(“The Ribnitzer Rebbe” by Rabbi Avraham Hakohen Cohn, Israel Bookshop Publications, 272 pages, 2019, translated from the Hebrew book “B’mechitzaso” by Mrs. Esther Perkal and edited by Dr. Jeffrey Solomon.)
(“The Ribnitzer: The Life, Sanctity, and Legacy of Rav Chaim Zanvil Abramowitz” by Rabbi Nachman Seltzer. ArtScroll/Mesorah, 392 pages, 2023).
Hope you, your family and friends had a wonderful and inspiring Pesach. For me, the Festival of Our Freedom was a time to get away from the pressures of work and enjoy time with family. It was also a time to learn seforim (Torah books) in depth that one doesn’t have the time to do so during the regular year. And it was also a chance to read in some of the Jewish magazines about life for Jews in far-off Namibia in Southwest Africa and Uruguay in South America in-between Argentina and Brazil.
Capturing the Excitement of a 20th Century Tzadik
With plenty of free time when not davening (praying) and reciting Tehillim in a relaxed manner, I noticed the recent ArtScroll book on the Ribinitzer in my daughter’s house that my son-in-law had purchased. I picked it up and found myself caught up in the wonderful writing style of Rabbi Nachman Seltzer, a very prolific author who brilliantly captures the excitement of one of the great tzadikim (righteous Jews) of the 20th Century – Rabbi Chaim Zanvil Abramowitz, zt”l.
Who was the Ribinitzer who passed away 23 years ago in 1995? There is a disagreement as to when he was born in the Romanian town of Botoshon that is not too far from the old Tsarist Russian empire. Some sources attribute the birth Reb Chaim Zanvil to 1902, while others claim that he was born in the last decade of the 19th Century. Either way, his father died when he was a young boy and his mother brought him to Rabbi Avrohom Matisyohu Friedman of Shtefanesht (1848-1933), where the great Chassidic master who was childless raised him as his own son.
Not surprisingly under the tutelage of the Shtefanesht tzaddik, the future t Rebbe became a child and later a young man devoted totally to the pursuit of dveikus, striving to cleave to Hashem. He would study Torah and become a baki (master) of both the revealed and esoteric parts of the Torah. He would fast every weekday and break his fast at around one or two o’clock in the morning after an exhausting session Tikkon Chatzos (mourning for the destruction of the Beis Hamikdosh, our holy Temple in Jerusalem.)
A Life of Mesiras Nefesh in Communist Russia
After the First World War, Reb Chaim Zanvel found himself in Russia now under Bolshevik tyranny and unlike many rabbis who ran away to freedom in other countries, he remained and devoted his life for the next half century to mesiras nefesh (physical self-sacrifice) in encouraging his fellow Jews to uphold whatever Yiddishkeit they could. He performed secretly thousands of bris milahs (circumcisions) in which his life and that of the parents of the boys he brought into the covenant were at great risk. The Ribinitzer also served as a shochet to provide kosher meat, another crime punishable by long sentences to imprisonment in Siberia where all too many Jews never came back alive.
Perhaps even more characteristic of the Ribinitzer was his commitment to daily toiveling (immersing) into the mikvah waters to purify himself [in order to come closer to the Holy One blessed be He], sometimes numerous different times in the same day. And each time he immersed in the mikvah it wasn’t just for a few dips, but rather for some kabbalistic mystical reason – 310 dips in each immersion.
What made Reb Chaim Zanvel’s toiveling even more a memorable example of mesiras nefesh was the fact that the Soviet Communists outlawed mikvahs and the only the way the Ribinitzer Rebbe could immerse was to jump into the Dnieper River which was good in the summer. But in the winter, when the river froze over, he would have to smash the ice with an axe, make a hole and jump into below freezing temperature waters.
Both the books about the Ribinitzer Rebbe by Rabbi Seltzer and Rabbi Cohn are chock-full of inspiring miracle stories about Rev Chaim Zanvel both while he was mesiras nefesh in the Soviet Union and later on after he was allowed to leave Russia in 1970. He lived for a few years in Eretz Yisroel until immigrating to the United States where he first lived in Boro Park, and later on in Seagate in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Miami and finally in Monsey. Many of these classic Ribinitzer stories can be found in both books. So, you have three choices – buy the original book by Rabbi Cohn, the more recent book by Rabbi Seltzer or buy both books. They are available in Jewish book stores and various online outlets.
Reprinted from this week’s edition of The Jewish Connection.
