Raphael Nachman Cohen: Difference between revisions

In the year 5690 (1930), R' Pole was arrested by the secret police. He describes it in his book "Behind the Iron Curtain":<blockquote>"On the holy Shabbos, 18 Sivan 5690, I received a letter from the G.P.U. It stated: 'You must report to the G.P.U. office at 2 Lubyanka Street on Sunday, 15/06/1930, at 11:00.'"

While in the village of Che - the northernmost settlement, almost at the pole, where the temperature was 75° Celsius below zero, his mother sent him warm boots by mail. Although she had informed him that they were checked for shatnez (forbidden mixture of wool and linen), R' Pole suspected that she had altered the truth out of concern for pikuach nefesh (life-threatening situation), so he did not wear them, and made do - despite the life-threatening danger - with simple shoes! As a result, he caught a severe cold and developed a fever. Only when he received a letter from "Aunt Yezha" (this was the 'letter nickname' for R' Yankel Zuravitcher, because it was dangerous to write real names in letters) in which he faithfully promised that there was no concern of shatnez in the boots, did he begin to wear them. All this - despite knowing that according to the law it was permissible for him to wear them from the outset, even without any investigation, since they were sent by a Jew. All the more so when not wearing them presented a genuine danger to life. "But how could I wear them initially?" he wrote to his brother, Leibe, who 'chastised' him for his 'stubbornness', "It is known that the acronym of shatnez (שעטנז) is 'Satan Oz' (שטן עז - 'powerful Satan')! And besides this - a sin remains in the three impure kelipos forever!"

It was customary in Ramat Gan that on Simchat Torah, all the Chabad families with their wives and children would gather in the home of Reb Falle, and he would farbreng with all the passionate warmth of his soul, as was his way. After the long and uplifting farbrengen, everyone - the chassidim in front, followed by the families and their descendants - would march in formation, with singing and dancing, toward the Rabbi's house to drink and farbreng a bit, and from there they would enter all the homes of the chassidim, staying in each apartment for a short "mini-farbrengen." The few Chabad homes in Ramat Gan were scattered throughout the city, so the procession had to cross main roads. Whenever they reached a busy road, Reb folleh would stand upright in the middle of it, stopping all traffic, explaining in a loud and joyful voice about Simchat Torah, encouraging Torah observance and mitzvot, and concluding with sweeping enthusiasm: "Today is Simchat Torah, we must rejoice, dance and even do somersaults!" And then, before the amused-astonished eyes of all the drivers and their passengers (most of whom knew him...), the enthusiastic Reb Falle would jump and do a somersault in the middle of the main road - and other chassidim would roll after him. This happened every time the procession crossed a road. This was Simchat Torah in Ramat Gan, year after year, with Reb Falle. The Rebbe mentioned him at the Purim farbrengen of 5716 (1956) after he had expressed at a farbrengen (after saying l'chaim) that the Chazon Ish (one of the greatest rabbis among the Lithuanian Jews who had passed away two years earlier) envied a Chabad child who studies Tanya (the Rebbe said that the postal service in Israel became wealthy due to the letters sent about this).

In his final days, when the Rebbe began to cry out loudly "Moshiach Now" etc. - he strengthened the faith in Moshiach and the confidence in his immediate arrival, and instilled it firmly in all his descendants. Reb Falle lived the faith in redemption every moment of the day.

Reb Falle merited to establish generations of chassidim, mekusharim, the Rebbe's shluchim throughout the world, and passed away at a good age in Kfar Chabad on 17 Tishrei 5748 (1987).