Yeshiva life continued

Rabbi Lipszyc's Story of the Week Sponsored in honor of Yoel Tzemachs Birthday. Some snippets from my life in yeshiva in Montreal:   The yeshiva schedule was basically Sunday thru Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday & Shabbos was obviously based around when Shabbos started and when Shabbos ended. My personal seder was, however, somewhat different.  After camp in Florida, which was the summer after I graduated from high school in the Lubavitcher Yeshiva of Bedford & Dean, my Rebbi, Rabbi Yaakov Schwei, (today one of the Chaver Beis Din of Crown Heights,) recommended that I go to learn in Montreal. When I wrote that to the Rebbe, he gave me a brocha to do so.  However, when I applied to the yeshiva, they did not respond. (In those days you applied by meeting face to face with one or more of the hanhola. They told me they would get back to me, but did not.) After Shabbos Bereishis, when I still hadn’t heard from them, Rabbi Yaakov Schwei said that since I received a brocha from the Rebbe to learn there, I should just show up, so that’s what I did. (It was on the Greyhound bus traveling to Montreal that I first met Reb Mendel Futerfas a”h. We sat together and he farbrenged with me the whole way. I became quite close with him, a relationship that I valued greatly.)  When I showed up at the Yeshiva Bais Hamedrash unbidden, (and with my luggage, since I had no room yet,) I saw the members of the hanhola looking at me in a strange way and they hastily convened an impromptu meeting in the corner. Rabbi Aizik Schwei a”h, (the brother of Rabbi Yaakov Schwei yblt”a and one of the Roshei yeshiva,) came over to me and asked what I was doing there. I told him that since they hadn’t gotten back to me, as they had said they would, I’d asked his brother what I was supposed to do, and I explained his response. Reb Aizik returned to the rest of the waiting hanhola, where an animated discussion seemed to be taking place. He then left the bais medrash for some time, and after returning to the others, and further discussion, he came back to me. He explained to me a number of things –        a. After meeting with me in New York the consensus of the hanhola was not to accept me (it was not until years later that I learnt the reason for their rejecting me was based on a mistaken report that they had received about me.) b. Although I received a positive response from the Rebbe, this did not put an obligation on the hanhola to accept me, (unless they would receive a directive from the Rebbe to do so, an important lesson that carried me through decisions I had to make later in life.) c. He had called his brother and told him that he had no right to advise me to come without my being accepted; and what they had heard about me. His brother explained to him that he knows me personally and can assure him that the negative report they heard about me was entirely false. Therefore, Reb Aizik continued, the hanhola agreed to accept me on a trial basis, and I had better be on my “best behavior.” He then told me to go to Rabbi Nelkin a”h, who was in charge of setting up places in the dormitory.   When I went to Rabbi Nelkin, he was distraught because there were more bochurim than beds. He asked me if by any chance I could find a place to sleep for a few weeks until he could sort everything out. I told him that I have an uncle and aunt who live in Montreal, and I’m sure that they would put me up for a couple of weeks. Not a half hour later, Reb Aizik came over to me and told me to pack up and leave, as I was out of the yeshiva. In shock, I asked “why, what happened?” He said “you want to stay by your relatives and that’s unacceptable!” I explained that was not what happened. Rabbi Nelkin asked if I could find a temporary place to stay so I told him I have relatives in town. I did not come to visit them, I came to learn in yeshiva. So Reb Aizik relented and said he would give me another chance on condition that I understand that I am not allowed to go to my relatives. I was rather surprised, but I agreed without hesitation. After months of finding various excuses for not visiting my family, I approached Reb Aizik and told him I need advice on what further excuses to give my uncle and aunt for not visiting them. He was literally in shock and exclaimed “what you haven’t visited them in all this time?” I reminded him that he warned me not to. To which he replied, that he was referring to my “wanting” to sleep there, and “of course, you need to visit them!” I was totally confused as to what was going on. On numerous occasions I caught one of the hanhola following me around. Eventually over the years I found out the complete story. The untrue report that the hanhola had received was that I was “interested in girls.” One of my cousins, in Montreal, was a girl my age who was friends with a girl in her class (in the local Bais Rivka) who didn’t have the best reputation. And the hanhola had the wrong information about my having anything to do with them. [At that point I had actually never even met that uncle and aunt and their children. And I only met my cousin’s friend years after she was married to a friend of mine.] An abject lesson on the damage that rechilus and loshon haro can cause.  In any case, the first few weeks I slept in the basement of Rabbi Feigelstock (the limudei kodesh principal of the yeshiva ketana,) and then I was moved into the dormitory. To return to what I mentioned earlier, my personal schedule was a bit different. Since the Rebbe had told me, after my summer in the Florida camp, to keep up the newspaper, that I did in camp, but not during seder hayeshiva, I had to be extra careful to be on time and to stick to seder with special diligence. Thus the only time to do the newspaper and other correspondence with those campers was throughout the night. I never got to sleep before at least 1 or 2 a.m.) I had to get up every morning at 4-5 a.m., go to the mikva, and together with Yaakov Dovid Kotlarsky a”h (brother of Moshe, who is now vice-chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch,) we walked 40 minutes to a shul called Anshei Ozorov, to be mashlim a minyan at 6:00 a.m. [We would learn chassidus or shiur Tanya while they davened.] They would finish at 6:50 and we would rush to make it back to yeshiva just in time for seder chassidus. Walking in the dark and cold weather in the winter, was an auspicious time for us to share a unique and close relationship, many times opening up and sharing our most intimate thoughts and feelings.  It was on one such occasion that I mentioned to Yaakov Dovid that I liked the Shabbos “system” in Newark better than the Montreal system. [In 1962/3, for 1 year I learned in Newark.] Shabbos in Newark, (there were not even a handful of Anash,) the bochurim all ate the Shabbos seudos together, sang nigunim and farbrenged together. In Montreal, on Shabbos the bochurim were all “farmed out” for the seudos to Anash. The bochurim weren’t able to have that same comradery, and I missed that. Yaakov Dovid was intrigued and liked the idea. He was personally close with Rabbi Laibel Kramer (the menahel of the yeshiva.) His father, Rabbi Hershel Kotlarsky a”h, and Rabbi Kramer a”h were 2 of the original 9 bochurim whom the Rebbe Rayatz had sent to Montreal to open the yeshiva.) Yaakov Dovid was able to convince Rabbi Kramer to allow the two of us to arrange our own Shabbos seudos (at our own expense) in the dormitory, so we stopped going to baalei batim to eat. After a couple of weeks Yaakov Dovid invited Yerachmiel Stillman to join us, so we had an older bocher and a mezumin. I was devastated, when one Friday night, during the seudah, Yaakov Dovid said he wasn’t feeling well and went to lie down. When we looked in on him about a half hour later, he had passed away in his sleep. He was a very special bochur whom everyone loved dearly. An extremely aidel bochur, chassidish with terrific midos, unbelievable energy and a really great sense of humor. If there was a worthy project in the making, you can be sure that he was one of (if not “the”) originator(s.) Just one example: he, Zalman Chanin, and one or two others – and I believe he was the originator – would get together right after Shabbos, whenever there was a farbrengen, and would type up a summary of all the sichos. They would then mimeograph it (that was the only type of copier that there was at that time) and distribute it among their chaveirim. This was the beginning and forerunner of what became the Vaad Lehafotzas Sichos.] Yerachmiel Stillman was an avel that year for his father, and as soon as he saw Yaakov Dovid he knew he had died (B”H I had no clue) and he sent a bochur to get Reb Aizik. Reb Aizik took one look and told a bochur to find a goy to call emergency and told the bochurim to inform all Kohanim to leave the building, (it was a clue that he knew that it was already too late, as if there was still a chance of saving him, a Yid could have called.) When the police and ambulance came, the body was taken to the morgue where the police said an autopsy had to be made. Reb Aizik immediately sent 2 bochurim to the morgue and told them to make sure they stayed with the body all the time and not to let them perform an autopsy chas v’sholom. Meanwhile he sent 2 bochurim to wake up Rabbi Kramer and inform him of what was going on.  Rabbi Kramer immediately contacted the Jewish funereal home and had them get involved to stop the police from doing an autopsy. The funeral home threatened the police they would sue the city for taking away their business. The police agreed to release the body to the funeral home on the condition they would perform an autopsy. The funeral home explained they don’t do autopsies on Shabbat. The police said do it during the week. Right after Shabbat, Rabbi Kramer got the yeshiva doctor to sign a death certificate that Yaakov Dovid was his patient and he had a heart condition from which he died. They then put him in a coffin in the back of a station wagon and drove him across the border to the USA, and on to New York. A few cars of bochurim were given permission to accompany the station wagon to New York for the funeral. When the police found out that no autopsy had been done they were furious but there was nothing they could do at that point. He was already buried in the states. Meanwhile, in New York, Yaakov Dovid’s parents were first informed that their son was very ill so they prepared to fly to Montreal. Just as they were about to leave to the airport, 3 Rabbonim and a doctor intercepted them and informed them that he was already niftar, and the body was already on the way to New York. The custom was then that after shiva the avel would place a bottle of mashke by the Rebbe at the next farbrengen. When Rabbi Kotlarsky did so the next Shabbos, the Rebbe told him that Yaakov Dovid was right then sitting at the feet of the Rebbe Rayatz listening to chassidus being said. So now back to my individual seder – since I didn’t sleep much at night, and I had to keep seder, Reb Volf Greenglass (a mekubal and mashpia of the yeshiva) recommended that every day at lunch time I should sleep for 45 minutes. Although I tried to follow his recommendation, I rarely succeeded in actually sleeping, but I did rest. On Shabbos, I had a full schedule. I awoke at 5 a.m., went to the mikva and then walked an hour and a half to run a junior congregation in a different neighborhood. Afterwards I walked back, another 1 ½ hours, to the yeshiva, davened shacharis and musaf and then ate seudas Shabbos. Afterwards I walked another 1 ½ hours to a different neighborhood to run a mesibos Shabbos children’s group. I then walked yet another 45 minutes to speak in a shul between mincha and maariv. After maariv I would walk back 45 minutes to the shul where I ran the mesibos Shabbos, where I would get carfare to return by public transportation to the yeshiva. One Friday I received notification that both the mesibos Shabbos and speaking in the shul that week were cancelled, so I only had to do the Junior congregation. So after seudas Shabbos I had 1 ½ hours to grab a well needed sleep before the Shabbos afternoon seder. Unfortunately I overslept. The next thing I knew Reb Volf was standing near my bed, with what sounded like a cry of incredulity, “Itche Meyer, Itche Meyer, Shabbos only comes once a week, how can you sleep it away?!?” For 20 years after that, I could not bring myself to lie down for a nap Shabbos afternoon.   In the middle of the 1968 school year, Reb Volf called me over to the side one day and said, “most probably you are aware (which I wasn’t until he told me) that every month the hanhola writes a detailed report about each bochur in the yeshiva, to the Rebbe. This month we received back a note from the Rebbe with your name circled. The Rebbe wrote that he noticed that when you (I) write to him, you have a beautiful handwriting and it would be כדאי that you learn safrus.” Reb Volf therefore arranged that I should return to  New York and study safrus under the tutelage of Reb Eliezer Zirkind a”h. Thus ended my Montreal yeshiva days. I will always look fondly at the Montreal yeshiva as my alma mater although I also learned in Newark and 770, and learned many great concepts in chassidishe hanhogos there as well. To receive Rabbi Lipszyc's Story of the week via Whatsapp add the number 513-456-7595 to your phone contacts, and then send a text to with the message "Join".  Please feel free to share this story. To sponsor the weekly story, contact Mendy at 513-456-7595. Support Rabbi Lipszyc's work by Donating at https://chabadcrimeaorg.clhosting.org/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/2511910/jewish/Crisis-Relief/lang/en or sending checks to: Chabad of Crimea World Friends, 1601 Union St, Brooklyn, NY 11213