The story of the chalutz who became the pioneer of teshuvah in Eretz Yisrael

Photos: Itzik Balinsky

Meah Shearim, 1920.

A group of bareheaded young men walked hesitantly through the neighborhood, studying the crowded row of houses that lined the street. Their short trousers and sandals identified them as chalutzim, the pioneers of the secular kibbutzim committed to draining the swamps and rebuilding the land. Finally, they came to the building they were looking for: Yeshivas Meah Shearim, in the heart of the shuk. They walked into the beis medrash and it didn’t take but a minute for them to find the young man they were looking for — a holy, bearded Jew, clad in a Yerushalmi chalat, poring over his sefer. To the surprise of the others in the beis medrash, the guests approached this man and asked to speak to him. He signaled to them silently that he would come outside with them, so that the others would not be disturbed.

Seconds later, once outside, they pounded him with questions. “Alex! What happened to you? Are you okay? Do you need help? Maybe you need money?” It wasn’t the first time they’d tried to win him back. But this time, to their surprise, their questions were met with absolute silence. The Yerushalmi avreich — their former kibbutz partner, the strong one who kept them inspired and forward-moving when exhaustion took over, when Arab interlopers sabotaged their hard work, when the harsh elements and unyielding terrain threatened to pull them under — tapped lightly on his lips, and uttered “Nu, uh, aha, nu,” as if to say, “I cannot speak now.”

“Alex has gone crazy,” his old friends concluded.

The friends conveyed their opinion in a telegram dispatched to Alex’s parents, the Uri family in Vienna.

Alex’s father, Reb Elazar Uri, received the sparsely-worded telegram and became anxious. He hurried to travel to Bluzhov, to the Tzvi LaTzaddik — Rebbe Rav Tzvi Elimelch Spira  zy”a, a grandson of the Bnei Yissaschar and a distant cousin of Reb Elazar. The Bluzhover Rebbe knew Reb Elazar Uri well. Vienna in those days was the large medical hub of the Austrian Empire, and it drew many people from all over Europe seeking cures for their ailments. The Uri family was known for hosting rebbes and rabbanim who needed to stay in the busy city.

“Rebbe!” Reb Elazar cried, “not only has my son become a secular kibbutznik, but he’s gone crazy, according to his friends from the Holy Land.” The Rebbe looked at the kvittel and read, “Alexander Sender ben Rivka.” Then he raised his eyes to the chassid and declared: “Zera kodesh.”