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IN-DEPTH FEATURES
The following information was conveyed to us by an important
talmid chochom.
I was asked by Rav Elchonon Yosef Hertzman, one of the
mussar personalities in America and a former Mirrer
talmid in Poland, to reprint the five volumes of the
wonderful work Noam Hamitzvos. He sang the praises of
the book and its instructive words of mussar, in which
each mitzva is analyzed and its essence explored. I saw the
enthusiastic haskomos of contemporary gedolim,
the Or Somayach, HaRav Yitzchok Yaakov Rabinowitz
("Rav Itzele of Ponevezh") and Rav Yosef of Seratzk
zt"l, who praise the book and its author, and decided
to go ahead with reprinting the sefer.
When I had the merit of showing the book to HaRav Shach
[zt"l] he got very excited about the reprint and told
me that I could not imagine the greatness and tzidkus
of its author, whom he had been privileged to know in his
youth in Ponevezh. He heard shiurim from him on the
topic of noam hamitzvos and they had a great effect on
him.
An Old Book on Lithuania
I was very affected by all of this, and felt a great desire
to discover some biographical details of the author.
Boruch Hashem I managed to locate the memoirs of one
of his talmidim, Rav Boruch Shilman, as well as his
photo (in an old book in Yiddish on Lithuanian Jewry). I also
found out the date of Rav Krezmer's petiroh, from an
account of Rav Itzele of Ponevezh's hesped, which
states that immediately after he finished the hesped
it became known that Mendel Beilis had been released. That
means that Rav Krezmer was niftar on Rosh Chodesh
Kislev 5673 (1912).
Here are some excerpts from Rav Shilman's memoirs:
Rav Hertz zt"l was the direct and indirect rov of
hundreds of students in many countries, and one of the most
special personalities in Ponevezh. He was born in Bialystok
to the tzaddik Rav Avrohom, a textile merchant. He got
married in Ponevezh and remained there.
After his marriage (with Soroh o"h) he also started to
go into the textile business on a part-time basis, but
quickly left it and became a shochet in one of the
towns in the Ponevezh district. Shechitoh was his
source of livelihood for the rest of his life.
However, his main occupation throughout his life was the
dissemination of Torah and yiras Shomayim and teaching
Judaism. He left his mark on me, as a student, for the rest
of my life.
His teaching career started when a neighbor, Dovid Ginsburg
the baker, needed a tutor for his son, Nochum Boruch. He
developed the boy's considerable talents, and he eventually
became the rov of Yanova and other places. Rav Nochum Boruch
Ginsburg zt"l Hy"d, the author of Mekor Boruch,
is mentioned frequently in the responsa of his
contemporaries. Like the majority of Lithuanian Jewry, he was
killed by the Nazis ym"sh.
When he taught his student Nochum Boruch, he taught Itche,
the son of the carpenter, and myself at the same time.
Before a year had passed he was teaching many students. He
got someone else to teach his first students Torah, under his
supervision, and he started to disseminate Torah and
chessed. He also made us teach certain other students
what we had already learned.
Rav Hertz himself started to teach Torah to members of the
kehilla and organized different learning groups. There
was a group learning Mishnayos at night and on
Shabbosim and halocho groups learning Shulchan
Oruch and Chayei Odom. These groups served as a
training ground for further teachers of Mishnayos and
halocho, so that they contributed to an increase in
the Torah shiur network in the town.
While Rav Hertz was dedicating himself to enlarging the scope
of Torah shiurim he left his beloved students under
the supervision of others. But in the afternoons, as soon as
he had finished shechting chickens, he came to the
small beis hamedrash where we learned and tested us on
our studies, encouraging us to be assiduous in our
studies.
The Conscience of the Town
He took care of our physical as well as our spiritual needs.
He would provide us with baskets and napkins every erev
Shabbos to collect bread and challos for needy
students under his care. He also sent children with
tzedokoh boxes to collect money for needy students.
And so Rav Hertz became a beacon of Torah, yiras
Shomayim and chesed in the town for decades until
his death.
He was called "the conscience of the town." On Fridays,
before Shabbos came in, he would go out to remind all the
storekeepers to close their stores and the peddlers to close
their stalls. Naturally they all obeyed him. He also
announced the times of candle lighting, and he got as far as
Slobodka.
Once he heard a rumor that some boys and girls were mixing in
one of the new neighborhoods in town, resulting in
considerable immodesty. He went to reprove them, but they all
fled when they heard that he was on the way. By the time he
got to the house where they met, there was no one there.
His derech in limud was that learning itself
constituted avodas Hashem and yiras Hashem, and
the more a person becomes immersed in the study of Torah, the
less is he tempted by sin and the machinations of the
yetzer hora. Consequently, he felt that sharpness in
limud was less important than bekius, for
whenever you are increasing your knowledge of gemora
you are serving Hashem.
Thus he spent most of his time teaching the plain meaning of
gemora and not in trying to delve into a sugya
with Tosafos and profound Maharshos.
It gave him tremendous satisfaction to see that a topic was
properly understood and if we, his students, managed to find
references not mentioned by Rav Yeshaya Pik in his
hagohos, he was thrilled.
He considered bitul Torah a very serious matter. Once
when he was sick and some students came to visit him, he
shouted at them to return immediately to their studies and
not to be mevatel Torah chas vesholom for the sake of
bikur cholim.
He could finish a whole masechta such as
Kiddushin in one day. Of course, a learning day did
not consist of seven hours, but of fourteen hours and more,
and it included a mishmar at night.
The Atmosphere in Ponevezh
The last time I was privileged to see his holy countenance
was in 1905 when I left Lithuania. The atmosphere in Ponevezh
had changed a lot . . .
However, Rav Hertz continued his avodas hakodesh,
teaching Torah until his last day. It would be difficult to
say that his personal life gave him material pleasure. His
wife (Shasha) was always sick, and he too was sick and weak.
His only son Alter z"l passed away before he reached
bar mitzvah, and Rav Hertz himself was niftar in his
fifties.
His death on Rosh Chodesh Kislev 5673 was connected with
another important event in Jewish history. Mendel Beilis
z"l had been arrested and imprisoned on a charge of
murdering a gentile youth for the purpose of using his blood
for matzos. During Rav Hertz's funeral, at the end of
Rav Itzele's hesped, news came through from Kiev that
Beilis had been released. The blood libel, which had been
accompanied by much antisemitism and threatened Jews the
world over, was over.
The participants at the levaya considered this a sign
from Heaven, and that Hashem had saved the honor of the
Jewish nation in the merit of this righteous niftar
who had advocated the cause of his nation.
Up to here is the quotation from HaRav Shilman's memoirs.
The following is taken from the biography of HaRav Krezmer
written by HaRav Elchonon Yosef Hertzman in the introduction
to the book:
"The author Rav Naftoli Hertz zt"l was a grandson of
Rav Osher (ben Tzvi) Hakohen zt"l who wrote the
Bircas Rosh on Brochos and Nozir, and
the son of Rav Avrohom Krezmer z"l.
"Already two generations ago the author was held in esteem by
gedolim such as HaRav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, who wrote
about him in his haskomoh: `I have known him to be a
yirei Hashem since his youth, who walks along the
paths trodden on by his ancestors, who were full of Torah and
piety.'
An Ish Elokim
"HaRav Itzele of Ponevezh also testifies to the author's
greatness in his haskomoh: `I know the author's great
righteousness. His motivation in printing his book is purely
for the sake of Heaven without any ulterior motive . . . to
arouse the Jewish nation to observe the mitzvos.'
"HaRav Avrohom Yoffin zt"l (the son-in-law of the
Alter of Novardok) who had the privilege of seeing him,
recalled, `He would sit in the beis hamedrash with
tallis and tefillin learning Torah with awe and
trepidation and holy enthusiasm. Anyone who saw him realized
that he was an ish Elokim.'
"His noble character has been engraved in the memory of all
those who met him for many decades. HaRav Shach recalled that
he learned in a yeshiva ketana in Ponevezh in his
youth, and a shiur took place every day between
mincha and ma'ariv on Noam Hamitzvos
given by the author of this work. His fiery words full of
yiras Hashem penetrated the hearts of the
bochurim.
"HaRav Avrohom Kahaneman, the president of Yeshivas Ponevezh,
says that in the town many stories circulated about the
author's miraculous deeds.
The Fire and Amira Le'akum
"The author's father, Rav Avrohom Krezmer zt"l, was a
textile merchant in Bialystok. He ran a major business with
absolute honesty, setting aside time for regular Torah
studies. Once he became very sick and made a neder
that if he were granted a full recovery he would move to
Eretz Yisroel.
"With the help of Hashem he recovered and in 5640 (1880) he
fulfilled his neder with mesirus nefesh and
moved to Eretz Yisroel with his wife Leah, their son
Moshe Shmuel (the author's brother) and three daughters.
"The author's father settled in Yaffo and became involved in
activities for the strengthening of Judaism. He was amongst
those who initiated the expansion of the talmud Torah
and the growth of the kashrus system.
"Rav Avrohom started a fabric business in Yaffo, from which
he managed to make a nice living with the help of Hashem. His
wife and daughters helped out, which meant that he could
spend more time learning and dealing with public matters.
"Once a fire broke out on Shabbos in his business premises,
but he would not let Arabs put out the fire, not wanting to
infringe the prohibition of shvus by making a direct
instruction to a non-Jew. He told his daughters, who were
crying while the fire was raging, that they were not to cry
on Shabbos -- and they stopped crying.
"Despite the major damage caused by the fire, he had the
merit of marrying off his daughters to gedolei Torah
and morei horo'oh: Rav Yosef Gershon Horowitz
zt"l, dayan in Meah Sheorim for about seventy
years, HaRav Yonah Rom zt"l, dayan in Kerem [Avrohom],
Yerushalayim and HaRav Eliyohu Yeshaya Houminer zt"l,
the gabbai of the Klelilas Shoul shul in Meah
Sheorim who lived for close to ninety years.
"The home of Rav Naftoli Hertz was permeated with dedication
to Torah and mitzvos. As the author points out, his father
was buried in Tiveria, and his mother lived to a ripe old age
in Eretz Yisroel.
"We have managed to discover some important details about a
giant who had a great influence on his contemporaries, and,
through his book, also on succeeding generations."
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