FROM RABBANUS IN THE CAUCASUS TO MEA SH’ARIM

If we tried to picture the shliach of the Rebbe Rayatz to the Caucasus Mountains, the k’hilla in Batum in Georgia, the rav of the Chabad community in Samarkand, and the rav of a shul in Mea Sh’arim, we would surely think these are several different rabbanim. * R’ Nachum Shmaryahu Sossonkin was the one person who served in all these roles, and in all of them, he used his influence to spread the wellsprings outward and to connect people to the source of the spring, the Rebbe. * Presented to mark his passing on 19 Menachem Av.

BRILLIANT CHILD

R’ Nachum Shmaryahu Sossonkin was born in 5650/1890 in Propoisk, Belarus. His father was R’ Avrohom who was one of the students of R’ Shmaryahu Nachum of Bobruisk. In his childhood he was sent to the school of his uncle who was the melamed of the town.

His intellectual abilities were immediately discerned. At age six and a half he was switched to a more advanced class where he learned Chumash, Rashi and Mishnayos. After one semester he was sent to a melamed who taught him Gemara. When he was eight, a yeshiva was founded in the town and he was one of the first students.

He did not stay in yeshiva for long. His father left the city for business reasons and his mother died only two years later. The child declined his father’s offer of hiring him a melamed in the town near where he ran the squire’s affairs. He chose to stay with his uncle the melamed. In the meantime, the yeshiva had closed and his relatives began worrying about the child’s future. They wanted to apprentice him to a watchmaker, but Shmerel insisted on learning Torah and after Sukkos 5661, at the age of 11, he went to the yeshiva in Vietka.

When he arrived there he was in for a disappointment. The hanhala of the yeshiva refused to accept him since he could not prepare the material on his own. He burst into tears and prayed and this helped. In the shul where he slept learned an older bachur with his younger brother, helping him prepare the shiur. Shmerel joined the brothers, and the older brother, seeing that Shmerel grasped the material quickly, agreed to learn with him every day on condition that he would review the shiur with his younger brother who was not so quick. When the bachur said that he was preparing the shiur with Shmerel every day, the hanhala accepted him into the yeshiva.

The bachur and the two children slept in the small shul in town. A sack which they filled with grass or hay served as their mattress and a winter coat was their blanket. They ate teg at householders’ homes who considered it a privilege to have a yeshiva bachur eating at their table.

Thanks to his learning with Chaim, the younger brother, Shmerel did very well in his learning and was appreciated by the rosh yeshiva. The many times he reviewed the shiur with Chaim until he understood it implanted the material firmly in Shmerel’s brain until he was expert in it. He had another chavrusa to learn other Masechtos and when he finished yeshiva at age thirteen, he was expert in four Masechtos.

His bar mitzva was marked with the typical Jewish simplicity of the times. He had an aliya to the Torah and his father adjured him to fulfill the verse, “and choose life.” The boy promised his father he would choose well and learn in yeshiva and that was that.

He kept his promise and went to Amchislav and was accepted into the yeshiva of R’ Elchanan Wasserman, the prized talmid of the Chafetz Chaim and the author of Kovetz Shiurim on the Talmud and other s’farim.

He learned there for two years and then went to Kremenchug where he learned Gemara and Hilchos Issur v’Heter by R’ Yitzchok Zuckerman.

AT A CROSSROADS

When he finished learning in these yeshivos for young teenagers, he found himself at a crossroads. The famous yeshivos gedolos in Russia at that time were in: Telz, Volozhin, Radin, and Lubavitch. He had learned in a Chassidic town but had no involvement in Chassidus whatsoever. All his friends were clean-shaven and wore short jackets as the Litvishe yeshiva bachurim dressed.

When he met with bachurim from Telz and Volozhin, he was taken aback to hear their complaints about being yeshiva bachurim and what would become of them and how they were thinking of studying secular subjects. That left Radin and Lubavitch but he wasn’t drawn to Radin because the bachurim there went about in mara sh’chora (melancholy), and he wasn’t interested in Lubavitch because they set aside Nigleh and studied Kabbala, so he heard.

He heard about a yeshiva in Kishinev that was opened by a wealthy man named Perlmutter who supported the bachurim. When he arrived there he was a sight to behold since the yeshiva was attended by Polisher Chassidim. They were surprised to see a bachur in a short jacket. When he went to talk to Perlmutter he was told that he could not be accepted since he did not want “foreign ideas” in his yeshiva.

While he was still in the town, a bachur who was a baal t’shuva asked Shmerel to learn with him a few hours a day for which he would pay him. He remained in the town where he met the Rebbe Rayatz’s father-in-law, R’ Avrohom Schneersohn who explained to him that the only place for him was in Lubavitch.

UNRECOGNIZABLE

He made his decision after hearing a drasha from one of the rabbanim which included an explanation from Tanya, and realizing that this wasn’t Kabbala as he had thought, he left for Lubavitch. When he arrived there, he was accepted joyously by some of his friends who knew him from previous yeshivos.

“I did not recognize my friends because they changed so much. They had changed in their dress, in their sensitivities, and their ambitions; even their faces had changed,” wrote R’ Sossonkin. “Before we came to Lubavitch, we felt a strong sense of wanting to be like the rest of the world. There was no refinement of a ben Torah apparent on our faces. No wonder I did not recognize my friends since their faces had already changed and their way of dress had changed. For why try to adapt to the world when they already realized that the world is not a true existence?!”

His years in yeshiva had a profound effect on him. This is not the place to talk about this at length, but R’ Sossonkin wrote in his memoir a long, detailed description of the yeshiva, how they learned, etc.

In 5670 he married and in 5671 he received smicha from R’ Dovid Tzvi Chein. Starting in 5675 he served as a rav in many Chabad communities with the Rebbe’s consent.

THE YEAR IN ROSTOV

The year that the Rebbe Rashab passed away, the Rebbe Rayatz appointed R’ Sossonkin to three important jobs: rav in Rostov, rosh yeshiva, and the Rebbe’s personal secretary. When he asked Rashag [the Rebbe’s son-in-law] to give him a student certificate of Tomchei T’mimim, Rashag refused. When he complained to the Rebbe, the Rebbe told him that the yeshiva was in fact not Tomchei T’mimim, but only for the purpose of fulfilling the Talmudic dictate to establish a yeshiva near the gravesite of a great man for the first year after his passing. In fact, a year later the yeshiva closed.

Nearly every day he went to the Rebbe, and as the Rebbe’s secretary the door was open to him. The Rebbe once told him he feared being searched and he gave R’ Sossonkin a pile of letters and told him to bring them each time he came. One day, R’ Sossonkin decided, for some reason, not to go that day. That very day there was a search and the Rebbe was even arrested for a few hours.

Since he did not receive a salary for these three jobs, he found a position as a shamash in a shul. This was the time of the Communist Revolution and the economy was terrible so that many Chassidim had to find illegal means to support themselves. The Rebbe gave R’ Sossonkin a letter which he asked him to convey to the Chassidim, in which he encouraged them and reminded them that their main role was to be a Jew and spread the light of Judaism while other occupations were secondary.

SHLICHUS IN THE MOUNTAINS

After the yeshiva closed, the Rebbe told him to go to Derbent in the Caucasus and to start a yeshiva there. The Rebbe told him to first go to Kutais where R’ Shmuel Levitin lived and worked, and to consult with him as someone who already had experience working with Sephardic Jews. 

In those countries far from Moscow, R’ Sossonkin saw how materially and spiritually life was much better. There was kosher sh’chita in all the big cities and Jewish schools were out in the open. You could buy any product without coupons or tickets.

However, when he arrived in the Caucasus, after leaving his family behind in Baku in Azerbaijan, he discovered that the situation there was the complete opposite. When he went to the shul and said he was an emissary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in order to start a school, the mountain Jews told him fine, but they couldn’t give him any money. 

He underwent great difficulties until he found an Ashkenazic couple who welcomed him into their home and provided him with meals though he did not eat meat there. After settling in, he went to check things out and discovered that in a city with 1200 Jewish children, most of them knew how to read but only 15 of them knew how to learn Chumash and Rashi.

Since he did not know their language, he looked until he found a boy who knew a little Yiddish and then opened a class. R’ Sossonkin first taught the boy and then the boy gave the lesson to the other children in Juhuri, Caucasian for Jewish, a form of Persian and the traditional language spoken by the mountain Jews. R’ Sossonkin listened and picked up the language in this way and then began teaching himself.

After a year and a half without his family, he met a Jewish man who said he came from a nearby city and that his father had come there originally from Moscow for business. R’ Sossonkin decided to go to this city to see whether he could set himself up there financially. When he arrived there, the man said he had another eight children who needed a melamed and he would support him and his family. Since he and his family had been suffering from hunger, he decided to move there with his family. His children were thrilled at their reunion. They learned with him and finally, they were no longer hungry. 

FAR BUT CLOSE

At the beginning of 5682, he received a letter from R’ Shmuel Levitin and R’ Zalman Rogatchover in which they wrote that the Rebbe said he should move to serve as rav in Batum. R’ Sossonkin immediately left with his family and after meeting with his two friends the three left for Batum.

The spiritual level of the city was very low. Many Jewish refugees were there who wanted a rav but only ten percent of the local community ate kosher. The members of the small Sephardic community were more careful when it came to eating kosher but their shochtim were ignoramuses who could not be relied upon.

Immediately upon their arrival, R’ Zalman went around announcing that the rav would speak in the shul. After the drasha, most of the townspeople were convinced that they wanted the rav, but the gabbaim of the community, who took a sizable amount from the financial support of the Joint, were opposed. Despite this, two of the members of the community committed to pay the rav’s salary.

When the rav found out that the flour at the mill was moistened, he forbade its use for Pesach. The Sephardim accepted this, but the Ashkenazi gabbai went around to the stores and homes and explained that there was no reason to listen to the rabbi’s new, bizarre hiddur. It was only after a long discussion and the rav presenting another way for them to obtain wheat and pay for it, that the gabbaim agreed to accept the rav’s ruling.

Another battlefront was sh’chita. After one of the two shochtim died, all sorts of candidates tried to fill the vacancy. In the end, after a long battle, the rav went to the Rebbe and returned with a shochet who had learned in Tomchei T’mimim, R’ Betzalel Wilschansky. The fight wasn’t over though.

When the rav left town for a while to a health resort, a Jewish butcher whose parnasa was hurt by the new shochet’s care with kashrus, began to incite the townspeople against the rav. It was only after the rav returned and signed an agreement with the shochet that matters calmed down.

Tishrei 5686/1925, the gabbaim wanted to appoint a chazan who was not to the rav’s liking. As a result, the rav left town for the Yomim Nora’im and went to the Rebbe. When he returned, he saw a sign on the wall from the gabbaim announcing that they were looking for a new rav. This was an attempt to punish him for his chutzpa on leaving the town for the Yomim Nora’im. 

But when the townspeople heard of this, they rose up and declared they would be the ones to decide. A meeting was held in which new members of a committee were appointed. They committed to pay the rav a good salary and to proclaim him the official rav.

Just one year went by and a new problem arose. A Georgian chochom who became enamored of Zionism, began advertising that he was opening a school in Hebrew that would be under government auspices and free. The only way to stop this was by a public debate with him, in which R’ Sossonkin proved that there was no way in the world that the Russian government would pay for religious studies and that their goal was to eliminate Torah.

The Rebbe Rayatz took great pleasure in R’ Sossonkin’s work. When he went to the Rebbe for Yud-Tes Kislev 5687, he did not manage to have yechidus before Yud-Tes Kislev. The Rebbe, who noticed him at the farbrengen, said, “Far, but close!”

When he returned, he felt the noose tightening. He was often called for interrogation by the GPU. After a while he realized he had no choice but to leave Batum forever. He went from there to Charkov and then to Leningrad.

In Leningrad, he felt revived spiritually but definitely not materially. He went to the Chabad shul where he could meet his fellow Chassidim and began giving a shiur in Gemara and Chassidus until the noose began tightening again and he stopped. That year, ten members of the community were arrested following the tattling of an informer. They were all exiled to Siberia and died there. Among those arrested were two of his sons who left behind wives and young children.

When the evil ones went to his house to arrest his son, they also had an arrest warrant for him, but he wasn’t at home. He immediately left the city and went to live with his son Asher who lived in a suburb near Moscow. He lived there until the war, trembling at night from every little sound that might signal the arrival of the angels of death.

FLEEING TO SAMARKAND

When the war began and authorities said to leave Moscow, R’ Sossonkin fled with the other Chassidim and after a long, dangerous, arduous journey arrived in Samarkand.

Once in Samarkand they faced starvation. The government was unable to feed the thousands of refugees who flocked there. Strict rationing was imposed on bread sales and the streets were full of bodies.

Upon arriving in the city, he was appointed the rav of the Chabad community, and was the de facto rav of the city. This is because the chachomim were simple Jews who knew more than the others but not enough to serve as rabbanim. The Chabad Chassidim started a chevra kadisha, a mikva, an elementary school and a yeshiva. They revived the Chassidic spirit which had been destroyed by the communists.

When numerous Chassidim left Russia, R’ Sossonkin left too and he arrived in the refugee camps in Europe. He served on the improvised committee that was formed in the refugee camp. In 5710 he made aliya and was appointed as rav in the Chabad shul in Mea Sh’arim.

After the passing of the Rebbe Rayatz, he spoke about the greatness of the new Rebbe, “I don’t say this because the mosdos are in danger without the Rebbe, but because I know him and I’m telling you that he is the Rebbe!”

At farbrengens, he often quoted the Chazal which says that if the Jewish people sin, Hashem will send them a king as harsh as Haman to get them to do t’shuva. He explained that in our generation, Hashem had mercy and gave us the Rebbeim who revealed to us the treasures with which we can do t’shuva.

Although he was weak and sick, he did not stop learning and teaching Torah. He passed away on 19 Av 5735/1975.

 
A SPIRITUAL SUIT

While living in Samarkand, R’ Sossonkin came home one day glowing with joy. He told his wife that he had bought a beautiful suit and had paid for it with all their savings. When she wanted to see the stupendous garment, he explained to her that she could not see it. It was a spiritual suit.

Only years after his passing did his wife reveal what that spiritual suit was. It was when one of the Chassidim in shul burst into tears and cried that he had a one-time opportunity to leave the Soviet Union but he did not have the money to buy a ticket. If he did not pay then and there, who knew whether he’d ever be able to leave? 

R’ Sossonkin did not think much about it. He gave the Chassid all the money he had saved up for which he had worked many years.