| | Feature
Mr. Shatnez: Reb Yosef Rosenberger: The Amazing Story of One Man Who Didn't Give Up
by M. Samsonowitz
This was first published in 1996, exactly 30 years ago.
Part III
For Part II of this series click here.
The second part discussed the development of shatnez testing, and especially the difficult problem that they faced with the rise of clothing manufacturing in the Far East that used ramie material that looked like linen but is permissible. The story of ramie continues.
*
Together with Asher Aaron Kuperman, who had become a shatnez tester and had joined the research department in 1986, Shockett decided to see Walter McCrone, the head of the institute, himself. On the phone, McCrone said that he had never heard of Shatnez Laboratories, but he granted the two an appointment.
So, during the next bein hazmanim in 1990, the two found themselves in a sprawling ivy covered building, telling Walter McCrone of their dilemma with ramie. How could they explain the mitzvah of shatnez — one of the most esoteric, mysterious mitzvos of the Torah — to a gentile?
Moreover, they had been warned by friends who were scientists, that McCrone had a reputation as a militant atheist. He had been involved in an affair at the beginning of the '80's when a crucified body with shrouds found in Jerusalem had been claimed by the Vatican as none other than the body of Yoshkeh. Using his methods of advanced forensic analysis, he had disproved and discredited the Vatican's claim, thereby bringing on himself the wrath of the church.
How sympathetic would he be to the shatnez concerns of the two black-hatted and black-jacketed men who stood before him?
McCrone greeted the two coolly and unemotionally. They didn't beat around the bush. "We are here on behalf of Orthodox Jewry, representing the Shatnez Laboratory under Mr. Rosenberger of New York to discuss advanced textile identification. Jews are not allowed to wear a combination of wool and linen. This is a commandment that G-d gave us, and we keep it whether we understand the rationale or not! The problem is that we are having trouble differentiating ramie from linen."
McCrone looked at the two avreichim, and heard of the major efforts they had expended to fulfill an incomprehensible, esoteric commandment of the Bible. Impressed with their sincerity, he took a genuine interest in their cause. With a smile, he told them, "Frankly, this topic of ramie is one of the few stones that I haven't yet uncovered myself."
Thus began a long discussion of the scientific properties of fibers, and the complicated developments in the textile industry.
He warmly took the two on a tour of his complex, where they observed his advanced machinery and electronic equipment. Of particular interest was the new field of polarized microscopy. A polarized microscope breaks down every physical substance into individual rainbow-color light spectrums. It enables the viewer to analyze various frequencies on the light spectrum using specialized lenses.
At the end of the meeting, McCrone was chummy enough to invite Kuperman to participate in his next two week course (on a post- graduate level) for forensic specialists. Understanding that the Shatnez Laboratory was a nonprofit, noncommercial enterprise, he offered him a full scholarship (the course at the time cost $1,000 per week). In the meantime, the two representatives left him some samples of 100% ramie for which he promised to try and develop a new worldwide testing standard.
Lower East Side Projects seen from Brooklyn
Besides Kuperman, another 25 forensic professionals were in attendance at the start of the course. The course proceeded without formal introductions, since half of the attendees were high-security foreign officials whose identity had to remain a secret. One of the commercial participants was a major researcher representing a national contact lens manufacturer who had come to learn identification methods of dust particles that statically cling to contact lens.
After teaching the general principals of microscopy, McCrone announced that the major focus of the course would be to develop a test to identify ramie. His samples were the swatches supplied by Rosenberger.
After prolonged testing with sophisticated electronic equipment and machinery, the group found that ramie had a unique molecular color pattern that could be distinguished with the aid of a polarized microscope. This could be discerned by first making microscopic incisions with the help of one microscope, studying the incisions in a cross section, and then examining for polarization with the polarized microscope. The entire procedure took an hour.
At the end of the course, McCrone went a step further and helped the Shatnez Laboratory purchase a used polarized microscope for the cheap price of $1,000.
The findings were conveyed to an overjoyed Rosenberger. He had long suspected that foreign-made suits being sold throughout popular Jewish clothing stores in Boro Park and Flatbush having a linen-look collar were actually made from ramie. By employing the new technique, he was able to prove that the material was actually a complex mix of rayon, cotton, ramie and jute — three of which have properties similar to linen. The suits were permitted after all, saving stores and consumers thousands of dollars of unnecessary shatnez repair. The ramie-identification process became particularly important when "linen-look" women's and children's clothing came in style during the 1990's.
Ad Promoting Shatnez testing
Spreading Throughout the U.S.
When kollels began to proliferate all over America, the shatnez Laboratory through its research division set up new branches. Throughout the 1980's and 1990's branches opened up in Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, Miami, Cleveland, Detroit, Boston and Baltimore. Rosenberger was overjoyed that he was no longer cornering the market on shatnez inspection, although he remained the clearinghouse for new developments in the textile world.
By 1984, testers in different parts of the country who would find new kinds of shatnez would inform the office in Lakewood, and Rosenberger would compile the information and send it on to other testers. An update went out six times a year.
With time, Rosenberger became more involved in promotions and teaching and training, and not as much in the actual testing itself. He would emphasize to all with whom he spoke, "Don't think that the situation is better because you have stores that offer shatnez testing, and there is more awareness about the problem. The incidence of shatnez has not changed, the only thing that has changed is the complexity in distinguishing what is shatnez and what isn't."
Original Israel Shatnez Lab
Spreading Shatnez Testing to Israel
As long as twenty years ago, Rosenberger traveled to Europe and Israel to promote shatnez testing. In Israel at the time,there were a few private individuals who had their own methods. Rosenberger brought the awareness that a laboratory and scientific methods were indispensable. The Eida HaChareidis founded the first laboratory in the 60's with his help. They adopted his system of labels, hechsherim and standards.
He personally worked with Rav Ehrentreu, today the head of Bnos Yerushalayim, and Rabbi Akiva Shishe, who were among the beginning shatnez testers in Israel. This was the beginning of a continuously expanding network of laboratories that currently have branches in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Haifa, and Rechovot. The small laboratory that Mr. Rosenberger founded became a great enterprise that encompassed the Jewish community worldwide.
From among the some 45 mitzvos d'oraysos that may be observed today, Mr. Rosenberger has brought one of them into every religious Jew's life. But even this great accomplishment, one that any Jew could rightly herald as a first-class ticket to olom haboh, did not change his pious and humble demeanor. People were amazed at how a person could be so uninterested in honor.
His pioneering work was found so amazing by the National Geographic journal, that when they did a feature on worldwide wool production in May, 1988, the section on the U.S. was devoted mainly to the work of his Shatnez Laboratory and how it developed from a small laboratory checking dozens of garments a year to a lab that now checks thousands.
Rosenberger's talmidim continued his innovations. A recent one is the Shatnez Doctor of Har Nof, who makes a house call and goes through everything from clothes and sofas to rugs and curtains for a low cost. More information can be had at (02) 6540928.
Published after the passing of R Rosenberger
Final Days
Rosenberger's lifelong concern for shatnez testing carried on even after his wife's passing in 1990. Despite having passed his eightieth birthday, Rosenberger was still carrying on strong. He maintained a schedule of lecturing, educating and disseminating information and awareness of shatnez, and frequently held meetings with his talmidim until the late hours of the night planning new activities to spur shatnez observance.
A few months ago, he sent out letters to the entire spectrum of religious Jewry, asking them to continue sponsoring the shatnez testing in his laboratory, as well as all those who will promote shatnez testing in the future. He wrote that since he won't be around forever, he is now preparing for the future.
Around Rosh Hashanah this year, he asked several friends to learn mishnayos for him "after 120 years." Although it seemed strange to hear this from a vigorous man, it was assumed that he did it out of concern for his advanced age. When Cheshvan arrived, Rosenberger suffered his first heart attack and was taken to the hospital. Fully conscious, he spent five days in the ward, constantly under the care and devotion of his loving daughter Blimi Glustein and her family.
On Shabbos he was in a great mood, full of high spirits. He went through the sedrah and davened mincha. He told his son-in-law that if he doesn't make it through this illness, he should publicize his last will: that Jews all over should study mishnayos for the sake of his soul, in return for all the time he couldn't spend in study himself because he had devoted his life to helping Jews avoid the prohibition of shatnez.
Motzei Shabbos, 7 Cheshvan, this great, humble man passed away. Local rabbonim, Chassidic rebbes, and representatives of various Jewish organizations that he had worked with, came to pay homage at the funeral on Sunday morning. Hundreds accompanied his aron at the levaya in Williamsburg, where a moving hesped was delivered by his son-in-law, Rabbi Yitzchok Glustein.
Rabbi Glustein described his father-in-law as a man always on the move to do a mitzvah, whether it was helping the community observe shatnez or giving charity secretly. When he had spent the last Sukkos with his children in Boro Park, Rosenberger had made the rounds to almost a dozen shuls and batei midroshim to lecture on the importance of shatnez testing. He never failed to stress that even suits from stores guaranteed to be shatnez-free were found to contain shatnez.
Rabbi Glustein stressed, "He was the harbinger of shatnez awareness in the world, selflessly giving of himself so everyone could avoid this Torah prohibition."
*
From Williamsburg, the aron was brought to the airport. Accompanied by a talmid, his aron was flown to Israel. Hundreds of people were in attendance, among them Israeli and American rabbonim, and many avreichim who had heard his heartfelt talks on shatnez while yet in elementary school. He was eulogized by Rav Mendel Weinbach, Rav Mordechai Isbee, and Rav Shimshon Pinkus, a former shatnez tester.
The aron wound its way through Meah Shearim and finally was laid to rest on Har HaZeisim, next to his wife. Yosef Rosenberger left this world with joy, granted the nachas of knowing that while he passes on, his life's endeavor is pulsating as strongly as ever, wherever Jewish communities exist throughout the world. The light of the Shatnez Laboratory still burns, under the management of his son-in- law and his able assistant, Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Gelb.
Inquiries to the Shatnez Laboratories
The Shatnez Laboratory gained official recognition and is listed in the Directory of Associations, a reference journal used by researchers throughout the world. Organizations have sent them requests regarding the data they possess and information about mislabeling.
One female Russian researcher from Moscow even sent a request to get a scholarship to their "school" so she can test textiles in Russia. One company sent them a request asking if the Shatnez Laboratories has catalogued the presence of asbestos in recycled materials. In this case, Rosenberger with the aid of his research division had some interesting information to impart. He possessed in his file cabinet micro photos which identify asbestos in recycled quilts and quilted clothing for women's and children's coats.
Shatnez — Harmful Physical Properties?
Does the harmful effect of shatnez (a mixture of wool and linen) merely have repercussions in the spiritual world, or does shatnez have harmful properties that can leave their effect in the physical world?
Rav Zalman Sorotzkin in his Oznaim LeTorah writes (Vayikra 19:19, miluim at the end) that it was well-known among scientists in his time that the flow of electricity in telegraphic wires can be altered when it is insulated with a covering made of wool and linen. It is capable of even stopping the flow of electricity. They also knew that wool and linen combinations cause electromagnetic unbalances in the body that can have a negative effect on health.
Rosenberger's laboratory himself was involved in a true case where shatnez was shown to adversely affect the heath of a person. Once a major scandal erupted in Flatbush when a store took non- shatnez labels and attached them to clothes that contained shatnez. Rosenberger found out about it and publicized that the clothes from this store require checking.
A certain Jew unknown to Rosenberger suddenly fell ill and was deteriorating quickly. The doctors couldn't account for the strange affliction that had befallen him. His friends noticed that he was wearing a suit from the store that had deceived its customers. They rushed the suit to the Flatbush branch of the Shatnez Laboratory on Ocean Parkway to be tested, and it was found to contain shatnez. After removing this suit, the man recovered miraculously.
|
