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Malchus ShebeMalchus: The Chortkover Rebbe Reb Yisroel Friedman zt'l

by F. Avrohom

This was originally published in 1995.

For Part II of this series click here.

Among the great tzadikim and gedolim who illuminated the Torah world in the generation before the Second World War, a select few stand out as the major path finders of Klal Yisroel, and whose every thought and deed was given over to help Klal Yisroel as a whole. They made the important decisions and carried the heavy burden on their shoulders.

One of these select few was the Chortkover Rebbe, Rabbi Yisroel Friedman zt'l. His chassidim numbered in their tens of thousands, and included quite a few famous Rebbes and rabbonim. The poseik hador, Reb Meir Arik of Tarnov and also the Lubliner Rov, Reb Meir Shapiro zt'l were faithful chassidim of the Rebbe of Chortkov, as were the rebbes of Slonim, Amshinov and Radomsk. It was not an uncommon sight to see up to 200 rabbonim sitting at the Rebbe's tish.

Part I

Born on the tenth of Iyar 5614 (1854) to Reb Dovid Moshe zt'l, the first Rebbe of Chortkov (who was a son of Reb Yisroel, the Rebbe of Ruzhin), it was immediately apparent that he was destined for greatness.

When Reb Yisroel was but three years old, his mother took him to her father, Reb Aharon zt'l, the Rebbe of Chernobyl. Reb Aharon Chernobyler was not able to take his eyes off the small child, exclaiming that if he hadn't known that this is his daughter's son he would hardly believe that the child is a `yelud isha.'

Reb Yisroel's uncle, the Rebbe of Sadigora, also once commented that even though all the grandchildren of the Ruzhiner were something special, Reb Yisroel was unusual even among them (chidush shebechiddushim).

As a young child Reb Yisroel delved deeply into the sea of Talmud and would often speak in learning with the various rabbonim who came to his father, Reb Dovid Moshe zt'l, in Chortkov. Reb Yisroel became especially close with Reb Shlomo Dreimar of Skala (author of Yesharesh Yaakov) and they learned together every time the Skala Rov came to Chortkov. Reb Yisroel, who was only 14 years old at the time, wrote two lengthy responsa on the topic of `bitul berov' which the Skala Rov published in his classic work Beis Shlomo.

On another occasion, the famed posek, the Maharsham, who also frequently came to Chortkov, asked Reb Yisroel if he owned a certain rare sefer that spoke about a difficult she'ela in hilchos Gittin. Reb Yisroel wanted to know what the she'ela was and when the Maharsham told him Reb Yisroel proceeded to tell him all the different opinions and how one should act halocho lema'aseh. The Maharsham, who had been quite unaware of Reb Yisroel's vast knowledge until then, asked his permission to ask him about all the difficulties that he encountered during his learning. Reb Yisroel answered him that he never does anything without first asking his father's consent. Reb Dovid Moshe, however, did not give his consent.

HaRav Dovid Moshe Friedman zt"l

The Rimolover Rov, the Kochav Mi'Yaakov, once told Reb Dovid Moshe how impressed he was with his son. Reb Dovid Moshe straight away called his son and sternly rebuked him saying, "Why does the rov of Rimolov have to know that you are a lamdan, is that what I have worked so hard to achieve?"

From them on Reb Yisroel was careful not to display his learning in public and only on select occasions did he offer his opinion after being pressed to answer.

Reb Dovid Moshe zt'l was considered to be one of the greatest Rebbes of his time. Tens of thousands of people hung on his every word. There came, however, a time when Reb Dovid Moshe stopped saying divrei Torah at his tish, even though the chassidim begged him to resume saying Torah. Reb Dovid Moshe refused saying, "More than the calf wants to drink, its mother wants to feed it."

When the chassidim persisted in their request, he told them to go to his son, Reb Yisroel and he would say Torah for them. Thus it became the norm in Chortkov that at the end of every tish Reb Yisroel would say Torah to the chassidim. This practice continued for over ten years until Hoshanna Rabba 5664 (1904) when Reb Dovid Moshe was niftar.

Half an hour before Reb Dovid Moshe was niftar, he asked that his chair (on which he used to sit during a tish) be brought into the room where he was. When the chair was brought in, Reb Dovid turned to his son instructing him, "Sit on my chair my son, and take over my position."

Reb Yisroel answered his father in a choked voice, "Oy Tatte, what are you saying?" and refused to sit until his father commanded him a second time and even then he straight away got up. Only when Reb Dovid Moshe asked him a third time to stay seated did he finally remain in his father's chair.

His father then addressed him saying, "You shall be Rebbe and all the brochos that you shall bless Klal Yisroel shall be as if I had blessed them and you should be worthy to ascend to Eretz Yisroel together with all the Yidden."

Reb Dovid Moshe then asked his son to reply, "Amen," to which Reb Yisroel answered, "Amen, together with you."

After Reb Dovid Moshe had crowned his son Rebbe, he proceeded to recite the tefillah `Nishmas kol chai' with great deveikus. As he finished the last words of the tefillah his holy neshomoh ascended.

Avoda on Yom Tov

Since it was Hoshanna Rabba there was no shiva and with the onset of Yom Tov, Reb Yisroel took over the mantle straight away. Reb Yisroel danced the hakofos with great joy, it was impossible to notice on him that he had just lost his father the same day. He recited Kiddush for the first time in front of the chassidim and said his first Torah as Rebbe, in which he asked Hashem to help him be worthy of sitting in his father's place.

In a subsequent discourse he commented that during a father's lifetime the mitzva of kibbud av is that one may not sit in his father's place. Now, however, the mitzva is the opposite: to sit in his father's place and take over his position and through doing so, to bring honor to his father.

As long as it was Yom Tov, Reb Yisroel showed absolutely no sign of mourning for his father but right after reciting Havdoloh at the end of Yom Tov, he burst into tears. Reb Yisroel never stopped crying for his father and even many years later would burst into tears at the mere mention of his father's name.

The tens of thousands of Chortkover chassidim accepted Reb Yisroel immediately as the heir to his father's position, for even before Reb Dovid Moshe's petiroh, Reb Yisroel played a major role in the daily lives of the chassidim.

Reb Yisroel attributed his success to his Torah learning. He was once overheard to comment that he had always hoped to remain a child at his father's table and although Hashem had decreed otherwise he is at least grateful that he managed to complete the whole of Shas over forty times before he had to take his first kvittel!

At the top is the Kloiz of Chortkov; at the bottom the home of the rebbe

Responsibility for the Klal

Although Reb Yisroel had been very active on the communal scene even before he became Rebbe, he now tripled his efforts. He became extremely busy in all aspects of the community but even so he realized that alone he would never manage to accomplish what he wanted to achieve. He needed a group. The maskilim and the poverty were slowly eating away the foundations of the Yiddishe family life, and emergency action had to be taken.

To this end the Rebbe founded the "Histadrus Hachareidim" which was the forerunner of Agudas Yisroel. The first meeting took place in Chernovitz during Nisan 5672 (1912). Among the participants were the Rebbes of Boyan, Hosiatin, Vishnitz, Kosov, Antiniea, Kopitshnitz and Sadigora. They all signed a proclamation pledging to build new yeshivos where the rich and the poor could learn together without any distinction between them. They also pledged to have workshops for those bochurim who were not successful in their yeshiva studies.

When Agudas Yisroel was founded half a year later in Katowicz, the Rebbe was unable to be present at the inaugural meeting. Instead he sent a letter in which he wrote, "The holy idea to found an organization to help Klal Yisroel also occurred to me and to the other leaders of Klal Yisroel in our district, when we saw that the major principles of our faith are beginning to weaken, and the younger generation is no longer able to prevail in the difficult battles from inside and out. We therefore decided, myself and the rabbonim and tzadikim, and we said that it is not the time to keep still. To this end we came together during the previous Nisan to work out how to defeat the evil and to stop the storm enveloping the four corners of our religion."

The Histadrus Hachareidim merged with Agudas Yisroel and the Rebbe was invited to become the president (nosi) of the Moeztes Gedolei haTorah of Agudas Yisroel, a position which he filled with honor until the end of his life.

Not long after Shavuos 1914, the Rebbe travelled from Chortkov to a spa in Germany on the advice of his doctors. When the Rebbe came to the border where Austria, Germany and Russia all met, the Rebbe stopped and looked to the sky and said, "Austria says the earth is mine and so says Germany and Russia, and I say the earth and the whole world belongs to Hashem. My holy father told me not long before his petiroh that he saw in a dream a black cup, the day will just start to brighten and will then become totally dark... My holy shver (the Rebbe's uncle the Rebbe of Sadigora) also said that Vienna is a royal city, and Vienna is a good place to make kiddush."

At the time no one could understand the Rebbe's words. When, however, the First World War broke out just over a month later and the Rebbe escaped to Vienna, the meaning of his words became apparent to all.

The First World War caused thousands to flee in panic to Vienna which was a safe haven far away from the battle front. When the Rebbe arrived in Vienna, the heads of the heimishe kehilla came to invite the Rebbe to be a member of their kehilla. The Rebbe asked them, how many Yidden lived in Vienna. They answered that 200 thousand Yidden lived in Vienna.

"And how many of them are in your kehilla?" asked the Rebbe.

"10 thousand," they answered.

"So you want me to constrict my ahavas Yisroel from 200 thousand to 10 thousand Yidden?" the Rebbe retorted. "This is against what I received from my holy fathers. They took care and worried about those who had fallen by the wayside. Chassidus was founded to help Yidden from all walks of life, and therefore I cannot accept the invitation to join your kehilla. Instead I accept upon myself the task of rectifying the broken fences and to rebuild Yiddishkeit in Vienna."

Avoda in Vienna

The Rebbe did not waste any time and soon formed a committee of rabbonim and influential people that held a series of meetings with the heads of the main kehilla. They came to an agreement to form a new orthodox committee that would be responsible for spreading Yiddishkeit and through this committee new talmudei Torah were formed and the shechita, which had been on a very low standard, was brought up to scratch. The kehilla was totally transformed and hundreds of children who had until then received almost no Torah education were taught to keep the Torah and mitzvos. The Rebbe's fame spread among the Jews of Vienna and many of them came to receive the Rebbe's brocho. The Rebbe would use the opportunity to coax them into keeping the Torah.

Rabbi Shmelka Pinter z'l of London used to tell over a typical story. A wealthy businessman wanted to open three new branches of his bank, and wanted a brocho. Reb Shmelka's father advised the man to go to the Rebbe for a brocho and sent his son to accompany him. When they entered the Rebbe's room, the businessman told the Rebbe what he wanted. The Rebbe displayed a great knowledge of banking affairs and at the end he stood up, grasped the businessman's hands in his and asked him to promise to keep the banks closed on Shabbos. The man immediately refused, saying that it was impossible. The Rebbe asked the man again, and again he refused. Suddenly hot tears began to flow down the Rebbe's cheeks as he pleaded with the man not to desecrate the holy Shabbos. The business man became very distressed that he had caused the Rebbe to become so upset and finally promised that the banks would stay closed on Shabbos, a promise that was indeed kept.

By the end of the war over 60 people had personally promised the Rebbe to keep their shops shut during Shabbos.

During the War many Yidden were conscripted into the army where they met their deaths or were badly wounded. The Rebbe tried to help Yidden avoid conscription. Hearing about this, the authorities dressed up one of their officers as a Yid and sent him to the Rebbe to see if it was true.

The man went into the Rebbe's room, where he started to cry, telling the Rebbe that he has only one son and who has been called to perform his army service. He begged the Rebbe to have pity on him and to help his son to evade the army. The Rebbe listened to the man's story, and, when he had finished, asked the man to repeat the story. The man again told over the whole story, apparently crying bitter tears for his son. When he finished the Rebbe asked him to again tell over the whole story.

When the man finished his story for the third time, the Rebbe told him sternly, "Don't you know that you have to obey the laws of the country? It is strictly forbidden to evade army service."

A few days later, a high ranking officer came personally to thank the Rebbe for sending people to do army service. They had heard rumors that the Rebbe helped people to avoid the army and they were pleased that they were not true.

The chassidim were convinced that it was only a mofes that the Rebbe had known that the crying man had been a disguised officer. The Rebbe sought to dispel this mofes and explained to them how he had suspected the truth.

"Normally when a Yid tells me his personal sorrows," he explained to them, "I also feel, inside me, part of his pain and suffering. Yet when this man told me his story, his tears did not touch me at all. At first I thought that it was my fault that perhaps I am not on the madreigah to feel another's suffering. I decided therefore to ask him to tell over his problem again. Perhaps I would then feel part of his pain. I still, however, did not feel touched by his story and I also felt that this man himself was not truly upset by his own story. I asked him to tell over the story a third time and then I noticed that it was indeed as I had thought, the man was not really upset and that was the reason that I had not been able to feel his pain. I knew therefore that his story was not true and he was lying."

After the War: There is No Going Back

With the War's end in 1917 the tens of thousands of refugees who had fled to Vienna began to go back to their home towns. The chassidim took it for granted that the Rebbe would also go back to Chortkov, especially since Vienna was far away and totally out of the chassidishe camp. It came to them as quite a shock when the Rebbe announced that he intended to stay in Vienna. Many people had promised him to keep Torah and mitzvos and if he would move back to faraway Chortkov, many of these people might go back to their old ways.

The chassidim however would not take `no' for an answer and sent many delegations to plead with the Rebbe to change his mind. When they saw that it was impossible to move the Rebbe, they begged that at least he should leave Vienna and come to live in a different town that was nearer to Galicia. The Rebbe again refused. Vienna was nearer to Eretz Yisroel than Galicia, and now that he had started the journey in fulfillment of his father's brocho, he did not want to turn back.

On a different occasion the Lubliner rov, Reb Meir Shapiro zt'l begged the Rebbe to change his mind and return to Galicia, the Rebbe told him that it would cost a lot of money to build a new shul and house for him and therefore it was preferable that he stay in Vienna. Reb Meir Shapiro offered to travel around Europe to raise the required sum adding that he was sure that the chassidim would donate the money with great joy.

"True," the Rebbe answered him. "They would indeed give the money with great joy, but how is it possible to ask them in such difficult times?"

The Beginning of Agudas Yisroel

When the Rebbe was in Lemberg during Cheshvan 1921 a delegation from the Mizrachi came to speak to him. When they arrived they were upset to see that one of the heads of Agudas Yisroel in Lemberg was also in the Rebbe's room. They asked the Rebbe to tell him to leave as they would be uncomfortable to speak in the presence of a representative of Agudas Yisroel. "If that is the case then I will also have to leave the room," replied the Rebbe, "because I am a member of Agudas Yisroel from the day it was founded!"

On the third of Elul 1923, the first Knessia Gedola of Agudas Yisroel was held in Vienna. The Rebbe looked upon Agudas Yisroel as one of the main ways of helping and keeping Klal Yisroel on the correct path, and the Rebbe spared no effort in furthering the cause of Agudas Yisroel until he himself felt physically attached to the organization.

During the Knessia Gedola the Rebbe was elected the head of Agudas Yisroel together with the Chofetz Chaim zt'l and the Gerrer Rebbe zt'l. The three gedolim were asked to sign a special document to commemorate the event. Being the oldest, the Chofetz Chaim was asked to sign the first, but he refused and handed it over to the Rebbe insisting that he should sign first. The Rebbe also refused to sign first and handed it back to the Chofetz Chaim saying, "The Chofetz Chaim is a Cohen and therefore according to the halocho he has to sign first."

The Chofetz Chaim handed back the document to the Rebbe a second time and exclaimed, "The Rebbe has the din of a king and a king comes before even a Cohen godol." The Rebbe took out his pen and signed in the middle of the top line leaving room for the Chofetz Chaim to still sign before him on the same line. The Chofetz Chaim however signed on the second line and the Gerrer Rebbe signed on the third line.

The Rebbe represented nobility in its highest form, he was a direct descendant of Dovid Hamelech and his whole conduct echoed his royal lineage. When the rosh yeshiva of Chevron, Reb Moshe Mordechai Epstein zt'l, saw the Rebbe for the first time in 1929 he exclaimed, "Now all we have to do is to daven for the final geula. We already have a king to lead us, the Chortkover Rebbe will be our king."

The Rebbe left a lasting impression on all who saw him, this is how Reb Binyomin Zev Jacobson, one of the Aguda leaders from Germany, described the Rebbe in one of his seforim.

"Although the Rebbe sought to dispel any rumors that he was a miracle worker, his name spread before him until even many assimilated Jews and Gentiles would also come to receive the Rebbe's brocho. On one occasion the Rebbe stayed in Drohibisht for a Shabbos. When he left, the Rebbe left a bekeshe of his behind accidentally. A few days later a major fire broke out in the house reducing it to ashes. The whole house and all its contents were totally destroyed. Only one item emerged unscathed: the Rebbe's bekeshe! Even the secular newspapers of the area were impressed with this story calling it: `A repetition of the Salvation of Avrohom in the Fiery Furnace.'"

End of Part I

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