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Rav Aharon Rabinowitz - A Mesirus Nefesh Yid
by Rabbi Rafael Berlzon
HaRav Yitzchok Zilber, brother-in-law of Rav Rabinowitz
Part 2
For Part I of this series click here.
This article is a translation of an article that appeared in the Israeli Yated 19 years ago.
The tzaddik, Rav Aharon Rabinowitz, zt'l, showed incredible self-sacrifice for Torah under the Communist Regime. When he moved to Eretz Yisroel his dedication to his fellow Jews behind the Iron Curtain remained equally strong. He was a talmid chochom who was also versed in Kabboloh. His prayers emanated from the depths of his pure heart. He was the rabbi of Egged, the Israeli bus network, and he developed unique methods to bring many people back to Judaism. The fourth of Kislev (November 24th) will be the thirty-ninth th yahrtzeit of the mesirus nefesh Yid. He arrived in Israel 69 years ago on the 27th of Cheshvan (November 18).
The War Against Missionaries
Jewish immigrants from Morocco resided in the Givat Mordechai neighborhood of Jerusalem at that time. Their financial state was very difficult.
Rav Aharon heard that one of the immigrant's children was living with missionaries. Rav Aharon was deeply disturbed by the news. The child's parents explained that their house was small and their financial plight was terrible. Missionaries recommended that they place the child in an institution. The family would then receive food packages.
The parents agreed. Rav Aharon requested that the parents take the child out of the institution; the parents agreed only on condition that Rav Aharon arrange for an alternate institution to accept the child.
During those years of poverty it was next to impossible to place a child who was not an orphan in such an institution. This fact did not prevent Rav Aharon from going out and searching for an appropriate orphanage. After much effort, Rav Aharon was ultimately successful.
The problem of supplying alternate food packages still remained. Despite the fact that Rav Aharon didn't have a steady income at that time, he gave the family vouchers, at his own expense, so that they would be able to purchase food. With the donations that Rav Aharon raised in Zichron Moshe, he was able to cover their cost. When other families heard of Rav Aharon's aid for this particular family, they "threatened" to also turn to the missionaries if Rav Aharon wouldn't supply them with vouchers as well!
A while later Rav Aharon heard that the missionaries were making headway in the Talpiot neighborhood. Rav Aharon personally went from door to door in the area and convinced people to stay away from the missionaries. With obvious pain, Rav Aharon spoke about how people were willing to sell their faith for a bowl full of lentils.
Rav Aharon's descendants recall a day that was like a personal holiday for him. "Today," Rav Aharon told them, "I managed to remove the New Testament from their houses. We made a large bonfire with all of the books; it had a tremendous impact on the immigrants."
Rav Aharon continued his efforts to provide financial support to the immigrants. All of the help that he gave them was personal — it came from a private individual without any connections to charity organizations. Nor did he have any official position, however small. Rav Aharon did everything himself with mesirus nefesh.
There was one family that suffered from particularly difficult financial troubles. They had twins — a boy and a girl — whom they wanted to place with missionaries due to their dire financial straits. Rav Aharon entered the picture and worked unceasingly on their behalf. While helping the family financially, he also entered the children in religious schools.
A short while later Rav Aharon was also blessed with twins. When Rav Aharon met the father of the family that he had helped, the latter told him emotionally that, "Hashem gave him [Rav Aharon] his twins in the merit of saving my [the poor man's] twins!"
Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem
The Egged Rabbi
Rav Aharon was the rabbi of a special synagogue that was open only on weekdays and locked on Shabbos. The synagogue, which bears the name of its founder, Rav Aharon Rabinowitz, zt'l, is in the Egged Central Bus Station in Jerusalem. Nowadays, everyone takes pride in catering to chareidim, but no one would have dreamt about founding a synagogue in the Central Bus Station fifty years ago.
Rav Aharon's connection with the bus drivers began while he was still living in Givat Mordechai. The buses would begin their routes in Katamon, which had already been built in those days. Rav Aharon would arrive at the beginning of the route at five or six o'clock in the morning and encourage the drivers to lay tefillin. Some of the drivers agreed, others didn't understand what Rav Aharon wanted. Yet there were others who ridiculed and laughed at Rav Aharon. Rav Aharon didn't give up on any driver, and every time that another driver would begin laying tefillin, Rav Aharon saw it as another victory.
One Shabbos Rav Aharon was walking near the central parking lot for Egged's buses in Jerusalem. Suddenly, he noticed a group of drivers and their families who were preparing to take a trip by bus. They had apparently planned a private day trip.
When Rav Aharon saw this he stood in a way that prevented the bus from moving. The bus driver got upset and threatened to run over Rav Aharon. Rav Aharon didn't move. The other drivers watched the scene. The driver began to drive, but Rav Aharon didn't move an inch. When the bus came close enough to hit Rav Aharon, the other drivers feared for the rabbi's life. Suddenly, the bus stopped. The driver got out and said, "If it so important to you that you're willing to risk your life, I'll cancel the trip!"
With time, all of the drivers grew to respect Rav Aharon so much that he became the "Egged Rabbi". Many Jerusalem residents remember how Rav Aharon used to lean out the window in the Central Bus Station and blow the shofar for all to hear during the month of Elul. Egged management gave Rav Aharon an honorary bus pass that enabled him to travel the length of the country. He never had to present the pass to the drivers, though, as everyone knew him. A bus driver would frequently stop Rav Aharon while he was walking down the street and inquire, "To where do you need to go, Rabbi?"
When drivers would ask him to give them brochos, Rav Aharon would ask them to take upon themselves a mitzvoh related to the area in which they sought the blessing. Rav Aharon's relationship with the drivers became so strong that many of them became religious due to his influence. Some of them even invited him to officiate at their weddings.
During the period when Rav Shalom Shwadron, zt'l, gave sichos in Yeshivas Be'er Yaakov, Rav Aharon arranged for a driver to transport him from Jerusalem to Be'er Yaakov and back each week. Seeing the bus, empty except for two rabbis with long beards, speed down the street was a surrealistic sight indeed.
Shabbos Kodesh
It's possible to write at length about Rav Aharon's Shabbos. His face reflected the saying of Chazal: "A person's countenance during the week is not the same as his countenance on Shabbos" (Bereishis Rabbah 11:2). On Shabbos, Rav Aharon was once again in his proper surroundings — close to Hashem. His face glowed and his whole presence radiated holiness and purity. A special chessed could be seen on his face on Shabbos. His handsome features appeared even more beautiful on the holy day. The warmth in his eyes glowed like fire — with love, benevolence and mercy.
He felt so much pain when he noticed someone transgressing Shabbos! Rav Aharon was the first person to install a chain in Givat Mordechai so that cars wouldn't be able to travel on Shabbos. Whenever he would see Shabbos transgressed he would cry out in great pain.
He also invested a lot into kovod Shabbos. He was careful to always purchase a large number of challos for himself and the guests he would have at his table. Even more than Rav Aharon served his guests delicious food, he honored them and improved their spirits with his gentle words. His berov matamim, the delicacies he served, was in proportion to his meager budget, but his ruach nedivoh, his largesse of spirit was exceptional.
The son of Rav Rabinowitz
"A Mesirus Nefesh Yid"
Rav Aharon was "A Mesirus Nefesh Yid", a Jew completely and utterly dedicated to Torah, both in body and in soul. There is a saying, "It is easier to die for kiddush Hashem than it is to live for kiddush Hashem". In other words, it is easier to take one big heroic action than an endless amount of small brave ones.
Rav Aharon proved that self-sacrifice was an integral part of him. While he was still in the Soviet Union, he literally sacrificed his body and soul for his Jewish beliefs. When he merited to move to Eretz Yisroel, he continued to dedicate himself wholeheartedly to Torah and mitzvos with the same enthusiasm and deveikos.
The Stropkover Rebbe recounts, "On my way to eulogize Rav Aharon, I told people that I was going to eulogize Rav Aharon Rabinowitz. They asked, `Who was he?' I replied, `Der Russisher Yid', "The Russian Jew" and then they suddenly knew about whom I was referring. Rav Aharon remained the Russisher Yid, the Jew who fought his whole life to coronate Hashem in this world.
Many people remember how he would open the aron kodesh in the Zichron Moshe synagogue and say a heartfelt prayer, "Ribono Shel Olom, bring about the downfall of all the Communists and grant a yeshuo to all of the Jews!"
Rav Aharon didn't merit seeing his wish come true. He missed Gorbachev's Glasnost and Perestroika. "Who will remove the dust from your eyes," Rav Aharon's brother-in-law, Rav Yitzchok Zilber, said at one of the memorial services, "so that you could see the collapse of the evil regime?" The collapse of the Soviet Union appeared to be an unrealistic dream during Rav Aharon's lifetime.
It was specifically during that period of darkness that Rav Aharon invested incredible effort into preserving the Jewish spark among Jews in the Soviet Union. Immediately after Rav Aharon made aliya, he began to organize shipments of matzo to Jews in Russia. Since he didn't have a penny to dedicate to the effort, he raised donations in synagogues and public places. During such collections, his voice was fiery. He managed to awaken deep feelings for Russian Jews among the audiences to whom he spoke. Wherever he spoke, whether it was on top of a table in a cafeteria or in a beis medrash, young men stood in line waiting to donate every last cent that they had in their pockets.
Rav Aharon purchased matzos for Russian Jews from the Cohen Halperin factory that was then located in Jerusalem's Knesset neighborhood. It was impossible to send the matzos in their normal packages as the Russian authorities would have destroyed them when they saw the "Cohen Halperin Matzo" label written in Hebrew letters. The matzo factory ordered special boxes, reminisces Rabbi Chaim Yisroel Halperin, the son of Rabbi Binyomin, the owner. "They were extremely careful that not even one Hebrew letter should appear on those packages.
"Rav Aharon always told Father how the different Russian immigrants that he met said to him that they ate his matzos in the Soviet Union. Rav Aharon worked very hard on this project and his wife helped him immensely. She was the one who took upon herself the responsibility of sending the packages and standing in line at the Jerusalem post office for hours on end.
"Every time that they received a new address, they would hurry to the post office in order to mail the package immediately. The rebbetzin came to the matzo factory many times in order to purchase more matzos for the new addresses that they had just then acquired." The matzo factory also helped by considerably reducing the cost of the matzos. When Kaila Rabinowitz, a'h, Rav Aharon's wife, passed away, Rabbi Binyomin Halperin accompanied her casket, crying bitterly.
The cost of shipping the matzos was much higher than the cost of purchasing them as the Soviet government imposed exorbitant taxes on incoming packages. In order to mail each and every package, the rebbetzin was required to fill out a large number of forms. Rav Aharon's "office" consisted entirely of the table in his home.
Rav Yehuda Kipnis, Rav Aharon's neighbor who lived directly across the hall, remembers that Rav Aharon's house "was always open. People streamed in and out of the house all day long. Most of them were immigrants from the Soviet Union who received his [Rav Aharon's] help. In those days, thirty years ago, he didn't have a telephone, so my house became his office."
Rav Aharon's body was broken from his suffering in the Soviet Union, but his spirit remained strong. "You couldn't see signs of pain on him with regard to mitzvos," recounts Rav Binyomin Adler, "At those times he appeared to be the happiest man in the world!"
Rav Aharon once sent his brother-in-law, Rav Yitzchok Zilber, zt'l, an esrog for Succos. In order to avoid arousing suspicion, Rav Aharon packaged it together with other food items such as sugar and coffee. Rav Yitzchok Zilber received the esrog, but only after a wicked Communist sliced it in half.
Another example of his complete dedication to helping others was his work as the rabbi of a leper's hospital in Jerusalem. His descendants remember how the lepers visited the Rabinowitzes in their home for the Pesach Seder and for other holidays. Their strongest memory is of the leper who was an expert accordion player.
After Rav Aharon received the permission of the hospital's director, the accordion player would visit them every Purim, together with his instrument. The ill man's appearance was very difficult to behold, but it is impossible to describe the merry atmosphere that surrounded him.
In those days, Rav Aharon's family didn't understand from exactly what illness the man suffered. They only began to understand the significance of the situation with the passing of time. That's when they understood the great efforts their father would exert in order to bring happiness to lonely, unfortunate Jews.
In addition to lepers, Rav Aharon would host other guests that no one else was willing to befriend. He and his wife cared for them with the utmost dedication. That's why Rav Aharon would go to the bus stop where the homeless people slept and bring them to his house every week for the Shabbos meal after davening.
The Prophecy that Came True
Rav Aharon had distant, secular relatives on a kibbutz with whom he put in efforts to maintain a connection throughout the years. He would send them matzos prior to Pesach, and when people commented that maybe it would be more worthwhile to send the matzos to others, Rav Aharon replied that you never know what will result from these efforts.
"We traveled once to the bar mitzvah of mutual relatives in Haifa," one of Rav Aharon's relatives relates, "The affair was to be held on Shabbos, but we couldn't stay with our relatives as they were far from being religious. We stayed somewhere else, with the rabbi of the Carmel HaTzarfati neighborhood, Rav Frankel. There were a lot of problems with the whole situation. I asked Rav Aharon what would become of the bar mitzvah boy. `What good would come out of him? Why did we invest so much effort?`
"Father replied, `Er vot noch zein a groiser talmid chochom! (He'll become a big talmid chochom!)' To tell the truth, I laughed at his reply. There wasn't a chance that this relative from Haifa would become, `a groiser talmid chochom.'
Today, this cousin is an avreich living near Tzfas. He learns all day and all night, during zman and during ben hazmanim. He's also raising more than ten children in the Torah way. When I visited him recently, he showed me an essay on a Torah topic that he wrote. I was moved. I felt that a chochom odif minavi, that the words of the talmid chochom, Rav Aharon, came true right in front of my very eyes!"
Rav Aharon would never even think about giving up on a fellow Jew, no matter who he was. That's why he invested his energies into the bus drivers, the employees of the Israeli train system and every other Jew whom he happened to meet!
Rav Aharon would go to the Kosel on Fridays and distribute wine and challah to the soldiers and policemen that were stationed nearby. He made a public sholosh seudas and provided all of the necessary items from his own house. Today, there are tens of organizations that do what Rav Aharon used to do alone. In those days, however, Rav Aharon was the only one and his creative methods of finding every opportunity to influence his fellow Jews are noteworthy.
Rav Aharon simply was, "A mesirus nefesh Yid" ("A Jew who epitomized self-sacrifice").
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Here is one last story that Rav Aharon's son, Rav Binyomin, recounted. "As a bochur, I would find my father next to his gemora. I would sometimes return home very late, but he was always bent over his gemora. Twelve years in the Soviet work camps weren't able to deprive him of the love for Torah that burnt within him ever since he learned with moro verabo, Rav Shimon Shkop, zt'l in Grodno. More than once, Rav Aharon drifted off into a sweet sleep while leaning over his gemora."
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