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by Rov N. Talmud, Israel
Translated by Tina Lunson
I had the privilege of spending nearly one year in the close company of Rov Yankev Yehude Batshan, the old Goworowo rabbi. I was reckoned among the young men who studied with the Rov in his daily Talmud lesson. He was already a man of many years. Very tall, a lean, slender figure with a high forehead and a sparse little beard. He moved slowly, walking step by step, and spoke quietly and carefully, as if he were counting every word. I never saw him angry, he smiled often and although he was occupied with his study, he always loved a witty word and a jest.
The material situation of the town at that time was not bad. Trade with the Christian princes brought in a good revenue. And the relationships with the gentiles were good. The old Prince Markvitski, from Brizshnia, had a custom of sending wagons of free potatoes to the Jews on the eve of Peysakh. The Rov's material situation was therefore also good and secure.
The Rov's apartment was communal – two rooms built onto the wall of the beys-medresh [study-house]. The Rov's son Mendl and his family lived in one room and in the other room, which was divided off by a curtain, half served as the beys-din [Jewish court] and the other half as the Rov's sleeping chamber.
Above the Rov's apartment, the next story, were the prayer rooms [shtiblekh] for the Ger and the Aleksander hasidim. The hasidim of both Rebis' dynasties were mutually intolerable and disputes between them were constant. But the Aleksander hasidim were richer and stronger than the Ger, among them well-heeled and eminent proprietors, and they supported the Rov in every way possible, because the Rov was an Aleksander Hasid and very respected in the Rebi's court. It was said that for each difficult question in the Aleksander court, the “Joy of Yisroel” told them to ask the Goworowo Rov. He was the jurist for the Aleksander hasidim.
The Rov ran his house very frugally, although he was well-situated, and had married all his children and grandchildren to wealth. One of his
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grandchildren was Rov Branrot, the Tshekhanover Rov and later the head of the beys-din of Tel Aviv.
I once sat with the Rov during a lawsuit before the rabbinic tribunal. When the two litigants laid their 10-groshen judgement fees on the table, the Rov quickly took the money and put it deep in his pocket. The thing made me wonder. I asked him why he put the fee away. He smiled and answered, “Once I decided a case when the losing litigant grabbed his fee and ran off. Since then, I am more careful.”
Another time I accompanied him on a Friday night to an event for a new-born son at Bertshe Kolodzsher's on the Long street. Passing my house, the Rov stopped and told me to go home. I moaned, “I want to go with Rov to the house, because a Talmud scholar should not walk alone at night for apprehension about demons.”
The Rov laughed. “The Goworowo demons do not consider me a Talmud scholar.”
The town in general held the Rov in high esteem because he was by nature a good and he rejected glory, hated disagreement and he did not shout. The town also recognized his scholarship and honesty, which was an example for all the neighboring towns.
A. Avinoam, Israel
Translated by Tina Lunson
Even in the previous generation, the generation before the Holocaust, there was rarely to be found a person with so much influence as was incarnate in the personal charm and noble characteristics as was the last Goworowo Rov, Rebi Alter Meyshe Mordkhe Burshtin may God avenge his blood. A wonderful patriarchal figure, a person with tact and feeling, sharp-minded and magnanimous. Full of impulse and creative energy. His scholarship and shrewdness were well known throughout Poland. Indeed, he was called upon from far corners of the land to settle complicated and difficult issues of Jewish law, and people from near and far came to him for advice on Jewishness, community and business matters and found solutions and consolation.
For almost 30 years the Goworowo Rov steered his congregation through still waters and calm and stormy eras. Sure and firm he held the rudder in his hand and laid his seal on the entire community and even on the personal lives in the town.
He was not only the greatest spiritual leader of the generation, he also loved the town and its householders. He rejected with disdain more than one proposal to take over a rabbinic seat in larger towns. When they proposed, early on in his 30-year stay, that he take the rabbinic position in Ostrow-Mazavietsk after Rebi Mayer Dan Plotski, although it was a large town and a heritage rabbinate – he expressed his wish in front of his intimate friends: As long as the proposal is not carried out, because it would be hard for him to part from the quiet, idyllic life in this lovely, venerable little town.
The Rov operated his “realm” high-handedly. He took himself to be, and felt it himself, that he was the leader not only of the religious Jews but of all the Goworowo residents. When he found out that the Bund local was burning the electric light on Shabes, he sent for the Bund leader Leybl Kersh, and convinced him that in Goworowo one may not violate the sabbath. When a soccer team wanted to arrange a match on a Shabes and he was not able to convince them in a good way, the Rov organized a group of Jews on the sports field who drove them away. Although a pursuer of peace, he was prepared to go through fire for a just cause, not considering sentiment or relationships.
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The last Goworowo Rov had great strength in delivering sermons. Even a simple everyday conversation with him was a delight. His witticisms and aphorisms went the rounds from mouth to mouth. But he personally enjoyed nothing as much as sitting and studying. People said about him, he never stopped learning. He spent all his free time studying and writing innovations on Torah and was not pleased if someone disturbed him in his daily lessons. It was a special pleasure for him to study with the youth. On the long winter evenings, he studied with scholarly young men and boys, from midnight until the grey early morning.
Even gentiles were drawn to the Rov with great respect. At times, his interventions with the local or provincial authorities were helpful.
The Rov's home was a community house for the town Jews and for guests from outside it. There were always people in his court room, some with a question to ask, or a community issue, or simply to pour out their hearts. The Rov's house was run with generosity and hospitality and served as an example for the inhabitants of Goworowo.
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Rov Alter Meyshe Mordkhe was born in Ruzshan near Narev, in sav-reysh-lamed-tes by his father Rebi Issakhar Dov Burshtin (Ostrozshinski), a Talmud scholar and observant Jew, and his mother Rivke.
From childhood he was seen as a genius for his clear head and sharp sense. His innovations in Torah surprised scholars. The Warsaw Rov, Rov Petakhiye Harenblum once heard a repeat of one of his explications and sent for him to come to Warsaw to spend a long time and could not be separated from him. The “Ruzshan genius” did not want to travel away to study in a yeshive, as he could not parted from his beloved parents. He sat for whole days and nights in the town study-house and studied with diligence.
At 17 he married his wife Genendl, the daughter of the great goan Rebi Avieyzer Shikara, one of the great scholars in the area, the son-in-law of the Vale Rov, Goan Rov Avrom Aron Hendl, the rebi and teacher of the Ger hasidic court and of the Radzin Rebi may God avenge his blood.
He boarded with his wealthy father-in-law for two years. Afterwards he was invited by the Amshinov Rebi, Rov Menakhem, and took up the task of rearing and teaching his children. Hasidim continually tell of the great affection that Rebi Menakhem demonstrated to the “Rozshaner genius”. They considered him as their child and protected him like a treasure. After Rebi Menakhem's passing, he was further retained as fellow-scholar by Rov Yosele Amshinov of blessed memory and a house-friend of the entire Vorke community. He was the one who examined the education of all the candidates for sons-in-law in the Yorke court, and later also for other hasidic courts.
In sav-reysh-samekh-tes Rov Alterl took up the first rabbinic post in in Tshervin after the Tshervin Rov, Rov Branrat. He remained there for three years, and earned so much love and friendship that up until the Second World War the Tshervin Jews clung to him as to a father.
His second rabbinic seat was in Goworowo, where he spent the First World War. The town was burned down. He contributed his portion to the rebuilding of the town and protected it from the evil demons of destruction from the Russians, Germans, Bolsheviks and Halertshikes.
His first daughter Blume was married to the Vorke-Narazshine Rebi's son Rov Arele Tenenboym, a grandson of “Yeshresh Yankev”. Her second husband was Rov Borekh Tshizsheves grandson Butshe Eydlshteyn, from the richest family in Mlove. The other daughter married a young hasidic scholar and prosperous merchant.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, he remained in the town until the last of the householders left the place. He spent a few months in Bialystok, then he went to Vilne where he developed a wide community activity. His home was the gathering place for all the rabbinic refugees, and was united in great friendship with the goan Rov Khayim
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Ozer Grodzenski. Rebi Elkhonen Vaserman and with the official town rabbi Rov Sender Itsik Rubenshteyn. The president of the Lodz Jewish council Leybl Mintsberg often came to his home as well as senator Trakenhaym from Warsaw. When the Germans took Vilne the Goworowo Rov experienced the contemporary beatings and was in the ghetto there for several weeks. He was rescued by a miracle and fled in a German automobile to Grodne. There he was taken in as the rov for the ghetto. From Grodne he fled back to Bialystok and remained in the ghetto until its liquidation.
For 17 days in the month of Av, that month of sadness and devastation, the filthy hands of the Nazi murderers prepared the Goworowo Rov, while he sat and studied. And they took him to the death camp Treblinke. May God avenge his blood.
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