The last letter that R’ Zalman received from the Rebbe Rayatz was akin to a last will and testament. * From the life of R’ Yehoshua Shneur Zalman Serebryanski a”h.
R’ Abba Pliskin devoted himself fully to the nascent yeshiva. He abandoned working in the garden, work he had done during the first weeks since his arrival in Shepparton, and learned with the three talmidim.
The two refugees were G-d fearing and from a kosher home, but they had no Chassidic background and knew nothing about Chabad Chassidus. R’ Abba began giving them basic shiurim in Tanya and tried to slowly accustom them to the foundational ideas of Chabad.
In those days, R’ Zalman Serebryanski was in touch with his Chassidic friends in Melbourne, mainly with R’ Shmuel Betzalel Altheus, who was enthusiastic about helping out with the yeshiva. He asked these friends to find additional talmidim to come learn at the yeshiva in Shepparton.
R’ Zalman considered having additional students a double advantage, for they enlarged the yeshiva and fortified the existing talmidim.
In his letter to the Rebbe Rayatz, R’ Zalman wrote that “when there is no gathering of students it is hard to hold onto these two. They thought that upon coming here, they would find a special building for the yeshiva and an expert teacher. When they didn’t find this, they began doubting and questioning.” Anash in Melbourne said that as long as the yeshiva was so far from Melbourne, it had no future.
R’ Zalman spoke with R’ Feiglin and tried to convince him to build a special building for the yeshiva. He said that if the yeshiva had a special building, the news would spread and bring many talmidim. However, R’ Feiglin, who was still busy with his sick wife, was too busy and found it hard to throw himself into improving the yeshiva. He also thought it made no sense to build a building for three talmidim and surely the other donors would not allow their donations to be used for three talmidim alone.
R’ Zalman spoke with R’ Shmuel Betzalel Altheus and asked him to explain the importance of the matter to R’ Feiglin. He also asked him to find another two or three wealthy men in Melbourne who would be interested in helping the yeshiva so that the financial burden would not fall on R’ Feiglin alone.
In response to the detailed report that he sent to the Rebbe Rayatz, R’ Zalman received a letter from the Rebbe dated 20 Kislev 5710:
In response to your letter of 28 MarCheshvan past: I was pleased to be informed that Anash in Melbourne have approached with great seriousness the matter of founding a yeshiva and that, with Hashem’s help, the learning began in Shepparton. They should overcome all the obstacles and try to properly arrange all the material needs of the talmidim and to increase the number of talmidim.
May Hashem bless the talmidim, the melamdim, the RaMim and the askanim and those who help, they and their households, and grant them success in everything they need.
From one who seeks their welfare and blesses them with all good, materially and spiritually.
Yosef Yitzchok
This letter, the last letter that R’ Zalman received before the passing of the Rebbe Rayatz on 10 Shevat 5710, was a sort of last will and testament about the long road which R’ Zalman would end up traveling under the guidance and brachos of the next leader, the Rebbe MH”M.
THE SUN SET AND THE SUN ROSE
Anash in Australia were utterly broken by the bitter news of the passing of the Rebbe Rayatz, on Shabbos 10 Shevat.
When they got over the initial shock, they corresponded with Anash in 770 who informed them that even before the “sun set,” the “sun had risen.” As the Chassidim back then put it, “There is a Rebbe!”
R’ Zalman quickly wrote a letter of hiskashrus to the Rebbe and received a response dated 26 Adar 5710 in his handwriting:
The Rebbe, my father-in-law, wrote in one of his letters: Chassidus accomplished that wherever one is, one is not alone.
If this was so when the tzaddik was alive on earth … in a physical place, all the more so now that he is present more than during his lifetime even in this world of action. And all the more so with a tzaddik who is a Rebbe, a unifying intermediary between Havaya and you, Havaya that has no association with nature ch”v. And the intermediary is comprised of both aspects for which he serves as intermediary, and in relation to his Chassidim and mekusharim, who stand even now as before, since the hiskashrus of yechida must transcend time, in a direction of hiskashrus with greater power, because they say to their souls and bodies: it is impossible for us any other way. In that case, there is no interruption at all ch”v. On the contrary, the spirit draws a spirit etc. in the spiritual and even the material and for all good things. This is because just as is it is up Above, so too down below with the Rebbe – the nature (which is above reason) of the good is to do good.
With wishes for a kosher and happy Pesach
Rabbi Menachem Schneersohn
The Rebbe’s response revived Anash in Australia. The feeling was that there is a leader of Chabad Chassidus, and Chassidim were not left like sheep without a shepherd.
The strong hiskashrus of the Chassidim in Australia to the Rebbe and their great mesirus nefesh are what spurred them on to act in the good times and strengthened their spirits in the hard times.
NEW TALMIDIM
More bachurim came in the months of Kislev-Teves 5710, which are summer months in Australia. Leib New was a young Australian who had graduated high school. His father decided to send him to the yeshiva for a year or two before going to university. He learned with the younger Herzog.
Then came Mendel and Leib Cohen, refugees from Hungary, who knew how to learn Chumash and a little Gemara. Twelve year old Shlomo Adler also came. He was Australian and did not know Yiddish, and he had a hard time at first with the shiurim that were studied in Yiddish.
Three new students came after Pesach: Shmuel Horowitz, the son of R’ Nachum Zalman, who joined the second class; Shimon Altheus, the son of R’ Shmuel Betzalel, who joined the third class. These latter two learned with R’ Abramson from Sydney until Pesach, and after hearing about a yeshiva that had opened in Shepparton, they switched there. At this time, a bachur by the name of Shmuel Gore, another boy from Australia, came to the yeshiva. His parents were not religiously observant but he had become interested in Judaism. At first, he went to the United States to learn in Telz, but after a short while he returned to Australia and went to the yeshiva in Shepparton.
The dormitory and dining room for the bachurim were in the building designated for workers who had come to help in the field. R’ Feiglin reassigned it to the yeshiva. Mrs. Pessia Pliskin, R’ Abba’s wife, ran the kitchen.
R’ Feiglin had a mikva in his house. It was the only beautiful mikva in Australia and Lubavitcher women would come from Melbourne, a five hour trip by train, in order to use it.
The location of the yeshiva in the country was reminiscent of the town of Lubavitch. The bachurim were cut off from the world. There were no telephones and the nearest city was five kilometers away. The talmidim were serious, not the kind who wanted to play around, and they learned diligently.
R’ Abba was the mashpia. He was a Chassidishe, p’nimius’dike person, and he instilled love and fear of Hashem in the way of Chabad. In the early years, he was also a maggid shiur.
R’ Betzalel Wilschansky worked a few hours a week as a shochet in Shepparton and he used his free time for the yeshiva. Every morning, he would show up for the minyan for Shacharis and then spend hours davening. He was a role model of a Chassid who was an oved Hashem and he made a deep impression on the talmidim. R’ Betzalel was also a big scholar in Nigleh and he learned Yoreh Deia with one of the bachurim.
The talmidim greatly enjoyed the supervision of the three Chassidim, R’ Zalman, R’ Abba, and R’ Betzalel. Throughout the week and especially on Shabbos, the three of them would daven at length with a quiet, deep Lubavitcher excitement. Their learning was also with a big chayus and the talmidim were greatly impacted by this. They felt that the learning in yeshiva was not just habitual, for everything was done with a particular enthusiasm. The effect of the atmosphere penetrated into the hearts of the talmidim, and a year later they were able to influence the new talmidim with a chayus.
The day began with Shacharis, which took place at 7:00. R’ Zalman wanted to start the day with Chassidus for an hour and a half, as is the practice in Lubavitch yeshivos, but the first talmidim were not ready to learn Chassidus and it took time until he instilled the basics of Chassidus in them. R’ Feiglin and his sons, as well as his son-in-law, R’ Aharon Kaploun, also davened at this minyan. Each morning, R’ Feiglin took pleasure in the z’chus that he had to start a Chabad yeshiva on his settlement.
The first learning partners in the yeshiva, Aharon Serebryanski and Aharon Eliezer Herzog, personified the positive impact of the yeshiva. Serebryanski, who had been raised in a Chabad home and known nothing else, who was suffused with the spirit of Chabad in every way, was a chavrusa with Herzog who had learned in the Dushinsky yeshiva in Yerushalayim and was influenced by sifrei musar. When he first started learning in Shepparton, Chabad Chassidus was completely foreign to him.
Aharon slowly began having a Chassidic influence on him. They learned Tanya and read the Seifer HaZichronos together, and after half a year, it was possible to see the change. Herzog began following certain Chabad practices and one could see that he had certain Chassidishe hergeshim (sensitivities).
At a certain point, he even wanted to travel to New York and attend Yeshivas Tomchei T’mimim there. The Rebbe asked him to remain in Australia in order to strengthen the yeshiva. He acquiesced and remained in Australia.