The 29th of Sivan is the yahrzeit of Rabbi Sidney Kleiman (1913-2013). Born in New York, his parents expected him to become a lawyer. As a child he attended a shul in the Bronx and the rabbi, Rav Avraham Naftali Gallant, inspired him to become a rabbi. Sidney attended Yeshiva University while having to assume financial responsibility for his family as his father had his leg amputated. He became a stationary salesman, stopping into small stores as he walked to yeshiva every morning, trying to sell them stationary. If he made enough money he would be able to take public transportation home.
Rabbi Kleiman received semicha from Rav Moshe Soloveichik and found Rabbi Dr. Bernard Revel to be a source of encouragement and inspiration. Rabbi Kleiman’s first job was at a shul in the Bronx. Each day he would take the subway to the Lower East Side so that his two sons could attend yeshiva. People warned him that such a schedule would prove to be untenable, so when a position opened at Congregation Adereth El, housed in New York’s oldest shul, he tried out for the job. This was the week that Neville Chamberlain had announced his peace deal with Hitler, ym”s, declaring “peace in our time.” In his sermon, Rabbi Kleiman blasted Chamberlain for his naivete which impressed the congregation, and he was offered the job. He took the position and moved to Manhattan.
The shul had been founded by German Jews and then taken over by Russian immigrants. The sermons were given in Yiddish. After his first sermon, someone suggested that he speak in English to attract the younger generation. He agreed, despite some opposition. There were not a lot of Jews in the area and many of them were not observant. Daily, he found himself calling people to help with a minyan.
While he retired to become Rabbi Emeritus fifteen years before his passing, he was always the first person in shul every morning. He believed that regular minyan attendance is what helped Judaism endure. When told that he was an inspiration, he explained that he had no desire to be a role model. My last name means “Small Man,” that’s what I am, he would say. I do my thing and if people want to follow my example, that’s wonderful.
His son Rav Yitzchok was the rosh yeshiva of St. Louis Rabbinical College, which this author attended for five years.
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The second of Tammuz is the yahrzeit of Rav Avraham Twersky, the Trisker Maggid (1806-1889). Born in Ukrakine, he was the fifth son of Rav Mordechai Twersky, maggid of Chernobyl. As a child Rav Avraham would join his father on his travels where his father would meet people and help them find a tikkun for their neshama. After marrying his wife Rickel, he settled in Trisk where he was a maggid.
After his father’s passing, Rav Avraham began to conduct himself as a rebbe, thus being the founder of Trisker chassidus. Thousands of chassidim from Russia, Poland and Galitizya would come to hear his Torah. After he passed, his kever became a popular place for people to come and daven to Hashem. After being damaged during the Holocaust it was subsequently refurbished and is regularly visited today.
At one point someone slandered Rav Avraham claiming that he was a subversive, planning to revolt against the Russian Czar. For five weeks he was imprisoned along with hardened criminals. His family was able to prove that the person who reported him had tried to extort money from his family beforehand, with threats that he would slander the rebbe if he wasn’t paid off. The proof was sufficient that he was freed.
One day two wealthy businessmen who were traveling together with a lot of cash, passed a poor man walking along the road. He hadn’t been home in two years as he had gotten a job as a melamed in a town and had painstakingly saved up money for two years to bring home to his family. The businessmen offered to take him along in their wagon and when Shabbos arrived agreed to pay for his room and board at the same inn where they were staying.
When Shabbos ended and they were packing up, they counted their money and saw that 200 rubles were missing. They searched through all their belongings and couldn’t find it. They asked their traveling guest if he knew anything about the money, but he insisted he knew nothing. They requested permission to search his belongings and he immediately acquiesced. They found nothing, but as they neared the end of their search, they felt something in the lining of his coat. They ripped open the seams and sure enough there was 200 rubles. The innkeeper’s wife mentioned that right before Shabbos the melamed had asked for thread, claiming he had a rip in his clothing, and she recognized the red thread that sewed up the coat lining as the thread she had given him.
Angry at how he had taken advantage of them, the two businessmen beat up the melamed and then went on their way. When they arrived at their destination they found a telegram awaiting them from a family member, who wanted to let them know that right before they left he had taken 200 rubles of their cash for an emergency. Realizing that they had suspected and beaten the melamed for no reason they rushed back to the village where they had left him and found him suffering greatly from the beating they had inflicted upon him. The paid for a doctor to attend to his wounds, but he was in bad condition to begin with and he succumbed to his injuries.
Feeling terribly guilty they went to the Trisker Maggid to ask him what to do. He told them that their obvious regret would help to give them a kapparah, and that they should resolve to support the widow and children on the same level they support their own families. This had to include paying for the children’s weddings at the same level of those of their own children. He also told them that they were not permitted to return to their own homes for year. Finally, he said that they had to publicly share the story so that their embarrassment, as well as the inspiration the story would cause in others, would also be a kapparah.
Two years before his passing the sefer Magen Avraham was printed, consisting of his Chassidic derashos. This is the foundational sefer of Trisker chassidus and one of the fundational seforim of Chernoblyer chassidus in general. It’s been said that the Noam Elimelech was the overarching rebbe over all the rebbes in Galitizya, while the Chernobyler Maggid was the overarching rebbe over all the rebbes in Russia, and the Trisker Maggid was the overarching rebbe over all the rebbes in Poland.
