The humble greatness of Rebbe Chai Yitzchok Twersky of Rachmistrivka-Boro Park

Photos: Mattis Goldberg, JDN, Rachmistrivka archives

He never wanted to be a rebbe, and even when coronated against his will, he chose the most anonymous location for a beis medrash. Yet no matter how much of a “gornisht” Rebbe Chai Yitzchok Twersky ztz”l of Rachmistrivka-Boro Park wanted to make himself, the public flocked to him as if his very humility were a magnet, his impeccable middos and devotion to Torah and emes the glue for his chassidim. This week they’re in mourning. Next week they’ll strengthen themselves with the very lessons he taught them

“Zichron Moishe,” the Rebbetzin would say.

Yet she didn’t mean the shul, but the mindset, the neighborhood, and most of all, the pure simplicity of its people.

“My husband,” the daughter of Rav Yaakov Yosef of Skver and wife of the Rachmistrivka Rebbe would say, “wants to retire and go back home, to sit and learn in Zichron Moishe.”

But the Rebbe, who had been whittled out of the streets of Yerushalayim, was destined not just to live in America, but to rest there as well, a brand new beis hakevaros inaugurated last week for his kevurah. He did not leave America, because when, before his own chasunah, he asked his rebbe, Rav Aharon of Belz, for a brachah that he merit returning to the Holy City, the Belzer Rebbe said, “Yes, mit Mashiach in einem — together with Mashiach.”

The chassan understood and accepted the Rebbe’s words.

The Rebbe, who had been whittled out of the streets of Yerushalayim, was destined not just to live in America, but to rest there as well, a brand new beis hakevaros inaugurated last week for his kevurah

B

orn in 1931 to Rav Yochanan and Esther Rivkah Twersky, baby Yitzchok merited having his great- grandfather, Rav Nochum’che of Rachmistrivka, serve as his sandek. He was named for his ancestor, Rav Itzik’l of Skver, and raised in the shadow of the elter-zaide: In a city of great people who made little of themselves, the Rachmistrivka court had made this the overarching goal, to reach for pure pashtus.

Before his bar mitzvah, young Itzik’l took seriously ill, and his grandfather, Rebbe Duvid’l of Rachmistrivka, added the name Chaim. Chaim Yitzchok experienced a recovery that appeared miraculous, but in the turmoil, no one had realized that his younger brother was named Moshe Chaim.

The Zeide made a slight edit, modifying Chaim to Chai — saying that as eineklach of the Chida, they were blessed with a Sephardic heritage too, and the name Chai, used in the Sephardic community, carried the same auspiciousness. And so, Chai Yitzchok prepared for his bar mitzvah.

It was considered to be not just a seudas mitzvah, but also a seudas hoda’ah for the miraculous recovery. At the simchah, a conversation ensued between the tzaddikim at the head table, within earshot of the bar mitzvah bochur. “I brought the bar mitzvah bochur the gift of a Kli Yakar,” the Rebbe of Boyan-Leipzig told his cousin, the Rebbe of Husyatin, “because the bar mitzvah bochur is a kli yakar.”

When asked about the comment later in life, the Rachmistrivka Rebbe would say, “Yes, everyone knew that I had been so sick, so they were trying to be mechazek me.”

It was not the only indication that the bochur was exceptional.

Rebbe Ahrele Belzer had the custom of shaking hands through a towel, but when Itzik’l, grandson of the Rachmistrivka Rebbe, came in, the Rebbe would take his hand.

Like generations of Yerushalmi bochurim, Itzik’l took his place on the worn benches of Yeshivah Eitz Chaim. There, he found his rebbi. Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer had brought the lomdus of Lita up to the Holy City, and in Eitz Chaim, the young men immersed themselves in his shiurim and approach to the sugya.

The purity of a rebbishe kind, the lomdus of a talmid of the Even Ha’azel… but it was all wrapped up in the pashtus of Rachmistrivka, so little was made of it.

Later, Rebbe Aharon of Belz would personally involve himself in the shidduch between the Rachmistrivka bochur and his own cousin Miriam Twersky, the daughter of Rav Yaakov Yosef of Skver — in faraway America.

Very far away.