THE FAITHFUL WATCHMAN OVER THE HOLY CITY

In his youth, he learned in a secular non-Jewish school in Baltimore, Maryland. After a visit to Eretz Yisroel, he returned to his roots, became a “servant” in the household of the Baba Sali, and a melamed of small children at the Talmud Torah in Netivot. From there, he made his way to Yeshivas “Ohr T’mimim” in Kfar Chabad, and after getting married, he moved to Yerushalayim and began operating the famous t’fillin stand at the Western Wall as the Rebbe’s devoted soldier. His activities combined enthusiasm, stubborn determination, tremendous vigor, and above all, a fiery Ahavas Yisroel that managed to awaken many Jews and bring them to greater Torah observance. A look back at the life of R’ Yosef Eliyahu Dunin, of blessed memory, and the many miraculous stories he experienced on his outreach activities. Presented in commemoration of his first yahrzeit on the 5^th of Iyar.

Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry

On Erev Shabbos Parshas K’doshim, family and friends commemorated one year since the sudden and untimely passing of R’ Yosef Eliyahu Dunin, of blessed memory, who outwardly appeared to be a typical chassid, but who had a most unique and distinctive personality.

“R’ Yosef was a ‘lebedike yid,’ a Jew instilled with great joy. He would use every waking moment for acts of kindness and the Rebbe’s mivtzaim. He was filled with great care, concern, and Ahavas Yisroel for every Jew he met. You couldn’t find anyone like him,” said Rabbi Shneur Zalman Gafni, rosh yeshiva emeritus of Yeshivas “Ohr T’mimim” in Kfar Chabad, now serving as a rosh kollel in the Holy City of Tzfas, as he enthusiastically described R’ Dunin:

“I remember the extraordinary koch he had for Moshiach’s Seuda. For many years, every Shvii Shel Pesach we would organize a special farbrengen in Kfar Chabad with the students of ‘Ohr T’mimim’ and its alumni, and he was one of the leading organizers and participants. I recall one year, when I had consumed a fair quantity of wine, I had a hard time getting home, and R’ Yosef made certain to bring me upstairs to one of the yeshiva’s dormitory rooms. He stayed with me until he was sure I was comfortable.”

R’ Yosef Eliyahu Dunin was a very vibrant and lively Jew, a Chassid who was connected to the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach and his holy mitzvah campaigns with every fiber of his soul. Among other things, this took expression in his running of the t’fillin stand for eighteen years near the remnants of the Beis HaMikdash. He was a shliach and a mashpia in every move he made. He always knew how to find the right track for reaching the hearts of the people he met.

“Once he moved to Yerushalayim, R’ Yosef could no longer participate in the Yeshiva’s Moshiach’s Seuda. However, last year, he made a special effort to come, and as always, he was a ray of simcha. When I heard a few days later that he had passed away – on the fifth of Iyar, I was stunned,” Rabbi Gafni recalled. “To a certain extent, to this very day, I find it hard to believe that R’ Yosef is not with us.” Rabbi Gafni’s eyes began to fill with tears. “I was very fond of him and I loved him very much.”

GARBED IN THE ROBE OF REDEMPTION

R’ Yosef Dunin was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland in a traditional Jewish family. He was his parents’ only son; he had two sisters. He was the nephew of the mashpiim R’ Avraham Dunin and his brother R’ Reuven Dunin. In his parents’ home, while the family observed certain mitzvos and Jewish customs, he was sent to learn in a non-Jewish school. His return to Yiddishkait had already begun in his youth, and it became much stronger upon his arrival in Eretz Yisroel in 5737 for a family visit. The person who accompanied him during his spiritual journey was his uncle, R’ Avraham Dunin, from Ta’anach.

During the first months of his stay in Eretz Yisroel, he lived at the home of his cousin in Netivot, Mrs. Chana Lipsh, Rabbi Avraham Dunin’s daughter. She told how during that initial period, R’ Yosef a”h became attached to the Baba Sali, of righteous memory, and over a certain period of time, he was even appointed as one of his servants.

“My father was very close to the Baba Sali, and he even lived in his house for a while. It was the Baba Sali who suggested that he should work for the Chabad institutions as a teacher of young children,” recalls his daughter, Chaya Mushka.

“There was an interesting anecdote with my father that took place when he served in the Baba Sali’s household. Once he opened a closet in the Baba Sali’s room, took out a beautiful robe that was hanging there, and put it on. Just then, one of the Baba Sali’s closest aides came in and harshly rebuked him. ‘R’ Yosef, have you gone mad? This is the robe that the Baba Sali has saved for the day when Melech HaMoshiach is revealed!’ My father immediately removed the robe and put it back in its place. However, ever since then, the whole subject of Moshiach and spreading the announcement of the Redemption became an integral part of his way of life.”

His daughter says that this strong connection with the Baba Sali was maintained throughout the years.

During this period which marked the beginning of his life as a Chassid, the Baba Sali sent him to be a melamed at the Talmud Torah opened by Rabbi Yashar Edrei in Netivot. “He was our first melamed,” Rabbi Edrei recalled. “I remember him as a dynamic and energetic red-headed bachur, and this is exactly what our young students needed – a Jew who could excite them to follow the path of Torah and mitzvos. He was an educational figure, the very picture of a Chassid, a member of every Anash household in Netivot, a Jew whose joyful image has been engraved upon the hearts of everyone.”

Rabbi Dunin was also privileged to be the Rebbe MH”M’s shliach to bring mashke to the Baba Sali. In 5740, the Baba Sali called upon R’ Yosef and instructed him to organize a parade for the city’s children. Together with the Baba Sali’s son-in-law, Netivot Chabad House director Rabbi Yashar Edrei, the two organized a magnificent parade. After the parade, at midnight, the Baba Sali invited Rabbi Dunin and Rabbi Edrei to say L’chaim for the parade’s success.

LONGING FOR A STUDENT

R’ Yosef learned in Yeshivas “Ohr T’mimim” in Kfar Chabad for six years. He continued to use the ‘between semester’ breaks and other opportunities to come to Netivot and help with the local Chabad activities. “I remember him well,” said Rabbi Gafni in response to my question. It turns out that a personality such as R’ Yosef cannot be easily forgotten, even after thousands of students over a period of several decades have passed Rabbi Gafni’s way. “He came to the yeshiva for the first time with his uncle, Rabbi Avraham Dunin, of blessed memory, and stayed with us for six full years.

“There are two types of students,” the veteran rosh yeshiva described. “There are those who learn how to learn and become extremely diligent, albeit without any revealed sense of vitality in their studies. There are others who, while they are less scholarly, they grasp the material in a clearer and more Chassidic manner with an inner desire to fulfill the will of our Rebbeim. R’ Yosef belonged to the latter group. He did know how to learn, but that’s not what characterized him. His most prominent characteristic was comprehension, and internalizing the Rebbe’s inner will. He was always at the forefront of all the Rebbe’s mitzvah campaigns and he was a dominant figure at Chassidic farbrengens.”

Alongside his Chassidic activities, Rabbi Gafni speaks about R’ Yosef and his overflowing kindheartedness. “He would always do acts of kindness for others, performing them all with great joy and a lofty spirit.”

When he completed his yeshiva studies, he returned to the United States, got married, and began to establish a proper Jewish home together with his wife, may she live long. He eventually came back to Eretz Yisroel, took up residence in Yerushalayim’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood as one of the first Chabad activists there, and even founded a Chabad shul in one of the local air-raid shelters. At the same time, he developed a connection with the mashpia, Rabbi Moshe Weber, and became one of the most prominent figures at the t’fillin stand located near the remnants of our Holy Temple.

His wife, Mrs. Rivka Dunin, spoke about the deeply close connection between her husband and R’ Moshe Weber. “My husband received several offers of shlichus in other places, however, Rabbi Weber would not give him up and he brought him to the Kosel to operate the t’fillin stand there. After Gimmel Tammuz, when R’ Yosef raised the question whether he should continue, Rabbi Weber claimed that it was the Rebbe’s will that this should be his shlichus.

“Fifteen years ago, shortly before Rabbi Weber’s passing, my husband agreed to continue running the t’fillin stand and its daily operations.”

I HAVE PLACED A GUARD UPON YOUR WALLS, YERUSHALAYIM

For eighteen years R’ Yosef manned the t’fillin stand at the Western Wall, winter and summer, on fast days and at the height of the intifada. He maintained a constant presence, ready throughout the day to give Jews the opportunity to fulfill this sacred mitzvah.

With his uniquely Chassidic style and grace, R’ Yosef managed to get thousands of Jews to roll up their sleeves and put on t’fillin. There was nothing that could prevent R’ Yosef from appearing every day to greet those Jewish souls who came to the Kosel and convince them to put on t’fillin. His ability to influence others was well-known. In those instances when his fellow avreichim were unable to persuade someone to do the mitzvah, they would call upon R’ Yosef. With his pleasant ways and warm smile, he would manage to convince even the “hardest nut to crack.”

His daughter Chaya Mushka recalls his famous determination: “At one farbrengen, I heard that when my father was in New York, he was traveling in the subway where he met a man who had a Gentile father and a Jewish mother. My father tried to convince him to put on t’fillin. This man was extremely stubborn, but my father traveled with him in the subway for an hour until he finally consented. The man asked my father to stay in touch with him, and my father continued to guide him along the path of Torah until he eventually changed his way of life and even raised a Chassidic family.”

One of his colleagues on duty at the t’fillin stand for decades, Rabbi Dovid Cohen, personally witnessed numerous episodes with R’ Yosef. “One day, a Russian Jewish tourist came to the stand and he asked R’ Yosef to dedicate a prayer service and the recitation of Kaddish in the memory of his father, who had recently passed away. ‘The first thing you have to do is give nachas to your father and put on t’fillin,’ R’ Yosef told the man as he started rolling up his sleeve and said the bracha with him. Afterward, he directed him to one of the minyanim and they said Kaddish together. The man remained near the Kosel for some time, deeply moved. As their meeting ended, he resolved to put on t’fillin every day and say Kaddish himself during the entire period of mourning for his late father.

“At the end of the mourning period, the man returned to the Kosel. He looked for R’ Yosef to thank him, as in his merit, he had become a baal t’shuva and now conducted his life as a Jew according to halacha…”

There were also those who experienced great personal salvation from putting on t’fillin with R’ Dunin, as Rabbi Cohen recalls: “I saw a Jew approach R’ Yosef and ask him to pray for his ailing father. R’ Yosef replied that the Lubavitcher Rebbe says that in order to bring about healing, there must be a ‘vessel’ to contain the bracha. ‘Therefore,’ he said, ‘you must accept upon yourself the fulfillment of a mitzvah.’ After the man agreed that he would try and put on t’fillin each day, R’ Yosef wrote a letter to the Rebbe on his behalf. Not long afterward, the father became well again.

“On another occasion, a couple came to tell R’ Yosef that in the merit of his suggestion, the man had bought a pair of t’fillin and had begun putting them on. They had also been blessed with the birth of twins, and they asked for his help in registering them in the Children’s Seifer Torah.”

R’ Yosef had a deep fondness for the younger members of the flock. Whenever tour groups of children would come to the Kosel, he would gather them together, sing with them, tell them Chassidic stories, and recite with them the Twelve P’sukim.

One of the most amazing stories that we heard from his friend and colleague, Rabbi Dovid Cohen, was about a priest who came to the Western Wall with a group of tourists from Italy and asked R’ Yosef about the nature of his activities. R’ Yosef described the mitzvah of t’fillin and its great merit. Then, in the normal course of conversation, the priest mentioned that his mother was Jewish, however, due to the fact that his religious affiliation went according to his father, he was a member of the church. R’ Yosef acted quickly, took him aside, explained to him that he was in fact a Jew because his mother is Jewish, and how he now had the opportunity of a lifetime to fulfill the mitzvah of putting on t’fillin.

The priest agreed and looked for a quiet and concealed corner where he could put on t’fillin and pray. He parted from R’ Yosef with tears in his eyes. He returned a few months later in traditional Jewish garb, carrying a tallis and t’fillin. He had come on a pilot trip to check the possibility of immigrating to Eretz Yisroel and living as a Jew in every respect…

PERFORMING ACTS OF CHARITY

One of the most prominent characteristics of R’ Yosef’s personality was the deep love for his fellow Jews. Immediate family members can tell you about the many guests who came to their home each Shabbos, and often on weekdays as well. “One could never know what guest he would bring home,” his wife said. “There are shluchim whose shlichus and their home are two separate things, whereas with my husband, they went hand in hand. When he put t’fillin on someone, he didn’t settle just for this mitzvah. Instead, he tried to get them to do more mitzvos. In many cases, he even maintained close contact with them, often bringing them to our home.”

Despite his household’s poor financial situation, R’ Yosef devoted much time to the outreach activities of the local Chabad House in Yerushalayim’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood, run by Rabbi Ariel Pusilov. He became one of the pillars of the Chabad House, dedicating all his available time and energy to mivtzaim and performing humble acts of charity without fanfare or headlines.

R’ Yosef would wake up early to open the Chabad House shul and set times for Torah study each morning until ten. Rabbi Pusilov recalls how each Erev Shabbos and Erev Yom tov, R’ Yosef would go around to the local bakeries and gather up all the leftover challos and cakes for distribution to needy families. Toward the end of the week, he would also visit the ‘Rami Levy’ chain stores in the Givat Shaul and Talpiot neighborhoods. Workers would load his beat-up old car with fruits and vegetables, and he would give them out to those in need.

When the bakery employees were preparing to close the premises, shortly after the last customer had left, R’ Yosef would come into the store. They already knew him and they immediately filled up cartons of the remaining merchandise for him: challos, rolls, cookies, and other tasty baked goods. He would then distribute them in order to give a little Shabbos and holiday joy to poor neighborhood families.

An amusing story took place once when during one of his mitzvah journeys, a policeman stopped him and gave him a ticket for excess load on the car roof. The Chabad House director, Rabbi Pusilov, submitted an appeal against the citation, describing R’ Yosef as a man of great kindness, a true humanitarian. The appeal was accepted and the citation was rescinded. Rabbi Pusilov tells how he once saw R’ Yosef remove his own shoes and give them to a homeless man who was walking barefoot. And when he learned that the man had no roof over his head, he let him sleep at night in his car.

Another acquaintance tells how one Erev Yom tov, R’ Yosef found out that one of his friends, the head of a large household, had no food for the holiday. The cupboard was literally bare – no fish, no meat, nothing. R’ Yosef immediately used his connections and called the owner of a kosher l’mehadrin restaurant. Within an hour, R’ Yosef arrived and began filling his car with first courses, main dishes, a variety of side dishes, salads, and kugels. He drove to his friend’s house and filled the refrigerator and freezer with a wide selection of holiday delicacies. The fact that R’ Yosef’s house had only simple Yom tov food was an entirely different matter.

A woman from Pisgat Ze’ev who regularly suffered from economic hardships fondly recalled R’ Yosef and his boundless generosity. “He had a heart of gold, always ready to help and with a smile on his lips. I’m the mother of eleven children, and he would come every Friday with a bag filled with a variety of baked goods that I simply couldn’t buy myself. This would bring a great deal of joy into our home. Every time he would come with his car, he would ask one of the children to come down and take the package. He never wanted to come upstairs and give us the feeling that we needed him. He always made certain to give discreetly without publicity or self-promotion.”

This woman suffers from a physical disability caused when she fell and fractured her spine. “I can’t leave my house anymore to go to shul, and when R’ Yosef heard about this, he faithfully came to our house for years with his shofar every Rosh Hashanah to blow the one hundred t’kios for me. Three years ago, when Rosh Hashanah came out on a Thursday and Friday, he came for the first day of Yom tov and blew the shofar. He promised that he would be back the next day as well, but he didn’t come. I was sure that he would still make it, and he did – just before Shabbos. He knocked on the door and waited outside for twenty minutes until I finished organizing myself. He neither complained nor showed that he was in a rush. Instead, he apologized for coming at that late hour, since he had been on mivtzaim, blowing shofar for IDF soldiers at an army roadblock. Anyone else wouldn’t have bothered to come and waste his time for an invalid. However, R’ Yosef was cut from a totally different cloth, the type you don’t find very often.

“Every Shabbos over the past year, as we made HaMotzi over a regular white flour challah, not those made from whole wheat that he used to bring us, I realized how much he is missed. On Rosh Hashanah, when I was looking for someone to blow shofar for me, I couldn’t help but remember this very special Chassid.”

“I’M GOING TO SEE MOSHIACH”

R’ Yosef lived with the Rebbe’s announcement of the Redemption and was constantly imbued with the subject of Moshiach. In his numerous discussions with other Jews, he would always open with “We Want Moshiach Now.” With every action he took, he believed that it would hasten the Redemption, and he would speak about this all the time.

Rabbi Naftali HaKohen Roth, who knew R’ Yosef well, tells that just two days before his sudden passing, R’ Yosef stopped his car near him. With a smile and his characteristic joy, he said in the presence of his family, “Rabbi Roth, you have to bring Moshiach,” and he then repeated the call.

Friends tell how he was in Beis Chayeinu during the period when Chassidim began to make the holy proclamation of ‘Yechi Adoneinu’ in the presence of the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach. Upon his return to Eretz Yisroel, he devoted himself as a faithful Chassid with all his heart to spreading the announcement of the Redemption.

The following story, told by family members, brings testimony of how his life revolved around the imminent coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu:

“A few years ago on the night of Tisha B’Av, as the Western Wall Square was filled to capacity with Jews lamenting the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, R’ Yosef was observed entering the square carrying a picnic cooler. One of the Kosel employees well acquainted with R’ Yosef asked him what was inside. R’ Yosef replied that it was filled with delicacies, including meat, fish, and challos. ‘Food on Tisha B’Av?’ He raised his eyebrow in amazement. ‘You won’t be able to eat it tonight or tomorrow. Why did you drag it here now?’

“R’ Yosef gave his distinctive smile and replied: ‘Look how every Jew gets ready for the fast. People prepare a filling seuda mafsekes, take their Kinos, and even wear comfortable sandals. Yet, no one takes into consideration what would happen if Melech HaMoshiach would suddenly reveal himself on this auspicious day and usher in a new era for the Jewish People. Where would people get wine and meat to celebrate the occasion? I also made the necessary preparations for the Tisha B’Av fast, only I did so from a Geula’dike point of view, as we’ve already had more than our fair share of the exile…”

A few hours before his passing, as he looked out the window of his house, he saw his friend, R’ Dovid Konisberg. R’ Yosef opened the window and called out to him, “R’ Dovid, I’m going to see Moshiach today.” A few hours later, when R’ Yosef suddenly passed away, this statement took on a very significant and chilling meaning.

A TRUE TZADDIK

As mentioned earlier, the Dunin family and their many friends have recently commemorated the first anniversary since his tragic passing. First and foremost, the loss is deeply felt by his wife and seven children, his companions, and close acquaintances. A colorful Chassidic figure had disappeared from the landscape of Yerushalayim, a vigorous advocate in spreading the announcement of the Redemption had suddenly been taken to his final rest.

R’ Yosef represented the inner picture of a Chassid. However, he was also a man of the people. His face always wore a smile and he was filled with great caring and devotion. He never complained, maintaining a totally humble and modest existence, and through his unique characteristic of continuous giving, he has left a huge vacuum that may never be filled.