About the Chassid, R ’ Moshe Levertov, who combined scholarship and askanus. The Chassid who was a wanted criminal at the age of ten, an outstanding talmid in Tomchei T’mimim, mashpia and menahel ruchni in Pittsburgh and director of Lishkas Ezras Achim for nearly 25 years. * To commemorate his passing on 6 Elul.
BAREBONES BAR MITZVA
R’ Moshe was born on Erev Rosh Chodesh Elul 5689/1929. His father, R’ Dovber, was a descendant of the Alter Rebbe. He was one of the nine Chassidim who took part in a covenant made by the Rebbe Rayatz in 5684/1924, taking a firm stance, with mesirus nefesh, till the last drop of blood, for spreading Torah.
In his childhood he lived with his family in Moscow, near the Chabad shul called Marina Roscha. His father was the main person who ran it and maintained it.
A melamed went to their house secretly to learn with him and his older brother Sholom. This was during the rule of the communists who mandated all children to attend their public schools, bastions of heresy and communist indoctrination. Avoiding going to public school was very dangerous, but the Levertov family withstood the test and the children were not contaminated by secular studies.
R’ Moshe and his brother would go to shul every Shabbos and Yom Tov despite the danger this entailed if they would be caught.
When he turned ten, Sholom was sent to a yeshiva in a different city. Because of the danger, the family did not publicize it, even to relatives. Even Moshe did not know where his brother went (so he would not inadvertently blurt it out). He remained alone, without a brother and without any friends. He was not allowed to go outside on weekdays for fear of being caught by police and GPU agents. He spent all day learning Torah.
A few weeks before the war, the KGB arrested R’ Yisachar Ber Gorewitz. The main question he was asked in interrogation was, “Where are Berel Levertov’s children?” The two criminals were ten and twelve years old.
R’ Moshe once said that his bar mitzva was conducted secretly (because of the fear of the communists) with only three people in attendance: He, his father, and R’ Berel Gorewitz. The l’chaims were said over cups of milk.
After the war began, the entire family was evacuated from Moscow and they moved to distant parts. His father became very sick and so he had to study on his own. Part of the time he worked in a field of a kolkhoz to earn a little flour to sustain the family.
At the end of the war, when the family returned to Moscow, his father was still sick. So despite his youth, it became his job to run the shul in place of his father. He was able to form a minyan every day and he was the baal koreh.
In 5704, when he was fifteen, he went to learn in Tomchei T’mimim in Samarkand. He learned by R’ Avrohom Eliyahu Plotkin and was a close talmid of his in the shiur he gave in the Bucharian shul, and later in his home. There was no electricity in the yeshiva and they learned by the light of benzene lamps.
After a year and a half, he was sent by R’ Nissan Nemanov, director of the Chabad underground in Samarkand, together with R’ Yechezkel Brod, to Kutais in Georgia. At the end of the war, when Polish refugees began returning home, Anash became nervous that the government, which until then had looked away from Jewish activity, would revert to persecuting the Chassidim as they did before the war. R’ Nissan told them to rent apartments in Kutais and find a way to move the yeshiva there.
During their trip they saw miracles. Moshe had an enormous amount of money on him, about 30,000 rubles, with which they were supposed to rent apartments etc. When they arrived at the train station in Rion, Georgia, a policeman approached them and ordered them to follow him. The bachurim were very frightened and were sure they would be interrogated to find out what the money was for.
When they passed by a newspaper stand whose owner was Jewish, Brod asked him to help them. The man went over to the policeman, took him into his room, and when he came out he said, “Give me sixty rubbles. That’s how much it cost me.”
Less than two weeks after arriving in Kutais, he found out about Anash from Russia crossing the border. The Russian government allowed Polish refugees who had fled to Russia during the war, to return home. Anash utilized this opportunity and left Russia pretending to be Polish. With many miracles, R’ Moshe and his brother reached Lvov, the border city, and after waiting half a year their opportunity came. They boarded a train and crossed the border. From there they went to Austria where the yeshiva was re-established. After a while, R’ Moshe and the entire yeshiva moved to Brunoy in France where the yeshiva exists until today. He was one of the first students there.
IN TOMCHEI T’MIMIM AS A TAMIM AND A MASHPIA
R’ Moshe learned for several years in Brunoy. In 5710, he was one of the bachurim chosen, upon the instructions of the Rebbe Rayatz, to go and learn in Tomchei T’mimim in the US.
Before they left Brunoy, the Rebbe Rayatz passed away and the bachurim who had still not set out were told by the Rebbe MH”M to make the trip. He said, “Since the Rebbe said to come, you surely have to come.”
At the Shmini Atzeres farbrengen of 5711, the Rebbe asked the bachurim whether Moshe Levertov (who was on a ship on his way from Paris) had already arrived.
“The first time I had yechidus,” R’ Moshe wrote in his diary, “was the first Erev Shabbos in Cheshvan, 2 Cheshvan. When I walked in, he was standing, and when the yechidus began, the Rebbe put on his hat and sat down.
“He asked about matters in Paris, about R’ Zalman Butman, about the yeshiva, and the Gemara learning of the older students.”
“I asked for a bracha for the family in Russia and he said to write the names and gave me a pen and said he would read it in the ‘heichal’ of the Rebbe (as far as I can remember, he meant the yechidus room, because I think he said tomorrow), and as to how to refer to my brothers-in-law in the note he said to write her husband (i.e. after each sister’s name).”
At the first farbrengen that he attended, Shabbos Parshas Lech Lecha 5711, the Rebbe turned to him after the sicha in which he said that Lech Lecha is a happy week and said, “We said, we need to be happy!”
In those early years, R’ Moshe was one of the top bachurim in 770. He was the first to immortalize in writing some of the events and sayings (in yechidus and farbrengens) of those years. Some of his diary was published in Yemei B’Reishis. R’ Moshe was one of the chozrim and it sometimes happened that when the chozer, R’ Yoel Kahn, was not present at the sicha, the Rebbe used R’ Moshe’s notes (for editing).
With his writing and reviewing abilities, R’ Moshe provided inspiration to his friend, R’ Chaim Serebryanski, by writing letters to him in Australia with news, sichos and descriptions of life in 770. These letters inspired R’ Chaim to leave home and travel to the Rebbe.
After learning in Tomchei T’mimim in Brooklyn for a number of years, in which he made great progress in Torah study and avodas Hashem, he was sent by the Rebbe to Pittsburgh to be a mashgiach in the mesivta there. It was at this time (8 Adar 5715) that he married Bracha Moskal. The Rebbe was the mesader kiddushin.
R’ Moshe was guided by the Rebbe in how to run the yeshiva. When he asked the Rebbe what should be learned Friday nights, the Rebbe said Chumash and Rashi, Kitzur Shulchan Aruch Hilchos Shabbos, and Chassidus that was on the students’ level. The Rebbe urged him to establish a shiur with the students on practical halachos.
R’ Moshe yearned to go to the Rebbe for Simchas Torah 5717, but ended up remaining behind with his students in Pittsburgh. After Yom Tov, the Rebbe wrote him, “May your mind be at ease for setting my mind at ease by remaining at your holy post to be with the talmidim and the mechunachim.” The Rebbe used this expression again a few months later when R’ Moshe wrote him a report about the talmidim.
The yeshiva closed in 5719 and R’ Moshe returned to New York where he was a maggid shiur and mashpia in a branch of Yeshivas Achei T’mimim in the Bronx. His students and mushpaim loved him dearly and throughout the years, R’ Moshe continued to devotedly give shiurim and be in touch with his students.
EZRAS ACHIM
R’ Mendel Futerfas left the Soviet Union in Cheshvan 5724 and he went to the Rebbe for Yud-Tes Kislev. During his stay, R’ Mendel had extended conversations with his fellow Chassidim who had left Russia years earlier. R’ Mendel, who was one of the main activists among the Chabad Chassidim in Russia, was a direct source of information about the state of Jewry in Russia and in particular, that of the Lubavitcher Chassidim.
R’ Mendel did not mince words, and what he said made a big impression. His conclusion, that they had to help Russian Jewry, was well received. That is how Ezras Achim was started. R’ Moshe was the director and together with him and R’ Mendel were R’ Moshe Morosov, R’ Leibel Mochkin and R’ Gedalya Korf.
One of Ezras Achim’s first activities was sending packages to the Jews in Russia. These packages usually contained expensive clothing and electronics that could not be obtained in Russia. Those who received these packages would sell the contents at a high price. The money helped the Chassidim in Russia survive, for some of them were extremely poor.
At a later point, at the beginning of the 70’s, it was possible for emissaries to go to Russia in the guise of tourists. At that point the organization stopped sending packages by mail. These “tourists” took a lot of luggage with them, containing Jewish ritual items, kosher food, and items for resale.
Over the years, R’ Moshe and his friends enlarged the organization. All the work was done out of his house. The number of emissaries who went to Russia as tourists continued to grow. Usually, they were two men or bachurim; sometimes it was a married couple. In every case, they went only after receiving the Rebbe’s approval and blessing. Upon their return, they would write a detailed report for the Rebbe of everything they saw and heard and what they had accomplished.
The work of this organization was conducted under the utmost secrecy because of the danger to our Jewish brethren in Soviet Russia. The Rebbe was involved in all aspects of the organization. Because of the need for secrecy, the askanim and Jews in the Soviet Union could not contact the Rebbe’s secretaries directly, so many messages went through R’ Moshe. For this purpose, secret meetings were arranged several times between the Rebbe and R’ Moshe in the doorway of the Rebbe’s home, since the Rebbe did not want certain details and instructions to be spoken about openly in his office. Details were known only to a few people.
TALMID CHACHAM
R’ Moshe learned and loved to learn. Torah was his life. Anthologies of Haaros HaT’mimim and Anash are full of short and long pieces that he wrote in all parts of Torah, Nigleh and Chassidus. He was known as a reliable source and a number of practices and instructions from the Rebbe were revealed through him.
HIS FINAL YEARS
R’ Moshe was an expert scribe and in his final years he wrote parshiyos for t’fillin and mezuzos, especially for shluchim in America. He also wrote his memoirs about his father’s mesirus nefesh and askanus, which was translated into English as The Man Who Mocked the KGB. He was also a maggid shiur in the Kollel Tiferes Z’keinim in 770.
Besides being well known as an outstanding Torah scholar with tremendous knowledge of Nigleh and Chassidus, he was also involved in tz’daka and chesed. For some years he was the baal koreh (together with R’ Dovid Raskin) in the Rebbe’s minyan. (When he leined at Mincha on Shabbos Parshas VaYeitzei 5712 and pronounced Yisachar with two letters sin, in the sicha following the davening the Rebbe wondered, “Why did the baal koreh read the word Yisachar as it is written?” and he explained that according to kabbala only one sin should be pronounced.)
After an illness he passed away on Erev Shabbos, 6 Elul 5765. May his memory be for a blessing.