ר' אליהו חיים אלטהויז וניגון הצדיק

00:09 Reb Eliyahu Chaim Altoz from Nikolaev was a Chossid of the Rebbe Rashab, the Frierdiker Rebbe, was one of the most Mekoravim to the Frierdiker Rebbe. When our Rebbe once described him, he wrote, "Yedid Beis Rebbe, HaChossid Hayedua." So those are the titles that the Rebbe wrote about him. His daughter, Bat Sheva Altoz, related, "In the year of Taf Reish Peh, my father lived in a small Jewish village, Dubranka. From time to time, the Chossid Reb Itche the Masmid would come visit my father. My father would come out to greet him, and he would honor him tremendously. A month after the hishtals of the Rebbe Rashab, my father already knew about the hishtals, but Reb Itche didn't yet find out. One day came to our house a horse and buggy, and Reb Itche came down from this wagon, and he turned towards the house, so we ran to tell our Tanti that Reb Itche came. Our father stood by the top of the staircase of the house and Rebb- and Reb Itche the Masmid was on the bottom of the staircase. Reb Itche, while he was still standing on the bottom of the staircase, asked my father, 'Is this richtik tzitnit?' It's true or not? And he meant to ask about the hishtals of the Rebbe Rashab. My father didn't answer. He just let out a deep sigh. Then Reb Itche asked again, 'Is it true or not?' My father didn't answer him, but his body bent a little bit towards the stairs. And then when

01:49 Reb Itche repeated his question a third time, my father fell down the stairs, he hit his head, and he fainted." Reb Eliyahu Chaim once related, "Once I asked the Frierdiker Rebbe, 'Why don't you rest a little bit during the day? Your father, the Rebbe Rashab, used to rest a little bit during the day.' So the Frierdiker Rebbe answered me, 'Ah, where did my father hold when he was that age?' And the Frierdiker Rebbe added that, 'For my head to rest, I chazer every day 10 kapitelach of Tanakh.'" Another thing that his daughter, Bat Sheva, related, "My father was almost the main shadchan for the wedding of our Rebbe and Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka. I remember Rebbetzin Chana coming that month many times to our house. That time we lived in a suburb behind Leningrad, which Leningrad where was the Frierdiker Rebbe living at that time. And when Rebbetzin Chana will travel back to the Frierdiker Rebbe to Leningrad, me and my sister would accompany her until the train station. The Chassan, meaning the Rebbe, would call our home and make up with, uh, with his mother when and where they will meet, and then he would wait for his mother at the train station, and from there they would travel together to the Frierdiker Rebbe in Leningrad, which was about an hour away." Another thing Bat Sheva Altoz related, "The Frierdiker Rebbe had to escape Rostov to Leningrad, so my father traveled, and he brought with him the Frierdiker Rebbe and his family first to our

03:30 house. And the Frierdiker Rebbe with his family stayed in our home for three days. And when they needed to leave, so my father called all of us, all the kids, and he told us to run to the Rebbe that he should bentch us. When the Rebbe left, we all ran, and we stood in front of the Rebbe, and my father introduced us, and he asked the Rebb- that, that the Rebbe should bentch us. So the Rebbe looked at each one of us, and he benched us. He said, 'The Lubavitcher should help you, that you should be healthy, and everything in your life should be the good.'" Reb Yisroel Jacobson related that, "The Chossid Reb Eliyahu Chaim Altoz was in my eyes a tziyor of an older Chossid who is completely given over, devoted to the Rebbe's house and to the Rebbe's yoniym, to the Rebbe's family, and he would guide the young Chassidim to be also given over, devoted. And he would guide the young Chassidim to have a feeling of responsibility. For example, on Erev Rosh Hashanah Taf Reish Peh Hei," which was exactly 100 years ago, "I entered the house of the Frierdiker Rebbe," says Yisroel Jacobson, "and I saw that in the big living room, which that was the shul at that time, not even one bench was set up for davening. Reb Eliyahu Chaim, which was from the older Chassidim then, and he was from the big Mekoravim, he was sitting in the hallway. So I turned to him and said,

04:48 'Eliyahu Chaim, today is Erev Rosh Hashanah, and the shul is not set up yet.' So Reb Eliyahu Chaim turned back to me, and he answered me with the exact same words. He said, 'Yisroel, today is Erev Rosh Hashanah, and nothing is yet ready for the shul.' He just repeated back to me exactly what I asked him, and that made me mature 10 years in one moment. I suddenly realized that I myself should have that feeling of responsibility. I should demand for myself to take care of it." Another thing that his daughter, Bat Sheva, related, "Father had three daughters, and he told us, 'You should always remember that you are Chassidishe daughters, and if you will forget it one day, chas v'Shalom, there will be somebody who will remind you.'" And it's true, she ended off saying that, "Yes, there was somebody who reminded me that I'm a Chassidishe daughter, the KGB. For eight years, I sat in jail." Reb Eliyahu Chaim was the one who was zecher to be the Rebbe's shomer on the day of his chasuna. There is a long description that Reb Eliyahu Chaim wrote of his impressions of the Rebbe on the day of his chasuna. We're not gonna read the whole thing here now. Maybe in a different episode closer to Yud Tes Kislev. Reb Eliyahu Chaim's also wrote a long description, which you could find in Sefer HaToldos of the Frierdiker Rebbe, of the famous Purim Kotun Fabregen Where the Fidek Rebbe opened up his shirt and he screamed

06:13 how not to send their sons to the scholars, and how he turned to Eliachaim himself directly and he said, "Eliachaim, Eliachaim, you should write to all that anybody who will send his kids to the goyish schools will not live for more than a year." Look up over there for all the details. His daughter Batsheva also related that my father escaped from Nigrad to Riga 'cause somebody anonymously, without identifying himself, called our home and warned him, said, "Eliyahu Pinchasovich, run away from the country because the government is after you." And a week later, this, th-the same anonymous person called my father and he said, "You're still here in the country? I'm warning you, for your good, run away." So first, my father ran away to my bubbe, my mother's mother. She lived in Nikolaev. And after a while, he took the family to Riga. Three days after the Germans invaded Riga by the Second World War, they knocked on our door. Our home then was in a industrial area. We're all petrified from the knocking, so my father took my mother and he hid her in the, in the bathtub, and that's how she was saved. They dragged my father out, and when they grabbed him, he wrapped himself with his tallis and a white kittel. And as they were dragging him, he was davening. And it is told about his last moments that on Yud Kislev, 5680, the Germans took a bunch of Yidden and they put them into the shul, and then they put

07:55 a lot of other Yidden around the shul to watch this tragic event. And the people saw how Reb Itche the Masmid opened up the Aron Kodesh and took out a Sefer Torah, and he announced, "We're the mitzvah of Hakadosh Hashem, so we need to be mesimcha." And he put one hand on Reb Eliachaim's shoulder and his other hand on the shoulder of Chatzfeigen, and together they started to dance while singing the Hakafis Nigen. In the meantime, the Nazis and burnt up the shul and them with the other Yidden there gave their neshamah back to the Hakadosh Hashem. We'll finish off with a nigun that's known as Reb Eliachaim's Nigun. He didn't compose it. It's a nigun from Reb Aron HaKohen of Ratanove. It's actually called Der Tzadik, just like Reb-- just like Aron HaKohen of Ratanove composed the nigun Der Rebbe Nanai, he also composed the nigun Der Tzadik. But since Reb Eliachaim Altoy used to sing this nigun a lot by the Fidek Rebbe, so Chassidim named it Reb Eliachaim's Nigun.