A Hundred Notes

When the editors began working on the current edition of the Ahavas Yisrael’s works, they were certain that they had already exhausted all the outside sources who had access to his chiddushim. To their great surprise however, they soon uncovered additional divrei Torah that had never been printed, and that led them on a further hunt where they managed to recover about a hundred previously unknown teachings from chassidim in Eretz Yisrael alone.

How to track down these lost notes? The editors approached the fundraisers of the Vizhnitz and Seret-Vizhnitz institutions — they might be aware of elderly Jews who had been in Grosswardein or of their descendants, who might be in possession of written copies of the Rebbe’s divrei Torah.

Rav Naftali Berman, director of development for Seret-Vitzhnitz in Eretz Yisrael, told Rav Deutsch that he had been in contact with a newly religious Jew whose grandfather had been connected to the Vizhnitzer rebbes in Europe, and was in fact one of the few chassidim who had steadily recorded the Rebbe’s divrei Torah after every tisch. The grandfather’s name was Rav Moshe Aharon Mendelovitz. The grandson went on to admit that his own father — Berel Mendelovitz — eventually became anti-religious and, feeling no connection to his heritage, sold his entire library, including any Torah transcriptions he might have possessed. But he did have one positive piece of information to share. “I have an uncle who was older than my father; he’s still alive and lives in Herzliya. Perhaps you’ll find something in his possession.”

Rav Deutsch and another colleague made their way to the home of Yaakov Koppel Mendelovitz. Mendelovitz, who is 92 today, resides on a quiet side street in Hertzliya. He lives in his son’s home and relies on the services of a foreign aide. But while his age may have taken its toll on his body, his mind and memory are as sharp as ever.

Even if he didn’t possess any of those invaluable notes, they hoped he would share his recollections and enrich their historical knowledge. Mendelovitz admitted to his guests that he had severed his connection to Vizhnitz after the war, but he did remember seeing a newspaper article about how the Imrei Chaim had brought the aron of his father, the Ahavas Yisrael, to Eretz Yisrael from the old cemetery in Grosswardein, where he was initially buried in 1936. The Ahavas Yisrael was subsequently reinterred in a special ohel dedicated to the rebbes of Vizhnitz in the Zichron Meir cemetery in Bnei Brak in 1949.

Yaakov Koppel told how that year, he decided to pay a visit to the ohel and was moved by the discovery of a memorial to the Jews of Grossswardein that included the name of his father, Rav Moshe Aharon Hy”d, who perished in the Holocaust. During that visit to Bnei Brak, he also met up with the Imrei Chaim — but that was the last contact he had with Vizhnitz and his chassidic heritage.

But when Rabbi Deutsch began to talk about the Ahavas Yisrael, the floodgates of emotion opened as images of his father’s home and the Rebbe’s court surfaced in his mind’s eye. He began humming the ancient tune for Eishes Chayil while the conversation somehow switched to Yiddish, a language Mendlovitz hadn’t used for many years.

In Vizhnitz, according to chassidic folklore, one of the most fundamental failings of any chassid is a lack of mastery of the Vizhnitzer nusach. They say that when the nusach of Vizhnitz enters a person’s soul, it takes up permanent residence there and becomes embedded for eternity. Some of the tunes for davening in Vizhnitz are attributed to Reb Yaakov Koppel Chassid, who served as a baal tefillah for the Baal Shem Tov himself.

That immortal nusach now began to pour forth from the heart of Yaakov Koppel Mendelovitz, who bears the name of the Baal Shem Tov’s legendary follower.

Revelations

“I had a childhood friend named Mottele, who was the brother of the Vizhnitzer Rebbe who passed away last year,” Mendlowitz later related to Mishpacha, following his emotionally-charged meeting with Rabbi Deutsch. “Those young men who were here [Rabbi Deutsch and his friend] told me that he has been serving as the Vizhnitzer Rebbe in Monsey for about 40 years now and that he has thousands of chassidim. I was very surprised. I had never imagined that he would reach such a position of leadership.”

Mendlowitz relates that, in those bygone days, he enjoyed a close bond with the boy who grew up to become the 92-year-old Vizhnitz-Monsey Rebbe. They learned together in the local talmud Torah in Grosswardein, and later in yeshivah, until they parted ways.

“We learned in a private talmud Torah; our melamed was Reb Yossel Einhorn from the town of Vilkowitz, the son of Reb Nachman the tzitzis-macher and the son-in-law of the famous chassid Reb Moshe Yaakov Rosenfeld.”

Yaakov Koppel celebrated his bar mitzvah in the Rebbe’s beis medrash. His pilpul was prepared by the son-in-law of Rav Pinchas Tzimterbaum Hy”d, the av beis din of Grosswardein. Rav Yitzchak Yaakov Weiss ztz”l, who later achieved renown as the author of Minchas Yitzchak and as the Gaavad of the Eidah HaChareidis, lived in Grosswardein and was a good friend of Yaakov Koppel’s father, Rav Moshe Aharon.

The Vizhnitzer-Monsey Rebbe, who is known for his outspokenness and kanaus, became attracted to Satmar and spent time learning in the Satmar yeshivah after coming to the United States for a visit many years ago. “Vizhnitz wasn’t enough for him,” Yaakov Koppel explains. He also remembers the Yeshuos Moshe — Rebbe Moshe Yehoshua, the previous rebbe — who was five years older than him and was an extraordinary masmid even in his youth.

“Reb Moishele was not the type of person you could simply have a friendly chat with. He never had time to talk. His head was in Torah day and night. They say that when he learned in the yeshivah in Vizhnitz, which was run by his uncle, Rav Eliezer Hager — the Damesek Eliezer — he used to continue learning in the attic after the lights were turned off in the beis medrash. He would remain there until the morning, when the learning in the yeshivah resumed. He slept only during the afternoon break. Reb Mottele, who was my age, also loved to learn, but since we were children and we were friends, we found time to talk about things.”

Yaakov Koppel learned under Rebbe Moshe Yehoshua for a short time in the yeshivah in Grosswardein in 1939, but transferred to the Krasna yeshivah after failing to meet the Yeshuos Moshe’s rigorous expectations. “I groomed my beard, and the administration did not like that,” he offers as a partial explanation.

Another famous student in that cheder was the Rebbe’s cousin, Reb Yehoshua (Shiku) Lau-Hager, the half-brother (through his father) of Rav Yisrael Meir Lau of Tel Aviv. Yehoshua Lau’s mother was the daughter of the Ahavas Yisrael. Reb Yehoshua, who passed away in 2011, was two years older than Yaakov Koppel, but they too were close friends. The bond between them did not continue into their years in Eretz Yisrael, however, despite the fact that they were both refugees living in the same country. “I was completely disconnected from Vizhnitz after the war,” he relates. Today, he sighs in regret over that.

Yaakov Koppel related to Mishpacha that, together with his father, he spent more time in the Rebbe’s court than he did at home.

“The Rebbe [the Ahavas Yisrael] used to receive letters from all over the world. I used to cut the stamps off the envelopes and collect them in a special album. When we went to the Rebbe, I never understood my father’s conversations with him, but I used to take his hand and kiss it. The Rebbe, for whatever reason, always tried to pull it away from me, but I pressed my lips against it by force and kissed it reverently.”

In Vizhnitz, the chassidim used to kiss their Rebbes’ hands. Why would he try to pull his hand away? Yaakov Koppel laughs. “Do I know? Maybe the Rebbe already sensed that I was a shaigetz.”

Shabbos Treats

When the Vizhnitz-Monsey Rebbe heard his grandson’s account of Reb Mendelovitz’s meeting with Rav Deutsch, he was thrilled. A childhood friend from another world. Someone else who could share his own memories. “What did Yaakov Koppel say about his father?” the Rebbe asked his grandson.

“He said that on every Motzaei Shabbos he used to go with his father to the Ahavas Yisrael’s room in order to review the divrei Torah that the Rebbe had said over Shabbos. He said that his father was one of the few people who understood the divrei Torah at all.” (As is customary in Vizhnitz, the Rebbe’s divrei Torah were based on gematrias, and not everyone was capable of absorbing them.)

The Rebbe nodded and confirmed Yaakov Koppel’s account to his grandson. “Reb Moshe was one of the three privileged people who used to review my grandfather’s divrei Torah together with him. The other two were Rav Zeidel Herling and Rav Moshe Yaakov Rosenfeld. He was a great talmid chacham who once served as the rosh yeshivah in Grosswardein, but that was before my time. He later made a living as a mashgiach in a slaughterhouse, but he still spent every free moment immersed in Torah study. He was considered one of the most prominent chassidim. In fact, my grandfather ztz”l used to say to him every week before Shabbos, ‘Where will I get something for Shabbos?’ He was referring to the divrei Torah that he would later give over. After Shabbos, he would comment to Rav Moshe Aharon, ‘I am embarrassed and ashamed of the Torah that I said over Shabbos.’

“But,” the Rebbe continued to his grandson, “Rav Moshe Aharon’s son Berel was already beginning to slip away. He even came to see me once when I visited Eretz Yisrael. For me it was a tragedy. Berel and Yaakov Koppel literally grew up in the court of the Ahavas Yisrael.”

In fact, the Rebbe invoked Rav Moshe Aharon’s name to his own yeshivah students in Monsey, to encourage them to improve their own learning.

“Let that man, Rav Moshe Aharon, be remembered for a blessing, for he taught me as a bachur that even when a person learns all day long, he must still designate a set time for learning from which he will not detract even by a hairsbreadth. He was the one who encouraged me to learn daf yomi and midrash, and to learn about tefillah. Rav Moshe Aharon used to review many masechtos by heart while he walked through the streets of the city. I would ask him any questions I had. Whenever I encountered a particular difficulty, he was the address for solving all my dilemmas.”

After the discovery of his son Yaakov Koppel, the Rebbe conducted an extensive dialogue with him through intermediaries, although they haven’t spoken directly. Still, the Rebbe wanted to hear how Reb Mendelovitz remembered the Ahavas Yisrael’s court, and offered his grandson his corrected version of some of those events. For example, Yaakov Koppel claimed that he remembers the Imrei Chaim’s daughter, Rebbetzin Tzipporah Friedman of Yerushalayim [the Ahavas Yisrael’s granddaughter and the Rebbe’s sister], saying the Mah Nishtanah at the Ahavas Yisrael’s Seder, which Rebbe Mottele vehemently denied. The Rebbe’s grandson, however, was curious to uncover the truth — and phoned his great-aunt to ask her directly what that was all about. Remembering those holy Seder nights with her grandfather, she clarified that both her brother the Rebbe and Mendelovitz were actually correct. “I didn’t ask the questions during the Seder,” she recalled. “But after the Seder was over, I entered the Zeide’s room and said the Mah Nishtanah for him.”

What did Yaakov Koppel Mendelovitz remember? He came together with his father, Rav Moshe Aharon, to the Ahavas Yisrael’s room to review the divrei Torah from the Haggadah, when the Rebbe’s granddaughter stood before him reciting the Mah Nishtanah.

Reb Mendelovitz shared more memories. “Every Shabbos, meals were given to about 50 or 60 people in the Ahavas Yisrael’s court,” he relates. “Everyone was allowed in, even those beggars whom we nicknamed ‘flower guests,’ due to the stench of their unwashed clothes. But in the Rebbe’s court, they didn’t check anyone’s tzitzis. Everyone was accepted with warmth. The Rebbe himself ate in his home, not with his guests in the beis medrash. The guests did not wait to make Kiddush until seven o’clock, as the Rebbe did.”

He goes on to relate, however, that the Rebbe’s court was not blessed with ample resources. There were no wealthy philanthropists funding the needs of the many visitors, and each expenditure was carefully measured. In spite of that, taking care of those in need was top priority.

“The gabbaim received such a meager salary that they were barely able to buy bread and water,” says Yaakov Koppel, painting a picture of the rampant destitution in the Rebbe’s court. In order to reduce expenses, he relates, the wine served at the Rebbe’s tisch was diluted with water.

Is Yaakov Koppel exaggerating? According to the Vizhnitz-Monsey Rebbe, the answer is yes. The Rebbe dismisses Yaakov Koppel’s account as imaginative exaggeration.

“My grandfather of blessed memory,” the Rebbe told his grandson, “used to put a thousand liras in a box, and the money from that box was used to pay all the gabbaim. The famous composer and singer Reb Nissan Yust, who was also paid from that money, used to stand next to the Zeide at the tisch and announce who had placed the wine there. The Ahavas Yisrael’s wine, said the Rebbe, was sponsored by the town’s wealthy homeowners, and there was no logical reason for it to be watered down.

Yetzer Hara Is Everywhere

“I remember the Rebbe’s petirah very well,” related Reb Mendelovitz, who was then a bochur of 15. “He passed away on Shabbos. I was standing next to the windowsill, and I watched how they took care of the mitah after he passed away. My father cried bitterly. The funeral was on Motzaei Shabbos and was attended by thousands of people, even from afar. I myself did not take part in the funeral, but I watched it from the window of our house. I remember the hundreds of rabbanim and admorim who came to pay their condolences to the Rebbe’s mourning sons. One of them was the Satmar Rebbe [the Divrei Yoel], who had visited the Rebbe many times.”

The question is unavoidable. How could Yaakov Koppel — the son of one of the Ahavas Yisrael’s most prominent and closest chassidim, who had so many opportunities to bask in the Rebbe’s presence, who used to visit him weekly and learn Torah with his grandchildren — turn his back on his roots?

The Vizhnitz-Monsey Rebbe himself answers his grandson’s question. “The famous chassid Reb Mordechai Huna Fuchs used to tell the yungeleit in Grosswardein, ‘Do you think that there is no yetzer hara in the Rebbe’s court? Even the kohen gadol on Yom Kippur, in the Kodesh HaKadoshim of the Beis Hamikdash, had to take an oath that he would not deviate from the established service, for the yetzer hara is everywhere.”

To the disappointment of the chassidim and Rav Deutsch, Yaakov Koppel Mendelovitz, although full of memories and nostalgia, is not in possession of any of his father’s transcripts of the Rebbe’s divrei Torah. “Rav Zeidel Herling, who received a salary from the Imrei Chaim’s court in Grosswardein, compiled these divrei Torah. I have nothing.”

He might not have any transcripts, but those latent memories have served their own purpose. For, like they say in Vizhnitz, once a niggun penetrates the soul, it never leaves. Rav Deutsch has made another appointment with the nonagenarian, this time to put him on tefillin.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 449)