“The Klausenburger Rebbe is especially remembered for his foresight in establishing yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs immediately after the war in the DP camps”

Rav Chaim Was Definitely a Shadchan [A Storied People / Issue 1022]

In this story, Rabbi Seltzer stated that “Rav Chaim was not a shadchan,” and was shocked to hear from “Rafael” that “Rav Chaim was my shadchan.”

But in his amazing work, Rav Chaim, published by ArtScroll Mesorah Publications, Rav Naftali Weinberger writes that Rav Chaim and his Rebbetzin made more than 20 shidduchim. In fact, in their later years, they would spend the meals they ate together trying to think of shidduchim for those that came to them during kabbalas kahal (Pg 93-94).

To me, this fact in no way detracts from how amazing Rabbi Seltzer’s story is, but it’s a good opportunity to learn about the incredible gadlus of Rav Chaim and his Rebbetzin, zechusam yagein aleinu.

Michael Goldman

Kudos to Your Proofreaders! [20 Questions for 20 Years / Issue 1022]

“No one ever compliments a proofreader,” says Reb Refoel Pride. Well, I will. When I started teaching English some 20 years ago, I thought it would be a fun activity to take frum magazine articles and have my students detect grammar mistakes in them. I had no dearth of material at the time.

But soon enough, Mishpacha became useless in that respect. We now use it to analyze figurative speech, great dialogue, and the power of literary quotations (shout-out to Rabbi Feldman).

Grammatical errors we still find? The use of “by” to mean in, with, or at (“eating by my in-laws” instead of “eating at my in-laws”). And lately there has been a rash of “my friend and I” in the objective case (“she invited my friend and I” instead of “she invited my friend and me”).

But besides that, as I’ve been saying for years, kudos to the proofreaders at Mishpacha.

Tamar Fischer,

Zurich

Despite the Ideological Differences [For the Record / Issue 1021]

Your historical vignette on former Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Halevi Herzog reminded me of an anecdote told by Marvin Schick, Rav Aharon Kotler’s right hand man.

Rav Aharon Kotler was in Yerushalayim on the Shabbos of Rav Herzog’s petirah. The Rosh Yeshivah wanted to be maspid him, as Rav Aharon held Rav Herzog in great chashivus. The hespedim were being held at Heichal Shlomo, which the Brisker Rav had paskened against even entering.

Nevertheless, Rav Aharon was inclined to participate. It was suggested to Rav Aharon that he discuss the issue with the Brisker Rav. The request bothered the Rosh Yeshivah; he felt that it had some deficit in kavod, so he replied, “Ich ken paskenen alein — I can decide questions on my own.” (My grandfather, Rav Shmuel Maslow, told me of his own experience with Rav Aharon saying something similar.)

Rav Aharon didn’t go to the Brisker Rav, but made his own decision to give a hesped separately from the official program. He could have given one as the mitah was transported to Heichal Shlomo, before anyone else spoke. But, so as not to impinge on the kavod of the Rishon L’Tzion, who would have gone first, Rav Aharon decided to give his hesped afterward instead, at the beis olam.

The kavod that talmidei chachamim give to each other, even when they have ideological differences, should be a lesson to us in this period when ahavas chinam is so necessary to counter the lack of it at the time of the last Churban.

Dovid Gross

Passaic, NJ

A Chassidishe Twist [With Friendship, With Love / Issue 1021]

At the end of the obituary for Rav Avraham Shmulevitz ztz”l, reference was made to the pasuk, “kashah alai preidaschem.” The common understanding of this is, “How difficult it is for us to part from each other.”

There’s a unique interpretation of this pasuk from the chassidic masters: “How difficult it is for me is ‘preidaschem,’ you being distanced from one another. Work on becoming closer.” Surely that was the underlying kavanah of Rav Avraham Shmulevitz, ztz”l.

Josh Darabaner

Lakewood, NJ

The Rebbe’s Devotion to Chinuch Habanos [Reconstructed on a Dream / Issue 1020]

It is fitting that we commemorate the leadership of the Klausenburger Rebbe on his 30th yahrtzeit. He is especially remembered for his foresight in establishing yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs immediately after the war in the DP camps. My mother, Mrs. Sara Abraham Seidman a”h, was a witness to the Rebbe’s incredible devotion to his talmidos.

My mother attended Bais Yaakov Seminary in Chernowitz, Romania before World War II. She escaped the Russian invasion of Chernowitz and made it back to her home town of Turda, Romania. A Bais Yaakov was established in the ghetto of Turda and my mother, age 17, became the teacher. Later her family fled to Bucharest, where she taught in a Jewish orphanage.

After the war, my mother’s family passed through Germany, and the Klausenburger Rebbe became aware of her. The Rebbe asked my mother, whose visa to America was expiring in six months, to join him in the DP camps as a teacher. She joined him in Feldafing, later moving to Foehrenwald, and taught in the newly established Bais Yaakov of Foehrenwald. Her visa subsequently expired, and it took four years since first meeting the Rebbe for her to finally arrive in the United States!

The Rebbe also asked my grandmother, Rebbetzin Perel Abraham, to be the halachah teacher for the girls and to prepare them for marriage and for running a Jewish home.

In addition to this official position, my grandmother served as the unofficial “camp mother.” When girls had nightmares, they found their way to my grandmother’s bed. Every day my grandmother would travel to one of the five area hospitals to visit and nurse the ill survivors. My mother and grandmother were paid by the American Army (the overseers of the Foehrenwald DP camp) in cigarettes. They bartered these cigarettes on the black market for items for the patients. For one patient the German doctors considered so ill it “wasn’t worth wasting an aspirin on her,” my grandmother bartered her cigarettes for aspirin. For another patient with a kidney ailment, she brought a cooked apple. One girl had a disfiguring skin disease and no one wanted to touch her. My grandmother came and bathed her.

It is worth noting that these orphaned girls continued to visit my grandmother in Boro Park when they were in their 70s and my grandmother was in her late 90s.

My mother would often reminisce about the Rebbe’s hands-on devotion to the Bais Yaakov. At midnight the Rebbe’s gabbai would knock on my mother’s window. “The Rebbe wants to talk to you,” he would say.

The Rebbe would ask, “What did you teach today? This is what you should teach tomorrow. How is this girl? How is that girl?”

My mother completed her life’s journey nine months ago. She led a full, rich life. Her momentous decision to become a Bais Yaakov teacher both during and after the war was life-changing for her and our family. And for the more than 80 years since, her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were raised with the legacy of a matriarch who gave up her visa to teach survivors, repeated the stories of her mother’s chesed in Foehrenwald, reminisced about the impact of the Klausenburger Rebbe, and recalled with gratitude the love her students shared with her.

Ruchama Seidman Fund

A Glimpse into Our World [Inbox / Issue 1020]

In response to Rachel Ginsburg’s article about Hamas’s sinister agenda to destroy our country on multiple fronts, a reader wrote that our brothers and sisters in chutz l’Aretz are nosei b’ol chaveiro, “even nine months later.”

I agree wholeheartedly. The plethora of tefillos, kabbalos, financial contributions, mission trips, and even just keeping up with the news here are very important and hugely appreciated.

But as the wife of a miluimnik who has been on the Jenin/Tulkarem front since October 7, and the mother of a 22-year-old who is currently in Gaza and has buried so many friends, and as someone who has had the agony of watching her friends lose a child or grandchild, I want you to understand that it’s not nine months later for us.

It’s every single moment of every single day.

Imagine not knowing where your child/spouse/parent is. If they are suffering. If they are hungry or hurt or worse. For nine months.

Imagine being terrified of a simple knock on the door or an unknown caller. For nine months.

Imagine contemplating which is preferable: immediate death or living with horrific injuries. For nine months.

Imagine cleaning your house, doing the laundry, washing the dishes every single night, no matter how exhausted you are, in fear of not being able to do it tomorrow if there is bad news. For nine months.

Michal Reit

Ramat Beit Shemesh

My Megillas Esther [Shelf Life / Issue 1015]

I’m responding to the feature where writers wrote about a particular sefer on their shelf which had an impact on them. I, too, have a special one given to me by Rev. Lionel Mirvis, who arrived in Wynberg, a suburb of Cape Town, at the tip of Africa, in the beginning of 1968.

I was his first congregant to have a bar mitzvah — parshas Hachodesh. He taught me the “trop” on a reel-to-reel tape recorder, so well, I was able to teach my own sons.

The Jewish day school was a long journey from Wynberg, so most of our community sent their children to the local public school. There was a need for some form of religious instruction, so after regular school hours, our shul had classes teaching basic Hebrew and laws of the chagim.

At the end of the school year, which is December, because we’re in the southern hemisphere, we would have a Chanukah concert, where prizes would be awarded. That year I received a Megillas Esther. I treasured it and used it almost every year for 56 years!

Rev. Mirvis remained in our congregation for many years. He was a wonderful teacher and friend. I think of him often, especially when Purim comes around. On Purim, his youngest son, Errol, would make a very loud noise with a cake tin. He was a quiet boy generally, but not on Purim. Years later, he became very well known as Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom.

Michael Goldstein

South Africa

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1023)