R' Berel Kurnitzer (and Niggun מכלכל חיים)

00:05 Reb Berel Kronitzer was a talmid in Temchetimim, was born and raised in the city of Kronitz. He was, uh, brought to Lubavitch to learn in Temchetimim by the Rav in Kronitz, Reb Yankov Lando. Afterwards, he was one of the chozrim of the Tzemach Kedem. He was from the Rosh Yeshiva in Temchetimim in Yekatrinoslav, Kharkov in Ukraine, in Radom in Poland. He was also the Mena'al Ruchni in the Yeshiva in Otwock. In the times of the Tzemach Kedem, Reb Berel was once very sick, in a sickness that, uh, they didn't see any hope for it in those days. The Tzemach Kedem's oldest daughter would bring him every day an orange, which was very rare to find those days. She would bring him an orange because he needed vitamin C. So once when she visited by him, Reb Berel told her that, "Yesterday, your father told me a ma'amar chassidus in a dream," meaning the Tzemach Kedem, and he still remembers the ma'amar. So when she came back home to the Tzemach Kedem, she told that to her father, the Tzemach Kedem, and the Tzemach Kedem was nispel and he said he remembers the ma'amar. A short while after hearing that ma'amar in the dream, they checked him out again, the doctors, and they found that his body was completely healed from the sickness. Reb Berel once visited in Riga, in Latvia, which is a place that the Tzemach Kedem wa- stayed for a while, but this was after the Tzemach Kedem left already. And he asked

01:35 Reb Shmuel Gorevich, "Can we take a walk? They say that Riga is a beautiful city." So Reb Shmuel was wondering, Berel was a chassid ish yeah, taking a walk in a beautiful city? Okay, but he asked, so he took him on a walk. After a few minutes of walking, Reb Berel asked Reb Shmuel, "Can you take me to the house where the Tzemach Kedem stayed?" So he took him there, and Reb Berel stood in front of the house with a dvekus, deep in thought for four hours straight. So that's when Reb Shmuel understood why Reb Berel wanted, uh, to take a walk in the city. When the Rogatchover stayed in Leningrad, this was in the tough years after the communists took over, so there were timim from Temchetimim in the city. And the Rogatchover was very much mechabed of them, and he will willingly answer all the questions. And one of the chosidim there was Berel Kronitzer. He once told his friends, "I could ask the Rogatchover a shailah that he will not have an answer for." So his friends laughed. The Rogatchover cannot find an answer for it? The Rogatchover is the greatest Dagon. So he said, "You wanna see? Come with me, you'll see." So he went over to the Rogatchover and he asked, "What's the reason that the Shulchan Aruch starts off with the halachas of hashkomas haboker in the morning? And also the siddur starts with shacharis of the morning. Isn't it that by Yiddishkeit, the day comes after the night?

03:03 It says in the Torah, 'Vayehi erev vayehi boker.' In the Jewish calendar, the date starts from the night. Why shouldn't the siddur start from ma'ariv? Why shouldn't Shulchan Aruch start from the halachas of the, of the night? And actually, the Mishnah does go that way. The Mishnah, the first Mishnah is about Shema ba'Arvis." The Rogatchover was silent and he didn't answer anything, and they waited and waited close to a half an hour. And when he didn't answer them, they went back to their place. And his fr- Berel's friends turned to him and said, "Berel, how did you know that the Rogatchover would not have an answer for this? And who a- and who told you to ask this question?" So Berel answered, "I heard this shailah from the Rebbe Rashab in one of the farbrengens." The Rebbe Rashab actually gave an answer, and he said, "Since davening is keneged the korbonos, and when it comes to korbonos, the night follows the day, and that's why the siddur and Shulchan Aruch start from the morning." But then they asked him, "Yeah, but how did you know that the Rogatchover will not know the answer?" So he answered them bepashtus, "I was sure that nobody will have an answer to a shailah that the Rebbe asked. The Rebbe will not ask a question that other people have an answer for it." Reb Mendel Futerfas once related and described Reb Berel. He said Reb Berel was a anav be'etzem, was a real true anav. He wasn't like somebody

04:22 who, like, needed to put himself down and not show off. For him, to speak about his own ma'alos was not gaavah at all. He spoke about his own ma'alos as if it was the simplest thing, as if there was nothing big deal about it. For an example, when Reb Berel was 20 years old, says Reb Mendel Futerfas, "I once met him after not seeing him for a few years, and when I tested his knowledge in Gemara, I realized that he knows half of the Shas fluently. Then a few years later, I met him again and I asked him, 'Nu, what do you know today?' So he answered that he knows the whole entire Shas and all chassidus seforim available, and he said it in such a simple way, like somebody who just describing some simple fact in his life." Reb Mendel Futerfas also said, "I had a chavrusah for everything. I had a chavrusah for nigleh, I had a chavrusah for chassidus, and I had a chavrusah for chassidus shel yitznus. My chavrusah for chassidus shel yitznus was older than me, and he was a genius, and I'm referring to Reb Berel Kronitzer." Reb Mendel also once related in the name of Reb Berel that Reb Berel once said, "You have to fight the yetzer hara in his own methods. The same methods the yetzer hara fights you, use it against him." For an example, the yetzer hara sees that you wanna do a mitzvah. He tells you, "Do the mitzvah, but let's push it

05:41 off. Do it later." So you know what you should tell the yetzer hara? Tell him the same thing. "Yetzer hara, I wanna listen to you, but later. I'll listen to you later." Reb Berel Kronitzer once spent a Rosh Hashanah together with the Rebbe's father, Reb Levi Yitzchok, and they were taking a walk next to the local river. So Reb Berel asked Reb Levi, "Rosh Hashanah, there is aliyas ha'olamos, the worlds are elevated. Where do we see that?" So Reb Leivik lifted up his eyebrows and he strongly looked at the river, and then he turned to Berel and he said, "The river is flowing today in a different way. It's a different flow." During the Holocaust, the Fidek Rebbe left Otwock. And Reb Yosel Weinberg related that when the Fidek Rebbe got into the car, the Fidek Rebbe called over Reb Berel and he gave him coins for tzedakah. The year of 5700 they founded a Temchetemim in the city of Radom in Poland, and the yeshiva was in the Jewish ghetto. They were already under the Nazis. Reb Berel was a mashpia in the yeshiva. In the summer of 5698 or during the year of 5699 it's unclear exactly when, the Nazis caught him. One version says that he was caught while leaving the shul wrapped with his tallis and tefillin. Another version says that, uh, he was arrested together with a few of his talmidim in the yeshiva hall, and then later on he was sent to Auschwitz. He was at that time in

07:18 his 30s and he did not have any kids. We'll finish off with a nigun that Reb Yechiel the chazzan, which was a chazzan in Lubavitch, would sing on the words on the Yomim Noraim.