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[Page 203]
by Dr. Malka Israeli (née Blechman) / Tel–Aviv
Translated by Sara Mages
The way of life in our city Telshe
The city of Telshe sprawled along the Market Street (Turgaus gatvė) and Great Street (Didžioji gatvė), and many streets and alleys. Telshe had many institutions of Torah and education and, first and foremost, the famous yeshiva to which students streamed from the Jewish Diaspora. Great respect was afforded to a person who studied at the Telshe Yeshiva. Yeshiva students, who studied in Telshe, dispersed throughout the Jewish world and served as rabbis, heads of yeshiva, public figures, etc.
This book contains special articles about the yeshiva and its leaders and there is no need to repeat them here.
Gymnasia Yavne – the gymnasium where I studied for eight years, and even graduated, was considered the best in Lita. The city's rabbi, R' Yosef Leib Bloch, was among its founders. The teachers' seminar provided many teachers to the Yavne network of schools throughout Lita. The synagogues, and Batei HaMidrash (houses of study), were also places where Jews were strengthened by their adherence to the Torah and the commandments of Judaism in the city of Telshe and the surrounding areas.
The entire city was inhabited by Jews who engaged in trade and crafts, especially in the city center. The gentiles lived in the suburbs and at the edge of the city.
You could feel the Jewish way of life mainly on Sabbath eve, on the Sabbath, and on the holidays. Even on weekdays you could see Jews sitting in the shops with the Gemara (section of the Talmud),
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| The school “Yiddish Folk Shul” in Telshe after the First World War |
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or the Chumash (Pentateuch), open before them. In public, in their daily life, you could hear a conversation in the melody of the Gemara, and all negotiations were conducted in expressions taken from the Talmudic world, such as: Mai nafka minah (what is the conclusion from this?), negotiation, at the outset, in retrospect, proper guarding, Klal uPrat[1], what are we dealing with?, whoever confesses to an act involving a fine is exempt from the fine, Tashlumei Kefel (double payment), intentionally, accidentally, Kofer nefesh (ransom), two different species that were mixed, mixing the forbidden with the allowed, reasonable explanation, real estate, Canaanite slave, Halakhah le–Moshe mi–Sinai[2], Shnayim ochazim b'talit (two who claim to own the same thing), all mine, division, fit for testimony, unfit for testimony, in parts, possession is nine–tenths of the law, which of the found items belong to him (the finder) and which ones must be announced?, shomer chinam[3], shomer sakhar[3], to return with identification, de'oraita[4], derabanan[4], Hillel and Shamai[5], both blood (effort) and money, exchange, Chillul HaShem[6], merchants of Lod[7], to have the upper hand, to be the looser, and other such expressions. It is said, that in a negotiation a Jew from Telshe told his friend: “at the outset, it is not so difficult but, in retrospect, it's not quite easy.”
On Sabbath eve everyone was busy, running around preparing for the Shabbat. With darkness, Sabbath candles were lit in every home and peace and holiness filled the city's void. The men went to the synagogue dressed in special Sabbath clothes, ready to welcome the Sabbath Queen. We saw the walk to, and the return from the synagogue. Of course, all the shops were closed on the Sabbath. On Sabbath morning the women went to take the cholent[8] and the kugel[9] they put in Ya'akov's baking oven. A special atmosphere was also felt on Motza'ei Shabbat[10]: Havdalah (concluding the Shabbat), Melaveh Malkah (Escorting the [Sabbath] Queen), and religious songs for Motza'ei Shabbat.
On Hanukkah candles were lit on the windowsill in every house.
On Purim we watched the delivery of mishloach manot[11] which were sent covered against the evil eye[12]. At the yeshiva the joy was overflowing on this holiday. Special places were allocated for the women so they could experience the joy. Yeshiva students organized in groups of singing and dancing, dressed in costumes, staged plays, and walked from house to house to amuse the diners.
On Sukkot – who didn't have a sukkah built in a room in the house or on the balcony? All they had to do was to pull the rope and lift the roof cover, hit with a hammer, put the sechach[13], hang the decorations – and the sukkah was ready.
And on Passover – we saw the delivery of the matzos. Each baked his matzah shmura[14], with flour that was well guarded and delivered in baskets to his home. We also saw the delivery of Mayim Shelano. [15]
The baking of matzah shmura was accompanied by singing, praise and thanksgiving, and the city's dignitaries and yeshiva students took part in it. A barrel full of borscht stood in every house. Some of the matzos were crushed into thin flakes and some sifted into matzah flour. We prepared nectar (honey water) for the four cups because wine was expensive and scarce.
Simchat Torah in TelsheHe who has not seen Simchat Torah in Telshe, and in the Telshe Yeshiva, has never seen Simchat Torah in his life!
Since this holiday is celebrated outside Israel for two days, the joy began on Shemini Atzeret and reached its peak on Simchat Torah. In the yeshiva a third of the hall was set aside for a women's section and the women took their seats early in the morning. The head of the yeshiva also served as the city's rabbi and, therefore, he had to participate in the celebrations and the hakafot in the Great Synagogue as the rabbi, and also in the yeshiva as head of the yeshiva. How did they settle this? First they held the hakafot in the Great Synagogue (Beit HaMidrash). The important proprietors in the city came to the rabbi's house and lead him, under a wedding canopy, with singing and dancing to the Great Synagogue. The yeshiva students also participated in this festive procession. To this day their mighty singing still resonates in my ears: [the prayer that begins ] Tzadik katamar yifrach k'erez ba'lvanon yisgeh[16]. In the Beit HaMidrash the hakafot[17] were held with joy and great singing, out of gaiety and happiness. At the end of the hakafot, the rabbi was led in an impressive procession, under the wedding canopy, to the yeshiva that was ready to welcome him. I am writing about the period of HaRav HaGa'on, R' Yosef Leib Bloch, who was the city's rabbi and head of the yeshiva, and HaRav HaGa'on, R' Chaim Rabinovitz, head of the yeshiva. With the completion of the hakafot the rabbis,[Page 205]
R' Yosef Bloch and R' Chaim Rabinovitz danced alone, arm in arm, as the yeshiva students were standing around them, and the two of them sang [the prayer that begins] Adon 'olam, 'asher malakh… and the yeshiva students accompanied their singing with their enthusiastic singing. It was a great and exciting sight that you never forget. I am excited, to the point of tears, when I remember this elevated occasion! The next day, on Simchat Torah, the same play was repeated: leading the rabbi to the Great Synagogue – hakafot; leading him to the yeshiva – hakafot and singing and dancing, and at the end drinking “L'Chaim” and eating the cakes and sweets that were brought earlier in addition to other varied foods. The joy lasted all day long in the yeshiva and all over the city. For a long time, after Sukkot and Simchat Torah, the songs continued to echo in my ears and filled my whole being and it was difficult for me to return to normal ordinary life.
The shtiebel[18] of the kloyz[19]
Telshe was granted the right to have a famous yeshiva to which students streamed from the Jewish Diaspora. It was awarded the most beautiful synagogues, and the Beit HaMidrash was the most important. The second most important was the kloyz and next to the kloyz was the shtiebel where my father z”l prayed. Important proprietors and Torah scholars, prayed in the shtiebel. They prayed in the shtiebel all year long and on the High Holy Days they prayed in the kloyz. I envision the worshipers in the east: Pops, Meir Shochat, David Shar, Moshe Leich, Choc, Citroen, Moti Levin, Chaikel, Ekov, R' Mose Fridman, Meir Sason, Apchuk, Leib Shochat, Binyamin Belchman, the attendant and many more. My father was also among the regular worshipers in the kloyz and I still see his “shtot” – his permanent place. My father was the prayer leader in the shtiebel and had the right to lead the shaharit (morning) prayer in the kloyz on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. At times, he also prayed the musaf (additional) prayer. He had a pleasant voice and was accepted by the congregation.The shtiebel was my father's second home. From four in the morning the shtiebel was full of Talmudic study and prayer. My father, R' Velvel Katsin and Haves, were the gabbaim and also the attendants: they heated the oven in the winter, cleaned the floor, etc. Every job in the shtiebel was considered sacred and dignified, and no work was considered despicable. The shtibel's key was in our hands. The Gabbaim entered our house, took the key and returned it after the prayer. I remember the completion ceremony after the completion of each tractate in the Gemara and Mishnah. Honey cakes (lekach) with brandy and other kinds of cookies were brought. The completion ceremony was held in great splendor. In particular there was great joy on Simchat Torah, which we celebrated with happiness and the joy of a mitzvah. My father was usually the cantor in the shtiebel, both on the Sabbath and on weekdays, and even now I can hear his pleasant voice.
How precious you have been to me, my lovely shtiebel! I write about you with great longing! The Shechinah (Divine Presence) was in you and in your worshipers. May your soul be bound in the bond of everlasting life.
Footnotes to the English translation:
by Shoshana Holzberg (Shochat)
Translated by Sara Mages
All that I am about to tell in the framework of this article is not pretending to be an authentic historical source since I didn't sit in libraries, and didn't study historical documents in order to extract material from them for my article. What I will write here I drew and extracted from the treasure of memories that remained within me. And by nature, the memories are sometimes deficient and sometimes with some inaccuracies in an earlier or later matter etc. Therefore, it is quite possible that my article will also fall into one of these categories and I must apologize for this before the Minister of History.
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| A class of Gymnasia Yavne in Telshe |
I am from Telshe, from the original Telshe in Lita. Thus I answer those who ask me where I am from. However, this is not really the case. The place where I first saw the light of the world is a small town called Yelok (Ylakiai). And if so, am I lying to those who ask me and mislead them with the wrong information? No, it's not a lie! For Yelok is the city of my physical homeland and Telshe was, and is still today, my spiritual homeland. In it I saw the light as a Jewish girl. In it our father R' Baruch Yefe z”l, who already laid the foundations for the Jewish education of his daughters in Yelok, was able to continue to build the educational framework that he wished for, a matter that was impossible to do in Yelok. And this is how things turned out. Thanks to one of the hidden favors of God, a great fire broke out in Yelok and in forty minutes the entire town was consumed by fire. We were left homeless. Our father z”l was forced to search for a new place to build the ruins of our home. And then our uncle R' Shmuel Schiff, owner of a respected home in Telshe, suggested that he should come to this city to open a store in partnership with him. Our father z”l accepted the offer and moved together to Telshe
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with his two “older” daughters; my older sister Gita, nine and a half (today Mrs. Muskat in Petach Tikva), and me, eight- year-old Shoshana. While my mother Sheina-Ester zt”l and our two-year old brother, Moshe, remained in Yelok in order to recover what had survived there from our property, we settled in the room that R' Shmuel allocated to us in his hotel.
The Jewish school happened to be very close to our uncle's house. This school was a remnant of the German elementary school for Jews. It was founded by the Germans during the their occupation of Lita at the end of the First World War. After the Germans left, it continued to exist and was run by three young women from the city. They moved the school to another location. Instead of German, all the classes in all subjects were conducted in Yiddish. There was also a Hebrew teacher, Moshe Havass, a native of the city. The three teachers who ran the school were discovered to be devout members of the Bund movement. When the parents and other public figures in Telshe sensed that they were trying to influence the students they decided to save their children from their “punishment” and founded a new school that was run entirely in Hebrew. The teachers I remember from that school where we studied only a short time were: Mr. Shmuel Gordon, son of R' Eliezer Gordon zt”l, the same Moshe Havass and in addition to them a teacher from the outside. That teacher taught us Hebrew and Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible), and it should be noted that he taught very well. I especially remember the lesson of the first chapter from the Book of Isaiah that he recited before us with emotion and drama. But something happened that ruined the whole thing… When he spoke of the nature of prophecy he ruled that a prophet is a man of emotion, that and nothing else. This explanation lit up, for us girls of the upper class, a kind of red light. According to our understanding, the spirit of heresy leaped out of this explanation. When we told our parents about this, a scandal broke out in the city. The parents who wanted to prevent their daughters from absorbing negative views in their school decided to take them out of school immediately, the same school they were so happy to establish at that time. This is probably why the fate of the first Hebrew school in our city, which turned out to be secular due to the poor expression of that teacher, was not entirely unacceptable in the eyes of its principal. However, the problem of the girls' education was not solved by their removal from the school. It was necessary to think about creating an immediate alternative. And indeed, those interested in this did not sit idle and immediately began to consult about the establishment of a new school in which all its teachers would have a significant religious background, both in their world-view and their daily life. The driving force in conducting these consultations at the home of the city's rabbi was the “young generation” under the influence and inspiration of the rabbi R' Yosef Leib Bloch zt”l himself. They were joined by parents whose daughters' religious education was at the top of their concerns. Among them was also our father, R' Baruch Yafe z”l, former student of R' Yosef-Leib zt”l at the great Yeshiva of Telshe.
One day our father, z”l informed us that the decisive meeting was about to take place in the evening.
It was a clear and hot summer night. Our father z”l went to the meeting and we, the two of us, my sister Gita and I sat in the house and waited anxiously for his return. We did not want to go to bed. We fought hard with the sleep that threatened to take us over, but we resisted it and remained awake even though the hours passed, one after the other and our father had not yet returned. It is not that the meeting lasted very long. Maybe it was not particularly difficult to establish a new school, but it was more difficult to sustain it for the long term without difficulties. The doubts and uncertainty were understandable, but at last our father came back with the message: tonight we founded a new school called Yavne the Hebrew school for girls. The name Yavne with all the historical baggage associated with it, determined and even promised the spirit and the educational approach of the new school. Our father z”l continued to tell us something from the course of that historic meeting in which more difficult birth pains were expressed. Among others, he told us that a young woman named Gita Reizl Broida astonished all the participants in the meeting in the fervor with which she defended her views on the existential problems of the new creation. In the spirit of her boundless volunteering and willingness, she took on the work at the new school. And indeed, the same Mrs. Broida was the
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teacher of drawing and handicrafts in our new school, subjects that she particularly excelled in. Thus, that night was the night of the birth of Yavne education in Lita, which was conceived and born in Telshe!!! And from there the message went to the many cities and towns of Lita. Among the other teachers who taught us at Yavne; school, I remember: Mr. Chaim Zalman Kron, a yeshiva student who was the Tanakh teacher (Hebrew in Hebrew!), Mr. Trachtenberg of Kovna who taught us Hebrew, German and mathematics, a gentile named Drobenko who taught us Lithuanian and Russian and Mr. Moshe Yafe, also a yeshiva student with a particularly beautiful voice, was the music teacher. The elementary school in Lita had four years of schooling and the most talented of its graduates moved to a high-school, a gymnasium with eight years of schooling.
The studies at the gymnasiums ended with “matriculation exams” and the road to the university was open to those who succeeded in them. In independent Lita (since 1918) there was only one university, in Kovna (Kaunas). In addition, there was also a college of engineering in Kovna which was considered the temporary capital of Lita after the region of Vilna was separated from it and woe to the one who forgot to add the word “temporary” to the capital. There was only one punishment for him: to fail him, since there is explicit evidence here that his patriotism is flawed. But now we will return to the matter at hand.
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| Elementary school student planting trees on Lag Ba'Omer with the principal Mantchovski, the teacher Peschdamski (Shadmi) standing on the right and the teacher Kimchi on the left. |
While the Yavne school already existed, the studies were conducted peacefully and to the satisfaction of its creators. The question of what will happen next, when the girls finish school, already had begun to bother them. Where can they turn? Will it be possible to leave them alone so that they would, God forbid, fall again into the hands of secular education? If so, the goal was to improve the situation, but in the end it turned out to be useless. Therefore, a new breakthrough must be made toward religious high school education for girls! The idea is clear, but how does one accomplish it? In order to open a religious Hebrew high school for girls that the Lithuanian government would recognize, we needed academic teaching staff and for a religious high school it is essential that the academic teaching staff also be religious; not only traditional, but deeply rooted in the pursuit of faithful Judaism. Both in their world view and in their way of life there was still no such combination of religious and academic teachers in Lithuania. What to do, was it necessary to give up the idea? No, in Telshe we do not give up! We must support those who try to cleanse impurity. Help them!
And the help came from an unexpected source: from the German Jewry. It turned out that in Germany there was also this type of religious academic. Therefore, the members of the board of directors turned to them and to Telshe came a man named Dr. Harry Levi who certainly answered the above requirements. He was appointed principal of the gymnasium so that its opening was announced publicly.
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And he was also approved by the Ministry of Education of the Lithuanian government. Together with the same Dr. Levy came his wife, who also had an academic education and was approved as a teacher for English and gymnastics. The principal took on the teaching of the German language and history. Unfortunately, I do not remember the teachers of scientific subjects, mathematics and natural sciences. The Hebrew teacher, who had just returned from Russia with his family, had a broad Hebrew education. Yes I remember, he also taught mathematics. Yeshiva students were the teachers of Judaic studies (in Lithuanian the yeshiva was called Talmud Mokykla Aukstoji). In other words, it was recognized as an academic institution. I already mentioned one of them, Mr. Karon who taught the Tanakh in the elementary school. The second was Spozhnikov, the Torah teacher and it seems to me that he was also the teacher of halakha (religious law). He was the son-in-law of the rabbi R' H. M. Katz.
The Hebrew religious gymnasium for girls, “Yavne,” was therefore an established fact.
I was not privileged to be present at the opening ceremony because I was seriously ill and bedridden for more than seven weeks, but news about the life of the young institution reached my sickbed. Until now there were only three classes with the option to open a fourth at the beginning of the next school year and so on, until the quota of eight classes (the number of classes in all the gymnasia) was filled. I was also told that I had a place in the third class.
The Hebrew teacher who I mentioned above was Mr. Shmuel Zuckerman and he was found to be a creative force in many areas. There was a need for a general history book to suit the school's spirit. He wrote chapters on the history of Greece and Rome in his calligraphic handwriting. The material was duplicated in a “Spirograph” and handed over to the girls in the form of proper booklets. The school wanted to hold a celebration (of Chanukah or Purim) and found it difficult to find suitable material. The same Mr. Zuckerman sat and composed beautiful plays in which the characters were only girls in order to prevent the girls from having to dress up as boys and men, thereby violating the prohibition in the Torah: (“a man's attire shall not be on a woman”).
These celebrations and festivities, which were mostly held in the hall of the only large cinema in Telshe, Dziugas, attracted a large audience, even from the classes who were not among the fans of the religious gymnasium. The performers received enthusiastic applause from the audience. With all this, we the gymnasium students always had to “prove ourselves” to the cynical and skeptic seculars who, for some reason, refused to recognize the new creation called “the religious gymnasium”. Out of envy of its success they accused it of all kinds of “charges.” “What do they teach there?” they asked and ruled for themselves, “probably only to salt meat and light Shabbat candles!” Indeed, we studied dinim (laws, judgments) on a high level. We studied the Torah and Rashi (medieval Torah commentary) and even a little Mishnah. But all this was given to us in addition to the governmental requirements for general studies and not at their expense. In fact the mockers also knew this, but it was hard for them to admit it. They were like that bad angel who is very angry and finds it hard to accept what he hears.
But there was no shortage of real trouble. At the end of the first school year Dr. Levi, the gymnasium's first principal, returned to Germany, and again the question arose: what will be the fate of the institution that started to function so well? Who would be its principal? The members of the board of directors, headed by Rabbi Mordecai Katz, were really at a loss. But ...with “the salvation of God in the blink of an eye” the salvation came from an entirely unexpected direction. That same year the rabbi's two sons, R' Avraham Yitzchak and R' Zalman returned from Russia where they lived as refugees during the First World War. They were married to the two daughters of the very wealthy man Mr. Dinis of Kharkiv. When they heard about the difficult problem of their brother-in-law and their younger brother they said: “We have an excellent solution to your problem.” They said that in Kharkiv they knew a very religious academic who had completed two faculties at the University of Kharkiv: the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics and the Faculty of Biology and was also appointed lecturer at the same university. The name of the Jew is Dr. Rafael-Yitzchak Holtzberg, who returned with them to Lita and for the time settled in Kovna.
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They believed that the proposal to be the principal of a religious gymnasium for girls would appeal to him and he would accept it willingly. Needless to say, the members of the board of directors saw it as a miracle from heaven and immediately sent their proposal to the same Dr. Holtzberg. And indeed, what the brothers who had returned from Russia “predicted,” really happened. Dr. Holtzberg willingly accepted the position of principal of the gymnasium and the teaching of scientific subjects. But one of the conditions he presented before the members of the committee was that he would be allowed to teach his subjects in Yiddish, since he wasn't able to speak Hebrew. Having no choice, and without enthusiasm, they agreed to this difficult condition. They felt that they broke the principle that all general subjects would be conducted in Hebrew. It was a dilemma that could not be easily digested. Dr. Holtzberg released them from their embarrassment. He decided that it was not right that something so principled could not be preserved in the school because of him, and in the end the acquisition of the Hebrew language was not an insurmountable obstacle. He must mobilize all his energies to learn Hebrew, no matter what! And with all the willpower he took on the task of turning his decision into reality.
We saw that his efforts bore fruit! We saw that he was overcoming his difficulties with the language and although he failed in the mistakes that made us laugh, he continued to teach us in Hebrew! Alongside the giggles at the mistakes, which were not uncommon, we learned to admire him because of the unquenchable willpower we discovered. Later, when closer relationship formed between us he told us how hard he had worked on his lessons. With the help of books and dictionaries he had acquired, he translated every lesson from Russian to Hebrew and memorized it so that he could present it to his students the following day. When he saw after all, that he had not escaped the mistakes we laughed at, he came to us one day with a heart-wrenching offer, kind of a trade. “If you laugh at every linguistic error in my math lessons, you will get tired quickly. So let's make a deal: I will teach you math, physics, nature study and chemistry and you will teach me Hebrew!” He really convinced us with this proposal and eliminated the stupid order of laughter. We took the job of being the teachers of “Mr. Principal”, that's how we addressed him, seriously, even with a certain amount of smugness. It is not easy to be the teachers of the teacher! We used to correct grammatical errors, suggest a different word here and there in place of the one that the teacher had chosen, or a more appropriate expression, and all this without a hint of arrogance.
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| The building of Gymnasium Yavne; in Telshe |
We were delighted that our proposals had been accepted and happy to see that, indeed our “student” was doing well and that we had a part in his progress. In general, we learned to appreciate the
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great abundance that he had the power to give us. For a certain time, “Mr. Principal” taught us both Torah and Rashi and the lessons were interesting and fascinating. I remember very well that from him we heard, for the first time, the name of R' Shimshon Rafael Hirsh and his unique way of interpreting the Torah. He also opened for us new windows in the field of Jewish studies. We discovered in him an abundant source of knowledge, not only in his subjects, but also in German and English literature (translated into German). And we thirstily drank his deep explanations in the evening readings he organized for us, first in his hotel room and later at his home after he brought his family to Telshe. And if anyone asks us girls of the fifth or sixth class of the Hebrew gymnasium, from where did we get the willingness to read and understand works such as “Nathan the Wise” by Lessing, “The Sublime” by Schiller, “Macbeth” and “King Lear” by Shakespeare (translated into German) I have to go back a bit in the history of our gymnasium.
The great yeshiva of Telshe, whose reputation also reached beyond the borders of Lita, started to attract many students from abroad: mainly Germany, but also England, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and even from the United States. Among the students who came to study in Telshe were many who had an academic education and even a doctorate, such as: Dr. Emanuel Shereshevsky and his brother Yakov from Königsberg (Kaliningrad), Ari Wohlgemuth from Berlin, Dr. Bohrer, Dr. Bloch and many more. These educated young men were precisely the people to whom it was possible to entrust in their hands, with no fear, the teaching of various subjects at the gymnasium. And so many of them became our teachers. “And what did they teach?” of course, mainly German. But not only German, also: history, geography and even Hebrew. For example, Dr. Emmanuel Shereshevsky (a physician by profession) taught us hygiene and also Hebrew. These teachers gave us a good command of the German language and when we finished our studies at the gymnasium we knew how to speak and write German freely, almost as our command of the Hebrew language.
In our last two years at the gymnasium there have been many changes among the faculty members. So for example, in these two years R' Yitzchak Shmulevitz (I do not know where he came from and how he arrived to Telshe) taught us Hebrew and Tanakh. He was a beloved Jew and a very devoted teacher. How far his spiritual attachment to the Hebrew language has come is evidenced by the fact that he established in Telshe, together with his wife Ela, daughter of R' Abtzik Schwarts, a Hebrew speaking home; meaning his children were educated in their home purely in Hebrew! It seems to me that in this respect it is possible to praise him as a pioneer.
There were also changes in the management of the gymnasium. In the summer of 1926, “Mr. Principal” who educated us from the fourth to the eighth grade could not congratulate us at the graduation ceremony of our class, the first graduating class of the first religious Hebrew gymnasium, because in that year he was in Eretz Yisrael. Indeed, he did not sever the contact with us even when he was far away. From Israel he sent us letters in which he tried to guide us, especially in regard to the matriculation exams that were so frightening. I especially remember a letter that we received just before the exams in which he warned us not to fail from immoral acts, out of a desire to succeed in the exams. The goal does not compensate for the damage caused by the way it is obtained. In this manner he took care of us also from a distance. The management of the school in the years 1925-1926, as well as the right to bless the graduates at the graduation ceremony was given to Dr. Yoel Zalzberg of Kovna, a physician by profession who taught us physics and history in the last year. The mathematics teacher, in place of Dr. Holtzberg was Mr. Shalom Shochat, a graduate of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the University of Kovnam. And it is necessary to say to his credit that he carried out the heavy task entrusted to him with devotion and responsibility. All the girls of the first graduating class successfully passed the matriculation exams in mathematics and physics. The full success of the first class actually established the prestige of the gymnasium. Even those who did not spare ridicule and contempt for the value of the religious gymnasium lowered their voices and some even joined the fans.
Following the success in Telshe, a Hebrew gymnasium for girls, Yavne, was established in Kovna.
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Later Rabbi Yosef Kahneman of Ponevezh also established such a gymnasium in his city, but without a doubt the first right is reserved for Telshe.
In Telshe there were also Bi-annual courses for teachers. The teachers' seminar, Yavne, was also transferred to Telshe from Kovna because it had little success there. While in Telshe under the management of Dr. Holtzberg, the keen interest of the yeshiva in this institution, accompanied the religious-educational success of the seminar that had grown immeasurably.
In 1929, when the gymnasium already managed to produce three graduating classes and a fourth was on the way, Dr. Holtzberg inaugurated his new creation, which he called “The Annual Pedagogium for Teachers.” He designated it for the graduates of our gymnasium. But he did not refrain from accepting the graduates of “Tarbut” gymnasia (secular girls), rather, only on the basis of the recommendation of a religious personality from their city who would testify that the religious behavior of these girls was flawless. As for their worldview, the principal relied on his rich and successful experience to help shape them in the desired direction during the year they would be entrusted in his hands. Thus, when they finished the pedagogium (college) to go to work in the field of education, they would be religious educators worthy of their name.
Thus, Telshe was the source of instructional forces for the institutions of Yavne educational network which, in the meantime developed and expanded. And its branches reached most of the cities and towns in Lita. All this, thanks to the openness and talent of the rabbi's family. Thanks to their desire to listen to the needs of the time and their willingness to seek and find a suitable response to these needs. And thanks to the fact that they were supported by a man like Dr. R. Y. HaLevi Holtzberg who had a broad education, both general and Jewish, excellent talents, initiative and inexhaustible energy. He placed all of them at the sole disposal of the religious educational enterprise. And when they all joined together, they turned Telshe from solely the locus of a district city in the map of Lita, into a shining conception in the life of Lithuanian Jewry. And its rays of light also reached beyond its borders.
by Rivkah Naveh (nee Katz, from Gorzd)
Translated by Paul Bessemer
Telshe – My spiritual homeland! From my home in Gorzhd[1] I came to you and discovered a place of Torah–and I am a girl of only 13 years. I felt lost and afraid among the stranger (unfamiliar?) people in the town, a town that seemed somehow large and crowded in comparison to little, intimate, and provincial Gorzhd. The all-night trips on the train from Memel[2] to Shavli[3], at the train stations that were illuminated at night and the throngs of people–these were the stormy memories from which I was for many years unable to free myself: the smell of the trains and the smoke from the engines are permanently etched in my memory as recollections of my trip home.
In those days they had not yet built the Telshe-Kretingen[4] line that was intended to reduce the travel time by many hours.
I arrived at the end of the summer vacation and the studies at the gymnasium were supposed to begin the following day. The whole [experience] was, for me, one of [yet unanswered] questions: How would that day look and all those following it? It was an overcast day and the gloom descended upon me as well toward evening when I recalled that it had been 24 hours since I had left home. I was troubled by longing, and the foreign/strange girls who were supposed to be my school companions from now on [who] felt sorry for me and took me to the Skor Garden. There, on a bench in one corner of the garden I gave free reign to my tears. A wind rustled in the trees and it all caused a strange fear to descend upon me. On the benches of Skor [garden]–there I sat and cried many times when I thought of my mother and the house that was so far away…
I lived with the Varias family – on the second floor of the house of Leibe Shur/Shor. In order to reach the apartment one would take wooden stairs from the dark corridor in the courtyard, and at night I was afraid to use them to either leave or enter. The windows faced the street to the stone bridge and to the shops before it. I would, on rare occasion, dare to look out from the window, for this room was the second room of the family, my bed was a brown leather couch in the dining room; I wasn't the only one sleeping there–my friend/roommate was Shinhele from Kopishok.[5] At night they would take out a type of bed for her that they called “a'ram” – [made] from a sackcloth stretched across a rectangular wooden frame resting on two chairs. In the evenings it would come out and in the mornings it would return to one of the corners behind one or other of the doors. Our teacher, Spozhnikov–a dear soul, hy”d[6] –came to visit us (yes, educators took an interest in the living conditions of the female students whose homes were far away…) and asked with the witticism: “Which of you slept in “Aram Naharayim”[7] – later on he corrected himself and said: “No, no–A'ram Hachamim”[8] …In many houses in the town there were not only yeshiva students and gymnasium students in Telshe–who slept all their nights on a ‘ram’ like this and never saw a bed at all, and didn't have even a single private corner of their own – but it never disturbed anyone from learning Torah, from studying, from advancing and attaining their goals–even for those who ate [on certain] “days”[9] in the homes of housewives and never knew want, for those for whom a hunk of bread with salt and a great deal of water was often their portion. It was like an unwritten agreement between the housewives who cooked certain foods on fixed days of the week in order that the student who ate on Sunday at the table of a Polish woman–would not receive the same dish on the following day at the house of another. Many a joke originated from the subject of “eating days”, but it seems that the students of Telshe [who are now] scattered across the globe–both among those who are rich and successful in the world of business, as well as among those who sleep under the tent of the Torah–as if they are of one mind, all harbor within their hearts a warm spot for the memory of Telshe and what it contained:
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melodies (niggunim) that emanated from the yeshiva at night when the students–among them some very young men indeed–grappled with the problems of Avai and Rabba[10] and they were at one with themselves and with their world, with a manner of spiritual richness within material want.
Among the students of Telshe–both at the yeshiva and at the teacher training college and “Yavne” gymnasium there were many who had come from villages and townships who were a source of learning for our knowledge of the country. From the nearby townships they would arrive by wagon in the summer and by sled in the winter. But what great fortune to those lucky enough to come from settlements close to the rail lines, as the night journey by train was a social experience. We traveled home for vacation four
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| The “Yavneh” Gymnasium, in Telshe in 1930 with the teaching staff |
times a year. One trip at Hanukkah, on long, snowy nights, was nothing like the trip for summer break, when the nights were short and full of light, and full of verdant views of fields and forests everywhere. Our song–replete with longing--would echo throughout all the cars of the train: “to the land of goodness, east of the shore, where it is always spring–there is no ice or snow there…a land that has [grape] vines and dates…in which our people once lived and hopes to return again…”
We were like captives of some of the vistas of Telshe: the lake and the boats [that we could see] through the window of the classroom would not more than once divert our attention from the lesson [at hand], and woe betide the person who was caught dreamily gazing out the window and asked to repeat what the teacher had just said.
In the winter the lake froze and became a field of ice and snow–it was as if the bells on the sleds were inviting us to abandon the lesson and to race across the white expanses. The long sunsets of the summer days pulled us toward the green vistas beyond the city and that hour before sunset, between the mincha (afternoon) and ma'ariv (evening) prayers, when the students would stream out of the yeshiva in order to stroll along the main thoroughfare –it was the exact sign to leave off one's studies and to go out and take in the fresh air. The school year began at the end of summer. An air of mystery would accompany the cool mornings, and when the sound of the shofar of the month of Elul would burst forth from the houses of study (beitei midrash) and it would be possible to feel the fear and trembling at the imminent arrival of the Days of Awe.[11]
During my last year of study in Telshe, when I was in the eighth class of the gymnasium, I lived in the house of the Aharonson family. To get to the apartment that was on the second floor, above Kahn's Beit HaMizrah in the heart of the market, one had to ascend creaky wooden stairs and during the evening, when the corridor was dark, and a drunk gentile used to wander here and there, every time we left home or returned would cause us to shake and shudder from fear. The house itself was a warm, nurturing family nest, the parents– hy”d–Rosa and Itzik Aharonson and their two daughters
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Rivkah and Yocheved lived their lives like pigeons. The parents walked on eggshells every day of their lives and the tranquility and smile and the concern of each one for the other was apparent in ever step.
They had once owned a store for typewriters, but for some reason that is unknown to me they sold the shop and their economic condition was apparently quite distressed. I was too young to understand what poverty or want were, because I subsisted on a monthly stipend that my mother hy”d would send to me punctually but the food packages, “the good things” that I would receive in the mail on occasion we all enjoyed together.
Even with all of the poverty at the house, there was within it a richness [deriving] from the love for and limitless devotion to one another.
In the little room that they turned into a courtyard lived my brother Ya'akov “Yankele” Benzion hy”d, who was one of [my]12 siblings and who studied at the preparatory school (mekhina). He lived with a handsome, cheery-faced young man from the township of Zhager[12] by the name of Berele Levitz. During the days after he left, my brother shared the room with Simcha Zissel Dessler, who won over the older students [because he was] a wise student and possessor of fine qualities (he also managed to go to the Land [of Israel] although he passed away there at a young age– z”l.[13]
Rivkah and I had the second room that faced the street in front of the market. There we diligently did our homework together, since we were in the same class; there we sat at night sometimes until the wee hours and studied for tests. More than once, when [her] parents would wake up and notice the light peeking out from under our door, we would hear the mother say “Look, Itzik; the girls aren't asleep yet–how will they get up in the morning?”
Yocheved was a happy and mischievous child and her cleverness filled the house with witticisms and jokes.
We loved Telshe for the unique experiences and characters. My favorite memories of my youthful years are woven into [the fabric of] the town. When the few who managed to go to the Land [of Israel] and even overseas–their deep emotional tie unites us and the memories of those days in Telshe are ever arising during conversations. Who doesn't remember the second floor of Seidber's house, where the gymnasium was, and the image of Moishe the Sexton (shamash), whom we called “Moishe'te” due to his [habit of] mumbling while speaking?
He would stand at the threshold of the heavy grey door on the stairs and check “permission” slips–the very insignificant slip of paper bearing the stamp of the gymnasium that was given on Sabbath evening only to those happy ones who had paid their tuition and not to those who hadn't. More than once the female students would deceive him and make a business of “permission” slips. They would pass them from hand to hand and save them from one week to the next. The poor, good-hearted guy would give in and allow [them in] because to miss a day of school was considered a disaster. Tests were given soon after [the material was covered] in class, and the coveted certificate of matriculation was the greatest of all [our] aspirations.
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| Telshe Yeshiva student Ya'akov Benzion Katz (the brother of Rivkah Naveh-Katz) |
After those days that my dreams had been realized and I successfully passed the matriculation exam, I found it hard to leave Telshe and everything there.
When …[I] came upon Telshe I lost all trace of my brother and my sister Chava and her husband Rabbi Baruch Sher and their children and her infant.
My younger brother, Ya'akov Benzion, I took you from the house of [our] mother, who worried: “You're now a child among the children of the preparatory school next to the Telshe Yeshiva. I was so afraid for you! When on one of those winter nights, during one of the youthful pranks when you broke your leg, your friends of your age took you with a small snow sled–the kind that they'd use to sled down a mountain–to Dr. Mikolski, who put
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your leg in a thick cast.” Those friends pulled the sled with a rope while with every step the snow crunched under our feet, and I with my 15 years walked beside you, I faltered from the fear and the heavy responsibility, and I cried copious tears. If only I could have known that so much worse would befall you just a few years into the future. You were lost, my “precious”, with everyone [else] who was cut down. Only your letters are preserved with me as a [guarded] treasure, and on occasion I will secretly read them, read and remember….
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| Ceremony for the granting of the Israel Prize to Dr. Holzberg-Etzion, Jerusalem [5]709 (1948/1949) |
Footnotes to the English translation:
by Ada Goldrich-Blechman
Translated by Paul Bessemer
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Before the window a tree grows, A many-branched tree In its shade I will take shelter I will rest during the mornings
And friendly dreams
From whence cometh my help?
Suddenly, every evening I hear,
And here, in my dream
The house of my father,
But there isn't one who hears my voice,
And I, helpless
And I shall see the house, full with guests
And I will not know why or how |
To the flickering flames
To the dying flame |
by Avraham Barkai (Berkman) Haifa
Translated by Dr. Ida Selavan Schwarcz
My Telshe, the town where I was born, grew up, was educated, and from which I was uprooted; my parents and grandparents and ancestors lived there. I was tied to it by strong bonds.
I tremble when I remember the terrible end of my birthplace. My hair stands on end when I think of the destruction of Jewish Telshe.
I remember scenes of my childhood, before the First World War. I remember the big fire of 1906. I still remember the sighs of my father and the cries of my mother, may they rest in peace, when the fire broke out that burned up all the houses of the town. They survived the fire without anything. They and the other townspeople became paupers within one day. They were homeless and penniless. The fire broke out on a Sunday morning, in a horse's stable, from a cigarette smoked by the owner of the horse.
The straw in the stable caught fire and the flames spread quickly to the mostly wooden houses in the area. Within a few hours half the town had gone up in smoke. On Tuesday afternoon the second fire started. The cause: A large amount of coal someone had stored in one of the burned houses. This fire destroyed the other half of the houses in the town. Only a few houses remained, mostly those owned by gentiles. Years went by before the residents recovered and built new houses with the help of various organizations and donations from various places. During the time we were homeless, we lived for a while in a village at the home of an embittered farmer, and afterwards in the nearby small town of Luknik.
And here is an interesting anecdote from those days. On a Sabbath eve, during the opening prayers, in one of the houses being used as a synagogue, since all the synagogues had burned down, there was a confusion and running around in one of the nearby streets. Within a moment the street was full of people who came to see a great marvel; a horseless carriage. This was the first appearance of such a vehicle in Telshe. According to rumors, government officials came in it from Moscow to see the burnt town.
I see before my eyes the three synagogues that stood around the triangular spiritual center of the town. The Study House, the kloyz (a prayer room) and the synagogue –the shul, a wooden building with a deep interior, as if to symbolize “From the depths have I called to God.” Very tall, the Holy Ark was unique, decorated artistically with cherubs and animals and, of course, the tablets of the covenant and more. The Ark reached the roof, which was a dome and the whole dome was decorated with various artistic pictures. One felt awe in this miniature Holy Temple. The shul was used only in the summertime because there were no stoves, since it was so spacious.
I remember how I was overcome with feelings when I went to the synagogue with my father, z”l, on Yom Kippur, when I heard the voice of the prayer leader burst forth from his throat and from the depths of his heart in the prayers “Hear our voices” or “Here am I the lowly one”, and especially during the Ne'ila (closing) prayer in the quiet of the evening, with the prayer “Open for us the gate at the time of the closing of the gate ”.
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I shall always remember the awe and the lofty spirit that reigned during those moments within the congregation.
They would put up the poles of the canopies for weddings in the synagogue square. The bridegroom and the bride and their escorts would walk down the main street with the musicians and the crowd following them. A wedding was a general event for the whole town. By the way, this was a rare occasion to hear music, as there were no radios.
The main edifice of the town was the yeshiva, the spiritual center for the Jews of Lithuania, which was the pride and glory of the town. Thanks to the yeshiva, the town was famous world over. Jewish boys came there from near and far, not only from Lithuania but also from Poland, Russia, Ukraine, and more. There echos still in my ears, the voices of the hundreds of yeshiva boys, sitting at their desks from morning until late in the evening. The sweet melodies were well known in my house, which was near the yeshiva. As for the celebrations in the yeshiva, whoever had not seen the rejoicing on Purim or on Simchat Beit HaShoeva (Rejoicing of the Drawing of the Water) has never seen rejoicing in his life.
With a shiver of honor I remember the figure of the Rabbi of the city, the founder and director of the Yeshiva, the great scholar Rabbi Eliezer Gordon, zts”l (may the memory of the righteous be a blessing). He was esteemed by all and everyone treated him with awe. In 1910, when he was seventy years old, he traveled to London to collect money for the Yeshiva, which had been pauperized by the fire. He did not pay attention to his health or to the opposition of doctors to his journey and he travelled at the peril of his life to save the Yeshiva. He could not withstand the rigors of his journey and he died in London. The news of his sudden death shook up the entire city and deep mourning befell everyone. His books, which were published after his death are: “The Responsa of Rabbi Eliezer” and “The Words of Rabbi Eliezer”.
With respect and esteem I remember the refined and friendly figure of the Head of the Yeshiva, The great scholar Rabbi Chayim Rabinovitz, zts”l. How pleasant it was to see him teaching his class with excitement and enthusiasm, delivering his lesson with a new idea or argument. All his students and acquaintances loved and esteemed him. One of the outstanding students of Rabbi Chaim was my brother, Rabbi Ya'akov Moshe Abilov, may God avenge his blood. He would write down Rabbi Chaim's lectures, which were never written, and Rabbi Chaim himself would use his notes. Rabbi Ya'akov Moshe was afterwards one of the outstanding students of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski of Vilna, and was ordained by him. Rabbi Chaim Ozer ordained only the most outstanding students in his judgement. Rabbi Ya'akov Moshe was considered a genius from youth, but he was modest and humble. He was a rabbi in Vorne (Varniai) and was murdered, together with the residents of Telshe and environs, in the horrible onslaught. May God avenge his blood.
After Rabbi Eliezer Gordon died, his son-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Leib Bloch, zts”l, was appointed Rabbi of the town and Head of the Yeshiva. In those days one of the students was Rabbi Kahaneman, zts”l, Head of the Ponevezh Yeshiva and afterwards the founder and director of the Yeshiva in B'nei Berak (in Israel). In the Yeshiva he was known as the Koler genius, for the name of the town of his origin, Kol.
My thoughts and memories pass to the twilight hours, between Mincha (afternoon prayer) and Ma'ariv (evening prayer). In the Study Hall during the week, there is a wonderful scene; Jews sit at the long tables and in every corner they enjoy the glory of the God's presence, whether in solitude or together with others, some studying the Gemara, and some a Mishna tractate, a portion of Ein Ya'akov[1] or Chayei Adam[2] or reading some verses of Tehilim (Psalms). Who are these Jews? The cobbler, the tailor, the wagoner or small shopkeeper. An hour ago they were working with the sweat of their brows to earn a piece of bread. All this is forgotten all their burdens and problems and they have come here to enjoy life. Sometimes they even benefit from a homily from a wandering magid (preacher) who happens to come to their town. My father, z”l, was also among these, he would set aside time to study the Torah or a page of the Gemara; he usually had a study partner, Mr. Tuvia Ba'al Shem, may he be separated for life, his closest friend. Another good friend of my father's was R' Ya'akov Shoy, the owner of a store selling textiles.
I shall never forget the incident on a cold day, when I begged my father, who suffered from asthma, not to go to the Study Hall. And he answered me, “But this is my pleasure!”
Among the men who came to the Study Hall I remember the wagoner, who earned his living bringing sand from outside the town in his broken down wagon. It was harnessed to a skinny horse who barely pulled the wagon, and the owner did not look much better. His face gave witness to the poverty and hunger that oppressed him.
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This man found his relief in coming to the Study Hall, dressed in his ragged clothing, to enjoy a verse of Psalms or Chayei Adam.
At the outbreak of the First World War, in 1914, the Jews were exiled from the Province of Kovne (Kaunas) by the Russians, who suspected them of being spies (only Telshe and environs remained in the German area of occupation). I was also exiled deep into Russia, because I was outside the town at the time. I was separated from my parents and did not hear from them for five years. My years of wandering caused my parents and relatives much suffering. I can still remember my mother, z”l, weeping at the disappearance of her son…
After the war, in 1918, I returned to my home and town. Sadly I was at home only during holidays and vacations, because I worked as a teacher in other towns. But I got to know the town of Telshe restored, and to enjoy the new atmosphere of modernity and culture, the Hebrew gymnazia, the Girls' Teachers Seminary, and the schools, all of course, religious.
The parties then in Telshe were: Agudat Yisrael, Ze'irei Agudat Yisrael, Mizrahi, Ze'irei Zion, and also the Bund.
Of the charitable institutions one should mention the Bikkur Cholim (visiting the sick), Linat HaTzedek (hostel for the indigent) the Free Loan Society, and more.
All this has been cut off and destroyed. My heart, my heart [yearns] for you my town Telshe!
Footnotes to the English translation:
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| The main street in Telshe |
by Shoshana Holzberg (Shohat)
Translated by Paul Bessemer
Our father, Rabbi Baruch Yaffee z”l[1] is the scion of three rabbis dating back 13 or 14 generations. He studied at the yeshivas of Volozhin, Minsk, and Telshe. On account of family reasons he was forced to leave the yeshiva and to turn to the world of action/deeds, [but] he never turned into–G-d forbid!–one of those types who “play it fast and loose”[2] [with their Torah interpretations]. Rather, he continued to go over [the passage] even after having interpreted it, although not at the “shtender” (podium) --standing before the opened text at yeshiva, of course, but in his open, receptive mind and in his heart, that spilled forth with love of Torah and fear of the Heavens, and finally, with his strong desire to educate his daughters and his little son in his spirit by bestowing upon them the fruits of his thoughts. And one other love he also possessed was his love for the Hebrew language.
Everything he went over in the Torah, every new insight and understanding of the text, he expressed in clear Hebrew. And when, in fact, did he go over and extract meaning from the words of the Torah? He simply performed [the mitzvah] as it is written, “and thou shall repeat them to thy sons…” and he was certain that this also meant “to thy daughters”. He judged that [the commandment ] “Thou shall speak of them on the Sabbath in your house and as you are walking on the way…” that this literally meant: “as you are walking on the way”. More than once he would come home from the shop for lunch and invite us to listen to the new insight he acquired just as he was walking home!
Our father z”l did not have a formal, general education. Through his own powers he nevertheless acquired a knowledge of the German and Russian languages, and he even published a family newspaper in the latter, in which he placed humorous pleasantries, and various family events in my parents' home in Gorzd.[3] He never had the experience of pedagogic instruction, but he was gifted with being an outstanding educator.
In fact, this talent of his expressed itself every day of the week. But it was most pronounced on Sabbath and holiday evenings, in the atmosphere he attempted to instill in our home. From the very moment that he returned from the synagogue and spoke a festive “Shabbat shalom” to the entire family, the strains of “Shalom ’aleichem, malachei hasharet” (in honor of the angels who accompany each [son] of Israel on his way home from the synagogue) began to roll through the house… We would already join in to this pleasant, festive mood–even the female tenants who lived in our house–girls from nearby townships who had come to study at the “Yavne” gymnasium in Telshe, until the sounds of our chorus even reached those beyond our walls and was heard by those in the street below, and you could see more than one person stop to listen to the melody emanating from the house of Rabbi Baruch Yaffe…After the whole family had performed the hand-washing ritual it was time for the [Sabbath] blessing. It should be pointed out here that the wine for ritual blessing only appeared on our table on holiday and festival evenings and. Even on all the Sabbaths of the year, our father z”l recited the kiddush blessing over both loaves of bread, the work of our mother's hands, Mrs. Sheyne-Esther bat Rabbi Ya'akov Halevi Dukhan zt”l.[4]
There was something special, and very moving about the pleasant blessings of father. In his [recitation of] “and it was evening and it was morning, the sixth day”, etc., you could hear the declaration that comes from complete faith in the Creator of the World and in His Creation, done on the six days of the [work] week… But even more beautiful and festive than the pleasant melody of the Sabbath eve Kiddush was the pleasantness of the Kiddush melody on holiday and festival evenings, and especially the meandering Kiddush melody of the Yakneh”az,[5]
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when the first day of a holiday falls on Saturday evening, at the end of the Sabbath: every word and pleasant melody, and the emphasis “the sanctity of the Sabbath from the sanctity of a festival Thou hast differentiated, and the seventh day Thou hast sanctified [over] the six days of work, and Thou hast differentiated and sanctified Thy people Israel in Thine holiness. Blessed art Thou, Lord, who differentiates between holiness and holiness”! Until this day the impressive melody with which these things were spoken still resonates in my ears. [When I had my own family] I attempted to pass on this family treasure to my own children, but for some reason I was not successful, and until today I am still sorry for this…
Let us now lay aside the discussion of the Kiddush and return to the normal order of the Sabbath eve–to the Sabbath meal, the best of our mother's “creations” zt”l. And of course, between each course there were the melodies of the Sabbath eve that we would lead. But our father was not satisfied with melodies and singing alone. He attempted to “fill in the spaces” with words of Torah, ideas that had come to him over the course of the week and he would tell them to us in clear Hebrew. Yes, in Hebrew. My father z”l, took care that [all of the conversation at] our table on the Sabbath would be conducted in pure Hebrew. He was no doubt aware that our mother wouldn't understand a word of what was spoken, but he nevertheless persisted. “No matter”, he thought, “over time her ear will accustom itself to the sound of the Hebrew language and she will find [in herself] some level of ability [to understand]. And in the end, the discussion was primarily directed toward the daughters and the female tenants. They needed to understand [the language and what was said] and to make it a part of their spiritual wealth, something that would assist them in the future, and in this he was absolutely correct, because these very words of Torah that he spoke into our ears played a big part in shaping our characters and our world view until this very day.
In the interest of being brief I will only mention here one or two of the words of Torah that we heard from my father z”l, around the Sabbath and holiday table. I will only mention a couple in order to provide examples of the whole.
In the Torah portion “Noah” he mentioned the verse “and the earth was also corrupt before the Lord, and the earth was filled with violence”,[6] and said that, among other things, this was how it begins: the first thing [that people do] is to free themselves from the yoke of commandments upon them, between man and place: “What does it matter, or whom am I hurting if, for instance, I don't observe the Sabbath or [the laws of] kashrut? The importance of this is that I'm good to others!” Even so, this ‘goodness’ doesn't appear to last very long. What is written next confirms this: “The earth was filled with violence”–a dogged persistence that brooks no compromise gradually fades before “I'm good to others” and gives way to violence, to thievery on a grand scale! There is no escape from this process (and who, like us in the Land of Israel, can better testify to the truth of these statements!…).
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| The Fourth Class of the ‘Yavne’ Gymnasium for Girls, with the Director, Dr. Holzberg and the Teacher Spozniekov, Telshe [5]682 |
Again, in the Torah portion featuring Abraham and Abimelech: Abraham apologizes before Abimelech, who calls him out for having lied to him when he told him that Sarah “is my sister”, and almost caused him to commit a prohibited act. “For there is surely no fear of G-d
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in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife”[7] - If there is no fear of the Heavens, then there is no guarantee of [people behaving according to] a moral code; the absence of a fear of the Heavens leads inexorably to “they will kill me”–regardless of the reason. This time, it was “because of my wife”, but it is never difficult to find other pretexts….a reason can always be produced with ease and the spilling of blood will–G-d forbid!–be the fulfillment of the vision…
In the two examples that I produced here it is easy to see that both follow the same lines of thinking: If human morality is not grounded by Divine morality–through the fear of the Heavens–then there can also be no guarantee that [people] abide by human morality [alone].
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| A Jewish New Year Blessing sent from Telshe to natives of Telshe [now residing] around the world |
And in the Torah portion “Jethro” (Exodus 19:17): “And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with G-d; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.” Regarding this positioning of the people at the nether part (takhtit ha-har) of the mountain the midrash says: that the Holy One, Blessed Be, He lifted the mountain over them as a barrel (gagit) and said to them: “If you accept My decrees all will be well; if not, there will be your grave!”[8] My father z”l, got stuck on [the word] “there” (sham) in the midrash, since according to the picture that we imagine from [G-d] holding the mountain over them like a barrel and threatening to drop it on them if he receives a negative reply, what should have been said is “if not, here will be your grave!” Why then does the midrash use the word ‘there’ and not ‘here’? My father z”l, explained it this way: If they saw the true weight of the yoke, the yoke of commandments and prohibitions of ‘here’ and then cast their gaze over to ‘there’, a place where there was no yoke/burden of the Torah and commandments, where it appeared that all was allowed–a pleasurable existence there, where there is unlimited freedom–as you already know, it is there–in this “Paradise” of freedom that your grave shall be, the grave of your uniqueness as a nation! There will be your grave as a people chosen to be “a nation of priests, a holy nation!” And it is here, of all places, a place of prohibitions and restrictions on each step you take–here is a place where you will live! Here you will fulfill your heroic destiny!
These are but a few of the things that my father z”l, spoke to us around the table during the Sabbath evening and holiday meals, and sometimes during weekdays, as I mentioned above. In this way father z”l, transformed our table to “This is a the table [set] before the Lord”, a sort of unique institute for Jewish thought.
Blessed be the name of my father z”l, and blessed be his memory that lives on in our hearts until today, 54 years after he was taken from us. He is without a doubt to be considered as one of those about whom they say: Even [after] their deaths, the Righteous are said to still live on!
Footnotes to the English translation:
by Zev Noy (Noyik)
Donated by Davida Handler
Edited by Oshrit Livne
As the First World War was in progress, the Germans entered Lithuania. I was a young boy when the bitter picture of the Telshe (Telšiai) martyrs was etched in my mind to accompany me for the rest of my entire life.
There were two – my father, Shabsse Noyk, and Leiba Leshem (Leiba Der Milner), may their memory be for a blessing – who went out to Tresik (Tryškiai) to try to obtain some flour because of the hunger in our city. On the way back they were captured by a group of “Cossacks” who had broken through the front lines at Mažeikai, Akmenė, and Shavli (Šiauliai), in an area situated about eight kilometers from Telshe.
According to the testimony later given by some Lithuanians, these soldiers accused the two Jews of spying for the Germans, consequently killing them with live fire. My mother sent a messenger to look for them, or any trace of them... A week later their bodies were found strewn in the forest. On July 24, 1915 when the bodies were brought back, Telshe's entire community came out to receive
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| The Yiddish school in the year 1920, amongst the students Beryl Cohen, Ya'akov Rabinovitz and Zev Noik |
our city's first victims. The day was black, bleak and gloomy as the bodies arrived at the Beit HaMidrash, the Bible and Talmud study room adjacent to the synagogue. I will always remember the first Kaddish that I said for my father, may his memory be for a blessing, which will linger in my memory FOREVER.
During the winter of 1918, our little shtetl was again shaken to the core by additional fallen victims as civil war erupted in Lithuania. The Kolchaks, who came from the Baltic aristocracy, accompanied and strengthened by various groups from Lithuania, fought the Bolsheviks who had arrived from Russia. The Bolsheviks controlled Telšiai for three consecutive weeks even as they were conducting battles with the Kolchaks between the cities of Plungė and Telšiai.
During the last battle the Bolsheviks were forced to retreat. While withdrawing, they captured nine Jews from the area. Among them were five people from Telshe. One by one, near Nevarėnai, these nine captives were executed – shot by bullets. The last one to be shot was Velva Shaul, who absorbed the bullets in his left arm. He fell into the white snow, making his tormentors think that he had died. While the murderers went looking for local peasants to bury the dead, Velva, somehow regained consciousness, and in an extremely weakened state, began running while his blood was oozing out. He found shelter with a Lithuanian farmer.
When the killers came back, they discovered that one of the nine victims was missing. They followed the bloody footsteps that Velva had made in the snow, leading up to the farmer's home. The good farmer who had in the meantime dressed Velva's wounds and sent him toward Telshe, now directed the perpetrators in the opposite direction. When the murderers then returned, they mutilated the corpses. However, Velva our neighbor, succeeded in returning to Telshe.
A doctor from the main command, who was posted in our house, saved Velva's life by immediately treating his wounds. Although Velva was in shock for a long period of time, he himself related his story regarding the events just described to me and what had happened to the rest of the group. Upon his arrival, the Rabbi from Nevarėnai, may his name rest in peace, blessed Velva with T'chiat HaMetim, (the blessing of resurrection).
Regarding our family, my mother Bluma became a widow after the pogrom and was left with three little children to whom she devoted her life. My grandfather, grandmother and my uncle Nisan continued to care for us. The Second World War separated us from our mother who perished in the Shoah. My brother Nisan, a construction engineer, escaped from the Nazis to Russia in the nick of time. My sister Michal and I made it to Israel with the Zionist movement to live in a kibbutz.
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| The funeral leader for the nine martyrs of Telshe after the First World War, with the Russians (soldiers) standing on the right. |
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Telšiai, Lithuania
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