TIRELESS SHLIACH OUT OF THE LIMELIGHT

R’ Aharon Mordechai Zilberstrom was a fascinating personality.  For decades he worked as a soldier in the service of the Rebbe in the field of chinuch.  This was in addition to his being the director of Reshet Oholei Yosef Yitzchok and one of its founders. * Over the years, he experienced some interesting events, some of them extraordinary, in which he saw the hand of Hashem directing and helping him.

The name of R’ Aharon Mordechai Zilberstrom may not be known to many, since he never stood out among the public figures in Chabad, although for decades he held important jobs in education, starting from the time that he ran schools in France during and after the war, and then when he went to Eretz Yisroel, where he served as menahel of the Reshet Yosef Yitzchok schools for fifty years.

Although he was one of the founders of Reshet Oholei Yosef Yitzchok and one of its directors for many years, and he was an outstanding talmid chacham who taught Torah and Chassidus, his name wasn’t known enough.  For that was R’ Zilberstrom, a modest and humble person.  His great genius was also in his modesty and his silence which spoke more than a thousand words.

A DREAM THAT I HAD

During his years of service for the Reshet, he experienced great difficulties as well as outstanding successes.  On the course of the bumpy road he traveled, along with the other founding activists of the early years, he saw the open hand of Hashem guiding him.  Literally open miracles.  For example, the following story occurred in 5720 when the school in Ganim first opened, under his administration.

R’ Aharon Mordechai struggled mightily in order to found, establish and develop the Chabad educational empire.  Sometimes it was against officials in the Education Ministry who wanted to torpedo the Reshet, and sometimes they were officials in the education department of the municipality in Yerushalayim who did everything to thwart the growth and development of the Chabad school in the Monachat neighborhood (today Malcha) and then in Ir Ganim.  The Histadrut labor unions which were then politically aligned with the Mapai party did not sit idly by, and they waged a war against the Chabad school.  This was especially so during the months of registration when a real battle took place between the Lubavitchers who wanted to save precious souls and register the immigrant children in the Chabad schools to preserve their Judaism, and the members of Mapai who wanted to rip them away from Torah and mitzvos and register them in public schools.  R’ Zilberstrom even received threats to his life and that of his family.

R’ Aharon Mordechai, with seven years of battles behind him, was fearless.  That year, 5720, he managed, through brilliant tactics, to increase the registration of the Chabad school.  In light of his successful registration drive and the poor results for the public school in that neighborhood, he demanded of the city that he be given half of the beautiful public school.  It was simply absurd that the Chabad school be housed in old, ramshackle buildings, with some of the classes in temporary structures, while the public school was fully funded and was given a spacious building, half of which remained empty.  This demand aroused the fury of the Histadrut leaders, who decided to wage an all-out battle against him.

“R’ Aharon Mordechai fought like a lion with the directors of the education department of the city of Yerushalayim in order to get what he felt he deserved,” said R’ Dov Wallis, a Lubavitcher Chassid in Yerushalayim who worked with him during those years.  “However, by order of the Histadrut, the education department of the city ignored his requests and even fought him.  The issue reached the upper echelons of the Education Ministry which found itself involved up to its neck in the battle which had turned into a political struggle.

“I won’t forget that short winter Friday in Teves or Shvat when there was a fateful meeting with the elites of the Education Ministry.  R’ Dovid Chanzin also attended that meeting.  Although he was a widower and took care of his five small children on his own, he came especially to Yerushalayim for this meeting.  It was two or two thirty in the afternoon and he still had to return to Petach Tikva under the unreliable transportation conditions of those days.  Nevertheless, R’ Chanzin led the meeting calmly as though he had just begun his day.  We all ‘went crazy’ seeing him run the meeting with self-control despite the fact that the tone and emotions of the people present were rather high.”

The Education Ministry, along with the education department of the city led by members of the Histadrut, vigorously fought the Chabad school, while R’ Aharon Mordechai stood resolute, almost entirely alone, and fought valiantly for the souls of the Jewish children.

At a certain point, the matter reached the High Court of Yerushalayim.  The administration of the Reshet hired a top lawyer, Mr. Tzvi Tal (later a judge on the Supreme Court).  The situation did not look promising, as the judge was known for his anti-religious sentiments.  R’ Aharon Mordechai later said that this wasn’t a local matter about an individual school.  “We knew that the ramifications would affect generations to come.”  As menahel of the Reshet in those days, he feared for the fate of the entire Reshet.

Mr. Tal, the lawyer who represented the Reshet, was very nervous before the hearing to the point that he couldn’t sleep at night.

The day of the hearing, R’ Aharon Mordechai went to the courthouse in Yerushalayim early in the morning.  There he met the lawyer Tal who looked relaxed.  R’ Aharon Mordechai was surprised by this and asked what was going on. 

“I had a dream in which the Rebbe came to me and told me not to worry, everything will be fine.  So I’m relaxed,” said the lawyer.

What happened was no less than a Baalshemske miracle.  When it came time for the hearing, the judge, who was always very punctual, was running late.  Time passed and more time passed and there was still no judge to be seen.  The legal representatives of the litigants were already sitting and all were tense.  Apparently something had happened to the judge, so another judge was selected to replace him.  As it turned out, the replacement judge was a friend of the lawyer Tal!

After a lengthy proceeding, the judge decided in favor of the Reshet.  The Histadrut people were furious, for they were forced to approve the transfer of half their school building to the Chabad school.

SHLIACH FROM HEAVEN

Among the many projects that he was constantly busy with, R’ Aharon Mordechai had to raise funds for the official and semi-official activities that he wanted to do for the school but for which he did not receive an official budget.  Where did he obtain the funds from? Nobody knew but the following incident shows what kind of heavenly assistance he received.

One time he needed a large sum of money for various school expenses.  He knew that if he did not have the money in the morning, it would be a complete mess with the school’s bank account.  He was preoccupied with this.  Although he usually did not include his family in these matters which besieged him from all sides, that evening he told his wife that “the police might come tomorrow.”  He did not explain why.

It was late in the evening when there was knocking at his door on the fourth floor of the Beit Gazit building on Rechov Strauss in the center of Yerushalayim.  A stranger stood there and asked, “Zilberstrom family?”

When they said yes, he said, “I have an envelope for you,” and without any explanation he thrust the envelope into the hands of R’ Aharon Mordechai.  The man then disappeared.  In the envelope was a significant sum of money.

R’ Aharon Mordechai tried to figure out the identity of the man, who had appeared suddenly as an angel, but nobody knew.  “It must have been Eliyahu HaNavi,” said his family.

The next day, R’ Aharon Mordechai hurried to deposit the money.

Some time went by and one day he noticed the man walking down the street.  It looked like the man was rushing somewhere so R’ Aharon Mordechai did not have a chance to find out who he was and why he had suddenly showed up with money for him. 

Years passed and one day R’ Aharon Mordechai was invited to serve as sandak for a family in the Ir Ganim neighborhood. He arrived in the morning and someone invited him to his home for coffee and cake.

Uncharacteristically, he felt he should say yes and he went with the man to his home.  R’ Aharon Mordechai was an organized and well thought out person with every minute dear to him.  This was completely unlike him to accept an invitation from a stranger on the spur of the moment and yet he went.  And there he met the anonymous donor.

This time, he did not allow the opportunity to slip through his fingers and he asked the donor, “Why did you bring money that evening? You were an emissary from heaven to me!”

The man gave him a surprising response. “Just that day I earned a lot of money and I was so happy that I resolved to give a tenth of it to someone involved in education.  I asked various people in Kiryat Yovel and Ir Ganim who was involved in chinuch and they all told me, Rabbi Zilberstrom.  I managed to get your address and brought you the tithe that same night.”

MONEY FROM HEAVEN

Along with all his sterling qualities, R’ Aharon Mordechai performed acts of kindness physically, spiritually, and with his money.  His compassionate heart had him feeling the pain and lack of many and he would help them to the best of his ability.  Requests came his way to help needy families, both needy locals in Yerushalayim and Lubavitcher families from around the country.  The mashpia, R’ Moshe Weber, would often go to him and ask him for help in the various communal causes he directed.

R’ Aharon Mordechai tried to help even though he himself was a salaried worker who lived off a set salary from the Education Ministry.

An acquaintance of his had run into money difficulties, for he had not yet sold his current apartment but had signed a contract to buy a new apartment.  It was time for him to pay the seller but he did not have the money.  The seller threatened that if he did not receive the balance of the purchase price on time, he would sell the apartment to someone else and he would lose his down payment.

R’ Aharon Mordechai heard about this and he showed up at the man’s house with an open check and told the man, “Write what you need and may Hashem help you; when you have the money you’ll give it back to me.”

Another time, at the end of a shiur that took place in the kollel for balabatim attached to Yeshivas Toras Emes (he was one of the founders), the rosh kollel, R’ Zelig Feldman a”h, banged on the table and said that that day he had received a request from a family in distress who were about to marry off their son but did not have money. They needed 32,000 shekels for wedding expenses.  He asked the people present to contribute.  There were only ten men, none of whom were men of means.

R’ Aharon Mordechai went home lost in thought.  He wanted to help but didn’t have the means to do so.

As in other instances where divine providence guided him, it happened this time too.  The next morning the phone rang.  On the line was an official from Keren HaYesod (UIA-United Israel Appeal) who said that a man had died and left money to the fund and the official wanted to give some of the inheritance to a needy family.  The amount was exactly 32,000 shekels.

Astounded by this turn of events, R’ Aharon Mordechai exclaimed, “I have just the right family!” and he told her about what happened the day before and the exact amount that the family needed for the wedding.

He received the money and went directly to the home of R’ Zelig Feldman and gave it to him.  Those who knew R’ Zelig know that he was very intellectual and not given to emotional outbursts, but in this case even he said, “Something like this should be written down and documented.”

On another occasion, there were knocks at the Zilberstrom door and it was the noted askan, R’ Shlomo Maidanchek.  R’ Shloimke smilingly got to the point.  “Can you have a guest now?”

R’ Aharon Mordechai understood that this was not an ordinary visitor and he said, “I will go down to welcome him.”  He immediately ran down to the street where he was surprised to see the mashpia, R’ Mendel Futerfas.  R’ Aharon Mordechai wondered why the elderly mashpia had bothered to visit him.

R’ Mendel said, “We are fundraising for Tomchei T’mimim.  We heard that you can obtain large sums but from what I can see, you don’t have any.  So let’s make a compromise between what we hear and what we see,” and R’ Mendel, as fundraisers in Russia would do, stated an amount of 25,000 shekels that R’ Aharon Mordechai should raise for the yeshiva.  It was a vast sum and R’ Aharon Mordechai, who was careful with his speech and all the more so with his promises, did not commit.  He said he would try.

Two days went by and he somehow obtained that amount of money which he rushed to give to R’ Mendel.

IN HIS LATER YEARS

R’ Aharon Mordechai devoted the years after he retired to giving shiurim in Torah and Chassidus, by the explicit instruction of the Rebbe who told him at dollars distribution, “Spreading the wellsprings with joy and gladness of heart.”  In these shiurim he revealed a bit of his enormous knowledge in all parts of Torah, as well as his pedagogical skills in giving comprehensible shiurim constructed step by step.  His teaching abilities drew hundreds of people of all ages and sectors who loved his Torah lessons as well as his general knowledge.  He gave numerous shiurim across the country and was invited to address all sorts of crowds.  All this went counter to his nature and conduct throughout the years.

He was no longer a young man when he went from shiur to shiur, but his youthful spirit followed him to each place and this is how he was able to bring the pure wellsprings of the teachings of Chassidus to thousands of people.  He paid no attention to his advanced age and his daily schedule was packed with learning and teaching Torah.

In the last period of his life, he told his grandson, R’ Moshe Zilberstrom, stressing that he had never told this to anyone before, that he had received a special bracha from the Rebbe.  It was when he had a private audience with the Rebbe. At a certain point, the Rebbe bent over and looked for something in a drawer of his desk.  The Rebbe suddenly raised his head and blessed him with “length of days and good years.” 

R’ Zilberstrom stood there flustered, astounded by this blessing.  The Rebbe continued to search for something and suddenly straightened up and said, “together with her,” meaning his wife, Miriam.

Throughout his life, every minute was accounted for, knowing the value of the deposit he had been entrusted with, i.e. time.  You never saw him sitting idly.  About two or three months before he passed away, one of his children saw him looking introspective with a tinge of gloom about him.  It was not at all characteristic of him and when he was asked what happened, and why he wasn’t happy, he said, “I did not accomplish anything in life.”

The son recounted, “I had just read a story about the Tzemach Tzedek which said that before his passing, his assistant saw that he looked sad.  When he asked the Rebbe, the Rebbe said that he had not accomplished anything in his lifetime.  The assistant showed the Rebbe the closets packed with booklets of Chassidus he had written, but the Rebbe was not assuaged.  When he tried to appease him with the work that he did on behalf of dozens of agunos that he had allowed to remarry, the Rebbe was not assuaged. Finally, he said, ‘Rebbe, you made so many baalei teshuva!’ and this appeased him.  I used this story to assuage my father and reminded him of the thousands of students he had who, thanks to him, were exposed to the light of Torah and mitzvos and the teachings of Chassidus.”

About a month before his passing, during a visit of one of his daughters, he suddenly said, “If prayers were ineffective, then maybe it will be possible to accomplish through joy.”

In the last days of his life, his nephew, R’ Shmuel Menachem Jacobson visited him.  R’ Aharon Mordechai welcomed him and said, “I feel that I am in the doorway between this world and the next world.”  When his nephew tried to dissuade him, he remained silent.  On the historically tragic day of 17 Tammuz, R’ Aharon Mordechai passed away in his ninetieth year, the fulfillment of the Rebbe’s blessing to him for long life.  He passed away in Bikur Cholim hospital where his father, R’ Binyamin Nachum, and his father-in-law, R’ Tuvia Spiegel, passed away.

That night, Motzaei Shabbos Parshas Balak, a Chassid who devoted all his energies, talents and his very life, to the spreading of Judaism and the wellsprings of Chassidus, as well as fulfilling the shlichus given to him by the Rebbe Rayatz and the Rebbe, was accompanied to his final rest by a huge crowd who filled the shuk of Mea Sh’arim.  These included rabbanim, great Torah scholars, elder Chassidim and mashpiim, a large crowd of Lubavitchers and members of other Chassidic sects, family and students.

Indeed, he not only merited the fulfillment of the Rebbe’s blessing for length of days, but also “good years,” as his entire life was filled with work in spreading the good of Torah and Chassidus.