|
|
|
|
Letters from Europeclick on the letters to zoom in |
July 6, 1938  |
(translated from Yiddish) Dear Brother Yitzchok Because I have not written to you in a long time. I must first ask you what is going on altogether. I remember when I left America you were just like all the boys, you used to play without a stop, you never wanted to learn, you used to skip davening sometimes, I mean this is something all boys do, but for a Bar Mitzvah, when we begin to learn a drosha or haftorah and when we start putting on tefillin, we become a little different. The time comes when you have to review the drosha, and we leave everything else. We leave the games we are playing and we go to the Rebbe to review the drosha, and when the time comes to daven, we leave all the games and go to daven. If it wouldn’t be the time of the Bar Mitzvah, I don’t know if we would find time for all these things, but now during the time we become Bar Mitzvah, what’s called a Ben Bar Mitzvah, one who is obligated to do all the Mitzvos, at that time there are no longer any tricks, we leave all the other things and we do the mitzvos that we have to do, it is very hard to be a Jew, but you must know that all things that are hard to come by are worth more. Yes, I too lived through the time of Bar Mitzvah and I remember what I thought about it. The whole thing seemed to me like a play, from the time I was preparing for the drosha and even when we made the Simcha and everyone was wishing me that I should grow as a Jew and as a person- then I did not understand why they made such a big hullabaloo about me that I was becoming Bar Mitzvah, and what it is about beginning to put on tefillin, that they call me already to sit up front and they give me honor just like a king, but I didn’t understand what it meant, I just saw it like a play, and I thought that the people who were honoring me also saw it like a play. Now with time I have more knowledge of Torah and yiddishkeit, and having discussed more with friends and Rebbes about the time of Bar Mitzvah, I saw that the happiness of our father and mother, and also of the many friends and acquaintances was not a play but had in it much earnestness. I am writing you now one of the things I remember of one of my discussions with my friends about the issue of Bar Mitzvah, it is well known that a person will become mature, that is he will learn how to conduct his life. He is formed, he learns how to behave appropriately in the surroundings, he achieves good and fine virtues, all this he gets apparently through development. As a child, he is given this sort of guidance, to grow up physically healthy, and that he should gradually have respect for people, that he should get used to learning and when he gets older, hereceives greater responsibility as a person, he must learn how to conduct a life, how to make judgments about all the things he confronts in life, he understands the meaning of all ????, that’s how every person develops. By us Jews, there is yet another burden, to develop oneself as a Jew- and to be a Jew means to behave in accordance with the holy Torah, to know always that the G-dly craft controls us and the whole world, and also to act properly with people according to the commands of our Torah. Also the development as a Jew, progresses by steps. A small child, we must raise as is appropriate to him, how he can understand, what he can undertake. He gets older, he has bigger and higher responsibilities, but there is still for the Jew a time when he becomes bound together with his yiddishkeit, that is to say he makes a connection with the Torah, he takes on himself the burden that all Jews must do. And that is the time of Bar Mitzvah. Bar Mitzvah means that he becomes a son of the Mitzvos, a son of Torah, a son of the Jewish people. This is also the meaning when he takes on himself the mitzvah of tefillin. It is brought down in Chazal about this that Moshe Rabbeinu begged the Ribbono Shel Olam“Hareini no es K’vodecho”, show me your kavod, show me how I as a person can become caught up with G-dliness, and with what can I become bound? It says further in the Pasuk “Va’yaavor hashem al panuv vayikra…”, the Ribbono Shel Olam passed over him and showed him the G-dly light; Chazal bring that he showed him the knot of the tefillin, this means that man’s connection with G-d is through the Mitzvah of tefillin, tefillin is the G-dly connection with man. They also say this about the turns of the tefillin on the finger, “V’arasticha li l’olam, v’arasticho…” Through tefillin we bind with G-d, v’arasticho is the meaning of binding. Also we see that tefillin is not just the knot for those things that are relevant from man to G-d, tefillin is also the binding of people to all the good qualities, as it says further in the posuk “b’tzedek uv’mishpat u’vechesed uv’rachamim” he is bound through chesed, through truth< through justice, through good attributes. 
|
(Postcard from Latvia) Dear Pa, Ma, Herby, Itchie, Evelyn & Esther Miriam, Being that we are all together we are having a very nice time.  |
September 6, 1939 Dear Pa, Ma, Herby, Itchie, Evelyn & Esther Miriam,
|
P. Cohen Dear Tata, Mama, Brothers and Sisters, It is already two weeks since I left Mir. It was a great pity that we had to leave. Because Elul is just a month before yom ha’din, you can imagine what is doing there during that time. We learn with much hasmoda, all the tefillas that are said really come from the heart. Even strangers that come into the yeshiva at that time are awakened. In particular, during such a time when so many troubles are happening in the world, just like it seems there is a satan in the world that is not allowing anything the way we want it. They tell a story, in the time of Rav Chaim Volozhiner, he told them that the satan can burn down a whole city just to keep someone from learning. I wrote you that I’m writing you this letter to wish you something for the new year. So, I wish you a k’siva v’chasima tova. I hope that we will see one another and that you will send everyone regards from me. Regards from Shmuel Scheinberg. I feel b”h healthy. It is also very peaceful here. How is everyone at home? I will stop now because it is late. (the rest is in English) |
