Rav Chaim Zanvil Abramowitz zt"l
הרב חיים זנוויל בן משה אברמובץ זצ"ל
Tishrei 24 , 5756
Rav Chaim Zanvil Abramowitz zt"l
Rav Chaim Zanvil Abramowitz, the Ribnitzer Rebbe, was born in the mid 1890s in the town of Barashan, Romania. By 1973, when he left Russia, he was one of the last Rebbes. After leaving Russia, he settled in Eretz Yisrael, where he lived in the Sanhedria section of Yerushalayim. A number of years later he moved to the United States, where he lived in Miami, Los Angeles and Brooklyn, before eventually settling in Monsey, New York.
While in the USSR, the Ribnitzer Rebbe lived as a pious, Heaven-fearing Jew and inspirational leader, as if the Communists and Stalin did not exist. He did not forgo anything, not even immersing daily in the waters of the mikve, which often involved chopping ice on a frozen river, or davening with a minyan. He continued to spread Torah, to perform circumcisions and kosher slaughtering, and to encourage Jews to send their children to underground Torah schools. He was interrogated, jailed and even placed in front of a firing squad, but he always seemed to miraculously escape and return to his “counterrevolutionary” activities.
From the 1930s until the end of his life, the Ribnitzer Rebbe fasted on all days when it is permitted to do so under Jewish law.
As a mohel (circumciser), the Ribnitzer Rebbe performed thousands of circumcisions on Jewish children under the Communist regime. As one of the only mohelim who was not intimidated by the government, he would travel all over the country in order to bring another Jewish child into the covenant of Avrohom Avinu.
Rav Mendel Futerfas, a distinguished Lubavitcher Chassid [a survivor of fourteen years of Siberian exile, a maintainer of the Chabad underground Torah school network in those days, and himself the hero of many extraordinary Chassidic stories], related that the Ribnitzer was once approached by the wife of a Russian general, who wished the Rebbe to come clandestinely and circumcise her son. Her husband, a sworn Communist, obstinately refused to allow the child to be circumcised, lest his career in the army be jeopardized. During World War II, when her husband was called to the front, she sent a message asking the Rebbe to come.
“I accompanied the Rebbe on the trip as sandak,” Rav Mendel related, “and when we arrived at the house we were whisked into the cellar, where the child was ready and waiting. The Rebbe performed the procedure, but the child began bleeding profusely. Neither salve nor medicine was able to stop the bleeding.
“The child began to turn yellow and shudder. Upon seeing this, the mother became hysterical and began screaming, ‘Is this the reward I get for my sacrifice bringing my son to be entered into the covenant of our patriarch Avrohom?’ The baby lost consciousness, whereupon the horrified mother also lost consciousness.
“I was terrified,” Rav Mendel went on. “We could have been killed if something happened to this child, and even worse, imagine the chillul Hashem, the disgrace of Hashem’s name in the world, that would have come about if the child died while undergoing bris mila!
“I looked at the Ribnitzer Rebbe’s face at that moment, and it seemed to be aflame. His head was thrown back and his hands were raised to the Heavens in intense tefilla. As he said the words bedomayich chayi – ‘By your blood shall you live,’ the child, who had been completely still and showed no signs of life, awoke, and his bleeding stopped!
“I could not believe my eyes and exclaimed, ‘The Rebbe is performing miracles!’ Turning to me, the Rebbe responded calmly, ‘Eliyohu HaNovi, who is also the Maloch present at every circumcision, is here – this took place under his jurisdiction.’”
[Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from an article in Hamodia (Magazine Section) by Avrohom Birnbaum, Wikipedia, and oral transmissions from elder Chassidim.]