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Menachem Ziegelbaum , Beis Moshiach

Many Knew Rabbi Zushe Posner, aka Reb Zushe or, if it was up to him, Zushe or Posner. For sixty-four years — since he traveled on a special shlichus for the Rebbe – he remained in Eretz Yisrael in an educational capacity carrying out his shlichus with pride and simplicity until his final day. Over the years, he served as a teacher in various towns, as a mashpia in Yeshivos Tomchei Tmimim in Lud and Bnei Brak and elsewhere, as a member of Aguch and director of the Chinuch Committee of Agudas Chassidei Chabad. Wherever he was and in whatever he was doing – he was the same Zushe: sharp, loving and honest.

R’ Zushe was not just an ordinary educator. He had his own unique approach that did not look left or right; he always looked directly at the goal and worked tirelessly to reach that goal. He was never interested in what those on the right and left had to say. He followed his own Chassidishe educational path and approach and nobody could budge him.

One manifestation of that characteristic was his style of speech. He did not talk like a traditional mechanech, even though what he said was suffused with Chassidishe ideas; he did not talk like a mashpia, even though what he said was full of Chassidishe content; he did not speak like one of the Chassidim, even though he, more that anyone, loved to wax nostalgic over the Chassidim of previous generations, and to learn and absorb an abundance of influence from them.

Despite his American accented reish that you could still occasionally hear, his way of talking was like a sabra, direct and blunt. He couldn’t stand hyperbolic adjectives, ran from clichés, and he despised slogans. In his inner world these things simply didn’t exist.

GIVING HIS CHILDREN TO THE REBBE

Rabbi Zushe Posner was born on 5 Adar 5696. His father, R’ Sholom, was a talmid in the yeshiva in Lubavitch and a Chabad Chassid. His mother was Mrs. Chaya Posner. Years before his birth, his parents emigrated to the Unites States and settled in Chicago.

Over the years, his father was especially beloved by the Rebbe Rayatz. He once even said, “Sholom is mine!” Another time, when he wanted to give an example of a tamim he said, “Sholom – that’s what we call a tamim.”

R’ Zushe marveled at his father’s hiskashrus to the Rebbeim. “When my father had yechidus the first time with the Rebbe Rayatz after he arrived in New York in 5740, he told the Rebbe, ‘I’m bringing my children to the Rebbe; the Rebbe will be responsible for them.’ He thus abnegated himself totally and gave his children to the Rebbe.

“There were three Chassidic concepts that my father never spoke about at home: not about shlichus, not about mesirus nefesh, and not about hiskashrus. Why? Because he lived with the Rebbe in the most matter-of-fact way, with everything that entailed. He did not need to speak about mesirus nefesh, about hiskashrus, about shlichus. He lived with the Rebbe and therefore, whatever the Rebbe said, was done; period.”

In his youth, R’ Zushe learned in yeshivas Tomchei Tmimim on Bedford Avenue.

“5714 was a special year for me,” said R’ Zushe. “I learned in the Lubavitcher Yeshiva. I was in Rabbi Mentlick’s class where we learned for two years. Then we went on to learn in 770.

“One Friday night after Purim, I had sat down to learn meseches Taanis with another bachur. At five minutes to three in the morning the Rebbe suddenly entered the small zal and saw us. He looked at the clock and asked in fatherly concern, ‘Do you not have where to sleep? Has diligence grabbed hold of you? Isn’t sleeping on Shabbos a taanug (pleasure)?’

“We were very surprised. We had no idea that the Rebbe was in the building. The following week, Friday night, the same thing happened. We were sitting in the ‘cheder sheini’ near the small zal and at five minutes to three in the morning the Rebbe walked in. We did not see him but we heard footsteps (we stopped breathing.). The Rebbe walked to the middle of the zal, remained for a few seconds, and then apparently left. I don’t know why the Rebbe walked in.”

At a later point, R’ Zushe went to learn in the yeshiva in Montreal  where he absorbed deep Chassidishe feelings, mainly from the mashpia, R’ Velvel Gringlass.

“R’ Velvel was a Chassid who always smiled, although he suffered. I had a good relationship with him. He often spoke to me as we walked in the yeshiva yard. Once, on Shavuos, I suggested to the chevra that we go to his house to farbreng with him (his daughter wasn’t well and it was hard for him to leave the house). The bachurim did not want to and I went alone. He opened the door and asked, ‘What do you want?’ I told him, ‘I imagine you sitting alone at home and we are enjoying ourselves in yeshiva alone and I thought of coming to be with you …’ He replied emotionally, ‘Now I see who my friends are.’

“I wanted to go to New York for the Chag HaGeula, 12 Tammuz 5716, but I did not have permission from him. I guess I wasn’t the talmid I was supposed to be. Along with me was another bachur who had gotten permission but did not have a visa for the United States. Since I spoke English, I called the American embassy in Ottawa every day to find out whether the visa had arrived for him. The bachur ordered a ticket to fly (which was expensive in those days).

“On Thursday, I called again and was told: no visa. I went to R’ Velvel and said, ‘This bachur can’t go and there is room on the flight to the Rebbe. If I don’t go, some goy will go …’

“He responded by asking, ‘What will I get out of it?’

“I said, ‘Gan eden ha’elyon and gan eden ha’tachton.’

“He said, ‘I want you to commit to something practical, that you will learn a hemshech of ten maamarim of the Rebbe Rayatz.’

“I already knew some of those maamarim by heart and I immediately agreed and he gave me permission to go on condition that I return on Sunday. Then I told him I didn’t have money and he took money out of his pocket and gave it to me for the flight. Before I went, he even kissed me (rare for someone going away for three days, but apparently he had a sense of what would transpire).

“I did not end up going back to Montreal because a group of shluchim left for Eretz Yisrael after the massacre in the vocational school in Kfar Chabad and I was in the group that the Rebbe sent to lift the morale in Eretz Yisrael.”

SENT BY THE REBBE

In 5716, R’ Zushe was selected to be part of the group of bachurim sent to Eretz Yisrael after five bachurim and a madrich were murdered in Kfar Chabad. This was a select group of tmimim chosen as the Rebbe’s representatives.

In the course of their shlichus they went to where Anash lived through the country, farbrenged with talmidim and with Chassidim and brought a new, fresh spirit to everything having to do with hiskashrus to the Rebbe.

When their mission was over, they all returned to the yeshiva in America and only R’ Zushe received a telegram which said he should stay in Eretz Yisrael. He remained there and worked as a madrich in yeshiva.

“I wanted to go to America for 4 Tammuz 5718 for my sister’s wedding but did not dare to without permission from the Rebbe. R’ Berish Rosenberg a’h worked in the post office at that time. At ten o’clock at night, in the middle of my work as a madrich, he came in with a letter from the Rebbe. Since I was in the middle of working, I put the letter in my pocket and continued with what I was doing. The children began saying, ‘The madrich is going to the Rebbe!’

“When I finished working, I opened the letter and saw that the Rebbe allowed me to go on condition that it did not interfere with shidduchim. I asked the shadchan whether it would interfere with shidduchim and he said that there was nothing on the horizon at that time anyway.

“I went to my sister’s wedding (she married Rabbi Gershon Mendel Garelik a’h). While I was there, I was offered a dream job but I told my mother that I had to return to Eretz Yisrael. She asked my father whether he would ask the Rebbe for permission for me to stay but my father, with his bittul, immediately said he wouldn’t do that. [By the way, I once asked my father to take lekach from the Rebbe for me and my father said, ‘You are a shliach of the Rebbe. If he wants, he will give you.’ That was my father.]

“I didn’t know when to return to Eretz Yisrael. Every day I submitted a note to the Rebbe but did not receive a response.”

THE UNIQUE FARBRENGEN

One day, Rabbi Chodakov called him over and said, “Return to Eretz Yisrael next Monday.” The orders were to work in chinuch under the auspices of the Oholei Yosef Yitzchok network. In yechidus, the Rebbe spoke about the shlichus he was about to embark upon.

It was a Sunday afternoon, 9 Elul 5718, a day before his flight to Eretz Yisrael. Rabbi Dovid Raskin called his sister’s house where he was staying and said that since he was going on shlichus to Eretz Yisrael, there would be a tzeischem l’shalom party for him, given by Tzeirei Agudas Chabad, in the Beis Medrash of 770.

R’ Zushe asked him, “When?” He answered, “Tonight, after seder.”

“Seder ended at 9:30 but the farbrengen began first at 10:15. There were some crackers on the table and that’s all. Only five or six chevra were there. Some of them spoke but I only remember what the rosh yeshiva, R’ Mentlick said.

“It was 10:45 already and I noticed that R’ Chodakov was looking into the zal every now and then from the side door, but didn’t think much of it. At 10:50 he came in and said, ‘If it will be orderly and quiet, the Rebbe will come in for a few minutes.’

“In those days there were hardly any public phones and certainly no beepers or text messages. There were only two public phones, one on the first floor of 770 near the hallway and another one on the street, near the subway. Some tried to make calls but how many people could they reach in a few minutes? When the Rebbe came in there were no more than 10-15 participants.

“The Rebbe sat down and began to speak. He looked at me and I wanted to bury myself. I wasn’t from the elite of the elite of the bachurim. There were some top bachurim there such as R’ Yoel Kahn and others and the Rebbe came out for me …

“I sat on the western side and when the Rebbe entered I stood up of course. When the Rebbe sat he told me to sit but how I could sit in the Rebbe’s presence? I continued to stand but the Rebbe insisted, ‘Isn’t there an extra chair here?’ Having no choice I leaned, half-sitting and half-standing and then the Rebbe began to speak.”

I don’t think there was every such a thing again, especially not for a bachur …

“Right! It happened one time.”

The Rebbe began by saying:

The main purpose of this farbrengen is the trip of a shliach to our holy land, may it be rebuilt, to work himself and to give over to others that they too should work in a manner of shlichus in chinuch al taharas ha’kodesh, especially the schools named for the Rebbe, my father-in-law, in the shlichus of the one it is named for.

Those who want to see more of what was said will find it in Sichos Kodesh, the sicha ohr l’yom beis, parshas Seitzei, 5 Elul, 5718.

I still remember the abundance of blessings the Rebbe showered on me, not the usual brachos:

May Hashem yisborach gives the blessing of success that the shliach take the matters of shlichus in their entirety and bring those matters there – to Eretz Yisrael – in their entirety, and consequently they will be words that emanate from the heart that enter the hearts of the listeners, to influence the young married men, the male and female teachers, so that each one work with alacrity, enthusiasm and joy, to bring the word of G-d to every place that they will settle, especially the schools named for the Rebbe, my father-in-law, so that the students will be “blessed seed of Hashem,” “a blessed, upright generation.” (A hanacha of this sicha was edited afterward by the Rebbe and published several times).

“The Rebbe also mentioned the idea of going out on shlichus, not out of a sense of kabbolas ol and compulsion but from a feeling of joy. This is the message that the Rebbe wanted to convey. During this surprising farbrengen, the Rebbe used unusual expressions about those involved in holy work, the work of shlichus and chinuch.”

Today too, more than sixty years later, this incident is considered quite unique that the Rebbe would go out to say a sicha in honor of one person.

“Although R’ Chodakov said the Rebbe would come out for just five minutes, he farbrenged for more than an hour and it felt like a yechidus.”

Why do you think the Rebbe honored you in this way?

“I don’t know. I just know that when R’ Chodakov asked me whether I’d go on shlichus, I immediately said yes, unconditionally. I learned that at home. One is needed to go on shlichus for the Rebbe? Then you go, without meditating on ‘lofty’ ideas. I didn’t need to work on myself or think about the offer in order to say yes. This might be the reason; the Rebbe wanted to show his appreciation and to encourage others.”

MARRIAGE

R’ Zushe returned to Eretz Yisrael at the end of 5718. Since his shlichus was defined as being in chinuch, he began working as a teacher in the new schools that were founded by the Reshet Oholei Yosef Yitzchok in Zarnoga, Taanach, Kfar Saba and then in Brosh.

One day, he received a letter from the Rebbe with a surprising line in it. The Rebbe wrote that many did shidduchim with our brethren, the Sefardim, and were successful.

“I understood from this that I needed to seriously work on a shidduch. I spoke to Mrs. Gittel Glitzenstein (wife of R’ Chanoch) and she made the suggestion of the one who would become my wife.

“My wife was born in Turkey and was orphaned of her father at a young age. When they moved to Eretz Yisrael they first lived in Petach Tikva and then in Kfar Chabad. After we met several times we sent a letter to the Rebbe with a request for a bracha for the shidduch. At that time there were no faxes, etc. About ten days passed before we received an answer.

“It was on a Friday when R’ Efraim Wolf called me and brought me the Rebbe’s bracha for the shidduch. I wanted to travel to Kfar Chabad to let her know but R’ Efraim asked me, ‘Why rush? What will happen if you wait until motzoei Shabbos?’ I went to Kfar Chabad on motzoei Shabbos and found out that she had also received a letter with a bracha for the shidduch.

“Since we were both involved in chinuch in Brosh in the Negev, and we were supposed to go on shlichus there, I wanted to get to know her a bit more and so I met with her a number of times. R’ Efraim censured me for this. ‘You are meeting with the kalla too many times.’ and I stopped seeing her until the wedding although we continued working together in the school in Brosh.

“At that time, there was an agricultural madrich there and when they told him that we were engaged, he marveled and said, ‘I see them working here day after day and they never speak to one another!’

“Later on, when I saw the Rebbe after the wedding, he said about her, ‘You have an isha k’sheira ha’osa retzon baalah.’

“After the wedding, when we were in New York, we had yechidus and when I left the yechidus my wife remained for another few minutes. When she came out she did not tell me, nor did I ask her, what they spoke about. In the years that followed I never asked her about it. Why? Because it was her yechidus! If I wasn’t there, apparently, what was said there wasn’t meant for my ears and if she wanted to tell me what happened, she would have …

“Since I mentioned her, at some point my wife wasn’t feeling well and I called R’ Chodakov and said she was sick. He asked me her name and I told him, ‘Yehudis Nezira bas Zakiya.’ I suddenly heard someone ask, ‘What?’ It was the Rebbe on the line and I repeated, ‘Yehduis Nezira bas Zakiya.’

“The next day, at the Torah reading, my son-in-law, R’ Yosef Naparstek, who was at the Rebbe at the time, asked R’ Dovid Raskin, the baal korei, to make a mi she’beirach for Yehudis Nezira bas Zakiya, but R’ Dovid couldn’t pronounce ‘Zakiya’ properly and the Rebbe, who was standing there, said ‘Zachya.’”

FIRST FORAY IN THE FIELD OF CHINUCH

Shortly after they married, they went to the moshav Brosh in the south where the Reshet had a school. They both taught there.

“Moshav Brosh was a hole in the wall at the end of the world. We built our own home under terrible conditions. We didn’t even have a refrigerator; we had an icebox. We threw out food that was left over after Shabbos because it wouldn’t last till the next day. If we had to buy something, we had to travel to Beer Sheva on narrow roads and on dilapidated public transportation, with not infrequent raids by infiltrators or terrorists on the roads.

“Don’t forget, I was an American bachur who went to Eretz Yisrael to work under these conditions …”

Since then, R’ Zushe’s entire life was devoted to the educational shlichus that the Rebbe assigned him. At first, he taught in the Reshet schools. In 5720, he was drafted by the director of Yeshivos Tomchei Tmimim in Eretz Yisrael, Rabbi Efraim Wolf for various jobs. He recently discovered that this was by the Rebbe’s instruction. The Rebbe told R’ Efraim Wolf to employ Z.P.

From 5720 until 5768, R’ Zushe worked in various schools and yeshivos – in the yeshiva in Lud and the vocational school in Kfar Chabad and Kiryat Malachi. ■

To be continued…

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