Parshas Vayeishev

 

Hey there kinderlach!
I am so excited! I am finally back here in my favorite chair, at my favorite desk, holding my favorite red pen that I got as a birthday present from Mrs Getzel many many years ago.
What a week it has been! Did you know that the Shpalerno Prison is still in use?! I was so scared trying to get in there! My zeide – the original Reb Getzel - was one of the Chassidim who just managed to escape the NKVD by the skin of his teeth, and I was sure that they would still have a file open on him, and maybe they would think I was him and send me off to deepest Siberia!
You see everything in Russia goes by your passport. Or as they like to call it there, your ‘document’. If you want to buy a train ticket – show your passport. If want to get into Shpalerno Prison – show your passport. If you need to ask a policeman for directions to the Petropolski Fortress – show your passport. It is a good job that Mrs Getzel had tied my passport around my neck otherwise I might have ended up in the Shpalerno Prison for real.
Anyway, since the Russians like passports so much, the first thing that happened when I asked Boris the Guard to let me into Shpalerno, was that he asked for my passport. Boy was I shaking! From the look on his face I got the feeling that he was already starting to think which of the many cells in Shpalerno he should put me in. Unfortunately, I never even got past the front door. Boris the Guard just told me in broken English, ‘this Russian CIA.’ By which I guess he means that the building is still used by the NKVD or whatever it is called these days. I tried explaining to them that this was an important historical building and they should let me in to take a few pictures but Boris did not seem very excited by this idea. So humming ‘didan notzach,’ to myself, I wished him a ‘dobrei dyen,’ and headed on my way.
My next stop was the Petropolski Fortress. I was so excited! I was travelling across the same river that the Alter Rebbe had crossed! Have you heard the story of how the Alter Rebbe made the boat stop to say kiddush levana? Well I was travelling across the same river! In fact the boat I was in looked so old, it could have even been the same boat!
Well at least I was able to get into the fortress, but unfortunately the actual part where the Alter Rebbe had been kept has been knocked down. It is still a very scary fortress and if you come by boat across the river it is even scarier because it really towers over you. It is easy to understand why the Chassidim were so happy when the Alter Rebbe was released!
Before I knew it though, my trip was over and it was time to head back to the water-logged corn fields of Iowa. It had been a really amazing trip – I had seen some special places in Petersburg, visited some of the Shluchim there, and even had time to eat in their super-fancy Shalom restaurant. And most important it had made me appreciate even more the mesiras nefesh that the Rabbeim had had for us Chassidim and for chassidus, and that made all the passport checks worthwhile.

Talk to you later (I mean next week).
Dr. Getzel

 

כ“ט כסלו

Two years after he was arrested and set free in תקנ“ט (1798), the אלטער רבי was arrested a second time; the reason was the same as the first time. His second imprisonment was not as difficult as the first; and חסידים celebrate the חג הגאולה on כ“ט כסלו , the fifth day of חנוכה , with פארברענגען ’s and learning the אלטער רבי ’s חסידות .

This Shabbos is שבת מברכים חודש טבת

• שבת morning I made sure to say תהילים .  (Remember to say your quota for the World-Wide Tehillim club)  
• I went to Shul and made the special ברכה for the new month of טבת . (The ברכה can be found in the סידור after שחרית for שבת )

ראש חודש טבת

Thursday ל‘ כסלו -
Friday א‘ טבת -

• I remembered to say יעלה ויבא in שמונה עשרה and in bentching.
• I remembered to say הלל after שמונה עשרה .
• I remembered to daven  מוסף .
• I remembered to say ברכי נפשי after the שיר של יום .
• (For Girls) I didn’t sew or do any laundry.

Things weren't so bad for the Yidden when the Greeks first entered Eretz Yisroel. The Greeks were not uncivilized fighters; they did not want to destroy the Jewish people or their land. In fact, they were wise people, who liked to think, paint, and build. They admired beautiful things and they respected other peoples' wisdom.

So why did a war break out between the Greeks and the Yidden? Why did the Greeks make laws against the Torah and punish Yidden who did not follow their rules?

Let's try to picture how it might have happened: The Greek king wanted to find out how to rule Eretz Yisrael, so he sent out some soldiers to mix with the Jews. "Find out more about these people. See how they live. Study their daily activities, and then report to me," he instructed his soldiers.

The soldiers set out on their mission. At first they didn't mind what they saw; honest shopkeepers were good for everyone, and even the mezuzos on their doors didn't bother them - they believed in remembering   history.

On their way, the soldiers passed by an olive grove. "Take a look at that fellow," one pointed to a Jewish worker. "He's collecting single drops of oil from each olive."

"Hey Jew, it'll take you forever to get the oil out of the olives if you do it that way. Here, let me show you how we do it..."

"Thank you, sir," the worker replied. "We also use oil presses. But not for this oil. These first drops of oil will light the menorah in our Holy Beis Hamikdosh."

"Menorah? What's that? And why do you do it that way?"

The worker explained about the Beis Hamikdosh, and concluded: "...that's the way G-d tells us to do it."

"You mean you do it just because your G-d says so?"

The Jew nodded and went back to work; he didn't try to explain. The Greeks believed only things that they could understand. It wasn't easy to explain to them that we do things just because Hashem says so.

The soldiers reported to their king. He was bothered by what they told him. "We'll show them," he said to his men. "They may have an interesting religion, but they have to learn to accept man-made ideas, not some holy commandments from an invisible G-d.

"Let them light the menorah if they want to. But we'll give their oil our Greek touch."

And that's what the Greeks did. They entered the Beis Hamikdosh and made the oil impure. Then they tried to stop the Jews from observing Hashem's Torah and mitzvos.

The Jews responded with mesiras nefesh, challenging the most powerful army in the world with just a few men and hardly any arms. But Hashem helped them. They miraculously defeated the Greek armies, came back into the Beis Hamikdosh, and cleansed it of that Greek touch. And then, the menorah again burned with the light of pure oil.

‘Please Tell Me What The Rebbe Said’

 

ר‘ אברהם Greenwald first saw the Rebbe when he attended the Rebbe's wedding in Warsaw in 1929. He was thirteen.

He had lost both his parents at a young age and was brought up by his mother's cousin, the famous תלמיד חכם , הרב מנחם Zamba. When Rabbi Zamba attended the Rebbe’s wedding, along with hundreds of other רבנים and תלמדי חכמים , young אברהם went along.

The day after the wedding, Rabbi Zamba and the boy went to the Rebbe's hotel room to personally wish him מזל טוב . The Rebbe received them warmly and as they were about to leave, after a friendly and lively תורה conversation, the Rebbe turned to אברהם and asked, "Do you know why it is a מנהג by many חסידים to make a special celebration on the fifth night of חנוכה ?"

Neither of them answered...so the Rebbe continued,

"The purpose of the חנוכה lights is to light up the רוחניות darkness of the outside world. The fifth night of חנוכה is the darkest because it is the only night of the יום טוב that can never fall on שבת . And this is the job of every איד , whether in Warsaw or in London, to light up even the darkest places."

Time passed. אברהם got סמיכה , married and had five beautiful children. But Poland wasn't a very safe place anymore for the אידן .

The Germans, ימח שמם , conquered Poland. Together with the willing help of the Polish people, they sent millions of אידן into concentration camps where they suffered terribly and murdered most of them. ר‘ אברהם was no exception. He suffered for years through several concentration camps and his wife and children were killed. After the war he was broken, physically and mentally.

An uncle of his, ר‘ משה Greenwald, lived in America. When he heard that ר‘ אברהם was still alive, he offered to buy him plane tickets and finally managed to convince him to come to America.

Then after a year or so, in 1948, he introduced ר‘ אברהם to a woman who also had lost everything in the holocaust and they agreed to marry. But before the wedding, the כלה 's רב , Rabbi Kopel Shvarts of Toronto who was close to the פריערדיקער רבי took ר‘ אברהם to New York to receive a ברכה .

The פריערדיקער רבי cried tears of pain when he heard what ר‘ אברהם had been through. He gave him a ברכה and suggested that since he had been at his son-in-law's (the Rebbe’s) wedding he should go to visit him as well.

When they entered the Rebbe's room the Rebbe recognized him immediately and began to ask about ר‘ אברהם ’s cousin, Rabbi Zamba who had been murdered by the Nazis, ימח שמם . He concluded by saying, "Since the Rebbe, my father in law, sent you to me I will say a דבר תורה about חנוכה , as we are in the month of כסלו . It is known that there is מנהג by those who follow the בעל שם טוב to make a special celebration on the fifth night of חנוכה . Why? Because that night never can fall on שבת which is the greatest darkness. That is the power of the lights of חנוכה and the duty of every איד , no matter where he is, whether in New York or in London, to illuminate the darkest רוחניות situations."

ר‘ אברהם was amazed that the Rebbe repeated exactly what he had said twenty years ago in Warsaw. And he was confused as to why he again included London. He didn't dream of the importance it would have to him one day.

Eventually, after his חתונה , ר‘ אברהם settled in Toronto working with Satmar חסידים as a רב and teacher and he had three children, two boys and a girl.

Unfortunately, many Satmar חסידים were against the Rebbe and Lubavitcher חסידים and spoke not nicely about them. Even though ר‘ אברהם lived among them, he and his children never spoke bad against חב“ד .

His children grew and eventually his son, משה חיים , met a nice girl and they became engaged. ר‘ אברהם decided to take him to the Rebbe for a ברכה before his wedding as he had done years ago.

A month before the חתונה in 1969, he again was standing before the Rebbe's door, but this time with his own son.

As soon as they entered, the Rebbe immediately recognized him and said "Well, it's about time, after a twenty year break!" ר‘ אברהם was astounded but after a few seconds he recovered enough to give the Rebbe a small page upon which he wrote all his requests.

(To be continued)

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