Mashpia’s Remark at Farbrengen

By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives

In 1922, Rabbi Yechezkel Feigin became a mashpia in the Lubavitch school in Gomel, Russia, and later headed an underground school in Poltava. When the school in Poltava was closed by the NKVD, the students moved to Nevel and reopened the school.

Again, they were discovered and forced to move. The school regrouped in Kharkov, then in Rostov-on-Don, and finally back in Kharkov and Nevel again. In Rostov, Reb Chatche took responsibility for several more clandestine schools.

“His wisdom was recognizable in every one of his actions,” wrote Michoel Lipskar, a student in one of the schools. “You would walk away from his Chassidic gatherings with concrete guidance for your daily life. There was what to hear and see, and there was what to learn. After his inspirational words, the following day was different.”

In 1927, when one of the Rebbe Rayatz‘s aides was arrested, Reb Chatche replaced him as a temporary assistant to the chief aide. The same year, however, the chief aide and the Rebbe himself were arrested, and Reb Chatche took charge of the office, overseeing all of Chabad’s operations in the USSR while the Rebbe was in prison. “The Rebbe wanted an intelligent man to serve as the head of his office,” wrote Rabbi Yehuda Chitrik. Reb Chatche fit the criteria.

Reb Chatche continued to work for the Rebbe after he was released, following him to Latvia and then to Poland. On one occasion, the Rebbe requested that he lead a Chassidic gathering for the yeshivah students in Warsaw. Since the Rebbe had asked for the gathering, other members of the faculty participated as well.

At the farbrengen, the students sang a melody and waited for Reb Chatche to say something. He was silent, however, so they sang another niggun and waited again, but nothing happened.

Finally, after half an hour, Reb Chatche spoke up. “You probably heard of a student that they called Chatche Feigin, who knew fluently by heart [the series of Chassidic discourses known as] 5665.”

This person, he said, was not present with them at the gathering. “Once upon a time, he studied Chassidic teachings. Then he had something to say. Today, he studies nothing, he is empty, and he has nothing to say. Even a partial idea he doesn’t have…”

That was the end of his speech, but it was more than enough. The students came away from the gathering inspired as they had not been in a long while.

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