Rabbi Yehoshua Lein

Rabbi Yehoshua Lein was a chassid of the Rebbe Rashab and the Frierdiker Rebbe who served as director of the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva branch in Dokshitz, and also served as rav in several towns in Russia. The Frierdiker Rebbe testified about him that he was a beinoni according to the Tanya.

Life History[edit | edit source]

Born in 1881 in the town of Nevel to his father, the chassid Reb Chaim Dovid Lein, as a descendant of the Chabad Chen family.

When he reached the age of bar mitzvah, he was sent to the town of Chernigov to learn from his uncle, the town's rav, Rabbi Dovid Tzvi Chen. Later, he learned shechita from his father, but did not practice it since his father forbade him from performing shechita.

In the Presence of the Rebbe Rashab[edit | edit source]

The first time he visited the court of the Rebbe Rashab and entered for yechidus, the Rebbe Rashab asked him to stay in Lubavitch. He humbly replied "If the Rebbe commands me," but the Rebbe did not command him to stay, rather told him: "May Hashem help that you should want to learn and know how to learn, and that you should be a yerei shamayim - that is the main thing."

After several years of diligently studying with his uncle the Radatz Chen, he went to learn in the court of the Rebbe Rashab in Lubavitch and was counted among the 'yoshvim' who diligently studied Torah and avodah there. When Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim was established, he was among its first talmidim and merited to learn there for several years until his marriage. He was very beloved by the Rebbe Rashab, who once said about him during a farbrengen "Yehoshua is mine."

During that period, he was sent by the Rebbe Rashab to the Rogatchover Gaon to receive semicha for rabbanus. After the examination, the Gaon testified about him that he "knows how to learn."

After his marriage to his wife Masha, he traveled to Lubavitch for the month of holidays in 1901. During hakafos on Simchas Torah, he danced with enthusiasm together with two other chassidim (Reb Shlomo der Geler and Reb Avraham Yaakov Mozaritch). The Rebbe Rashab greatly enjoyed their dancing and watched them at length until he said: "This is a dance of the heart, the 'yechida l'yachdecha' of Simchas Torah... Although this is 'jumping' enthusiasm, it's all within the bounds of a Chabad dance. A Chabad dance with all its enthusiasm and fervor - remains a Chabad dance"...

Public Activities[edit | edit source]

In 1902, at just twenty-one years old, the Rebbe Rashab instructed him to settle in the town of Dokshitz and open a branch of Yeshivas Tomchei Tmimim there. Rav Lein accepted the position and served for years as the menahel, mashpia, and mashgiach of the yeshiva, where about 16 bochurim studied (among his students at that time was R' Mordechai Perlov). During this period, his first wife passed away shortly after giving birth.

After serving as the yeshiva's menahel for several years, the Rebbe Rashab instructed him to accept a rabbinical position in the town of Ostravna near Vitebsk.

In Iyar 1911, he was appointed as rav of Beshenkovitz, where his great-grandfather Rav Peretz Chen had served as rav. When he was appointed as rav, the townspeople remarked that the verse "the fourth generation shall return here" was fulfilled in him.

In the Presence of the Frierdiker Rebbe[edit | edit source]

In 1920, he married his second wife, Rebbetzin Risha, daughter of the chossid R' Uri Yaffe.

Two years later in 1922, a fire broke out in Beshenkovitz that destroyed most of the town's houses, after which he wandered with his family to Nevel and lived with his family in his parents' home.

When he arrived in Nevel, the community members wanted to ask him halachic questions, but he refused to answer since his rabbinical ordination certificate had burned. When this reached the ears of the Rogatchover Gaon, he sent him a new "semicha l'rabbanus" certificate.

In the following years, he began serving as a shadar who traveled among Chabad communities throughout Russia collecting ma'amad funds for the Frierdiker Rebbe.

Rudnia[edit | edit source]

Due to persecution by the secret police, he moved to the town of Rudnia near Lubavitch where he served as rav and shochet u'bodek, while simultaneously teaching nigleh and chassidus to several tmimim who had fled from the KGB and found refuge in his home.

Among the students were the tmimim Velvel Auerbach and Sholom Ber Notik. Rav Lein would learn with them throughout the day and his son Sholom Ber Lein would join the two. It is said that Sholom Ber Notik was his special student and received from him abundant Torah, wisdom and chassidic stories. R' Sholom Ber Notik compiled a collection of stories about and from Rav Yehoshua Lein, and these stories were published in the sefer Avnei Chen in a special chapter.

In 1938, he was arrested by the secret police and released after a short time by a relative who had left the path and was among the police officers, who set a condition that he would release him only if he stopped engaging in Jewish activities, shechting chickens for the townspeople and so forth. Nevertheless, after his release he continued with mesiras nefesh to engage in shechita and teaching the tmimim and sharing chassidic ma'amarim in the shul.

His Passing[edit | edit source]

In the summer months of 1941, the German army conquered Rudnia and concentrated the town's residents in a ghetto. At the end of the month of Tishrei 1942, they took everyone out to the tank trenches outside the city and shot them all to death.

Rav Laine went to the trenches with a Tehillim book in his hand, and continued murmuring the chapters of Tehillim until the final moment, passing away with the book in his hands. Together with him was murdered his second wife Rebbetzin Risa, his daughter Nessa and his son Peretz, as well as the town's rabbi, Rav Shimon Hoffman.

In 1964, at the initiative of the murder victims' descendants, all the bodies were transferred to a mass grave dug in the Jewish cemetery of the town. During the transfer, they were amazed to find Rav Laine's body completely intact, still holding the Tehillim book in his hand.

His Children[edit | edit source]

From First Marriage:

Rav Aharon Leib Laine (HY"D)
Rebbetzin Freidel
Rebbetzin Gutel (HY"D)

From Second Marriage:

Rebbetzin Rivka, wife of Rav Shalom Dov Ber Raskin - Kfar Chabad
Rav Shalom Ber Laine - educator in the Ohalei Yosef Yitzchak network in Eretz HaKodesh, resident of Kfar Chabad
Nessa (HY"D)
Peretz (HY"D)