Rabbi Shlomo Vishedsky a”h was born with a twin sister while their father, the mashpia R’ Moshe, was being interrogated by the KGB for his role in the smuggling of Chassidim out of Russia. * R’ Shlomo was born into a life of mesirus nefesh which accompanied him all his life. * R’ Shlomo was a man of chesed who did mivtzaim every day despite the burden of making a living. * Memories that he related to me, along with stories that the family told during the Shiva.
At the center, a few weeks before he fell ill | On Mivtza T’fillin
There were tears in his eyes and his voice choked up, but he continued speaking nonetheless, though not before ascertaining that his grandchildren, whom he had just hugged and kissed, were far enough away so they wouldn’t see their grandfather broken up over the lost years.
This was an interview I did a year ago with R’ Shlomo Vishedsky a”h. He spent a long time telling me about his family in Russia under communist rule for a book I was writing about his father, the mashpia, R’ Moshe Vishedsky a”h.
The following article about R’ Shlomo contains information from that interview as well as memories from the family which were related during the Shiva.
BOND WITH “RABBI SCHNEERSON”
R’ Shlomo Vishedsky’s life story begins with a sad drama, when he and his twin sister were born on 21 Shevat 5710. They were born in Chernovitz while their father, R’ Moshe, was being interrogated in prison, far from home. A few months earlier he had been arrested and charged with being a member of an organization of Chassidim who operated under orders from “Rabbi Schneersohn.” He was also accused of participating in smuggling “people associated with Schneersohn” over the border.
The birth of twins is no simple matter, but despite the tremendous emotional difficulty, their birth went peacefully and the babies were fine. But their mother Chasya’s health was another matter. After returning home with her babies, she had a hard time functioning because of her difficult situation. The one who took care of the babies was the twin’s brother, R’ Bentzion (now the menahel of the Yiddish Cheder in Kfar Chabad):
“I gave them bottles and changed their diapers, even though I was just a little boy. My mother was in terrible shape. I remember that neighbors came to the house and considered taking the twins because it seemed to them that my mother would soon not be among the living.”
Hundreds of kilometers away, her husband was being tortured. They also threatened him that if he did not accede to their demands, they would arrest his wife. R’ Moshe knew they could carry out their threat. He imagined how difficult the situation at home must be and how much worse it would get if she was arrested. His heart was torn, but he decided that it was better to go with mesirus nefesh and not inform on anyone.
Chasya’s condition deteriorated until she was hospitalized with a severe case of pneumonia while ten year old Bentzion supervised his siblings and was in touch with the doctors.
The KGB went to their house and after finding out that Chasya was hospitalized, they went to the hospital and mercilessly asked the doctor in charge whether she could be arrested and taken to Kiev. The doctor said she had high fever and pneumonia and she would not survive the long trip from Chernovitz to Kiev. Mrs. Vishedsky heard about this only after her condition improved somewhat, when the doctor informed her in secret. You don’t need much of an imagination to know what would have happened if she would have been arrested after childbirth. And yet, after she was released from the hospital, the KGB went to her home and interrogated her for a long time.
THE CHILD “DEVELOPS”
The bris took place two and a half months late, both because of the mother’s hospitalization and because of the great danger that hovered over the family and whoever had contact with them. R’ Moshe Kolyakov, one of the Jewish askanim in Chernovitz, brought a mohel and ten men to the house, bottles of vodka and herring, and the bris took place. R’ Shlomo related:
“At that time, as my father was being interrogated and we waited for his trial, our home was under constant surveillance, so that friends of the family in general and Chabad Chassidim in particular were afraid to pass our street. R’ Yona Lebenharz told me that although the street served as a cross way to another street, he and all his friends avoided it in fear that they would be suspected of wanting to convey a message to the family. Those who helped the family were not Lubavitcher Chassidim but a few good Jews. For Lubavitchers, it was too great a danger.
“Despite the enormous danger, my mother decided that we must have a bris. Of course it was all done secretly and cleverly. A few Jews came to our house the night before the bris, while the rest arrived in the morning. The sandak was R’ Moshe Kolyakov, a Boyaner Chassid who lived in Chernovitz. The mohel was Velvel the shochet; that is what he was called. I don’t remember his last name.
“I remember that after my father was released, we once went home from shul accompanied by R’ Velvel the shochet. When we reached the house, the mohel said, ‘We did the bris for this boy here, and as a result, I suffered greatly,’ though he did not offer specifics.
“They told me that in the letters that my father sent from prison, he did not ask about a bris, but at a certain point he asked, ‘How is the boy developing?’ They knew what he meant and said I was developing nicely and they included the names of my sister and me, thus hinting that the bris had occurred and all was well.
“When we were a bit older, they told me and my twin sister that my father had gone on a business trip to Moscow. We had never seen pictures of him and had no idea what he looked like. I grew up knowing that my father was far away and someday he would hopefully return.”
After an imprisonment replete with suffering and torture, R’ Moshe was exiled to a labor camp in distant Kazakhstan. His wife continued running a Chassidic home in Chernovitz, as R’ Shlomo went on to tell:
“My mother was a true eishes chayil (woman of valor), and without my father she ran the house and took care of us physically and spiritually, despite all the hardships. There were certain areas in which my brother, Bentzion, served as a father. Since I can remember, my brother made Kiddush on Shabbos and he ran the Pesach seder. With my mother’s encouragement, he took me on Shabbos to daven at the secret minyanim.”
At the end of years of suffering and isolation, R’ Moshe returned from exile and finally could see his twin children who had been born six year earlier.
“The excitement was tremendous,” remembered R’ Shlomo. “We traveled to the train station to welcome him [at this point, R’ Shlomo got all choked up and couldn’t speak for several minutes]. From the train alighted a Jew with a beard and they told me this is my father. The truth is, I did not know my father had a beard. My father was very weak and his face was bronzed after working for hours in the sun.
“Until today, I can remember the first time my father taught me the alef–beis. It was the day after he came home, when he needed a long rest. The excitement in the house was tremendous. Despite all he had gone through, the very next morning, my father sat me next to him, opened a siddur which had the alef–beis, and began teaching me. Until today I am moved to think how much spiritual fortitude was needed after years in which he did not see the family and barely knew what was happening to them. After going through such physical, psychological and emotional torture, the mind, heart and body do not function normally, but his priority was his children’s Torah study, so he got right to work.
“My father continued to teach me. There were also times that a melamed came and taught me and other children. My mother served as the lookout to make sure the children entered without being exposed to prying eyes.”
“THE FALL”
Life under communist oppression was complicated and very difficult. Observing Shabbos posed additional complicated challenges. There was a time when R’ Shlomo had to attend Russian school. Of course, he did everything possible so as not to go on Shabbos, but one time there was an important national exam given on Shabbos. Shlomo was warned by the school that he could not be absent that Shabbos, no matter what.
Having no choice, that Shabbos he went to school accompanied by his mother. The entire way he wracked his brains to come up with a plan to avoid desecrating Shabbos. While on their way, they met R’ Moshe returning from shul together with R’ Mendel Futerfas. R’ Moshe said in passing to his wife, “Chasya, see what you can do.” R’ Mendel added, “We do not desecrate Shabbos.”
While mother and son were approaching the school, they came to a hill filled with puddles and mud from the snow that had started to melt. Shlomo suddenly felt himself losing his balance and he fell into the mud. His mother pulled him out and there he stood, muddied from head to foot. It was only later that he realized it was something his mother had done on purpose.
Mrs. Vishedsky and her son walked into the school. The assistant principal standing there was taken aback by the sight of the muddy child. Mrs. Vishedsky explained that her son had fallen into the mud, but she could not take him back home to change because there was a national exam. The agitated woman expressed her concern that the boy would catch pneumonia and it wasn’t at all acceptable to walk into school like this, but Mrs. Vishedsky played dumb and began to “hurry” to catch the exam. Then the woman said that she would arrange another day for Shlomo to take the test.
Mother and son were thrilled as they hurried home. When they walked into the house, his father and R’ Mendel Futerfas’ faces lit up and they showered her with many blessings. When they asked her where she got such a clever idea from, she said, “When I was a girl, we heard that the Rebbe Rayatz planned on leaving Russia. Before leaving, there was going to be a final farbrengen on Simchas Torah in Leningrad. My grandfather, R’ Bentzion, told my father in a telegram that he ordered him with the mitzva of honoring a father to attend this farbrengen, so my father went.
“Upon returning home, my father was very excited, and although he did not hear the sichos because of the great crowding, one sight was engraved in his mind. He got up on the table while holding a Chumash and began dancing with great intensity without a break for many hours until he finished and said, ‘That is how the Rebbe Rayatz danced on Simchas Torah with a Torah, and at the end of the dancing he said, “One needs to be literally moser nefesh [not to attend] the communist schools.”’ From this story I derived the strength now, to prevent the desecration of Shabbos.”
AN EVERLASTING EDIFICE
There is not enough paper to fully record the life story of mesirus nefesh of R’ Shlomo Vishedsky, a story that continued until he turned 16, which is when the family left Russia with the Rebbe’s blessing. They arrived in Eretz Yisroel on 9 Kislev 5726.
Learning with mesirus nefesh in Chernovitz helped R’ Shlomo acclimate to Yeshivas Tomchei T’mimim in Kfar Chabad. Already then, he was recognized as a genuine Chassid who was particular in his adherence to the ways and practices of Chassidus.
Once, when he was a bachur, he went to a dentist who rented a room in the home of the Chassid R’ Simcha Gorodetzky, a distinguished Chassid. When R’ Simcha saw him, he looked in wonder at the cuff links that adorned his shirtsleeves and he told R’ Shlomo, “One time, the wealthy Chassid, R’ Meir Simcha Chein had yechidus with the Rebbe Rayatz. R’ Meir Simcha wore a large straw hat which was considered a modern, expensive item. The Rebbe told him, ‘Under the straw roof lives a gentile farmer.’ What he meant was, in Russian villages, the simple peasants lived in small houses with straw roofs.” R’ Simcha continued, “You are a Tamim in Tomchei T’mimim, so why do you have cuff links on your shirt?”
It was actually an old shirt which was sewn with cuffs to begin with, but R’ Shlomo was not the type to look for excuses. As soon as he got home he asked his mother to remove the cuffs and to sew buttons on instead. After that, he was not willing to wear a shirt with cuff links.
After two years of learning in Kfar Chabad, he traveled to the Rebbe to learn in 770. This was in 5729. For the next eighteen years he learned and lived in Crown Heights.
R’ Shlomo was not the type to tell stories about himself, except when it was something that he considered important. “Still,” recalls his son R’ Zalman, “My father would sometimes recount a moment in yechidus in which he asked something for himself or his parents, and whenever he would do so tears would spill from his eyes. My father could not bring himself to ask many questions in yechidus, and he would ask for a bracha for his parents only when they asked him to do so.”
In a yechidus that he was granted in honor of his upcoming birthday, he wrote to the Rebbe about his work as a counselor in yeshiva, and the Rebbe responded to his questions. Suddenly, the Rebbe asked him, “What is doing in connection with a shidduch?” R’ Shlomo shrugged his shoulders in confusion, and that is when the Rebbe instructed him to get involved in finding a shidduch.
A while later, he became engaged to his cousin, Rishe Raskin. Before their wedding, he received a most unusual bracha from the Rebbe. This was when he went into yechidus a short time before his wedding. The Rebbe blessed him, “That you should have, together with your kalla who is your match and the one that was designated for you, a luminous and warm home, and it should be luminous and warm by you and warm and luminous by others.”
Despite this, R’ Shlomo was pained that he had not received the traditional blessing for chassanim and kallos, i.e., “binyan adei ad (an everlasting edifice).” He was broken over this and completely distraught. When it was the Shabbos before the wedding, his brother Sholom Dovber suggested that he say the entire T’hillim before Shacharis, in supplication to Hashem that he receive the traditional bracha.
During the farbrengen that took place after davening, the practice then was that chassanim getting married that week would go up to the Rebbe with a bottle of mashke. R’ Shlomo went up with a bottle and the Rebbe poured from his becher into the bottle and then back again. And then, unlike the usual practice, the Rebbe poured some mashke for R’ Shlomo from his becher. The Rebbe continued to hold the bottle, looked into his open Chumash and then with closed eyes said, “It should be a binyan adei ad.” A heavy weight was lifted from R’ Shlomo’s heart when he received the hoped for bracha.
MAN OF KINDNESS
AND GIVING
The young couple settled in Crown Heights, and in the years that followed, R’ Shlomo, along with his brother R’ Michel, ran a shoe store on Kingston Avenue. Together, they pleasantly and generously served the residents of Crown Heights.
About thirty years ago, the two brothers moved to Eretz Yisroel, and thus began a new chapter in which R’ Shlomo worked hard to provide for his family, in the fields of chinuch and kashrus.
R’ Shlomo was the type of person who avoided making a commotion. His family and friends tell of a modest man, who whatever he did he kept to himself, without telling the world. However, during the Shiva, the family was kind enough to share some of his amazing acts of kindness:
“Collectors who would come to Kfar Chabad to collect money knew they could stop off at his home to take a break. They would eat and drink something and even take a nap and then set off to continue their rounds. On numerous occasions before Pesach, R’ Yaakov Katz, the rosh yeshiva of Tomchei T’mimim, would send a few boys who had no family in Eretz Yisroel to our house, and they would be hosted for the entire holiday.”
Aside from that, he would often lend money to those in need and to those who asked for his help, and they were many. During the years that he lived in Kfar Chabad, he lent out large sums of money. Whatever he had he would lend out, and when he didn’t have he would take out personal loans on his own account and then lend that money to others. There were even times that the person had not paid back the first loan and needed an additional loan. R’ Shlomo would not hesitate to provide the additional loan.
His brother R’ Michel recounts: “My brother R’ Shlomo was a very modest person who didn’t wish to talk about his actions. Despite that, I can testify about him that he was always thinking about how to help others. He always had an inner smile and that is why people loved him. He helped many people and gave away so much without calling attention to himself.”
For a period of time he worked as a kashrus supervisor in the Nes Tziyona area, under the auspices of the city’s rabbi, R’ Avraham Tzuriel. Once R’ Tzuriel wanted to transfer him from one restaurant under his supervision to another place. The owner of the restaurant hurriedly contacted the rabbi and requested that before he transfer the mashgiach it was worthwhile to come and see what he does each morning.
The rabbi was surprised by the seemingly bizarre request, wondering what exactly a kashrus supervisor could be doing each morning. The owner then told him that before R’ Shlomo would start his busy day at work, he would put on t’fillin with about 150 passersby. When the rabbi of the city heard that, he decided to leave R’ Shlomo at his post, saying, “Nu, am I going to close down a branch of the Chabad House? I’ll find a different mashgiach for the other place.”
WONDROUS DEPARTURE
R’ Shlomo seemed to be functioning at full strength, working hard to make a living, keeping his regular shiurim and involved with many acts of kindness, far from prying eyes. Only a few weeks ago, the dreaded disease was discovered and after just two weeks, he passed away. Before his passing, his family gathered together to part from him. They describe a mind blowing intensely emotional scene.
It was the night before he passed away, at around 2 a.m., and he was in extremely high spirits. He said to his children, “Say l’chaim, disconnect the machines from me, it is a chasuna (wedding) now.” And he began to loudly sing, “Atem shalom u’veischem shalom.” His voice could be heard out in the corridor of the hospital, when only days before he could barely speak, and so he continued to sing until he drifted off.
The next morning, Wednesday 4 Shevat, they put t’fillin on him and said Shema Yisroel and Vidui with him, while he was fully alert. Then they began to sing all of the niggunim of the Chabad Rebbeim, at the conclusion of which he returned his soul to his Maker.
R’ Shlomo Vishedsky left behind a beautiful Chassidic family, including his wife Rishe and sons and daughters: Mrs. Chana Sudakevitz, Tokyo, Japan; R’ Yehoshua Vishedsky, Donietsk–Kiev, Ukraine; R’ Mendel Vishedsky, Brussels, Belgium; R’ Pini Vishedsky, Nachalat Har Chabad; R’ Zalman Vishedsky, Kfar Chabad; R’ Shmuel Vishedsky, Kobe, Japan; Mrs. Chashi Offen, Kfar Chabad; Moshe Vishedsky.