We sat with R’ Yaakov Moshe Spitzer, one of the leaders in the Sanz-Klausenberg community, and his son, R’ Yonasan Spitzer, shliach in moshav Mata. * How did R’ Yonasan become a Lubavitcher Chassid? * What the Klausenberger Rebbe had to say about the Rebbe, about Lubavitch, and about shlichus. * Part 1 of 2
Interview by Nosson Avrohom
One of the foundations of Judaism is the transmission of our tradition from one generation to the next, from father to son, starting with Moshe to Yehoshua, Yehoshua to the Elders, and the Elders to the Men of the Great Assembly down to this day. This is highlighted on Pesach, when the mitzva is “and you shall relate to your son on that day.” It is incumbent on every father to teach Torah and mitzvos to his children.
In Chassidus, this principle is seen also in the relationship between a mashpia and his mushpaim, between Rebbe and Chassid. Through every yechidus, sicha and hanhaga (aspect of conduct), the Rebbe transmits the proper path to his Chassidim. A mashpia at a farbrengen or in a conversation also transmits ways of behaving through relating stories of Chassidim, teachings of the Rebbeim, and his own conduct.
But what happens when a child picks another derech, one of love and fear of G-d, but not the derech of his father? An interview between such a father and son left us inspired and uplifted.
WE ALWAYS FELT GREAT RESPECT FOR THE REBBE
The Klausenberger RebbeOur story begins with the son, R’ Yonasan, who was born in Yerushalayim a few day after Operation Entebbe freed Israeli hostages from Uganda. The father said, “With all due respect to Yonatan [Netanyahu, commander of the operation], my son was named for my maternal uncle.
“My grandfather was a Gadol BaTorah, a close talmid of the Shevet Sofer. He did not have time to support himself and the burden of a livelihood fell on this uncle who was the one that paid for my parents’ wedding.
“A few weeks after the birth, my mother asked me to come to her house and she told me a dream she had. In the dream, her uncle said to her, ‘You know that I died without children and you owe me for the great help I gave you. A grandson will be born to you. Please call him by my name.’ We generally do not name for someone who suffered tzaros in his lifetime or who did not have children, but since this request was made in this way, I directed the question to Rabbi Elyashiv z”l, who is related to us. He said that meaning of the name Yonasan is that Hashem gave, so there is no problem with it. That is why, when my son was born, I named him Yonasan.”
R’ Yaakov Spitzer was born in Mea Sh’arim and grew up in the Shomrei Emunim Chassidus. R’ Yonasan’s mother comes from a Litvishe background going all the way back to the Vilna Gaon. That is the reason the house was a mixture of Chassidish and Litvishe practices.
“In my parents’ home, I was raised Chassidish. We are Kossover Chassidim for generations, going back to R’ Yaakov Koppel, the father of Kossov-Vizhnitz Chassidus, who was a talmid of the Baal Shem Tov. When my father settled in Mea Sh’arim, he became very close with R’ Aharon Roth, founder of the Shomrei Emunim Chassidim. My father sent me to the yeshiva of this Chassidus.
“Later on, I wanted to learn in greater depth. I always felt drawn to learning in a deep way and so I took an entrance exam for Slobodka yeshiva, by the rosh yeshiva R’ Shulman. He asked me which Masechtos I had learned so he could test me on them. I told him I had learned one masechta b’iyun (in depth) and one masechta bekius (for basic knowledge). He asked me which one bekius and I said, Taanis. And which b’iyun? Megilla. He smiled and said that he couldn’t accept me, because in their yeshiva they learned Yevamos, a difficult masechta that they did not learn in Shomrei Emunim. Instead, I went to learn in the yeshiva of R’ Elya Lopian (d. 1970) in Kfar Chassidim which excelled in iyun and pilpul.
“I always thought that we should combine the practices of Chassidim with the way of learning of the Litvishe. When I started the Chassidish mosdos in Yerushalayim and Netanya with the blessings of the Klausenberger Rebbe, I spoke with him about what was the best method of learning. He thought that the iyun approach was very important, but that one could only become a talmid chacham by learning bekius.
“The fact that all our boys learned in Litvishe yeshivos is because back then, there weren’t as many good Chassidishe yeshivos as there are today. But they remained Chassidish in their conduct.”
R’ Yonasan was quick to affirm this and said that although he was sent with his brothers to learn in Litvishe mosdos, in their home the atmosphere was Chassidish.
“I would divide the chinuch I got in my childhood and youth into two parts. The first part was more Litvish. Until I was bar mitzva I don’t remember my father wearing a shtraimel. He had abandoned the Chassidishe L’vush he grew up with. This changed in 5741, the day he met the Klausenberger Rebbe in Yerushalayim. The Rebbe had come from the United States on a visit, and from that point on, my father became his right hand man.
“The Rebbe saw my father’s capabilities and appointed him to run his mosdos in Yerushalayim. Over the years, my father became a Sanzer Chassid and he is considered one of their distinguished askanim. Among other things, he is the one who founded Kiryat Sanz in Yerushalayim. As a matter of course, the shtraimel made its way back to his head. But it wasn’t just the shtraimel; it was an inner change. The shtraimel represented my father’s going back to the derech of Chassidus.
“From that point on, he placed a much greater emphasis on Chassidic practices and following the ways of tzaddikim. Two of my brothers then went to learn in Sanz. The terminology used at home became more Chassidish, my father who had davened a different nusach changed nusach, and his pronunciation became that which is used by Poilishe Chassidim. We began davening in Chassidishe shuls. We regularly attended tishen by the Klausenberger Rebbe. I think it was a conscious decision to change direction, and not just something that resulted from the fact that he ran the Sanzer mosdos.
“I can testify, though, that both during the first period and the second period, in our home we greatly respected Chabad and had enormous admiration for the Lubavitcher Rebbe. It’s interesting that in the Litvishe elementary school that I went to, we were always considered Chassidish. I remember the elections of 1989, when there was a mighty uproar about the split between the Litvish and the Chassidish. Chabad, of course, went with Agudas Yisroel. I’ll never forget the hatred there was for Chabad. All the kids in school were against me, and I suffered for being a Chassid without understanding what the difference was in the views.
“In hindsight, that was the first time that I realized that Chabad is counted amongst Chassidim. Until then, I thought Chabad wasn’t a Chassidus. I knew Lubavitcher Chassidim before, and their clothing was different than others; they dressed as the Litvishe do. I didn’t quite understand who and what they are.”
R’ Yaakov Moshe Spitzer nodded as his son spoke. Yes, he remembered those days well.
“Until today, we are suffering from those events,” he says without elaborating. As an askan, he knows good and well the damage of machlokes.
“Some time after the split, I arrived in New York. Of course, I went to 770 as I did whenever I went to New York. When I passed by the Rebbe, I told him that my son, who learned in Ponovezh at the time, had gone far away to Tzfas so as not to be part of the group that waged war on Chassidim. The Rebbe smiled and said in Yiddish, ‘That’s the way it ought to be.’ I saw that what I said had given the Rebbe much pleasure.”
HOW DID 
THE REBBE KNOW?
When Yonasan finished elementary school, he went to a high school called Maaneh Simcha, a Litvishe yeshiva in Mattersdorf. In his first year there, he felt a strong desire to learn Chabad Chassidus, especially Tanya. When I asked him where, as a young boy, he formed an idea about what Chabad is, he surprised us with a personal recollection of his father, who was sitting there with us and nodding.
“I’ll never forget my father’s first trip to New York. He visited his Rebbe, the Klausenberger Rebbe, and then spent Shabbos in Crown Heights with the Rebbe’s secretary, R’ Binyamin Klein. He returned from the Rebbe more emotional than we had ever seen him before. He gathered the entire family in the living room and stood in the center, wearing his hat and a gartel over his jacket. It was a sight that we did not see before or since, and then he began to sob.
“He told us about his encounter with the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Every so often he paused and wiped his tears. He gave each child a dollar bill and told us that he was a shliach from the Rebbe to give it to us. This was a complete shock to us, since we were Sanzer Chassidim who learned in a Litvishe school. We did not understand why he was so emotional over the Lubavitcher Rebbe. My father is a serious man, and as a child, I looked up to him tremendously. I remember thinking, if my father is so excited over the Rebbe, he must be someone of such great stature that is beyond our comprehension. My father also said that we do not understand and cannot grasp the greatness of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
“From that point on, I began feeling a strong desire to learn and understand Chabad Chassidus. I began realizing that Chabad has a sincerity and p’nimius that I was lacking.”
What was it about that encounter with the Rebbe that made his father so emotional, and in such a way that he wanted to share it with his entire family? R’ Spitzer told the following story with his voice choked up with emotion. Although many years have passed, it was obvious that this was still quite meaningful to him:
“I went to the United States in order to attend the wedding of the Klausenberger Rebbe’s daughter. That was in Sivan. On Shabbos Mevarchim Tammuz I spoke with the Admur, and he asked me where I would be spending Shabbos. I was audacious and was curious to hear his reaction, and so I said I was thinking of going to Crown Heights to the Lubavitcher Rebbe whom I had never met and about whom I had heard so much.
“The Admur said, ‘The Lubavitcher Rebbe is a very great man,’ and he encouraged me to go. He did not ask me to spend Shabbos with him in Monsey.
“I arrived in Crown Heights and went to R’ Klein, whom I knew from his childhood in Yerushalayim. His father, R’ Menachem, was the head of the Chevra Kadisha of the Perushim. He was a wonderful host and he arranged a place for me on the first bench behind the Rebbe. I was tremendously impressed by the Rebbe during the Shabbos. Each move he made was moradik (awe-inspiring).
“When dollars were given out on Sunday, I held the Rebbe’s hand and kissed it. I did not know of the custom in Chabad of not shaking the Rebbe’s hand. The Rebbe did not let go of my hand even when I was ready to. It was a Shabbos of utter spiritual elevation and elation.
“I handed the Rebbe a note with the names of all my children, five boys and two girls. The Rebbe did not open the note, but handed me four dollars, two for those who were above 18 and another five dollars for the rest of the children. I was stunned. How did the Rebbe know that only two were over 18 and that I had another five children? When I was ready to move on, they motioned to me to go back because the Rebbe had called me. The Rebbe gave me another two dollars, ‘for the wife, for her investment in the chinuch of the children.’
“Since then, whenever I went to the US, I went to the Rebbe. Naturally, when I returned home, I was in that emotional state which Yonasan described, when I gave each of the children the dollar the Rebbe had given for them.”
R’ Yonasan recounted another episode that occurred one year later which he says pertained to him.
“A year later, my father went to the US to fundraise for the Sanzer mosdos and was there for Yud-Tes Kislev. Of course, he went to 770. When they announced that Tankistin should go up to the Rebbe and get a dollar, he decided to stand on line. My father looks nothing like a Lubavitcher Chassid and before reaching the Rebbe, R’ Leibel Groner asked him whether he was a Tankist.
“My father said he was a shliach of the Klausenberger Rebbe and R’ Groner became upset. The Rebbe noticed their interchange and smiled, and motioned that he wanted to give my father a dollar. The Rebbe blessed him with ‘Bracha V’hatzlacha’ with a special graciousness. I always tell my father that by the Rebbe, things did not just happen; I feel that the Rebbe saw with his ruach ha’kodesh that not only would his son become a Lubavitcher Chassid, but he would become his shliach.”
R’ Yaakov Moshe Spizer added that he saw amazing things by the Rebbe, but the miracle that he thinks about every day is one that happened with his oldest son.
“My son was married for nine years without having children. The couple went to the best doctors and none of them were able to help. My son is a Slonimer Chassid and an askan who lives in Ramot now. At a certain point, the doctors began to doubt whether they would be able to have children. One day, my daughter-in-law had to fly to attend her brother’s wedding in New York, and we suggested that she go and see the Lubavitcher Rebbe and get a bracha. She agreed, but when she went for a dollar, she wasn’t able to say anything.
“I could understand that. The Rebbe’s appearance makes it hard to open one’s mouth. She called afterward to say what had happened. We urged her to go back the following week and she did so. The following Sunday, she was able to ask for a bracha for children. The Rebbe blessed her and gave her three dollars. That year already, there was good news, and today they have three children, two girls and a boy.”
R’ Yonasan explained that this enthusiasm about Chabad and the Rebbe did not pass him by. He decided he wanted to be connected to Chassidus and to the Rebbe by whom his father was so impressed.
“I was a good Poilisher and had been educated on ‘hergeshim’ (spiritual feelings), and this hergesh had an effect on me. I remember that when I was bar mitzva, I began saying the Rebbe’s perek of T’hillim every day. Later on, I changed my nusach and began davening Nusach Arizal.
“Despite my father’s closeness to Chabad, I’ll never forget his reaction over that. He was upset that I was changing the nusach of his ancestors. I don’t know how to explain what motivated me to be stubborn over this, but I insisted on my way, without really knowing why I wanted this closeness to Chabad. I guess the Rebbe chose my neshama; there is no other way to explain it.
“One day, I saw a booklet with questions and explanation from the Rebbe, and in one of the answers, the Rebbe writes that a Sefardi is permitted to change his nusach ha’t’filla to Nusach Ari, but there is a problem with doing the opposite. I showed the Rebbe’s answer to my father and he was taken aback. I think that he realized that this wasn’t a passing phase of mine and my connection to Chabad was only getting stronger.”
To be continued