It’s not just nowadays that you have to take the opinions of talmidim into consideration; back then too, talmidim had what to say. They “sniffed out” who was fit to be mashpia in the yeshiva, they taught a lesson to one who disparaged him, and they made sure to “sand down” one another so that, G-d forbid, no baalei yeshus (arrogant individuals) would sprout amongst the rows of Tomchei T’mimim.
TALMIDIM “APPROVE”
A MASHPIA
We are going back to the early days of the yeshiva, before R’ Nissan became the celebrated menahel and the yeshiva expanded and grew. Our class learned under the direction of R’ Eliyahu Chaim Roitblatt. There was a need for a mashgiach as well as a mashpia for Chassidus.
The hanhala decided to take an older bachur as a mashgiach (I don’t want to mention his name because of what I’m about to relate), but the talmidim did not respect him and did not want him as the mashgiach. During a farbrengen on a Chassidishe Yom Tov, the talmidim pulled a terrible prank and the hanhala saw that he could not be the mashgiach.
In Kishlak (an Uzbeki village) there was a young man who had escaped from the war. He was a Tamim who had lost his family to the cursed Nazis. The hanhala decided that this bachur, R’ Zalman Levitin – who was called R’ Zalman Haditcher by the Chassidim for the town he came from – was the right person to be the mashpia and the mashgiach. They brought him to Samarkand and he became our mashgiach and mashpia.
In the early says of the yeshiva, when we were fifteen, he was eminently suitable and a very successful choice as mashgiach and mashpia. He enjoyed the approval of the bachurim in a remarkable way. In our childish innocence, we crowned him as dem Rebbe’ns a mentch (the Rebbe’s man). That is how the talmidim referred to those who served in any official capacity in Tomchei T’mimim. R’ Zalman was not outstanding in his knowledge or understanding of Chassidus, but he succeeded in getting us to treat him with derech eretz, respect, and even some fear.
I remember one of R’ Zalman’s farbrengens with us which showed how he succeeded in influencing us. It was a Chassidishe Yom Tov and R’ Zalman spoke and touched the hearts of the young talmidim. What he said, I don’t recall, but in my mind’s eye I can still see clearly:
R’ Zalman with a bottle of mashke and cup standing near the wall and nearly all the talmidim surrounding him, literally clinging to him and pouring out their hearts; some with tears in their eyes and others actually crying, and nearly all of them speaking, demanding (of whom?): why don’t they actualize the Rebbe’s intentions … (I was one of the few who shed tears wordlessly). It is astonishing to me that hardly any of those talmidim remembers this.
THE REVENGE OF THE TALMIDIM
It is worthwhile mentioning another “piece of work” of us talmidim, which shows how much we admired R’ Zalman in the first period of his reign.
During a large general farbrengen, one of R’ Zalman’s old friends from Tomchei T’mimim sat there and “honored” R’ Zalman with a certain “adjective” known amongst Chassidim. This created a tumult among the talmidim. They absolutely could not be calmed. How was this possible, that a Chassidishe Yid should so disparage and shame “the Rebbe’s man?!”
It is interesting that the talmidim, who knew nothing about demonstrations and protests, arranged meetings after seder and brainstormed ideas of how to teach that man (we will call him Yaakov) a lesson for insulting R’ Zalman. They wrote signs with sharp words of rebuke to R’ Yaakov, and attached them on central trees. They did not suffice with that, but sent the notes to R’ Yaakov too. Furthermore, R’ Yaakov’s son, one of the talmidim, was drafted to place some of these notes in his father’s pocket.
According to what we heard, R’ Yaakov read the notes with teary eyes, surprised and filled with shame. What did the talmidim want of him? He did not know. Who had he offended? What did he do? The notes did not mention R’ Zalman’s name.
The big protest on the part of the talmidim lasted for a while. I don’t remember how it ended. Apparently, the two friends finally learned what had happened and they smiled good-naturedly and with pleasure at the talmidim’s devotion to “the Rebbe’s man.”
R’ Zalman Haditcher’s tremendous influence and authority suffered drastically when R’ Nissan became the head mashpia and menahel of Tomchei T’mimim. It was probably, mainly, because many new talmidim joined, among them some smart alecks who did not properly appreciate R’ Zalman’s “greatness.”
Ach, how nice, how tasteful was the pure innocence of the young talmidim!
A CHASSIDISHE MAGGID SHIUR
At that time, we moved from R’ Eliyahu Chaim’s shiur to a higher shiur, that of R’ Moshe Robinson (who was also called by the name of his town, R’ Moshe Krolevetser). He was a warm Jew and a Tamim through and through.
A few years earlier, when he was in Soviet Russia, he had learned with a group of talmidim of Tomchei T’mimim in Berditchev. Obviously, this was underground, but the NKVD’s agents sniffed it out like dogs and immediately burst in and arrested R’ Moshe and the talmidim. This entire chapter ought to be written up in its own right; I merely want to mention that in order not to involve the parents of the talmidim and the askanim of the yeshiva, R’ Moshe took all the blame upon himself.
In short, they arrested everyone, tortured them in interrogations, and sentenced them. R’ Moshe was sent to jail and the talmidim were sent to a Soviet orphanage where the government supervised them. Amazingly, an older bachur, one of the glorious figures of Tomchei T’mimim, R’ Michoel Teitelbaum, helped them escape the orphanage.
R’ Moshe’s spirits were strong but his physical health was terrible. He was a sick and broken man. Apparently, the tzaros perpetrated upon him by the Red destroyers facilitated this. But he learned with the talmidim with a chayus and a geshmak. I remember how he taught us, in the first lesson, the first Mishna in Bava Metzia, and brilliantly wove the ideas of the later commentaries into Rashi’s commentary.
He was a Tamim with a soft and warm heart, in his relationships with the talmidim too. He did not get angry with them and definitely did not use a kanchik (strap), but specifically because of this, it is interesting to note how he responded to an incident of less than considerate behavior on the part of the talmidim in his shiur. If I am not mistaken, it reflects the uncompromising zealousness that prevailed within the walls of the yeshiva against negative middos and yeshus of the talmidim, both on the part of the mashpiim and on the part of talmidim amongst themselves. This is what happened.
A TALMID GETS A “WORKING OVER”
Whether at farbrengens with talmidim or in the conversations that mashpiim had amongst themselves about the talmidim, they utterly denigrated the trait of yeshus, arrogance, putting on airs and the like. This was the Alef-Beis of Chassidishe avoda. No doubt, as an extension or as a result of this, it became customary among the young Chassidim, not necessarily in the positive sense, to abrade one another; most often, it was several talmidim against one.
It operated like a blind lottery. Suddenly, talmidim would target one bachur and almost mercilessly they would bombard him with adjectives such as big-shot, chitzon etc.; then came the turn of the second and third talmid, and so on. Nearly all the talmidim went through the Chassidishe “iron smelting pot,” some more, some less (I got my share too).
However, for one talmid, the “mashpiim committee” went all out in going after him, and they often blackened him with words like “yesh” and “baal gaava,” and not for naught. He had a good head, a knack for delving deeply into his studies, and he was a bit of a masmid. Nu, that was all he needed.
This talmid, a Chassidishe boy who was a Yerei Shamayim, was a relative of R’ Robinson. During one of the classes, a few of the talmidim didn’t take into consideration the fact that R Moshe was the maggid shiur, and they did not stop lacing into him quite overtly with comments about his being a baal gaava and a chitzon until he burst into tears in the middle of the shiur.
The surprising thing was that there was no doubt that R’ Moshe saw and heard his relative being persecuted by the other talmidim, but he made as though he didn’t see and didn’t hear. And he had such a good and warm heart, so one is forced to conclude that even he thought it was permissible to abrade the yeshus and arrogance of this future Tamim.
THE EXCEPTION
Previously, I mentioned that nearly all the boys in our class endured being attacked as a yesh and chitzon. Nearly – but not all. I cannot refrain from mentioning one boy who did not suffer from this at all. This was our dear friend, Chaim Serebryansky.
He was one, a rarity, about whom it could be said that he was a Chassidishe beindel (an expression meaning one whose Chassidishe middos are part of his very being) from birth. By nature, such a person has middos of gold, healthy bittul, and emes. Regarding someone like this – and indeed, this is what R’ Chaim was and is – it would be ludicrous to call him a yesh and a baal gaava since he was as far from that as east is from west. A chitzon? Get out of here! I hope Chaim Serebryansky forgives me for writing this about him.
Chaim has a good heart and Chassidishe middos, and is filled with flavor. It is worth mentioning that when he was fifteen, he learned only half a day and during the second half he dealt in business in the market of Tashkent to help support his family. This was because his father, the warmhearted Chassid R’ Zalman, was unable to work due to poor health. Certain talmidim said then that Chaim was more successful in his half a day in yeshiva than those who learned there all day.
I wrote a little about Yosef Reitzes and Chaim Serebryansky, but not in order to diminish the other talmidim. There were many other precious talmidim. I am not writing descriptions here about friends from yeshiva; it’s just that writing about these two just came forth from me spontaneously.
ADDITIONAL BENCHES IN THE BEIS MIDRASH
With the arrival of R’ Nissan in Samarkand and his appointment as head mashpia and menahel, big changes were made in the lives of the talmidim, and a larger degree of influence on Anash developed in general. Some older bachurim joined, about twenty years of age, who were more or less businessmen that had decided to sit and learn, adhering to the schedule of Tomchei T’mimim.
I will mention some names that I remember: Reuven Kaminetzky, Mordechai Levin, Dovber Levin (Berel Feitel’s – my last and longest-standing friend), Zalman Shur, Yehoshua Raskin (Katzenelenbogen who sat in jail before he became a talmid in yeshiva).