A Jubilee of Watching: Rabbi Samson of Slonim, Mir, Lomze and Baltimore

....and then Yerushalayim

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As we know, not once but several times, the Jewish people were exiled from lands they had stayed in for centuries, and Torah had to be transplanted elsewhere.

Yiddishkeit in America looks very different now than it did when Rabbi Samson arrived there almost 100 years ago. In the America of the period immediately following WWI, there were a few yeshivas in NY, but none outside it. There were certainly no local-born gdolim, and in fact there were no large communities of shomrei shabbos. Now there are BH many yeshivas, many frum communities, and there are even American-born gdolim.

However, this new generation of American-born g'dolim grew up in an overall environment which was largely assimilating, and certainly not Torahdik. Now in their 80's, these g'dolei Torah entered school in the period right around WWII, and generally were not encouraged at home or by their friends to become g'dolim, or even to learn Torah seriously. So how did they come to be what they are today? And where did today's many large communities of frum Jews come from?

To a large degree, this was due to an infusion from outside - Torah Jews who had left Europe either voluntarily or as refugees who became rebbes in America schools and transplanted the Torah they had received in the yeshivas of Europe to the young minds of their American talmidim. Talmidei chachomim who studied under European g'dolim, who succeeded - in the midbar that was America at the time - in nurturing young very-American children from fine and upstanding Traditional homes and transforming them into the bnei torah and g'dolim of today.

About "A Jubilee of Watching", a biography of Rabbi Samson, by his daughter:

We know the famous story of the "4 captives" (great rabbis who were captured by pirates and then ransomed by communities in Europe and North Africa): right before the decline of Torah in Bavel a thousand years ago, they had been sent to Europe to collect tzedaka for the teaching of Torah in Bavel, but ended up instead facilitating its transplantation in Europe and North Africa. Similarly, before the exile of Torah from Europe, Rabbi Samson and the Lomzer Rov - who had been sent to America to collect tzadaka for a yeshiva teaching Torah in Europe - ended up instead being among those who facilitated the transplantation of the torah from Europe to America.

Harav Samson and his colleagues in the TA were zocheh to be part of this historic process, and recognized what their mission and responsibility was.

Much excellent work was done by earlier leaders of the Jewish community of Baltimore in preventing the assimilation of the city's Jews by providing shuls and some Jewish instruction, as well as an afternoon Talmud Torah for public-school students to have some Jewish studies. However it was not their mandate to produce dedicated religious ba'alei batim and talmidei chachomim and to give rise to a frum Torahdik community. This was however one of the goals of HaRav Samson and the other rabonim who were his colleagues.

The challenges they faced in doing so were daunting. As the ‘Dean’, Harav Samson worked hard, with his colleagues, to nurture a Torahdike atmosphere in the Yeshiva but respecting each child whatever his background and future plans and giving them a positive view of yiddishkeit and a personal example of menschlichkeit to carry into their professional lives. For 50 years HaRav Samson labored to maintain the true nature of the Yeshiva in the face of pressures from parents and donors to 'modernize', ensuring each child's continuation in the yeshiva despite various home and peer-pressures to become ‘Americanized’, keeping them as students even when the financial situation in their family made tuition-payment impossible, and recognizing diamonds-in-the-rough and helping to polish them into future gdolim in the face of other options promising greater parnasa-possibilities.

It is one type of challenge to lead a great yeshiva where aspiring talmidei chachamim come to learn, as was the case in many institutions in Europe, and to indeed produce from among them talmidei chachamim. It is quite another task to do what Rabbi Samson and his colleagues devoted 50 years to achieving at the TA - guiding a Jewish school which was being pulled in many directions by those contributing the financial support, and by some of the parents, making sure that instead it followed along a Torah-path. For a jubilee of years he watched over the yeshiva and its students - and indeed among his talmidim are some of the most prominent American-born g'dolim, now roshei yeshiva in America and Eretz Yisroel.

There had been various pockets of Jewish settlement in America where religious families moving in from Europe lost their children or grandchildren to assimilation. In order to create Jewish community with continuity - one which would not vanish – there is need of a cheder (an elementary school), a high-school, and post-high school religious learning. Setting up an elementary school (‘cheder’) is the first step, and was accomplished by Rabbi Schwartz. HaRav Samson was called upon to put into place the next step, creating a high school. And later he was instrumental in assisting with the third step by facilitating the transplantation of Ner Yisrael from its original home in Cleveland. Perhaps in the merit of his "firgun" of another institution in this way rather than seeing it as competition, today the Rosh HaYeshiva of Ner Yisrael is a graduate of the TA.

Rabbi Samson was active however with the Jewish community as a whole, not just with setting up the high-school. There were Baltimore boys who needed a place to learn, but who were too old for the school or could not attend it for one reason or another: As described in a letter to Hamodia:

In his recent book “RAV AVIGDOR MILLER - HIS LIFE AND HIS REVOLUTION”, Rabbi Yaakov Y. Hamburger writes:

The guidance HaRav Samson provided was not just of the institution, but of the children and young men learning there. In many cases the leaders of klal yisrael emerged from backgrounds where torah learning was not the focus, and Rabbi Samson and his colleagues in the Chofetz Chayim yeshiva of Baltimore were among those who nurtured many such. Indeed, among his talmidim are some of the major roshei yeshiva in America today, and chosheve talmidei chachamim in Eretz Yisrael.

Besides the Torah learning Rabbi Samson spread, his guidance and watching over the school as a whole required much patience, humor, insight and wisdom, as indicated in the many stories in the book “A Jubilee of Watching”, written by his daughter Rachel Samson-Rabinowitz.

In the great Torah-desert which existed then outside NY, nurturing individuals to become frum baalei batim, talmidei chachamim and even gedolei torah, requires more than just Torah-knowledge - it was only possible because of Rabbi Samson's warmth, deep caring and concern for the boys and a dedication by him and his rebetzin extending well beyond ordinary chinuch, having many talmidim from other cities stay with them for years in their home as bney bayis.

All this too was part of the true menschlich Torah-spirit which Rabbi Samson brought with him from the premier yeshivot, roshei yeshiva and mashpi'im of Europe - the aspects of Torah-civilization in Europe which could not be captured in books - and through his actions, with the dedicated behind-the-scenes support of his rebetzin, these were transplanted in hundreds of boys and young men.

It is apparent through his life-work why Rabbi Samson merited to be called the best student by the Lomzer Rosh yeshiva (see his letter in the book), and why also he was his favorite student. The book is not just inspirational, the many stories in it are also a guide to dedicated mechanchim of today, who can learn much from it, be affected by it, and incorporate some of the spirit of a true toradike hanhogo which shines through Rabbi Samson's life-work.

Part I of the book describes the atmosphere in the shtetls and yeshivos of Eastern Europe when he was a child and a young man,

absorbing what he was later to transmit in America, as described in Part II.

This middle part of the book is full of many interesting stories illustrating the process described above - the challenges, and the ways in which they were overcome, many of which can be an inspiration even to mechanchim today.

Part III is brief and speaks of his final years, in Yerusahalyim; the book ends with his levaya in Har Hazeisim, where the circle that was his life concluded with hespedim from various now-prominent talmidim.

…………Some historical context…………..

It often surprises people today when they learn that Rav Elchonon's 'yeshiva d'Baranovich' was for very young students, children, rather than for grown boys and men. However, clearly Rav Elchonon realized the importance of chinuch and cared more about this than about the prestige of a yeshiva govoha.

The gemoro discusses the importance of teaching children in a school, especially when the father cannot teach him Torah: Yehoshua Ben Gamla instituted that every town have a local Jewish school; for this he is praised as having prevented the Torah from being forgotten (Bava Basra 21a).

There is certainly a zchus for roshei yeshiva who teach fully-formed talmidei chachamim in a city of Torah-learning, however this book tells the story of Harav Chaim Eliezer Samson of the yeshivas of Slonim, Mir and Lomze, a godol who was part of a different type of holy mission, one which had been adopted many times in the past in times of tribulation for the Jewish people. In helping transplant Torah from Europe to a mostly Torah-less America, and in focusing his efforts on children and young men rather than only on adults, and on those who came from - in many cases - non-Torah-learned homes, HaRav Samson and his colleagues were part of a long Tradition.

Hillel and R Akiva came from humble origins, and indeed most gedolim did not grow up in the homes of gedolei tora (See also the checkered history of Jews in Bavel by Ra’avad). At the TA the philosophy of HaRav Samson and his colleagues was to nurture future bnei torah and gedolim who came from - in many cases - non-torah-learned homes, and indeed some of the major Roshei Yeshiva in America today were his students.

The mission was “making the desert bloom” in the sense of "replanting the torah of the European yeshivot in the desert of America":Hashem prepares the refuah before the maka - the Jews moved from place to place, and the torah moved with them - or even preceded them, somewhat like the Aron moved first (“Va’yehi Binso’a ha’aron”) and then the Jews followed. Yosef, Efraim & Menasheh built a foundation for torah to live on when Yaakov and the shvatim moved to Egypt. Dani'el & Mordechai kept torah alive in galus. During persecution and other difficulties in Eretz Yisrael, Rav & Shmuel transplanted torah from E"Y to bavel (building on the mishna compiled by their rebbe, R. Yehuda Hanasi). Rambam (Maimonides) was greatly influenced by Rav Sa’adia Gaon (who had lived some 200 years earlier) and said of him: "Were it not for Rav Saadia Gaon, the Torah would have almost disappeared from Jewish people. For it was he who shed light on that which was obscure, strengthened that which had been weakened, and spread the Torah far and wide, by word of mouth and in writing". The book tells the story of HaRav Samson, one of the mechanchim & roshei yeshiva who was zocheh to be among those at Yeshivas Chofetz Chayim and elsewhere who helped transfer the embers of torah from the ashes of Europe, nurturing a transition-generation of future gedolei torah and ba’alei batim.

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The Sho'ah

The book recounts events as they were perceived by Rabbi Samson's daughter, who was a child when Poland was taken over by Germany, a young American girl living in the bubble that was America of that time, in a cocoon protected by her parents from what was happening, and so there is very little about the Holocaust in the book גָּפְרִית וָמֶלַח, שְׂרֵפָה כָל-אַרְצָהּ .....

Rabbi and Rebetzin Samson were very aware of the significance of the sudden stop in letters from their siblings in Poland, but even they probably did not really comprehend the magnitude of what was happening, until everyone woke up some time after the war, when it became clear that the entire civilization they had left behind had vanished.וַיִּיקַץ יַעֲקֹב, מִשְּׁנָתוֹ, וַיֹּאמֶר ... וְאָנֹכִי, לֹא יָדָעְתִּי....וַיִּירָא

In any case, to today's sensibilities this disconnect is quite jarring, and it is very difficult to understand how life in American Jewish communities continued almost as if nothing was happening... but it is also impossible to judge... Tzfanya 1 : טו יוֹם עֶבְרָה, הַיּוֹם הַהוּא: יוֹם צָרָה וּמְצוּקָה, יוֹם שֹׁאָה וּמְשׁוֹאָה, יוֹם חֹשֶׁךְ

וַאֲפֵלָה, יוֹם עָנָן וַעֲרָפֶל.