Highlights of the life of the Baal Koreh in the Rebbe’s minyan, R’ Mordechai Shusterman. * He owned the Ezra/Balshan publishing house, and the Rebbe Rayatz called him “my printer.” * About his childhood in the wandering Yeshivas Tomchei T’mimim, learning a trade and mesirus nefesh for Torah and mitzvos in Russia. * Marking his passing on 22 Iyar 5755.
R’ Mordechai Shusterman (right) leining in the Rebbe’s minyan
R’ Mordechai Shusterman was born on Erev Rosh Chodesh Elul 5674/1914 in Zhlobin to his parents Eliyahu and Rochel. When he was six or seven his father sent him to learn with a Chassidishe melamed, although the authorities had already opened a school and wanted to force all the Jewish children to attend it.
In 5687, when he wasn’t yet bar mitzva, he was one of the first talmidim of the new yeshiva, which was founded by R’ Moshe Akselrod in Suraz. R’ Akselrod, who had left the rabbinate in Zhlobin for a rabbinic position in Suraz, decided to open a yeshiva. The talmidim he brought were talmidim of the melamed of Zhlobin, R’ Sholom Horowitz. Mottel celebrated his bar mitzva in yeshiva at the end of the last minyan, the rav’s minyan. They brought cake and mashke, he said a drasha about t’fillin, and the people said l’chaim. That was his bar mitzva celebration.
He learned in this yeshiva until the end of 5687, when all the talmidim returned home. When they were in Zhlobin, one of the children became sick with scarlet fever and within two weeks, half of the group had died. In Suraz, they heard what happened and feared that the contagious disease would come to their city with the returning talmidim. They warned R’ Akselrod that if the talmidim returned from Zhlobin, they would all be arrested. So talmidim remained in Zhlobin, and the rav of the city, R’ Binyaminson, learned Gemara with them every day. In the evening, Mottel learned Tanach and dikduk (Hebrew grammar) with a Chassidishe melamed named Itche Riskin.
For some time, the boy and his father looked for a yeshiva but they did not find one. The Russians, who knew they could not arrest young talmidim, would instead arrest or expel the rosh yeshiva of any Jewish school they would discover, leaving the yeshiva to fall apart. It was hard to find any functioning yeshivos.
To remain without a yeshiva for too long a time was not acceptable, and after a year of thinking about it and looking for one, a suitable yeshiva was found in Polotzk. Mottel and another boy left for Polotzk. After about two weeks, the mashgiach, R’ Shlomo Chaim Kesselman, told him that he could remain in the yeshiva, but his friend was somewhat weak in learning and had to learn in a lower class which was located in Vitebsk. In those days, it was dangerous to keep many bachurim in the same area. Mottel did not want to part from his friend and he decided he would go with him to Vitebsk. It turned out to be a good decision, because the yeshiva in Polotzk disbanded that winter.
By the summer of 5689, they heard from the headquarters of Yeshivos Tomchei T’mimim that it was too dangerous to return to Vitebsk. The yeshiva was moved to Mohilov, but it did not last long there either. R’ Gavriel Kagan, the rosh yeshiva, realized he was being followed and he had to disappear. The one sent from headquarters in Nevel to replace him was R’ Nissan Heber. He had the advantage of being short, so the Russians wouldn’t think he was the maggid shiur.
“The yeshivos back then were like the journeys of the Jewish people in the desert,” said R’ Shusterman in his book, L’Maan Yeid’u Banim Yivaleidu. “Sometimes the cloud would be there a few days … or a month … When the cloud came (in this case, it was blacker than black), the yeshiva had to move to its next station.”
After less than a year, the 14 year old boy had to move again, this time to Charson, where R’ Yechezkel Himmelstein and R’ Tzemach Gurewitz opened a yeshiva. When Mottel and his friend Dovber Gurewitz (who later ran Beis Rivka in Paris) went to the home of R’ Himmelstein in Charson, his wife came out in tears. She said that her husband, the mashgiach, and the talmidim had been arrested a few days before. They had sent a telegram to Zhlobin not to send the boys, but the telegram arrived only after they had already left.
The children, who had come on a 36 hour journey, needed a place to stay, but the fear was so great that nobody wanted to host them for even one night. The children had to go to Kremenchug, a 12 hour trip away. Having no choice, the gentile wagon driver took them to sleep in his house, and in the morning, he took them to the train station. In Kremenchug, they stayed in the home of a widow who lived with her son. After two weeks, they were sent to yeshiva in Odessa. Mottel learned there for one month and that concluded his stint in yeshiva. He was fifteen years old.
12 TAMMUZ FARBRENGEN BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN
Mottel returned to Zhlobin where he continued learning with R’ Binyaminson. After several years, he began looking for work, but most jobs in Russia were in government facilities which were open on Shabbos. The solution for many Lubavitchers in Russia was bookbinding. Many government offices used the services of independent bookbinders, who would come to their offices and offer to bind their documents. Mottel learned how to do this and began working. He did well and was allowed to work in a printing house where he learned the craft of printing.
The situation in Zhlobin was very difficult. In 5698, the evil Yezhov was appointed Interior Minister of Russia and from that day on, life was miserable. Every night, angels of death swooped down on Jewish homes, leaving behind a crying widow and orphans. Every morning, Jews would whisper to one another, “Who did they take last night?” Shuls were closed and Mottel was the only remaining religious youth in town. On Shabbos, he was afraid to leave his house while wearing Shabbos clothes and he spent Shabbos indoors.
One Thursday night, the evil agents murdered seven Chassidim. The next morning, Mottel heard from the secretary of the head of the Secret Service that they were planning something similar for that night. He knew what that meant. He quickly arranged everything, and he and his father boarded a train and fled that Friday night. After a few weeks, he arrived in Moscow where he worked as a painter, drawing on pictures that had become blurred due to enlargement.
He also found his shidduch in Moscow, Henya Fradkin, the daughter of R’ Gershon. The wedding meal took place on 9 Tammuz in the home of one of the residents of the Marina Roscha neighborhood, who had a relatively large living room. That is how weddings were celebrated in Russia.
On the morning of 12 Tammuz, when the new chassan went to shul, his uncle R’ Zushe said to him, “Today we will come to you to celebrate Sheva Brachos.” R’ Mottel wasn’t sure there would be ten men, but at night he saw many Lubavitchers coming from the tram. He ran to buy a bottle of mashke and they kept coming: R’ Nissan Nemanov, R’ Benzion Shemtov and his son Mendel, R’ Dovid Bravman, R’ Berel Kabilaker, R’ Yona Cohen, R’ Shmuel Yitzchok Reitzes and his son Yosef, R’ Eliyahu Chaim Roitblatt, and more. Due to the prevailing fear, they could not arrange a farbrengen. Each of them went to shul and asked where they were farbrenging that day. R’ Mottel’s uncle sent them to him, where at least they had the excuse that it wasn’t a 12 Tammuz farbrengen but a wedding.
The farbrengen lasted till dawn with R’ Nissan as the main speaker. Towards morning, R’ Yona sent people out one by one, since the gentile who lived in the facing apartment belonged to the GPU. That is how the Chassidim of the Rebbe Rayatz celebrated the miracle of his rescue from the communists.
During World War II, the young Shusterman family – father, mother and baby – were able to escape to Samarkand to join the growing community of Chassidim. After the war, they were able to leave Russia and arrived in Poking, the well known DP camp where many Chassidim ended up.
EARLY YEARS IN THE UNITED STATES
Through the husband of his cousin, Rabbi Chaim Stein (Rosh Yeshiva of Telshe in Cleveland), R’ Mottel was able to procure one of the visas designated for “professors” in yeshiva, a visa that enabled him to live permanently in the United States. He and his family arrived in the US on 18 Adar II and went to the home of his brother-in-law who was living in East New York at the time.
On the first Shabbos, R’ Mottel walked over an hour to daven with the Rebbe Rayatz. Since he had just arrived from Europe, he was able to be part of the small minyan for Krias Ha’Torah that took place in the yechidus room on the second floor. The tallis that he wore had been woven by a Lubavitcher in Russia and was made of very thick wool. After the farbrengen, the gabbai, R’ Yochanan Gordon, told him that the Rebbe kept looking at the tallis.
In those days in America, the Joint generously helped refugees, starting with an apartment and furniture and even with money. Since housing was limited in New York, due to the masses of refugees, the Joint began looking for ways to move people elsewhere. They saw that the visa R’ Mottel had been given was for a yeshiva in Cleveland, and they began urging him to move there.
R’ Mottel wrote to the Rebbe Rayatz and in the note he wrote three possibilities: 1) printing – as the Rebbe’s son-in-law, Ramash, had told him that they had been looking for a long time for someone to do printing; 2) shamashus – at the time, being a shamash was a good position. It entailed being a Baal Koreh too, something R’ Mottel could do well; 3) shochet – a profession he knew. The Rebbe responded in a brief letter and told him to work in all three fields.
A short while later, the Joint stopped its support and R’ Mottel had to give shiurim and work as a shamash in the Bobroisker shul, R’ Yisroel Jacobson’s shul in Brownsville. He performed sh’chita every week by buying two chickens in the market and shechting them for himself. Only printing remained of the three things the Rebbe told him to do.
Through R’ Moshe Margolin, R’ Mottel met the Gertz brothers who were printers. One of them, Lazer, was willing to teach him every Sunday how to use a linotype. After a number of Sundays in which he taught him how to use the machine, he suggested that if R’ Mottel had a booklet to print he should bring it the following week, since most of the employees were going on vacation. R’ Mottel would set up the booklets and the Gertz brothers would print it.
R’ Mottel told Ramash about the proposal, and Ramash told him he had what to print and brought him a Kitzur Tanya from the Tzemach Tzedek, part of the Kitzurim V’He’aros Al Tanya. When he brought the galleys of the first kuntres, the Rebbe gave him another one and another one, until the small kuntres became the big book we know of today.
The vacation at the printing house was over and the book was still not ready. The Gertz brothers gave R’ Mottel the key and he would go alone in the evening and work on it when all the employees went home. He worked until midnight until he finished it.
(At the end of Elul 5749, in connection with the 200th year since the birth of the Tzemach Tzedek, they reprinted the book in a larger format. When R’ Mottel passed by as the book was being given out, the Rebbe told him this was the first book he printed and the Rebbe smiled.)
R’ Mottel continued his work at a printing house in Brownsville. He would rent the use of the machinery from a man named Shapiro, and made a living from the kuntreisim which the Rebbe gave him to print. It wasn’t easy work. Setting up the lead plates took place in Brownsville, and then the heavy plates had to be taken to Manhattan where they were printed. It was all done last minute so that each time R’ Mottel would show up with 24 or 32 heavy plates, he would beg them to stop what they were doing, because he had to finish the kuntreisim as soon as possible.
In 5710, he set up the first ten chapters of Basi L’Gani. On Motzaei Shabbos, 10 Shevat, when the Rebbe saw him, he told him not to set up the following chapters. However, shortly after the Shiva, the Rebbe said, “We must continue further.”
THE BAAL KOREH IN THE REBBE’S MINYAN
It was Shabbos Mevarchim Nissan 5709. After the davening was over in the Bobroisker shul, R’ Yisroel Jacobson asked R’ Mottel to join him on the walk to 770. Perhaps they would be able to go to the second floor where the Rebbe Rayatz would have Maftir for the yahrtzait of his father, the Rebbe Rashab, which would be on 2 Nissan.
When they arrived at 770, they saw that it was the oifruf of R’ Shimon Goldman, the future son-in-law of R’ Yochanan Gordon. R’ Gordon (who was the regular Baal Koreh in the Rebbe’s minyan) was busy downstairs with the mechutanim. Consequently, R’ Jacobson suggested that R’ Mottel read the Torah in the Rebbe’s minyan since he knew it, having just read it in the shul in Brownsville.
That is how R’ Mottel came to read the Torah on the Shabbos preceding the last 2 Nissan of the Rebbe Rayatz’s life. The Rebbe, who was in a wheelchair, had an aliya for Parshas HaChodesh; R’ Mottel, overcome with emotion, began to lain. At the second pasuk, at the words “B’nei Yisroel,” he blurted the letter beis instead of the entire word. The Rebbe immediately shook his head.
R’ Mottel was offered the job of shamashus and leining at the big shul in East Flatbush where R’ JJ Hecht was the rabbi. When R’ Hecht asked Ramash what he thought of the offer, he said, “He read the Torah by the shver!”
Since the shul was Nusach Ashkenaz, R’ Mottel asked the Rebbe what he should do when he davened as the chazan. The Rebbe told him to daven his usual nusach when he davened silently, and to use Nusach Ashkenaz when he davened out loud.
When mourners would go to shul to say Kaddish, R’ Mottel would go over to them and suggest that they put on t’fillin. This annoyed some of the other people in shul but R’ Hecht was pleased. R’ Hecht reported it to the Rebbe Rayatz who responded with his approval.
On Yom Kippur, R’ Mottel arrived at 770 after he finished his work at the shul in East Flatbush. Ramash, who saw him, asked if he would lein for Mincha. Of course, Mottel said he would and the Rebbe Rayatz had the aliya for Maftir Yona in that minyan.
THE EZRA/BALSHAN PUBLISHING HOUSE
The Rebbe Rayatz, who knew that R’ Mottel rented the use of the machinery in order to print the kuntreisim, told him to buy a machine of his own. After the Rebbe’s histalkus, R’ Mottel bought a machine and opened a small printing house in East New York. That was how the Ezra/Balshan printing house began, which he ran successfully for many years. R’ Yerachmiel Benjaminson said that the Rebbe Rayatz once called R’ Mottel “my printer.”
When the question as to what to name the new printing house came up, the Rebbe said that since the first T’hillas Hashem Siddurim were printed by the Ezra printing house, then that is what this printing house should be named too.
The Rebbe wanted Merkos L’Inyanei Chinuch to be partners with the printing house. Despite the unwillingness of the two partners, R’ Chadakov and R’ Shusterman, the Rebbe said that Merkos would be a partner and that Shusterman and his partner Hirschel Gansbourg would receive a salary like employees and some of the profits. The Ezra printing house was registered as a tax-exempt branch of Merkos L’Inyanei Chinuch.
As the printing house grew, new customers came who could not avail themselves of printing services that were tax exempt. A “new” printing house was established called Balshan; hence the name Ezra-Balshan.
Working at two jobs was very hard, and often, R’ Mottel did not return on time to open the shul for Mincha. He felt that his days there were numbered. On Sukkos 5713, after working at the shul for nearly four years, R’ Mottel drank some mashke in the sukka and then told the congregants, “Do you think I came to America to make money? I came to accomplish something for Judaism!”
This statement was the talk of the day among the congregants – Mottel the Shamash says he can manage without us! This was a prominent synagogue and his salary was commensurate. When it came time to renew the annual contract, the board informed him that they had decided not to renew his contract.
Rabbi Avigdor Miller z”l, mashgiach in Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin, was unhappy about his dismissal. He had seen what a positive spiritual change R’ Mottel had brought about in the shul. R’ Miller banged on the bima on the final day of R’ Mottel’s position and protested, and then he walked out of the shul. He collected signatures and sent them to the president who was in Florida at the time.
Not long afterward, R’ Mottel was asked to return, but just for the small things such as learning with people etc. When he asked the Rebbe about the matter, the Rebbe told him, “If you left, you left.”
CROWN HEIGHTS
Since he no longer had any ties with East Flatbush, R’ Mottel thought of moving to Crown Heights and he told the Rebbe he wanted to rent an apartment there.
“Why rent when you can buy?” asked the Rebbe.
As he attempted to offer an explanation about the financial considerations, the Rebbe responded briefly, “Those with less than you have managed to buy.” A few months later, R’ Mottel bought a home on President Street near Utica.
R’ Yochanan Gordon, the Rebbe’s Baal Koreh, was not feeling well at that time. Most Lubavitchers who came to 770 during that period were asked at one time or another to lain for the Rebbe. That is how it happened that R’ Mottel, who walked every Shabbos from East Flatbush, had the opportunity to lain for the Rebbe. When he moved to Crown Heights, this became a regular request until one Shabbos the elder gabbai said, “How long will I continue asking you every Shabbos? Go up and read on your own.” From then on, until the middle of 5754, R’ Mottel was the regular Baal Koreh in the Rebbe’s minyan.
Over the years, he would give a shiur to bachurim in how to lain properly. Then for a number of years he stopped, until at a yechidus for his birthday, the Rebbe told him to start giving these shiurim again. He said, “Why shouldn’t bachurim know how to lead the services? I don’t mean for ‘v’ha’Kohanim’ (Yom Kippur Musaf liturgy) but for an ordinary Mincha.”
One time, when the Rebbe returned from the Ohel, it got late and the sun was setting. R’ Groner, who was sitting with the Rebbe in the car, said that the printing house was on their route, and the Rebbe said they should drive to the building that was located on Sutter Avenue in Brownsville. The Rebbe entered the printing house and asked one of the employees which way was east. The worker, who wasn’t accustomed to davening there, looked up in surprise and when he saw who was asking him, he started pointing in all four directions in his confusion. The Rebbe davened Mincha there and then continued on his way.
R’ Shusterman passed away on 22 Iyar 5755.