So the Alter Rebbe closed his heilige eyes, and he said with his famous tune that we will speak that a ne- a neder al da'as rabim, which means a neder that was made with the knowledge of the public, cannot be canceled. But that's only when the rabim, when the public, have da'as. And my zayde stayed in Liозno, and afterwards his brother joined him, which also became a passionate Chassid. As we're approaching the Yomim Noraim, we'll finish off with a nigun that the Chazzan in Lubavitch, Rabbi Yechiel Haperin, would sing on the words before Mussaf, "Yodai'ti Hashem ki tzedek mishpatecha." Nigun tzadik zayin. Yodai'ti Hashem ki tzedek mishpatecha. Yodai'ti Hashem ki tzedek mishpatecha ve'emunah. Inisi oni. Hakshiva li va'aneiti. Orin ve'sihi. Ve'o'imu. Ve'nafshi togel baHashem. Tosin. Bishiso. Anos rech tzu olam lochi. Afoi tzu yedovid avedoi. Me'sherev ro. Tre nai nai nai. Ya nai nai. Ai nai nai. Ya ya da dai ro. Tre ya nai nai. Nai nai nai. Ya na na nai. Ya nai nai. Tre nai nai nai. Ai nai nai. Ai nai nai nai. Ya nai nai. Nai. Na ra na na nai. Yiz gadal.