 |
|
[Page 130]
L.G.
Translated by Rabbi Molly Karp
A unique kind of meeting of friends was held on the second day of Chanukah, 5726 [1964] in Tel Aviv, in the “Kastel” Hotel, at the initiative of the association of Lida emigres in Israel, on the occasion of the preparations for the publication of “Sepher Lida.” A group of former students of the Lida Yeshiva gathered around tables, who found themselves together a Jubilee[1] of years and more after their leaving their beit midrash in Lida.
In a warm and pleasant atmosphere, most of them if not all activists in communal life in Israel, from their various branches, brought up exciting and interesting memories from the period of the studies in Rabbi Reines' yeshiva. A pleasant atmosphere for reminiscing about memories from those days served also for an exhibit of photographs from Lida and her yeshiva, from the collection of Mr. Dov Aloni, a veteran student of the yeshiva, who during a certain period of time was especially close to the late rabbi, in whose house he lodged at that time. (Most of these photographs were copied into this book, and here is the opportunity to express thanks for it to Mr. Aloni).
|
|
Mr. Moshe Bitan (Bitenski, former director, now retired, of the Keren Kayemet L'Yisrael office in Tel Aviv), opened the section of memories, one of the first students of the yeshiva (Mr. Ritov added from his perspective “not only the first – he was the first and the foremost. We saw him, when we came to Lida, as a great mountain among the members of the yeshiva.”) He was accepted after a short test by the Head of the Yeshiva Reb Yoel David, *[2] who sent a note to Rabbi Reines with this wording: “He understands Gemara, Decisors and Tanakh with his sharp intellect.” There were then in the yeshiva, at its beginning, only 22 students, and there were difficulties with them in secular studies, since each one was at a different level of education. Mr. Bitan learned for seven and a half years in Lida. When, at the end of that period, the problem of “what next?” stood before him, his rabbis Reb Shlomo (“the Ilui from Meitzt”) and Reb Aharon (Rabbi Reines' son-in-law, and after years, the Rabbi of Lida) advised him to travel to Ponevich, to the “kibbutz” that was established there. This is an interesting detail, for indeed Lida did not come to nullify Ponevezh or Volozhin, but to complete them. The Lida yeshiva's essential goal was not to produce specifically rabbis but rather Jews who were knowledgeable in Torah and had a secular education, who would make their mark, the mark of Torah and knowledge, in all fields of public life among Israel.
Mr. Yisrael Ritov (the Director of the Center for Cooperation), began and said: “the name “the City of Chabad”[3] was fitting for Lida no less than for Liadi, since that city was also filled with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge (indeed, rearrange the letters of “Liadi” and you get “Lida”). Rabbi Reines was one of the greatest of the greats, the splendor and the magnificence, the supreme wisdom. It was only right that our own 19 Kislev[4] was founded, according to the example of the men of Chabad, as a day of meeting of the students of the Lida yeshiva, to elevate the memory of their revered rabbi, Rabbi Reines, may his memory be for a blessing.
Incidentally, Mr. Ritov was reminded of the visit of Rabbi Reines to his father's house (who was one of the Rabbi's good friends and admirers even before he sent his son to the yeshiva) in the town of Osipovitch, which is between Minsk and Bobruisk. When he arrived in a wagon, the townspeople assembled en masse to see him. When he descended from the wagon, he asked a boy who was there to bring him a cup of water. The boy's mother hurried, brought a cup of water from the nearest yard, placed it in her son's hands for him to give it to the rabbi, and said to him: “ask him to bless you.” The rabbi drank the water, and asked: “in what shall I bless him?” She said: “that he be a son of Torah.” He turned to the boy and said:[5] “go in peace, my boy, and if you want, you will be a son of Torah…” Mr. Yaakov Amora'i (a veteran teacher, retired, head of the Supreme Court of the Teacher's Organization of Israel), also brought up a memory of his first test, by Rabbi Reines himself. The Rabbi asked him an original question: The creations say: there is no rule that doesn't have an exception. And therefore, how have we nevertheless found a rule that doesn't belong to the previous rule? (In other words, that has no exceptions to the rule). The answer was…this rule itself does not have an exception to the rule…. Mr. Amora'i was reminded of the Hebrew atmosphere among the yeshiva boys. A short time after my coming to Lida (the matter was in 1911), one of the students approached him and informed him (in Hebrew): know for yourself that among themselves the students speak only Hebrew. A Hebrew atmosphere was also in the city itself, every Shabbat Mr. Amora'i and others of his friends had the custom of assembling in the afternoon in the house of one of the Zionist families, and there, would read together from the writings of Ahad Ha'am.[6]
After raising his emotional memories of the Talmud lessons of the “Ilui of Meitzt,” and of the lectures of Mr. Pinchas Shifman (Ben Sira) in Jewish history and Hebrew literature, he concluded: “from then I left the bench of the Beit Midrash in Lida, and I learned in various institutions of higher education. However, our spiritual character was shaped by the yeshiva of Lida.”
Mr. Nechemiah Aminoach (from the editorial board of “HaTzofeh”[7]) continued with raising the value of the yeshiva of Lida, which “within a short time gathered within itself personalities of great significance and educational power, and in this it succeeded more than many yeshivot in the surrounding area.”
Mr. Nachum Chinitz (one of the veteran teachers in Tel Aviv, retired) and Mr. Barkai (he was also a veteran teacher), related interesting episodes
[Page 131]
from the life of the yeshiva. Mr. Chaim Amitai, one of the younger students “from those days,” an actor at “HaBimah,” himself a son of Lida, followed them, and read chapters of memories of the way of life of the city.
Of the reminiscing about those days that they spent in Lida, and the feeling of fellowship in the precious idea that united them, Mr. Yaakov Ben-Sira gave expression, and remarked that “he passed through many countries, and in every place that he visited, students of Rabbi Reines from Lida chanced upon him. In every one of these meetings, as if a hidden spark had been lit, as if encountering men who were brothers.
Many of those who were invited to the party were unable to come, due to illness and the like, or the distance of the place, and sent their respects in writing.
Professor Yisrael Reichert, a professor of agriculture on the faculty of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, wrote:
“Thanks to you for your invitation to be present at the memorial party for the yeshiva of Lida, in which we spent the best of our years, and in which we found spiritual sustenance that fed and nourished us all the years. Rabbi Reines' memory, may his memory be for a blessing, and his distinguished personality will not be forgotten by me all my days. He filled his students with Torah and love for the land, and merged Judaism and humanity.”
Mr. Eliezer Tash told in his letter about a group of students in the yeshiva by the name “the resurrection,” under the leadership of the member Shmuelovitz, which took upon itself the speaking of Hebrew at home and on the street.
Mr. Ch. Rubin (Ogoshvitz) in his letter brought up impassioned memories, especially from the lectures of Reb Pinchas Shifman (Ben-Sira) on the Tanakh.
Footnotes
Avraham HaCohain Eliav,
Chairman of the Organization of Emigres of Ivye in Israel
Translated by Rabbi Molly Karp
Reb Mordechai was born to his father, Reb Avraham Yitzchak (Avraham Itshe the Teacher) and to his mother Doba-Tzivia, in the year 5651 [1891] in Iwye.
In the days of his youth he was educated on the knees of his father, one of the good teachers that were in the city, in whose cheder older teens learned Chumash with Rashi, Nach[1], Gemara with Rashi's interpretation and Tosafot, until the age of Bar Mitzvah.
While he was still young Reb Mordechai travelled to learn Torah in the famous Lida yeshiva of Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Reines, may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing. Afterwards he continued his studies in the yeshiva of Radin, and poured water on the hands of[2] the Gaon Reb Yisrael Meir the Cohain, may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing, the author of the “Chofetz Chaim.” Avrechim who were great in Torah spent time in this yeshiva. Most of them became, in time, spiritual leaders of congregations of Israel and Rosh Metivtas in yeshivot. There he became well-known for his amazing diligence as one of the excellent avrechim in the yeshiva. He was proficient in the Babylonian and Jerusalem Shas, with all of their commentators. Reb Mordechai was ordained for instruction by the Gaon Our Master the “Chofetz Chaim” himself. I remember that when Reb Mordechai would come “in between times” to his parents' house for the period of the festivals – and I learned then in his father's cheder – in these days too his mouth did not stop reviewing the Gemara by heart, and in his meetings with the local rabbi, Reb Moshe Shatzkes, may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing, in the rabbi's house, which was next to his parents' house and also in the Beit HaMidrash, he would bring his observations and innovations on the tractates of the Shas before the rabbi.
After his marriage, in the year 5680 [1920], he was appointed to be Rosh Metivta in the Lida yeshiva, which Lida's rabbi, Reb Aharon Rabinovitz, may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing, established after the First World War. Rabbi Reb Mordechai, in addition to his greatness in Torah, was also a quiet man, humble and modest, with a pleasant demeanor and running away from honor. In his time he was considered one of the most superior heads of a yeshiva in the area.
In the period of his being Rosh Metivta, he acted much to elevate the fund of Torah in the yeshiva. Likewise he laid his hand on[3] many of the “avrechim” that came out of the yeshiva and were appointed as rabbis and heads of Metivtas in various communities throughout Poland and outside of it.
On the bitter and sudden day of 21 Iyar 5702 [May 8, 1942], Reb Mordechai and the members of his family were taken out to be murdered by the murdering Nazis, may their names be erased, together with the city's rabbi Reb Aharon, and all the martyrs of the community of Lida.
The three sisters of Reb Mordechai, may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing, Mrs. Chaya Pesya Molin, Mrs. Rachel Fishman, and Mr. Ahuva Velikson, with the members of their families, are in the land.
Footnotes
|
JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of
the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material
for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.
Lida, Belarus
Yizkor Book Project
JewishGen Home Page
Copyright © 1999-2025 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 26 Feb 2025 by LA