Rebbi Tsvi HaCohen Turnheim, the Lokva Rebbi, passed away
about two months ago. Yated's Rabbi A. Cheifetz
interviewed the late Rebbi shortly before his
passing.
The Lokva Rebbi's discourses combined the sharp Polish
pilpul style of learning together with Lithuanian
lomdus. His life's motto was to reduce one's physical
needs and strive for ahavas haTorah.
As a descendant of Chassidic rabbonim, HaRav Turnheim was
able to learn Chassidus from his forebears. The Rebbi's
yeshiva education was at Poland's Novardok Yeshivas. There
the Rebbi was affectionately called `Hirshele Bialer' by his
peers.
Here are the late Rebbe's eyewitness account of the dynamics
and challenges faced by learning Torah in physical hardship
at Novardok's Yeshiva.
"At Novardok's Yeshiva in Mezrich, generally speaking, we
never were able to fulfill the mitzvah of bircas hamozone
deOraisa since the Torah only obligates one to recite
the bircas hamozone when one is satiated . . .
One of the yeshiva's administrators was Rebbi Simcha. He was
responsible for the yeshiva's upkeep. Although he didn't
regularly come to the yeshiva, whenever he would come, there
would be simcha . . . Everyone knew that he would
walk around with leftovers from a bris or bar
mitzvah, or from village households. This is how we would
eat, never being satiated.
In Mezrich, the people wouldn't fast; neither would they eat
. . . I remember how there were people who would restrain
themselves from snatching the food that Rebbi Simcha would
bring (as it is stated regarding the cohanim, "The modest
ones would withhold their hands"). Afterwards, they would be
able to record for themselves in their "Good Deeds Ledger"
that they showed restraint.
Reb Dovid Bleicher zt"l was from Mezrich, as is
known. I was still young when he sent me together with
another bochur to collect funds for food for the
talmidim. It was during the snowy winter days, so we
travelled by sleigh. Our sleigh capsized twice on our
journey to the town of Sronk.
That town's entire Jewish population was on the verge of
poverty. I figured that it would be difficult to collect
tzedokoh. I was brainstorming to think of what to
tell them between mincha and ma'ariv. Finally,
I told them the following: the word Nesi'im in the
Torah is spelled without the letter yud
(Bamidbar 7:10) since they delayed bringing
contributions [Note: When Hashem instructed the Jewish
People to bring contributions for the Mishkan, the
Nesi'im said that they would wait until the end and donate
whatever was missing. However, the Jewish People gave more
then enough. Thus the Nesi'im missed a mitzvah opportunity].
One might ask why the word is written with a missing yud;
it could have been spelled without an Alef or
Nun, or some other letter. This shows us that even
the holy Nesi'im, by their delay in helping contribute to
the Mishkan, have a small yud lacking in them -
- in their own Yiddishkeit (of course this is
according to their own high spiritual level).
The droshoh simply frightened the townspeople, who
even gave from their own (meager) bread rations.
When I became a little older we were sent again, but for a
different purpose. We were sent as a small group to one of
the neighboring villages where we recruited young
bochurim for an additional branch of the Novardok
Yeshiva, one of many yeshivas that were spread throughout
Poland.
It was the town of Lushtz where I met Reb Moshe, a talmid
chochom who was incredibly unobtrusive and a great
tzaddik. He was a role model for the bochurim,
while organizational duties and saying shiurim
were our responsibility. During the week, it was my duty
to distribute the boys amongst the village houses, that they
would have a place to eat, each day in a different house.
The task was difficult. In short, the only bread that was
eaten was teig . . . There was a female gabai
tzedokoh who helped us. Since she had her own chicken,
every day she would bring the Rosh Yeshiva an egg from the
chicken. This was her personal contribution to the
students.
Together we were three bochurim. With siyata
deShmaya, we organized the students as best as we could.
They learned and progressed. These were the two times that I
was sent as a representative of the yeshiva.
In the yeshiva, there were many who learned a large amount
of mussar, taking away time from their gemora
learning. But there were others who maximized their
abilities, becoming great Torah scholars. Many distinguished
Torah scholars learned at the yeshiva. One was Reb Gershon;
Another one was Yaffe -- A river of Torah flowed from them!
After the shiur of the rosh yeshiva, Reb Aharon
zt"l, Yaffe the bochur would review the lesson
for the young students. His lucid understanding of the
masechta was as clear as day!
That bochur Yaffe married "young," before the age of
thirty. For his wedding reception, the yeshiva bought three
loaves of bread with herring as refreshments for the ten
people who gathered for sheva brochos. That was it
for the chasunah! That's how they lived and learned
Torah.
As a result of the Holocaust, we lost this lifestyle. The
Holocaust didn't just burn the bodies of Novardok; the
Holocaust consumed the Novardokian spirit! In wake of the
war, the Novardok philosophy disappeared. For example, the
system of reducing one's physical needs and learning Torah
with the barest minimum, that was exemplified by Novardok's
students, was lost. What do today's weddings look like? How
much money does one need to collect in chutz la'aretz
for furniture, etc.?
There were unfortunate incidents in the yeshiva, where the
students became physically weak, or their nerves became shot
as a result of intensive mussar learning and physical
fatigue. With affection and with pity the Rosh Yeshiva took
care of them. One should take note how the lovely bochurim
assisted them, never embarrassing them, cholila.
Aderabo! When a bochur would slowly return to his
learning routine, his fellow students would revive him in a
way that wouldn't remind him of his illness. Bein odom
lechavero is a foundation of the Torah!
The Rebbi grinned as he recalled another exemplary Novardok
yeshiva bochur from Biala. The student was an older
bochur, close to thirty, who grew a long beard, in
accordance with his piety. "I remember how the Biala Rebbi,
who was one of the gedolei hador, had kissed him on
the head. That bochur was a masmid,a
shakdan, a tzadik and a kodosh." Due to
the Rebbi's weak physical state, the interview had abruptly
concluded with the Rebbi's blessing, "May Hashem Grant us
the zechus to taste from Novardok's Torah."
