“WE ARE OLD GOOD FRIENDS”

Rabbi She’ar Yashuv Cohen, Chief Rabbi of Haifa, who recently passed away, merited special signs of closeness from the Rebbe thanks to his grandfather, who hid the Rebbe in his home in the period following the arrest of the Rebbe Rayatz. * R’ Cohen had many private meetings with the Rebbe and corresponded with him, and whenever he went to the United States he tried to go to 770, have yechidus, or attend the Rebbe’s farbrengen. * Also – what made him switch from the world of askanus to the world of rabbanus? And why did he continue in his rabbinic position without pay?

Rabbi Eliyahu Yosef She”ar Yashuv Cohen, Chief Rabbi of Haifa, recently passed away at the age of 88. He was born in Yerushalayim on 9 Cheshvan 5688/1927. His parents were Rabbi Dovid Cohen who was known as the Nazir of Yerushalayim, and his mother, Sarah, daughter of Rabbi Chanoch Etkin.

He learned in Toras Yerushalayim, Merkaz HaRav, and Eitz Chaim.

He fought with the Irgun in the War of Independence. He escorted convoys to Yerushalayim and Gush Etziyon and fought to defend the Gush. While defending the Old City, he was severely wounded in battle. With the fall of the Jewish quarter, he was taken captive by the Jordanian Legion. Along with the others who defended the Jewish Quarter, he was taken to Amman and then to a POW camp. After his release from captivity, he served in the IDF for seven years. He was involved in the negotiations with the Jordanians for the return of the bodies of those who died in the Gush Etziyon massacre and he was part of an IDF delegation to the United States. He then served as a command level military chaplain and chief rabbi of the air force.

Until 5735, he served as deputy mayor of Yerushalayim representing the Mafdal party. In private meetings with the Rebbe, the Rebbe urged him to immerse himself in the world of Torah and to consider the rabbinate. Indeed, during the elections held in 5735, he did not submit his candidacy to continue in political office but used all his time to learn Torah and write Torah works. A short while later he was appointed Ashkenazi rav of Haifa and also served as head of the battei din of the city, a position he held until his final years.

Even when he turned seventy-five, when by law he had to retire as rav of the city, he decided to stay on voluntarily for another five years, without remuneration and he was given full authority like a salaried rav. He explained that he did this because of what the Rebbe told him in yechidus, that a rav needs to continue in his position as long as he can, and only Hashem decides when the job ends.

THE REBBE HID WITH HIS GRANDFATHER

R’ Cohen’s paternal grandfather, R’ Yosef Cohen, was a Lubavitcher Chassid. But his special connection with the Rebbe was because of his maternal grandfather, R’ Chanoch Henoch Etkin, the rav of Luga which is near Leningrad. In an interview that R’ She’ar Yashuv Cohen gave Beis Moshiach twenty years ago, he told about his grandfather’s connection with the Rebbe:

“The special relationship that I had with the Rebbe was not to my credit and not because of my father zt”l, but because of my grandfather, the rav of Luga. When the Rebbe Rayatz was arrested, the Bolsheviks wanted to arrest his son-in-law, the Rebbe, too. The Rebbe had to hide. He hid with my grandfather who was a very poor rav. He bound books for a living and a cow in the yard provided him with daily milk.

“In light of his poor circumstances, the Bolsheviks never suspected him, and he was thus able to hide Jews who were on the run from the Bolsheviks until things calmed down. The Rebbe hid in my grandfather’s house for over half a year. Since the Rebbe was very particular about showing gratitude, he was greatly mekarev me.

“The Rebbe once spoke in praise of my grandfather and said, ‘He had a great advantage.’ I waited to hear about his genius or piety but the Rebbe smiled and said, ‘He was very poor,’ and because of this, the Bolsheviks did not keep him under surveillance and the Rebbe was able to hide with him.”

THE SHIUR WITH RAV ZEVIN

R’ Cohen began to get close with the Rebbe and Chabad Chassidus at the end of the 1950’s. This was after he attended a daily Gemara shiur in the home of the gaon, Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin. He was influenced by the Lubavitcher ideas he heard from R’ Zevin and when he traveled to the United States, he had yechidus with the Rebbe.

In his first yechidus, the Rebbe treated him warmly and with great love and told him about when he hid with his grandfather. After that, R’ Cohen decided that every time he went to the US he would visit the Rebbe.

Following that yechidus, R’ Cohen began corresponding with the Rebbe and some of the Rebbe’s letters to him are printed in the Igros Kodesh.

In the first letter, from 17 Teves 5721, the Rebbe refers to a letter from R’ Cohen about the chief rabbinate. At the time, there was a national uproar about it because the elections were postponed time and again (after the passing of the chief Ashkenazi rabbi, R’ Herzog). He also mentioned R’ Cohen’s visit to him.

MAKE AN INDEX

About a month later, on 20  Shvat, the Rebbe sent R’ Cohen another letter in which he thanks him for his s’farim and points out the need for including an index. The Rebbe says that this generation is used to having everything handed to them without effort, certainly not extra effort, and yet, the book, with nearly 500 pages, has no index at all, not even a table of contents. The Rebbe says that although we don’t cry over the past, he writes this so that R’ Cohen can make up for it by printing these aids in booklet form and including it with every book.

WORKING TO MAKE TORAH LAW THE LAW OF THE LAND

At that time, R’ Cohen was president of the Harry Fischel Institute for Talmudic Research and Torah Law. In this position, he advanced the “Torah legislation” department, in which Torah scholars worked on setting down the Torah’s legal code in a style that would be understood by current day legal minds.

This was greatly encouraged by the Rebbe as we see in a letter that the Rebbe wrote him on 25 Sivan 1962. The Rebbe writes that he found out about the setting up of a legal committee to codify anew Israeli contract laws, and if that committee were to receive the Torah laws couched in legal language there was a good chance they would align the laws of the land with Torah law, at least in this area. Therefore, the Rebbe asked him to be involved in this.

In the 60’s, R’ Cohen was deputy mayor of Yerushalayim. When he visited the Rebbe after the Six Day War, the Rebbe told him his position about settling the Old City with Jewish families. The Rebbe also asked him to find out what the view of certain political groups was regarding the conquering of the Old City. R’ Cohen sent the Rebbe a letter on Rosh Chodesh Teves 5728 with a detailed response.

SPECIAL SIGNS OF CLOSENESS

When President Shazar visited the Rebbe on Purim 1971, R’ She’ar Yashuv Cohen accompanied him. Upon arriving at 770, Shazar asked the Rebbe, “Do you know this young man?” as he pointed at R’ Cohen. The Rebbe looked at him and said, “What do you mean? We are old, good friends!” R’ Cohen interpreted this to refer to the old friendship with his grandfather.

R’ Cohen commented in amazement about the Rebbe’s incredible memory and said that on a number of occasions, when he had yechidus, the Rebbe began talking about the very point they had stopped at during the previous yechidus.

For example, during the years that R’ Cohen was deputy mayor, the Rebbe spoke to him a lot about running the city of Yerushalayim and practical questions that arose at the time, like relations between the religious and not religious sectors, and about unity among the chareidim. Each time he met the Rebbe, the Rebbe began to speak about the very topic they left off in their previous encounter.

The Rebbe often asked how R’ Zevin was, the one who opened the door to Chassidus for R’ Cohen, or he asked how R’ Cohen’s father was.

VEGETARIANISM – FOR SINGULAR INDIVIDUALS

At a yechidus during Kislev 5723, the Rebbe spoke to him about his father’s vegetarianism stance, which R’ She’ar Yashuv followed. The Rebbe said, “You are following your father, but your father, a great kabbalist – how does he permit himself to refrain from the work of refining sparks which is accomplished when eating meat?”

R’ Cohen did not know how to respond. Then he asked whether the Rebbe had the S’dei Chemed. The Rebbe said, “Of course, we published it,” and went over to the bookcase and took out one of the volumes. Amazingly, it opened immediately to the place where the author discusses the topic of refraining from eating meat. The S’dei Chemed tells there about one of the students of the Arizal, “who, for a number of years abstained from eating meat altogether, and G-d forbid to mock him, fortunate is his lot.” The Rebbe said, “That is only for singular individuals.”

EVERY JEWISH CHILD SHOULD KNOW “TORAH TZIVA” AND “SHMA YISROEL”

When he first became acquainted with the Rebbe, R’ Cohen was a member of the council and deputy mayor in Yerushalayim. The Rebbe expressed a great deal of interest in how he combined his involvement in the needs of the public with Torah study and running the Harry Fischel Institute. At a certain point, the Rebbe urged him to immerse himself in the world of Torah and to think about the rabbinate and public leadership.

When he was in charge of education at the municipality, the Rebbe spoke to him at length about the need for every Jewish child to have a basic Jewish education. “We cannot despair of any Jewish child,” said the Rebbe, and he emphasized that they could not make peace with the fact that a child might go to school and graduate without knowing the concept of Shma Yisroel, regardless of the religiosity of the school. The Mishna in Sukka says that a father must teach his son “Torah tziva …” and “Shma Yisroel. The Rebbe maintained that we must make sure every Jewish child knows at least these two verses by heart.

In another yechidus, the Rebbe addressed the question of how to educate children and youth nowadays. The Rebbe drew a parallel between the concept of chinuch and Chanuka and said that just as it was the Kohen’s job to prepare the wicks of the menorah in such a manner that the flame went up of its own accord, so too, the teacher needs to ensure that the values he teaches are internalized by the students so that they maintain them on their own.

R’ Cohen was particularly impressed by things the Rebbe told him when he asked about the purpose of the “mitzva tanks.” After begging the Rebbe’s pardon, he asked, “What benefit did we earn by enabling them to do a mitzva when they will go back to doing what they did before?” He suggested that perhaps Chabad should seek out those Jews who at least attend shul on Shabbos and Yom Tov and the Yomim Nora’im.

The Rebbe’s answer was: “This was the Baal Shem Tov’s innovation. In our generation, the order that Dovid HaMelech taught us changed. Dovid HaMelech said, ‘Who is the man who wants life, who loves days to see goodness? Guard your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceitfully. Shun evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.’ The previous order was indeed, ‘shun evil’ and then ‘do good.’ In our generation however, the order is reversed. We need to concentrate our efforts in the direction of good, and then the evil will automatically go away. First ‘do good’ and then ‘shun evil.’”

AMENDING “MIHU YEHUDI” IS D’ORAISA!

During the battle to amend the law of Mihu Yehudi, R’ Cohen had yechidus and told the Rebbe that he thought the Israeli government was afraid to go against the Conservative and Reform communities for economic and political reasons. Perhaps it was worth refraining from talking about the subject because “better they should be inadvertent sinners than deliberate sinners,” and instead wait for the right opportunity to protest.

The Rebbe responded sharply: When it concerns rabbinic matters, one could sometimes remain silent, but the topic of halachic conversions is a d’Oraisa (a biblical and more stringent) matter and when it comes to d’Oraisa matters, there is no considering whether things will be accepted or not, the Halacha requires us to react!

HIS EYES FILLED WITH TEARS

At one yechidus, he asked why the Rebbe did not move to Eretz Yisroel. This is what R’ Cohen said about that meeting:

I said that I asked his pardon but I was asking in the name of all Jews. I had not the shadow of a doubt what an enormous spiritual arousal would take place in the entire world if the Rebbe would be in Eretz Yisroel and it would make the Geula happen sooner.

The Rebbe responded: There are two reasons: 1) “We know the way there but there is no way back.” Apparently he was referring to the prohibition of leaving Eretz Yisroel, “and we still did not finish our work here” – as he put it. 2) “I committed not to leave this place and travel to a place where I cannot reach the ohel the same day,” referring to the grave of his father-in-law, whom he calls Nasi Doreinu.

By way of response, I dared to say: There is a suggestion! It says in the Torah, “And Moshe took the bones of Yosef with him,” and I meant his father-in-law, whose first name was like that of Yosef HaTzaddik, whose bones could be brought to Eretz Yisroel. The Rebbe was silent and suddenly his eyes filled with tears and I felt a sense of dread. I immediately apologized if I caused him pain and said that I only intended for the sake of heaven. Who was I to tell the Rebbe what to do? The Rebbe smiled and we immediately turned to another subject.

R’ Cohen was greatly impressed by the Rebbe’s utter bittul to the Rebbe Rayatz. The Rebbe told him a few times, “I hold that my father-in-law is the leader of our generation.” When he told the Rebbe that everyone considered the Rebbe as the Nasi Ha’dor, the Rebbe smiled and did not respond.

At one yechidus, when the Rebbetzin’s name came up, the Rebbe referred to her as the Rebbe’s daughter.

OUTSIDE THE BOUNDS OF NATURE

The many times R’ Cohen attended the Rebbe’s farbrengens left a deep impression on him. He said:

“I remember that I sat at the Yud-Tes Kislev farbrengen by the Rebbe and heard him make a siyum on the tractate Shabbos. He spoke about the arguments between Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel whose view we follow throughout Shas. The Rebbe referred to all their disputes, encompassing all of Talmud Bavli and Yerushalmi, Rishonim and Acharonim, and Kabbala too, and this went on for hours, without a book, without notes, all orally. It is something I never saw before. One could say it is something outside the bounds of nature.”

At the Yud-Tes Kislev farbrengen of 5748, when he approached the Rebbe for a bracha, the Rebbe said to him, “You are blessed by HaKadosh Boruch Hu, as it says [regarding the priests], ‘And I will bless them.’”

Another time, the Rebbe explained to him why he blessed Jews while giving them a dollar to give to tz’daka. It was because on the dollar it says, “In G-d We Trust,” and this is the vessel to contain all blessings.

WE WILL MEET AT DAWN IN YERUSHALAYIM

We will end with what R’ Cohen said about the imminent Geula:

As we stand on the threshold of Geula, we need to adopt the call of the Rebbe Rayatz, “L’Alter l’T’shuva – L’Alter l’Geula.” When we go in this way and draw more and more Jews close to Torah and mitzvos, this will hasten the Geula, as it says, “Ben Dovid won’t come except in a generation that is completely unworthy or completely meritorious.” We need to try to be a generation that is completely meritorious. This is the great z’chus of Chabad which draws people close and at the same time does not neglect those who are close, and this is how Chabad hastens the Geula.

The situation today appears to have deteriorated, with dark clouds covering the world. The truth is that this darkness is the darkness before the dawn (by the way, the Rebbe once told me that we will meet at dawn in Yerushalayim) and it is known that it is darkest right before dawn. May the present darkness be the final point of exile and may we immediately go forth to the complete Geula.