By COLlive reporter
A special booklet was published this week to honor the 20th yartzeit of the fervent Lubavitcher chossid R’ Moshe Rubin, of blessed memory, on the 29th of Adar.
Rabbi Rubin, an alumnus of Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim in Otwock, Poland, served as a shochet and bodek as well as a Mashpia of the Chabad community in Montreal, Canada, for over 50 years.
As he was known for his heartfelt and passionate prayers, the pilpul booklet is a disputation among rabbinical scholars about not making prayer a regularity in one’s daily life.
It was authored by his son, Rabbi Yisroel Rubin, co-director of Chabad of Albany, NY, with his wife Mrs. Rochel Rubin.
Continuing his legacy, in addition to the Rubins in Albany, are his children R’ Hershel and Rochel Devorah Zaklos of Detroit, R’ Moshe and Esther Shaindel Chanowitz of Montreal, R’ Yaakov Dovid and Sara Krayna Yuzewitz of Crown Heights, and their children and grandchildren.
Here is the dedication his children wrote in the 16-page booklet Kuntress Tefilas Arvis Reshus about their father and his “first love” which was davening:
In shul, everyone could see him davening long hours, but only we, his children, were privileged to experience our father’s heartfelt Birchos Hashachar at home, in the wee morning hours on Calrk Street, then on Bourret Avenue.
We had long “graduated” from the kindergarten’s “beginners” Brochos which we thought we just ‘kid stuff’ compared to the Psukai D’Zimra, Shema and Shmoneh Esray. Yet Reb Moshe poured his heart and soul into these ‘simple’ blessings – to him they weren’t so simple.
People usually zip quickly through these introductory Sidder pages. But Reb Moshe loved, succored and expressed each Beracha with great personal warmth, verbalizing and proclaiming each work aloud with deep Kavanah, like davening Neilah at the climax of Yom Kippur.
Years later, he would summon and orchestrate the grandchildren nearby to respond “Amein!” to each and every Beracha.
Reb Moshe’s voice would reach a crescendo in the Birchos Hatorah, concluding with the Grand “Elu Devarim” finale of Mitzvos we can enjoy now in this world, plus later in the World to Come.
Reb Moshe embodied the pasuk in Tehillim (39:4) engraved on his tombstone: “My heart is warm within, my words are on fire, that I speak with my tongue.”
Reb Moshe’s fervent blessings continue to reverberate on his 20th yartzeit on Adar 29. May his shining beautiful legacy live on until Moshiach.
DOWNLOAD:
+ Kuntress Tefilas Arvis Reshus
My father ע”ה told me that by כוס של ברכה someone once asked the Rebbe for כוס של ברכה for R. Moshe Rubin. The responded that he (R. Moshe) says every word in davening twice, so he should get twice. And the Rebbe gave him twice for R. M.R.
Correct me if I’m wrong, The Frierdige Rebbe told both his son in laws to attend his wedding.
Growing up in Montreal I have the warmest feelings for Reb Moishe Rubin.
Since, I knew how to drive and sometimes had a car he would ask me to give him a lift to the bakery. Then as “payment” for driving him he would tell me a vort or a story. He was so alive when he spoke those words.
since everyone is saying stories…. We live at the corner of Bourret and Westbury and my parents didn’t like that people used our front lawn as a short cut to cut the corner. It broke our bushes and left a trail on the grass except for one person who also did the short cut, while davening, every letter out loud, lovingly — this person Rabbi Moshe Rubin my parents felt it was a zechus that he used our little corner on his way to shul. Only after he passed away we closed up the way so no one could cut… Read more »
I could never forget Rabbi Rubin za’l singing a beautiful niggoun, «the shepperd» on that pourim 1978, my first pourim in Montréal with my friend Sarah Kreyna Tihyé at their home….He was such a gentleman, each time I would meet him. I remember being in N.Y by his daughter Sarah Yuzewitz and Rabbi Moche of blessed memory, told me he will walk with me to 770 so I would be safe, on the way he was reciting by heart something…. One day, Rabbi Moche za’l told me : you know, in french to say: it’s raining we say: IL pleut,… Read more »
even if we wanted our youth to see this, it wont happen , bc they all have their own class shuls.
all the same age and dnt get to see vi a yid horevet oifen davenen!! no chap lap.
Reading about R’ Moishe Rubin o” bm I would like to dedicate a personal story. When I was a boy of 9-10 years old, I attended the Lubavitch Yeshiva in Worcester, Mass. (Rabbi Fogelman o”bm ) and R’Moshe taught me and and one more boy Gemoreh. Due to lack of funds, we would borrow gem ores from the local old Shul to use. The Gemores were also old, and the margins would crack, and small pieces would always be falling to the floor. mind you there weren’t any letters on these pieces. I noticed that when we had recess he… Read more »
In the bungalow next to his where he would spend the summers lived a secular Jew. Reb Moshe asked this Jew to wrap Tefillin, and he refused. Reb Moshe then explained to him that in order for his davening to be complete, he needed his neighbor to also daven next to him. This convinced the neighbor and that’s how he got him to not only wrap Tefillin but also experienced Reb Moshe’s davening. If I got any of the details wrong, I hope his family members will correct them.
Our dear principal in Cheder Ohr Menachem in Crown Heights.
The smile and love and tireless efforts that go into educating our children are stemmed from the branches of his beloved grandfather AH ; Rabbi Rubin. We are blessed and lucky .
I had the big big zechus as a kid with my siblings to shovel his snow in the winter,
Gone are those days…
He was a story teller par excellence, he was very warm and loving but told kotzke stories with such sharp messages of truth, pnimius, and running away from chitzonius, he told them with such warmth and joy.
http://www.tinyurl.com/rebmoshe
watching reb moshe say asher yotzar leftt a lasting impression on my then young mind!!!
His wife Miriam was no less of a tzidkoniyus
As a teenager in the basement shul of the yeshivah in Montreal I remember R’ Moshe Rubin giving encouraging words that uplifted and praised and never put down or belittled the person he was talking to.
So special to see R ‘Moshe Rubin’s photo when I opened COL. Every word that emerged from him exuded love of the Aibishter. חבל על דאבדין ולא משתכחין.
Simie Schtroks Surrey BC.
I remember Rabbi Rubin from my early years in montreal It is true, he was a vareme chossid, always with a gutte vort, a hartzige brocha on his lips and a smile for everyone. I remember going over to his house when I was young, almost 50 years ago, and those were in the years before hakhel gatherings, and messibos shabbos, and yet we always gathered for nosh, stories, and farbrengens..(shaindy, remember your sukkos bday party?) a true role model for our own children.. they need to see chassidim like him to emulate …