When R’ Moshe Freedman arrived on shlichus in the industrial port city of Bahia Blanca, Argentina, he did not receive a warm welcome. * With tremendous work, dedication and hiskashrus to the Rebbe, he overcame all the hardships. * In his thirty years on shlichus, he was mekarev hundreds of Jews with dozens becoming baalei t’shuva. R’ Freedman’s family and mekuravim tell Beis Moshiach about this dynamic shliach who passed away after a serious illness.
By Moshiach Freedman
R’ Moshe at his son’s hachnosa l’Cheider, from an article about Chabad in Eretz Yisroel | Photo by Mendy ToledanoRabbi Moshe Freedman a”h was born in Yerushalayim on 15 Shevat 5719/1959 to his parents, R’ Akiva Yosef a”h and Mrs. Tzippora (Sasonkin). He attended Yeshivas Toras Emes and when it came time for beis midrash (yeshiva g’dola) he wanted to learn near the Rebbe. He learned for several years in Morristown and then went on a year of shlichus to Montreal.
His brother, R’ Menachem Mendel, shliach to yishuv Har Adar and principal of the Chabad elementary school in Yerushalayim, said:
“Over the next years he continued learning in 770 and also did work at Kehos as a member of the publishing team of the Seifer HaLikkutim of the Tzemach Tzedek.”
He married Sara Alevsky (daughter of shluchim to Ohio) on 14 Kislev 5744. After the Rebbe enacted the daily learning of Rambam, for part of his year in kollel R’ Freedman served as head of the kollel team who edited the seifer Marei Mekomos L’Rambam.
Following the Rebbe’s urging of “shliach oseh shliach” in 5744-5, Rabbi Tzvi Grunblatt, shliach to Argentina, was looking for another shliach to bring to Argentina. He had been asked by the Jewish community in Bahia Blanca to send a bachur to help them. R’ Grunblatt found R’ Moshe, about a year after he married. R’ Moshe immediately agreed to the offer, after receiving the Rebbe’s approval and blessing.
A short while earlier, on Lag B’Omer 5745/1985, his father had suddenly died. Consequently, R’ Moshe wasn’t sure whether he should go on shlichus immediately, especially to a city where there was no minyan where he could be chazan and say Kaddish. The Rebbe told him to ask the rav of Crown Heights, R’ Dworkin a”h, who told him he should go on shlichus right away and pay someone to be chazan and say Kaddish for him.
SPIRITUAL DESERT
R’ Moshe Freedman’s mekurav, R’ Gavriel Becher, tells of the rocky beginning. He was born in Bahia Blanca and supported R’ Moshe during his first decade on shlichus:
The one who contacted R’ Grunblatt and asked for a bachur to come and help the Jewish community was the president of the community, Mr. Julio Horowitz, who also promised to provide an apartment and a salary. But when the community, who were mostly Conservative, found out that an Orthodox rabbi had come, they staged a rebellion. They threw the president of the community out and of course they canceled the contract that was signed with the shliach.
So R’ Moshe, about a month before Rosh HaShana, arrived on the Rebbe’s shlichus in Bahia Blanca and was greeted with open hostility by the local community. There was no position, no salary, and no place to live. But he did not leave. Some Jews, my father among them, helped him rent a small apartment in the center of town from where he began his outreach activities and where he held the first t’fillos on the Yomim Nora’im.
(Just to show you how meager was the Jewish knowledge of the local Jews, I will tell you that for most of them, the fast on Yom Kippur meant not having their usual meals, but they would have coffee and cake Yom Kippur morning. The chazan in the shul on the Yomim Nora’im would fly in from Buenos Aires on Yom Kippur.)
I remember how astonished I was when I first met him. Why would he come to this out-of-the-way place where there were no religious Jews like him, where he could not obtain kosher food, where there was no minyan and Jewish schools, and he did not know the language? He stammered some words in English, since the only ones he could talk to, those who knew some Yiddish and Hebrew, were the ones opposed to his coming and his outreach work. I just could not understand what he was doing there.
“I know,” said his brother Mendy, “that with the enormous difficulties at the beginning of his shlichus, he merited to receive some encouraging responses from the Rebbe which gave him the strength to go on.”
Back to R’ Gavriel:
In the early days of my spiritual journey, R’ Moshe found out that I have knowledge and experience in computers (those were the old ones of the 80’s) and he got me to prepare flyers and ads about the Chabad House’s activities that were directed at both the young and the old. Every day, R’ Moshe went around the business section of the city and put t’fillin on with the Jewish storeowners.
In the years that followed, I bought a small print shop and R’ Moshe got me to use that too in the service of hafatza. Together we translated certain parts of the siddur into Spanish and on the computer I set up the pages with the original Hebrew next to the translation. When I printed the first 1000 copies of the translated siddur, R’ Moshe went from house to house among the Jews of the city and gave one to each family.
I’ll never forget the first time I attended Kabbalas Shabbos at the Chabad House. I barely knew how to read the t’filla and R’ Moshe told me to be the chazan. He stood behind me facing the others and guided them to open the siddur to the right page and to daven with the special tunes that we learned to sing. R’ Moshe later bought a house in the center of town and over it he built a Chabad House which included offices and a shul. I remember how he did not paint his own house until after he finished renovating and painting the Chabad House.
FROM PAINTING THE HOUSE TO A JEWISH HOUSE
It seems that painting the shliach’s private home is part of the shlichus and in this case, it marked the beginning of the kiruv of another Jew. This is the story of R’ Mordechai Blefolsky, also a native of Bahia Blanca:
As a young man, I would do paint jobs for members of the Jewish community. Around the year 5753, R’ Moshe asked me to come and paint his house.
When I arrived, before I began working, R’ Moshe put t’fillin on with me, for the first time in my life. From then on, our relationship developed and I became committed to mitzva observance. R’ Moshe sat and talked with me for hours and taught me Torah and told me Chassidic stories. He was with me, step after step, until I was ready to go and learn in yeshiva. R’ Moshe made calls and made sure I would be accepted into yeshiva and that they would take good care of me.
R’ Moshe was a big talmid chacham and rav of stature and he knew vast sections of the Rebbe’s teachings by heart. I was always amazed by how someone like him, who grew up in the heart of religious Yerushalayim, was able to handle life in out-of-the-way, immodest Bahia Blanca. All that time he was only mashpia and never mekabel, G-d forbid. He had incredible fear of heaven and one could see the deep seriousness with which he treated every sacred thing, every paragraph in halacha, and every word of the Rebbe.
DEVOTION TO HIS CHILDREN’S CHINUCH
I was also amazed to see his unusual devotion to his children’s chinuch. This was before the era of the shluchim online school. The first half of every day was dedicated to learning with his children whom I remember standing on line and being tested by him on tractates of Mishna and Gemara by heart. The second half of each day was dedicated to mivtzaim, kiruv, and hafatza.
His brother Mendy repeated a special story he heard during the Shiva:
In a town near Bahia Blanca was a Jewish girl who rejected anything that smacked of Judaism. She had a friend who worked as a midwife and through her, she was exposed to R’ Moshe’s work. She saw how he looked out for and helped every Jewish woman who gave birth. She decided: I want to be like that! She became a baalas t’shuva and moved to Eretz Yisroel and is a Lubavitcher today.
I heard another story about a big businessman who became interested in Judaism through R’ Moshe and he said that what impressed him was that R’ Moshe always said what yes to do and not what not to do. That is what attracted him and thanks to this, he became a baal t’shuva.
MEKAREV WITHOUT GIVING UP
His mekurav, R’ Yehuda Landau, a native of Bahia Blanca, related:
I knew R’ Moshe since he arrived in Bahia Blanca, but our serious relationship began in 5748 and became really strong in 5751 following a dream about the Rebbe that got me to start my return. Naturally, this strengthened my connection with R’ Moshe.
I was very slow in my learning about Judaism but R’ Moshe did not give up on me and insisted that I come to a shiur every day. When I tried getting out of it by saying it was hard for me to attend a shiur every day, he simply grabbed me and said, “I will come to your house and we will learn. What time should I come?”
At first I said he should come at night, but then I saw that I was tired from the day’s work and couldn’t concentrate. R’ Moshe just asked me again, “When should I come?” And we started learning early every morning.
I remember how he sat in the sukka and farbrenged while outside it was freezing cold. When someone said to him that the cold was unbearable and could we go inside, he dismissed that and said, “When we are in the sukka with so many Jewish souls that are thirsty to hear and learn about Judaism, it warms the heart and melts the intense cold.”
THE REBBE’S ANSWER THAT WAS CONVEYED WITH TEARS
There were some anti-Semitic acts against him and Nazi slogans were even sprayed in the area against Jews and Judaism. When I asked him whether he was afraid something would happen to him, he said with utter serenity that there was nothing to fear. On the contrary, he told me, these anti-Semitic displays generate controversy and media interest in Chabad’s work and expose more Jews in the city to that work.
The years passed and when I sent my children to the local community’s preschool they were taunted for wearing a kippa and tzitzis. It was so bad that I had to transfer them to a non-Jewish preschool. But when they got a little older I could no longer keep them there and I knew that if I wanted to give them a Jewish education, I had to move to Buenos Aires where they could attend a Chabad school.
When R’ Moshe went to the Rebbe for Lag B’Omer 5753, I sent my question and request for a blessing for the move along with him. I remember the moment I met R’ Moshe when he returned from the Rebbe and told me, with tears in his eyes, that the Rebbe agreed to the move with a nod of his head. I greatly admired R’ Moshe’s bittul because although my leaving was very hard for him, for it left him the only Chabad family in the city, he humbly accepted the Rebbe’s answer and even helped me make the move.
Some time after I moved, I had an important personal matter that I wanted to discuss with him, but I couldn’t do it over the phone. I called him and said I had to meet with him to talk. Without even hearing what it was about, he immediately made the seven-hour trip just to help me.
HE STAYED PUT
R’ Yehuda:
R’ Moshe’s hiskashrus to the Rebbe was apparent in everything he did. Everything was for the Rebbe, from beginning to end. He always taught us that we need to constantly think – what does the Rebbe want from me now, and act accordingly. This is a point that he instilled in the hearts of all his mekuravim.
Ten years ago, R’ Moshe’s life was miraculously saved when he underwent a lung transplant in Ohio. R’ Grunblatt then asked him whether he wanted to move to Buenos Aires where he would have better doctors and more material comforts. R’ Moshe told him firmly, “The Rebbe sent me to Bahia Blanca knowing precisely what the situation and conditions are like there. I won’t budge from Bahia Blanca.”
CONNECTING EVERYONE TO THE REBBE
R’ Gavriel also recalls:
As soon as we became acquainted, R’ Moshe told me about the greatness of the Lubavitcher Rebbe who was the reason he was in Bahia Blanca. R’ Moshe told me that it was only because of the kochos that he got from the Rebbe that he accomplished all that he did. When we experienced a family crisis and certain medical problems, he explained to me that you write to the Rebbe about everything and ask for his advice and blessing.
We sat together and wrote to the Rebbe. Some time later I received a reply in which the Rebbe urged us to keep family purity. By divine providence, the Rebbe’s answer arrived a few days after the first mikva in Bahia Blanca opened, which R’ Moshe built with much effort. My wife was the first woman to use it. We began observing the laws of family purity because of the Rebbe’s answer.
I recall another interesting story which I heard from R’ Moshe at the time it happened. On one of his trips to the Rebbe, when the Rebbe gave him a dollar, he said, “Give it to tz’daka in Brazil.” R’ Moshe was surprised to hear that because he had planned on taking a direct flight back to Argentina. The secretary immediately interjected that R’ Moshe was from Argentina, not from Brazil, and the Rebbe gave him another dollar and said, “Give this to tz’daka in Argentina.”
Unexpectedly, the plane stopped in Brazil for a while and only then continued to Argentina, just as the Rebbe had indicated.
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL AID
During the big economic crisis in Argentina, R’ Moshe was concerned about the Jews of the city and invested a lot of money in buying and distributing food items to Jewish families. He helped everyone, playing no favorites, even those members of the community who opposed him and interfered with his work.
For a number of years, we were guests of R’ Moshe for the Shabbos meals, since our house was too far to walk and our apartment was fifteen stories up. We slept there too. He always welcomed us graciously and hosted us with amazing devotion.
I had a store that sold food items and it was the first Jewish owned store in the city to be closed on Shabbos. People would say, who’s the crazy person who closes his store on the day that people earn the most money? Despite that we would rush to spend Shabbos at R’ Moshe, and these Shabbasos brought us to t’shuva and showed us how to return to our roots and behave like Jews.
When time passed and our daughter was getting older, and we saw that the way to give her a proper Jewish education meant leaving Bahia Blanca, we decided to move to Eretz Yisroel. Leaving R’ Moshe was hard for both of us but he understood that we could not remain there. He sent a letter to R’ Eliyahu Shadmi, the shliach in Raanana, where I planned on going, asking him to welcome us and take care of us when we arrived.
THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “YECHI ADONEINU” AND SH’MIRAS SHABBOS
R’ Yehuda and R’ Gavriel say that starting in 5753, every Shabbos, after Lecha Dodi, they would sing Yechi and would dance. It lasted twenty minutes. Even if R’ Moshe did not take the approach of taking the message to the outside public, he instilled in us, the mekuravim, the belief and anticipation in the hisgalus of the Rebbe as Moshiach.
R’ Yehuda recalls how he told them and even showed them a video about publicizing Moshiach at a sports event for Galil Elyon in Eretz Yisroel that took place in 5753 and which received the Rebbe’s blessing that led to their victory. R’ Gavriel relates that after 3 Tammuz R’ Moshe would show him sources in Chazal that even in this situation we need to believe and look forward to the hisgalus of the Rebbe as Moshiach.
R’ Dovid Bukovza of Kfar Chabad who was in Bahia Blanca for a few months in 5754 (with a group of shochtim from Eretz Yisroel who were hosted by R’ Moshe) said:
After 3 Tammuz there was a certain individual who tried to impress upon the shluchim in Argentina that they needed to adopt a “lower profile” on the topic of Moshiach and put away the “Get Ready for Moshiach” signs. Despite this, at R’ Moshe’s Chabad House they continued singing Yechi and R’ Moshe did not stop the singing.
When the one who was encouraging the ceasing of Moshiach activities in Argentina heard about this, he complained to R’ Moshe who told him that for the people at his Chabad House there was no difference between Yechi and sh’miras Shabbos, holidays and kashrus. They couldn’t be told baloney about us not meriting etc., and if Yechi suddenly had to stop, their observance of other mitzvos was likely to stop too, G-d forbid.
On 22 Tammuz, R’ Moshe passed away after a lengthy illness. He is survived by his wife Sarah, their children Rabbi Yossi Freedman - Cleveland, OH; Rabbi Mendy Freedman - Lyndhurst, OH; Rabbi Levi Freedman - Munich, Germany; Mrs. Rochel Kalmenson - Shanghai, China; Rabbi Shlomo Freedman - Crown Heights; Mushki Freedman, Shmuel Freedman, Nochum Freedman, Sholom Freedman and Aidy Freedman; and grandchildren.
He is also survived by his mother and siblings.
May we immediately merit the hisgalus of the Rebbe with the true and complete Geula, “and arise and sing those who dwell in the dust” and he among them.