Illuminated by the Aish Kodesh of Piaseczna

October 14, 2015 // Parashas Noach
VOL. XVIII NO. 880
‫ פרשת נח‬// ‫ תשע”ו‬,‫א' חשון‬
72 YEARS LATER,
All Types of Jews
Still Bask in the
Light of the
AISH KODESH
OF PIASECZNA, HY"D
18
THEY SAVED A LIFE,
THEY SAVED A WORLD
Rebbetzin Nechama Margolin’s Story
27
MOTZA: AT THE EDGE
OF YERUSHALAYIM
Keeping the Dream Alive
CONTENTS
Ruth Lichtenstein
PUBLISHER
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Rachel Roth
Sarah Birnhack
Rachel Hubner
Managing Editor
Executive Editor
Fiction Editor
TORAH CONTRIBUTORS
Dayan Chaim Kohn
Rabbi Ozer Alport
Rabbi Shlomo Aschkenasy
Rabbi Avrohom C. Carmell
Rabbi Shimon Finkelman
Rabbi Yosef Gesser
Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginzberg
Rabbi Zecharya Greenwald
Rabbi Avraham Y. Heschel
Rabbi Dovid Kaplan
Rabbi Shmuel Y. Klein
Rabbi Paysach Krohn
Rabbi Fishel Schachter
Rabbi Benzion Shafier
Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro
Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, MD
Rabbi Reuven Wolf
ILLUMINATED BY THE
14
AISH KODESH
OF PIASECZNA
DESIGN
Israel Bitton Creative Director
Heshy Ehrenreich
He lived through the darkest time in
Jewish history... and he grappled with that
darkness. His Torah teachings... are the
outcry of someone who ... loves Him and is torn
apart by that concealment but never, ever lets go.
“I think that speaks to our generation... people
live with such anxiety, despair, depression and
hester panim. The Rebbe’s sefarim are a
Shulchan Aruch... for how a believing Jew
is to survive ...”
CONTRIBUTORS
Yosef Caldwell | Alan Freishtat
Gur Aryeh Herzig | Shmuel Landesman
Dr. David J. Lieberman | Dr. David H.
Rosmarin | Mordechai Schmutter
Rabbi Nachman Seltzer
Yitzchok Shteierman
Blimie Basch | Suri Cohen
Charlotte Friedland | Judy Fulda
Rebbetzin T. Heller | Pearl Herzog
Rebbetzin Chanah Heschel | Esther
Horowitz | Rebbetzin Faigie Horowitz
Rochel Isaacson | Devora Klein
Rhona Lewis | Rochel Licht | Yael
Mermelstein | Batya Ruddell
Esther Shdeour | Tzipora Shub
Evelyne Singer | Dina Spira
BY BINYOMIN WOLF
COORDINATORS
Esther Henny Ehrlich | Simi Lemmer
ADVERTISING
Yonoson Moller
Duvid Frankel
Avi Wagschal
Freidy Schondorf
Temmy Ziemba
Business Manager
Advertising Manager
Executive Sales
Office Sales
Lakewood Sales
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4
October 14, 2015
5
6
8
Letters
Torah
Halachah
From the BHI Hotline
10 Chinuch
12 Profile
17 Inner Dimensions
18 To Save a Life, To Save a World
23Shemittah Champions
26A World That Was
27 Motza: At the Edge of Yerushalayim
32Musings
34Snapshot
36On the Job
38Psychology: Judy Fulda, M.S.
40Gallery
43Think Twice
44Health
46Graphology
48Cookery: Wholesome and Healthful!
52Chat With the Pros
53Serialized Novel:
What About Me? Chapter 26
56Serialized Novel:
Forever Forward, Chapter 55
58Short Story
64Humor
66Postscript
ILLUMINATED BY THE
AISH KODESH
OF PIASECZNA
Why thousands around
the world are learning the
teachings of Harav Kalonymus
Kalman Shapira, Hy”d
BY BINYOMIN WOLF
WHY
do thousands of Jews around
the world today gravitate
toward the teachings of Harav
Kalonymus Kalman Shapira of Piaseczna, Poland, Hy”d, who
was killed al kiddush Hashem a few months after the liquidation
of the Warsaw Ghetto, 72 years ago this week?
Why do 1,000 Jews of all types from around the tristate area
gather in Woodmere, New York, every year to hold a hilula on
Motzei Shabbos Parashas Noach to celebrate this tzaddik’s life
and teachings? What is it about his message that strikes such a
chord with our generation?
The Piaseczner Rebbe became known as the Aish Kodesh
after his manuscript that was written in the Warsaw ghetto was
thus named at publication. He is remembered as one of the
most prominent chassidic Rebbes in Poland before World War
II because of his other-worldly righteousness and well-known
brilliance in Torah and Halachah. He was also the son of the
Rebbe Reb Elimelech of Grodzhisk, zy”a, and a descendant of
some of the most revered tzaddikim of Polish Chassidus: Reb
Elimelech of Lizhensk, the Chozeh of Lublin, the Kozhnitzer
14
October 14, 2015
The Aish Kodesh of Piaseczna
Harav Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, Hy”d
Maggid and Reb Kalonymus Kalman HaLevi Epstein of Cracow,
the Maor Vashemesh, zecher tzaddikim livrachah. But the
Rebbe’s righteousness, brilliance, Torah and unmatched yichus
are not the primary reasons for his relevance to this generation.
The Crisis of the Generation
One major factor is the Rebbe’s response to the conditions
of his times. Jewish communities all over Europe experienced
cataclysmic upheaval during and after World War I. Too many
households consisted of religious grandfathers with beards
and yarmulkes, grandmothers with tichlech, and children
or grandchildren who were completely nonobservant. The
traditional means of transmitting the mesorah to the next
generation no longer spoke to the younger generation. Young
people were leaving the world of Torah in droves. Although
today’s “off-the-derech” phenomenon does not compare to the
social and religious dislocation experienced at that time, our
generation also struggles mightily with large numbers of young
people leaving observance and many more (including adults)
whose Yiddishkeit seems empty of any substance or meaning.
What was the Aish Kodesh’s response? Because of his great
love for Hashem and the Jewish people, he could not watch the
older generation do things as they had always been done while
the next generation slipped into oblivion. Not long after World
War I, in 1923, he founded a chassidic yeshivah in Warsaw, which
he named Daas Moshe after his illustrious grandfather, the Rebbe
Reb Yerachmiel Moshe of Kozhnitz, zy”a. Directing all aspects
of the yeshivah, the Rebbe instituted the approach to chinuch,
and the emphasis on chinuch for which
he became known. He later outlined
Harav Moshe
his teachings on chinuch in the sefer
Weinberger, Rav
Chovas Hatalmidim, published in
of Congregation
Aish Kodesh in
1932, which caused a revolution in
Woodmere.
chinuch soon after its release because
of the gaping vacuum it filled.
The Rebbe demonstrated that
chinuch does not and cannot mean
merely transmitting Torah knowledge
and halachic practice to one’s children
or students. It means initiating them
into a lifelong dedication and profound
loving connection with the Master of
the World.
Involving the Emotions in
Mitzvos and Tefillah
back of Hachsharas Ha’avreichim), to understand a basic law of
spiritual and emotional psychology:
Man’s soul craves stimulation. Not only joy alone — it
simply loves stimulation. It even desires to feel sadness and
tears…. This is a law [built into “nature”] and need of the soul
like its other requirements and needs. Therefore only one who
satisfies this quota [of stimulation] with [Divine] service and
emotional Torah and prayer will [successfully] guard his soul.
But the soul of one whose holy service
is without emotion will either fulfill its
need with other, cheap stimulation or
will succumb to some sort of emotional
illness because it lacks one of its basic
needs.
We cannot ignore our human
needs. Just as one cannot live in a
healthy way without food or water, the
soul will not remain healthy without
stimulation and excitement. We must
therefore actively work to satisfy our
soul’s desire for stimulation through
Torah, tefillah and mitzvos. If we think
we can forgo our, or our children’s,
Yiddishe excitement, the negative
consequences are inevitable. Even
in frum communities, our general
failure to transmit the excitement
of Yiddishkeit manifests itself in the
proliferation of seemingly infinite
forms of “cheap stimulation” that need
not be named, as everyone is painfully aware of them. Using
teachings from Chazal and Chassidus, including many from the
Aish Kodesh, Rabbi Katz shows the participants at his seminars
how to incorporate excitement, stimulation and emotion into
their Torah, tefillah and mitzvos.
One major proponent of the Aish
Kodesh’s teachings today is Rabbi
Doniel Katz, director of The Elevation
Project. He holds shiurim and seminars
in large frum communities around the world, each attended by
hundreds of people, to inspire Jews to deepen their emotional
connection to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. One way he does this is
by teaching a practical method to prepare for tefillah using the
Piaseczner’s practice of hashkatah,
quieting the mind, explained in the
sefer Derech Hamelech.
Connecting to Hashem
The Rebbe demonstrated
One participant from a frum
Amidst External and Internal
that chinuch does not
community shared with Rabbi Katz
Darkness
that learning hashkatah “was unlike
Harav Moshe Weinberger, Rav
and cannot mean merely
anything I’ve ever experienced…. I was
of Congregation Aish Kodesh in
transmitting Torah
blown away by my own ability to calm
Woodmere, New York, and mashpia
my mind and watch my thoughts....
at Yeshiva University, is a child of
knowledge and halachic
It’s such a chiddush to me that yiras
Holocaust survivors. In 5752/1992, he
practice to one’s
Hashem is the conscious choice to
chose to name his newly established
children or students.
keep your daas in charge…. All you
shul Aish Kodesh after the Rebbe,
have to know is how to tune out the
to designate it as a place dedicated
static.”
to carrying out the Piaseczner’s
Even in other areas of Yiddishkeit, many people go through
teachings. He began delivering weekly shiurim on the Rebbe’s
the motions without any emotion or connection. Rabbi Katz often
sefarim, and in 5760/2000 instituted an annual hilula to celebrate
focuses on one of the Aish Kodesh’s fundamental teachings from
the Aish Kodesh’s teachings on his yahrtzeit, 4 Cheshvan.
Tzav V’ziruz, the Piaseczner’s spiritual journal (printed in the
These gatherings began drawing hundreds of people, and then
1 Cheshvan 5776
15
ILLUMINATED BY THE AISH KODESH OF PIASECZNA
approximately 1,000 participants from around the tristate area.
Rav Weinberger then instituted an annual siyum on Shas for
the men in the shul and on Tanach for the women, and recently
requested the publication of a book consisting of the talks he
gave at previous years’ commemorations, all l’iluy nishmas the
Aish Kodesh.
What drives Rav Weinberger to continue finding new ways
to connect himself and his followers to the Piaseczner? He
explains why this tzaddik’s teachings resonate so much with this
generation:
One of the most popular songs in recent times is ‘V’afilu
b’hastarah sheb’soch hahastarah — even in the concealment
within the concealment,’ which of course is an adaption of one
of Rebbe Nachman’s Torahs [Likutei Moharan I 56]…. The
[Piaseczner] Rebbe lived through the darkest time in Jewish
history … and he grappled with that darkness. His Torah
teachings, especially in Aish Kodesh, are the expression of
the heart of a tzaddik, the outcry of someone who believes
deeply in Hashem, who loves Him and is torn apart by that
concealment, but never, ever lets go.
“I think that speaks to our generation. We’re not living in
any kind of holocaust, thank G-d. Things are much better
than they used to be. But in the post-Holocaust generation,
particularly now, people live with such anxiety, despair,
depression and hester panim. The Rebbe’s sefarim are a
Shulchan Aruch, especially Aish Kodesh, for how a believing
Jew is to survive ‘V’afilu b’hastarah sheb’soch hahastarah….’
The Rebbe shows how Hashem is reaching out to us from the
darkness.
Connecting to Our Generation
One gathering of Jews implementing some of the Aish
Kodesh’s teachings meets every week in Ramat Beit Shemesh,
Israel. Led by Rabbi Judah Mischel, director of Camp HASC and
founder of Tzama Nafshi, an inspirational program for bachurim
16
October 14, 2015
At a recent Elevation Seminar by
Rabbi Doniel Katz.
during their year in Eretz Yisrael, the chaburah studies Tzav
V’ziruz. After learning a passage, participants discuss how to
apply the Piaseczna Rebbe’s ideas and advice in their daily lives,
whether at home, in the beis medrah, at work, in the community
or in one’s relationship with Hashem.
Why do the Piaseczner’s teachings connect with this
generation so deeply? Rabbi Mischel explains that “in Tzav
V’ziruz, there is penetrating honesty and a raw, straight-talk
style that is so different from almost anything else one would
hear or encounter…. The heartfelt sincerity of the entries ... push
us to think about our growth, our relationship with Hashem
and sensitive topics in avodah in ways that other sefarim and
tzaddikim address more generally as ‘drashos’ or in more vague
or indirect terms.”
There are virtually no other tzaddikim in history who have
allowed us into the inner chambers of their hearts the way the
Piaseczner does in Tzav V’ziruz.
Rabbi Mischel shares that the chaburah is even more
meaningful because it takes place in Kehillas Aish Kodesh in
Ramat Beit Shemesh, led by Rav Kalman Menachem Shapira,
shlita, grandson of the Piaseczner’s brother, Rav Yeshayahu
Shapira, zt”l. That deepens the experience, Rabbi Mischel says,
because “there is a sense of fulfilling the Rebbe’s mission that is
both overwhelming and empowering.” Rav Shapira “is an ohev
Yisrael, beloved for his humility, and the shul is heimish, warm
and welcoming.”
In addition to these organized venues that transmit the
Piaceszner’s teachings, individuals worldwide also consistently
draw from his well of wisdom. The Aish Kodesh’s yahrtzeit
is this Shabbos, 4 Cheshvan, making it an opportune time to
discover the Piaseczner’s teachings. 
Binyomin Wolf is the adapter of a recently released book (distributed by Feldheim
Publishers) entitled ‘Warmed by the Fire of the Aish Kodesh – Torah from the Hilulas
of Reb Kalonymus Kalman Shapira of Piaseczna,’ by Rav Moshe Weinberger of
Woodmere, N.Y.