From The Wedding
by Joseph Levine
Chapter 6
Reb Elinke gives us a clear understanding of Jewish history from the Bible.
I remember Reb Elinke's class. Around sunset the 7 and 8 year old boys in class would start getting restless and start fooling around. That's when the Gemara's (books of the Talmud) would be put away and the Chamashen (Bible) would be opened. The Rebbe would light a candle and we all perked up. The Rebbe would explain with his lively voice the details of the portion of the week. The winter portions were fascinating.
We were all quite interested in the creation of the first man and woman. How they went about naked, dressed in the clothes G-d 'clothed' them in. We were angry at the snake who dragged Eve away from the right path and through her also Adam thus bringing death into this world. We were also quite upset with Cain the murderer of his brother, who had the nerve to say "Am I my brother's keeper?"
Also the portion "Noah" was quite interesting for us all. The story of the flood. We all pictured women and children unsuccessfully seeking shelter on the ark and then drowning.
We became acquainted with the first Jew, our father Abraham. The Rebbe taught the portion "Lech L'cha" and we heard how G-d told Abraham "Lift up your eyes and look all around you for this is the land I have given to you and your children..." And with pained hearts we all took Isaac to the binding and we rejoiced when the angel called out "do not touch this child and do him no harm". We rejoiced when Eliezer, Abraham's servant, brought pretty Rebecca to Isaac to become Isaac's bride. Rebecca took the place of his mother, Sarah.
Open mouthed, we listened to the story of how our mother, Rebecca, preferred Jacob, her younger and weaker son. How, with her cunning, she aided Jacob in receiving his father's blessing. Later Jacob had to flee from home. We heard how, when it got dark, Jacob gathered stones around him and slept. While asleep he dreamt of angels on a ladder that reached up to Heaven.
Equally enjoyable to us was the part where Jacob meets Rachel, our holy mother, and the 14 years he slaved for his uncle Laban for his two talented daughters, Leah and Rachel. How Jacob placed the rods in the watering troughs. Later he was forced to flee back home to his father in the land of Canaan. On his return, he met his brother Esau and had to kiss and embrace him.
Then there was another tragedy, the attack on pretty Dinah in the land of Shechem, and the temper of Simon and Levi who killed the entire city of Shechem, all the men and donkeys, together with the prince, Shechem, and took their sister Dinah to their home.
We cried bitter tears when our dear mother, Rachel, died while giving birth to her son Benjamin, and they buried her mid-journey in Bethlehem. Not to mention the story of Joseph and his brothers. They took him past his mother's grave and sold him as a slave. He later became prime minister to the king in Egypt. Later these same brothers came humbly to Joseph for bread, which led to the meeting with his younger brother, Benjamin.
Breathlessly we listened to the story found in the portion 'Vayechi'. Jacob lay, old and sick. His 11 sons stood around his bed with heads bent, each waiting for Jacob's blessing. Joseph and his two sons came to Jacob who put his trembling hands upon the heads of his young grandsons and blessed them with the everlasting blessing. When our Rebbe started telling us of Jacob's last blessing to his 12 children gathered together, "I will tell you what will happen in the end of days..." we shivered from the holy fire in the Rebbe's eyes and in his voice.
When I think of my cheder days the poor schoolhouse and with the contrasting rich Jewish souls! Also when I remember the Shabbos and Yom tov (holiday) days - of which I will write later-every one of my bones is warmed.
You should know also, every day and evening was interesting and comfortable in cheder. Especially on Thursday evening when we would finish the learning for the week. We prepared to be tested by our fathers on the Talmud and Bible, with Rashi's commentary, that we studied the past week.
Winter time the good Rebbe and Rebbetsin made certain we were all dressed warm so as, G-d forbid, not to get sick. We always left cheder with a hearty "good night" Holding lanterns and singing happy, pretty melodies, we would trot home.
When I would arrive home Thursday, I would heartily greet my mother. She would then feed me and send me off to bed saying "sleep my child and wake up healthy. I will prepare pancakes for your breakfast and 2 challa for kiddush tomorrow night".
Friday morning we would go to cheder like on other days only we were excused from the difficult Talmud study.
We stayed in cheder for half a day. We would review the Torah portion of the week and the Haftorah with its penetrating melody. When we finished, we dressed and all of us at once bid our Rebbe a good Shabbos, and the Rebbe would answer us "go in good health and listen to your mother and father".
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In chapter 19 he describes his trip home to his mother, Rachel, in Zlotipolia. He mentions a stop in Berdichev. Berdichev is a town in the historic region of Volhynia province. Now in Zhitomir Oblast, Ukrainian S.S.R. Apart from two single references to individual Jews from Berdichev in 1593 and 1602, there is no evidence that a Jewish Community existed in Berdichev before 1721. In 1732, the owner of the town granted a charter to the Jewish Guild of Tailors freeing them from interference by the communal authorities (kahal). The Jewish population gradually increased with Berdichev's development as a fair town from 1765. According to the census of 1765, the Jews in Berdichev numbered 1,220 (out of a total population of 1,541); they numbered 1,951 in 1789 (out of 2,460). In 1794, Prince Radziwill, the owner of the town, deprived the rabbis of their right of civil jurisdiction, which was transferred to a court to be elected by majority Jewish vote. Berdichev had become an important center of Volhynian Hasidism in the last quarter of the 18th century, and the Hasidim were thus able to secure the election of Dayyanim so as to free themselves from the jurisdiction of the Kahal and its Mitnaggedim rabbis. As the town grew, a number of noted scholars served as rabbis of Berdichev, including Lieber "the Great," Joseph "the Charif," and, from the end of the 18th century until his death in 1809, Levi Yitzchokof Berdichev.
In 1914, the trains start from the Brest Station. Express trains from Warsaw to Kiev: via Kazatin Berditchev, the chief town of a district in the government of Kiev, stands on a gentle slope rising from the Guilopyat, and contains 77,000 inhab. of whom 80 per cent are Jews. It is the centre of the Volhynian trade, chiefly in grain and cattle. From Berditchev to Zhitomir, 51 V.(34 M), light railway in 2 1/2 hrs,From Kazatin to Uman, 183 V.(122 M), railway in 6 hrs - 163 V. Christinovka (rail restaurant), 183 V. UMAN ). the chief town of a district in the government of Kiev, with 42,000 inhab., more than half of whom are Jews. (Note: V = versts, M = miles)
The region of western Ukraine was part of the Crown lands of Poland. The first mention of Jews in Makhnovka comes in 1648 in an account from the Cossack-Polish War (1648-57), when Chmielnicki's Cossacks attacked the local fortress and murdered a number of Poles and Jews. Over 100 years later, in 1765, six Jews are recorded in Makhnovka. Upon the Partition of Poland (circa 1793), territories including western Ukraine were annexed into the Russian Empire. Orthodox Tsarist Russia, which was intolerant of Jews, suddenly acquired a significant Jewish population in the territories annexed from Catholic Poland. As a result, the Pale of Settlement was created, generally restricting Jews to living in the new territories, but not in "Russia proper". Jews during this period had a generally harder time, at best being isolated, and at worst being visited with pogroms. In the census of 1897, the village of Makhnovka had 2,435 Jews out of a total population of 5,343 (about 45%). On an 1845 Russian map, "Machnowka" was the chief city of the Machnowka uyezd in Kiev guberniya, while "Berdyczow" was just a small town in Zhitomir uyezd of Volhynia guberniya. When the railroads were developed (some time after 1860), the railroad went through Berdychev and Kazatin (7 miles east of Makhnovka), but bypassed Makhnovka. This caused Makhnovka to decline, while both Berdychev and Kazatin grew. Sometime around the turn of the century, Berdychev was separated from Volhynia guberniya and joined to Kiev guberniya, replacing Makhnovka as the chief city.
By the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Jewish population of Makhnovka had dwindled to 843. The Germans captured the town on 14 July 1941 and on 9 Sept. executed 835 jews.
During the 18th century Berditchev was an important center of Hasidism. Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev (1740-1810), also known as the Kedushat Levi in honor of his great Talmudic and pietistic work, became the inspiration for subsequent generations of Berditchiver Hasidim.
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