In 1971 Mrs. Bluma Galperin emigrated with her family from Tashkent, Russia to Israel. In 1973 she went to see the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Brooklyn.
There was much to share. The Galperins remained religiously observant despite the great challenges of communist persecution and raised their children as Chassidim – even in Russia. Her illustrious father was killed by the secret police and her husband Shimon was imprisoned for many years. After presenting her note containing details of hardships and self sacrifice of Chassidic life in Russia and asking blessings for her children, she remained standing before the Rebbe, tears flowing.
The Rebbe asked her the cause of her tears, and she replied that she wasn’t at ease with the yartzeit (anniversary of passing) date established for her father, the Chassid Rabbi Yaakov Zecharia HaLevi, known as Yankel Zhuravitzer or Yankel Maskalik.
Reb Yankel was a deeply beloved and highly respected Chassid. He was nicknamed “the mother of the Tomchei Tmimim Yeshiva” because of his practical concern for his fellow students. He made many trips crisscrossing Russia, canvassing information and assessing Jewish life and opportunities. He established and supported many an underground Cheder and Mikvah, he visited and encouraged individuals and communities, helping them keep kosher, making Chuppahs and arranging Bris-Milahs. Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak said of him: “Had I twenty such Yankels we could have conquered all of [Jewish] Russia!”
He was arrested several times for his clandestine Chabad activity during Stalin’s Great Purge or Great Terror of the late 1930’s. After his final arrest, the last Chassid to see him was Rabbi Shlomo Matusof (later one of the Rebbe’s Shluchim to Morocco) to whom he gave away his boots, because young Shlomo’s were torn and held together with wire. Following that, R’ Yankel was never seen again. Word came back through a Russian civilian woman that she had seen him shot by the secret police, but no date or official notice of death was ever sent.
The family waited a long time. Eventually they began to explore what date would be most appropriate to observe as a yartzeit.
There are two versions within the family as to how this date was chosen. One is that this question was asked of the local Rov, the Chassid and Tomim, Reb Zalman Buber (Pevsner), who told them to use the date of Chaf-Daled Teves, yartzeit of the first Rebbe of Chabad, the Alter Rebbe.
The other version is that they sent this question to the Rebbe in New York, via Rabbi Simcha Gorodetsky who left Russia. The Rebbe suggested the 24th of Tevet, the yartzeit of the Alter Rebbe, first Rebbe of Chabad, who passed away in 1813. Word was sent back to the family in Tashkent, via R’ Zalmen Buber, using the careful circuitous communication that Chassidim in Russia were accustomed to in those days.
Regardless of the version of how it was established; in 1973, as R’ Yankel Zuravitzer’s daughter Bluma stood before the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Yechidus, she told the Rebbe why this date didn’t sit well with her. She was uneasy with this choice of a date: Why go back more than a century to choose a date from the first Rebbe with whom her father had no apparent tangible and direct connection?
After all, her father grew up and blossomed in the Tomchei Tmimim Yeshiva of the “Rashab”, Rebbe Sholom DovBer, 5th Rebbe of Lubavitch, so why not choose the Rashab’s yartzeit of the 2nd of Nissan (1920)? And he devoted his entire life, literally sacrificing it, for the vision and mission of Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak, the 6th Rebbe, who passed away on the 10th of Shvat (1950). Wouldn’t it be better to commemorate Reb Yankel Zhuravitzer-Masklik’s yartzeit on Yud-Shvat or Beis Nissan, in connection with the Rebbes whom he loved and lived for?
It was for this that she wept.
The Rebbe rose up from his chair and reassured her: “How else? He was a Chassid who fulfilled the Alter Rebbe’s vision.”
That one sentence washed away all the uneasy feelings she carried in her heart for years.
——–
Fulfilling the Alter Rebbe’s vision! The incredible import of such a dramatic testament! Even a mere glimpse of the great visionary teachings of the Alter Rebbe or about the Chabad movement he set in motion, is enough to realize what it means to be said about an individual: “He fulfilled the Alter Rebbe’s vision!”
Lest we feel this great aspiration is unattainable and far out of reach, here is what Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak shared on the first Simchat Torah (1920) after his father, the Rashab’s passing:
“In (the Yeshiva of) Lubavitch, there was a group of students who were originally not cut out for intense study, but they were totally devoted to helping others. In turn, they themselves were successful, not only in terms of personal and spiritual growth, but also in their grasp and knowledge of Torah, and they became great teachers in Israel – for example (Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak mentioned him by name): Rabbi Yaakov Maskalik of Zhuravitz.”[1]
————
“How else? He was a Chassid who fulfilled the Alter Rebbe’s vision.”
And as the Rebbe told Rabbi Yosef Y. Pinson of Nice, France: “The success that I expect from a Shliach is… If the Alter Rebbe would suddenly come to town, he should feel at home.”
———–
[1] A Personal Note: Late one winter night in 1996, I happened to read this description of that Simchat Torah in 1920. Somehow I especially connected with it, so on the very next night, I shared this story on a date with a young woman who would later become my wife. She listened, she lit up, and she said: “Yankel Zhuravitzer was my great-grandfather.”