R’ Bentzion Shagalov, who recently passed away at the age of 91, was born to a life of mesirus nefesh. His early years were spent fleeing the communists who murdered his father. * After marrying, he settled in London and became one of the pillars of the community and the Chabad activity there. * He was mekushar to the Rebbe and traveled to see him nearly every year. * His chesed specialty was hachnasas orchim. * In his later years he moved to Ramat Shlomo in Yerushalayim where he continued his amazing acts of chesed along with shiurim for Russian immigrants
By Shmuel Jacobowitz and Berele Crombie
R’ Bentzion was born in Kislev 5685/1824 in Homil. His father was the Chassid and baal mesirus nefesh, R’ Yitzchok Elchanan, may Hashem avenge his blood, and his mother was Mariasha a”h. Bentzion was born after the Communist Revolution. Persecution against anything Jewish reached a peak. Any suspicion, as slight as it might be, of involvement in Torah and mitzvos, led to arrest and persecution.
R’ Bentzion was educated by his parents in a Chassidishe way of life. His father hired melamdim to teach him.
His childhood in the shadow of his great father ended with tragedy when his father was arrested at the end of 5697 and never seen again. Only later did they find out that he had been killed by the communists.
A few months later, in Kislev 5698, he became a bar mitzva. He began putting on his father’s t’fillin. His mother had wanted to bring him to the Chassid, R’ Chaim Hillel Azimov to learn the Haftora but following the arrest of his father and other Chassidim, many Chassidim fled, including R’ Chaim Hillel. It was only after a number of weeks had gone by and R’ Chaim Hillel dared to return home that his mother asked him to teach her son the Haftora of the upcoming Shabbos.
Bentzion had an aliya on Shabbos, Parshas Shmos, and read the Haftora.
ESCAPE TO MOSCOW
Following his father’s arrest, the family was in trouble, financially too, aside from the fact that they were expelled from their home. His mother looked for work to provide for her children but any work entailed Shabbos desecration. She began working in the home and her children would help her as much as they could. Together they would pluck feathers and they also manufactured shoelaces. The profits were meager and their poverty was great, but none of this prepared the family for the even more difficult tribulations that came upon them.
It all began with the criticism of a friend of Mariasha who unexpectedly visited one Shabbos and saw the lit Shabbos candles. She rebuked Mariasha for sticking to this “nonsense,” and told her that she must send her children to public school; otherwise, she would report her to the authorities.
Mariasha kept her wits about her and immediately began to give excuses about how some of her children did not live in the city anymore and she would be sending the little ones to school soon. Despite this, as soon as Shabbos was over, she ran away with her children to her brother, R’ Leib Garelik, while Bentzion and his older sister traveled to Bikova, a suburb of Moscow, where he learned Torah with those who were willing to learn with him.
Bentzion understood, despite his young age, that in order for his family to manage, he had to work too. He was able to find various jobs that earned him some money and over time he saw that he had a good business sense. The family soon reunited in the village of Kashira, about 100 kilometers from Moscow. Other Chassidim lived there, including: R’ Dovid Kievman, R’ Shmuel Itze Reitzes, R’ Yeshaya Denberg (R’ Nissan Nemenov’s brother-in-law). The latter was a big lamdan and Bentzion occasionally learned with him.
A few years ago, R’ Shagalov spoke about this period to the Chassidic writer, R’ Yisroel Elfenbein in Kfar Chabad:
“In Kashira I worked and earned good money. We would manufacture scarves and I became expert in making the fringes that stand out from the scarf after it’s knitted. But in order to survive, the main parnasa was from hiding some of the merchandise and selling it on the black market. After half a year we had an entire room full of this material and I would manufacture scarves out of them and sell them on the black market. I got five rubles for every scarf, a very nice income.”
R’ Bentzion went on to say that Chassidim gave his mother long-term loans and most of the money he earned went to pay back the loans.
TRAVELING TO SAMARKAND
When the Nazis approached Moscow during World War II, the Shagalov family escaped to save their lives. After an arduous journey the family arrived in distant Tashkent where they were hosted, at first, by R’ Chaim Tashkenter (Horowitz). Then they were helped by R’ Zalman Sudakevitch, who arranged proper papers for the family so they could remain in Tashkent which was relatively safe.
One of R’ Bentzion’s memories of those days was of farbrengens that were led by the mashpia, R’ Shlomo Chaim Kesselman. During a farbrengen he would demand from the young men to establish a Torah shiur. One of the men said, “Nu, the shiur will last three months and then peter out.” R’ Shlomo Chaim said, “Then we will make another farbrengen and talk about the need to restart the shiur!”
Along with farbrengens and shiurim he participated in, the exigencies of life gave him no rest and young Bentzion had to go to work again. Since in those days other relatives arrived in Tashkent, Bentzion did all he could to help everyone, despite the difficult circumstances.
When he was a bit older, he had draft problems. During those war times, the government drafted every young man of draft age, even those who had been given exemptions previously for various reasons. Sometimes the government conducted a “siege” on a certain neighborhood and went from house to house on every street to find boys of draft age. If they found them and they did not have exemption papers, they were taken directly to the draft office and from there to the front lines. This is why Bentzion left Tashkent for Samarkand where he got a Polish passport which exempted him from the draft.
There too, in Samarkand, as the older child who took the responsibility for parnasa, he continued working by manufacturing stockings while his younger brothers studied in the underground yeshiva that was founded there. He still continued having set times to learn Torah with his friends including Zalman Lebenharz and Avrohom Aharon Rubashkin. They sometimes learned by R’ Yisroel Noach Blinitzky and R’ Peretz Chein. He was happiest when he was able to occasionally attend farbrengens with respected mashpiim.
LEAVING RUSSIA
At the end of the war, many Chassidim were able to leave Russia under the guise of Polish citizens returning to their homeland via the border city of Lvov. The Shagalovs wanted to leave Russia too, but Mariasha, who still did not know what had become of her husband, wanted to wait in the Soviet Union. The indecision was heartbreaking and after much hesitation she decided to leave the country for the chinuch of her children.
Bentzion, eighteen years old at the time, was happy with his mother’s decision. He obtained Polish passports for the entire family and on Lag B’Omer 5706/1946 he held a farbrengen with his fellow Chassidim in Samarkand. In retrospect, this turned out to be their goodbye farbrengen for outside was waiting a car with their few belongings.
The Shagalovs arrived in Poland. First they stayed in Lodz where many refugees had gathered. Bentzion, who wanted to learn Torah, immediately joined the yeshiva which had opened there. From Poland, the family traveled to Germany where they settled together with other Lubavitcher families in the displaced persons camp in Poking. There he learned in Yeshivas Tomchei T’mimim. He finally felt that he was making up for what he missed in his younger years.
At the request of the rosh yeshiva, Bentzion made various trips on behalf of the yeshiva and for the Chabad refugees. He made trips to the offices of the Joint in Munich to get clothes and other items for the refugees. Years later he said that not only did he not ask for payment for these trips, he even paid the travel expenses out of his own pocket.
From Poking, some of the Chassidim traveled to Paris where Bentzion continued to learn in Tomchei T’mimim which was founded in Brunoy. He studied Nigleh and Chassidus diligently.
About a year later, he made aliya alone. At first he stayed in the Shaar HaAliya camp in Haifa and then he learned in Yeshivas Achei T’mimim in Tel Aviv. Then he moved to Kfar Chabad and did farming. He lived in one of the abandoned Arab houses. There were other young bachurim with him, Mordechai Levin, Reuven Kaminetzky, and others.
Bentzion continued farming while having set times to learn Torah. He also arranged private lessons for himself with the mashpia, R’ Nachum Goldschmid.
IN THE COMMUNITY IN LONDON
The second night of Chanuka 5713, he married Chaya Clara Jacobson from Ireland (a Litvishe family descended from the Vilna Gaon). The wedding was celebrated in Dublin, and a group of Anash living there and working in sh’chita at the initiative of the Rebbe Rayatz, attended the wedding.
The couple settled in London where he opened a textile factory. Unfortunately, the business failed and when he expressed his pain to the Rebbe, the Rebbe suggested he be involved in sh’chita. In the end, the Rebbe agreed that he should be involved in business and even guided him in this.
R’ Bentzion was utterly mekushar to the Rebbe. In 5714 he went to the Rebbe for the first time, even though in those years the trips weren’t easy as they became in later years. Since then, he traveled to the Rebbe regularly, usually once a year. When his children wanted to travel to the Rebbe, he urged them to go every year, although this wasn’t typical of English balabatim. Not only that, but he even convinced his children to go to the Rebbe for Tishrei while he stayed home with the younger children.
R’ Bentzion was very particular about all aspects of kashrus and ate meat and chicken only if he knew the shochet, and if the koshering process was done by his wife at home. Every year he would bake matzos as part of a very mehudar chabura. The cost of the matzos was $52 a kilogram.
One year, the chabura used the bakery of another Chassidic group and some of the bakers, not from the chabura, spoke negatively about the Rebbe. At the end of the baking, he went over to the person in charge who calculated what he owed. R’ Bentzion took out the money, which amounted to hundreds of pounds, put it on the table, and to the shock of the man in charge he said, “But I’m not taking matzos. Matzos that were baked by people who speak like that about the Rebbe, I wouldn’t put in my mouth.”
GUIDANCE FROM THE REBBE
Throughout the years, R’ Shagalov had a warm and close relationship with the Rebbe. On his first visit he had yechidus which lasted three quarters of an hour. He told about it in the aforementioned interview:
“The Rebbe asked me to write him all the details about my businesses. In the next yechidus he asked why I don’t write about my businesses. I expressed my surprise, did the Rebbe have time and patience to listen to all my personal questions with all my silly indecisions? The Rebbe said he did and as far as silliness, he said that sometimes a good deal emerges from silliness.”
As a Chassid, it was no little thing for him to bother the Rebbe with details of his businesses but it cost him dearly when he didn’t:
“The Rebbe said he would give me detailed guidance, but I sometimes relied on the “green light” that the Rebbe gave me for my factory and did whatever I decided. At those times, things did not work out well.”
He also received guidance about other things. Before his oldest daughter’s marriage to R’ Nachman Yosef Wilhelm in 5733, he was uncertain about what kind of wedding to make. Financially, he could make an elaborate wedding and an askan in London even tried to convince him to do that to somehow make Chabad look good. Yet, he knew the Rebbe’s view which opposed spending a lot on weddings but he was afraid people would say the rich man was tightfisted.
When he was in yechidus, he presented these points to the Rebbe and the Rebbe’s answer was, “Make a wedding that will be rich in ruchnius and simple in gashmius and I make you my agent to repeat this to others in my name; and don’t waste [excessive] money on flowers and photos because it would be better to give this money to tz’daka or to the couple.”
When a shidduch was proposed for his daughter with R’ Binyomin Zilberstrom, after they met and decided to ask the Rebbe, R’ Bentzion had yechidus. Since the couple did not yet receive a positive answer from the Rebbe, R’ Bentzion brought it up and the Rebbe said, “When they write, I will respond.” Still, the Rebbe did not wait, but immediately began talking about the shidduch as though it was a foregone conclusion. The Rebbe asked where the vort would be with R’ Bentzion asking whether it should be where the kalla lived, in London. The Rebbe said, “It is bittul Torah to take the chassan from here and fly to London. If you want people in London to hear the maamer, they should record it and play the tape in London.”
On the Shabbos before the yechidus, R’ Shmuel Shraga, an askan in Crown Heights who was involved in the neighborhood’s security, suddenly died. He had been well-liked and people in the community were despondent. During that yechidus, the Rebbe told R’ Bentzion it was worth making the vort in Crown Heights and in an expansive way, since “it was time there was simcha here in Brooklyn,” and the Rebbe made an encouraging hand motion.
During the vort Chassidim farbrenged, including R’ Gershon Mendel Garelik, R’ Bentzion’s cousin, until morning, and it was very joyous.
R’ Shagalov was one of the founders of Lubavitch House in London and he did a lot to raise big money for Chabad mosdos in London. At the same time, he worked to raise money from wealthy people for needy Lubavitcher families, and especially did a lot to help Chabad families in London so they could marry off their children in dignity.
UNLIMITED HOSPITALITY
One of R’ Shagalov’s outstanding characteristics was his chesed. He constantly worked not only for the welfare of people in general but for individuals too. He did not only give nice sums of money to tz’daka; he took a genuine interest in the person he was dealing with and showed that he cared.
R’ Bentzion gave generously to tz’daka not only after his businesses profited. To him, you didn’t make conditions with G-d. He once entered a business partnership with a Chassid from some other group. The partner announced that if he made a nice amount of money, he would give a large sum to tz’daka. R’ Bentzion said, “I will also give a large sum to tz’daka, but I will give it already [in advance].”
His son-in-law, R’ Zilberstrom, relates:
“My father-in-law was a very interesting combination. On the one hand, he absorbed from his father a lifestyle of mesirus nefesh. On the other hand, someone asked him at a farbrengen, ‘R’ Bentzion, how is it that you are involved in business matters in this world?’
“My father-in-law replied, ‘I make money so I can help Jews.’ In general, he was a balabus in the sense that you need money so you can help others. Any Jew who entered his home was received expansively and felt good. Throughout the years, he excelled in hospitality.”
At the beginning of the sixties, when Anash in Eretz Yisroel began traveling to the Rebbe on charter flights, they would have stopovers in London since there were no direct flights from Israel to the US. Anash, sometimes dozens, would get off the plane, and where should they go? They all knew to go to the Shagalov family. Sometimes they stayed there for a day and sometimes for two.
When people went to him to raise funds, even if he was eating supper with his family, he would not ask them to come back in half an hour. He would get up and talk to them and when he returned he would eat what had become cold.
One of his children said:
“Twenty-two people once came to stay with us. Each of the children took a blanket and went to sleep on the carpet near the stairs. My parents also gave up their bedroom to the guests. That’s the chinuch our father gave us.”
R’ Levi Pariz said that one time, when he went to London, he spent two months at the Shagalovs. R’ Gershon Mendel Garelik and R’ Yisroel Friedman said that in the fifties, after they left Russia, they planned on going to the US, but until they got their visas they lived for half a year with the Shagalovs.
The trait of hospitality was in his blood and he took pleasure in it. His wife supported him in this all the years. She was a modest woman who was also devoted to guests and it was all done in a low-key way. She did most of the work for the guests. She wasn’t content to serve simple meals; she put thought into it. Every guest who sat down to supper with them was served four courses which she made herself, especially when they were so particular about kashrus and she herself salted the chickens they bought.
Even after his wife passed away, he continued with his hospitality. At the age of eighty he even began studying cooking so he could host guests lavishly as he was accustomed. He would cook, prepare many salads, and more. On days when there weren’t any guests, he was unhappy. One of his children said that every Friday, when he would call his father and ask how he was, his father would say, “I am busy preparing salads for the guests.” He always blessed his children and grandchildren “you should have an open house.”
One time, after his wife had passed away, a visitor met him in London. R’ Bentzion was in a rush, because he was on his way to the airport, so he gave the man his keys to his house and his car and said, “You can use them as you please, just take care of them.”
Another time, he told his son that there was an older Russian couple in the house. He had to fly somewhere and he left them in the house so they would have a place to stay. He often took guests to the airport, an hour and a half from his house.
After he moved to Eretz Yisroel, he went home on his first Shabbos there together with five guests he did not know.
When he moved to Ramat Shlomo, he continued with his chesed and was involved in all the public works of the community. One of his biggest accomplishments was a gemach that he started with his personal money for people in the community. They knew they could always get a loan from his gemach, even for large sums. Even during his illness, he continued lending money to those who asked.
He never took advantage of his position or asked favors of people. He was a model of modesty and being satisfied with little. One of his sons said that when they were children, his breakfast consisted of black bread and herring even though he could afford a lot more.
“When I was fourteen I once went with him to buy clothes in a store in London. At the time, Chassidic style clothes had started coming from Eretz Yisroel which were high quality. After we shopped, I said, ‘Abba, buy yourself some new clothes too.’ He looked at me and said, ‘What will we have to give to tz’daka?’”
Ten years ago, he had to undergo a dangerous heart operation. He checked the cost of Israeli socialized medicine versus going to a private doctor. The private doctor stated an amount, ten thousand shekels, to do the operation. R’ Shagalov thought it over and went to his neighbor, R’ Avrohom Druk, and gave him that amount to distribute to the needy.
“If Hashem wants me to remain alive, He will do so whether I go to a regular doctor or a private doctor, so I will give the difference to tz’daka and Hashem will help.”
The operation was a success and he lived another ten years.
DOING CHESED IN YERUSHALAYIM TOO
R’ Shagalov lived in London for over forty years where he was friendly not only with Anash, but with frum people of all backgrounds, Litvish, Polish Chassidim, etc. He regularly learned in the Vizhnitzer shul and the people who davened there treated him with respect. Even during tense times in Lubavitch, people from all groups highly esteemed him and when he would ask them for tz’daka to help Lubavitcher families, they gave him graciously.
He used unique ways to strengthen boys who were starting to go off the derech by taking care of them materially and spiritually.
Although (or maybe, because) in his childhood he did not learn in a systematic way due to the persecution and difficult life circumstances, he had set shiurim in Nigleh and Chassidus which he learned diligently. For some of the shiurim he had chavrusos, even with those who were not Lubavitch. Before davening he also had shiurim in which he learned and taught others. Over the years, he completed Shas several times.
In 5753 he moved to Eretz Yisroel after receiving the Rebbe’s bracha. At first he lived in Geula and gave shiurim to Russian speaking young men at Machon Gutnick. Then he moved to the Chabad community in Ramat Shlomo in Yerushalayim. For many years he was a pillar of the Chabad community in the Yerushalmi 770. Even though he was no longer young, he founded the kollel Tiferes Z’keinim where he gave shiurim to elderly Russian Jews. He was also the treasurer of the Chabad shul and worked in many ways for tz’daka matters for the public.
***
In recent weeks he fell ill. Even during this period, the mesirus nefesh he absorbed in his childhood remained with him and he continued to be mehader in mitzvos with mesirus nefesh. This last Pesach he drank four cups of wine and ate all the k’zeisim of matza and maror although he was very sick.
He was released from the hospital for one night. The first thing he did was write checks for tz’daka for the gemach that he ran and only then did he go to lie down. The next day, he returned to the hospital.
Erev Shabbos, Parshas Behar, he passed away surrounded by his family as they sang the niggunim of the Rebbeim and recited Shma.
He is survived by his children, Shaindy Wilhelm – London, Rivka Tenenbaum – Crown Heights, Leah Zilberstrom – Yerushalayim, Menachem Shagalov – Crown Heights, Yosef Yitzchok Shagalov – shliach in Minnesota, Moshe Shagalov – Crown Heights and Yisroel Leib Shagalov – California, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, many of them on shlichus.
He is also survived by his sisters, Mrs. Shula Kazen, Mrs. Roza Marosow and Mrs. Rochel Levin-Liberow.