When Zeide Cried Away

The following was written in Spanish by Bentzy Shemtov about his late grandfather on Chabad of Uruguay’s blog. It was subsequently published in a Uruguayan newspaper. COLlive.com has translated it to English:

I’m sitting on a plane bound for New York to attend a funeral. The funeral of an 84 year-old who just had a third heart-attack a month ago. Yet I cannot believe it happened.

I never imagined that my grandfather, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Chitrik, who had such vitality and spirit, is no longer with us physically.

Many memories come to mind right now and my eyes cannot remain dry. I had the pleasure of living in the house of my Zeide for 5 years and counting…

He was a person who has impacted my life tremendously. Many definitions come to mind while trying to describe him. Honesty. Charity. Hachnosas Orchim. Ahavat Israel. Constant Torah study. A Mentch. A gentleman. A man of his word. No wasting time. A Yidishe Kop, among many other qualities.

But the “unifying” quality that comes to mind is that Zeide was a “Jewish merchant” par excellence. He was a businessman in the modern world and a G-d fearing Jew who took no shortcuts. He knew very well how to unite these two worlds in an exemplary and impeccable manner.

WHEN ZEIDE CRIED

I remember the story he told in the Beit Chabad in Uruguay at my Bar Mitzvah kiddush.

He told of a man who approached him during one of his trips to Brussels asking for advice on how to solve the “Shabbos problem.”

In the jewelry industry, the main sales occur over the weekend and this man wished he can get a “break” from Shabbos. When Zeide told over this story he began to cry and could not end the story. He could not even conclude the speech…

Zeide understood the challenges of the “New World” and showed how in matters of Judaism there are no “discounts”. The World and the Torah can live completely at peace, hand in hand.

Today, thank G-d, it is much more common. Back in the early 60s and 70s, a man in a suit and hat, with a beard, who does not eat anything that has not been prepared by his wife in New York, doing business in Japan, London, Las Vegas and Hong Kong, was not a common sight.

Not too many years later, when I learned in the Yeshiva in Detroit, I met a non Jewish jeweler during my weekly quest to find Jewish people with whom to share some words of Torah and perhaps perform a mitzvah.

After first asking the famous line “Excuse me Sir, are you Jewish,” I asked him if by any chance he knew my grandfather – being that he was in the same business. “Your grandfather is Mr. Chitrik?” he asked in amazement and added, “He’s the most honest man I’ve met in the world”.

That was not the last time I heard such expressions about my grandfather, by Jews and non-Jews alike.

HOW TO RELAX FROM WORK

Each morning after the Tefillah with a minyan followed by reading the newspaper along with a coffee, my grandfather traveled to Manhattan. The trip, at that time of day, takes about an hour. That was an “hour of Torah study”.

If you enter my grandfather’s car and open the glove compartment you will probably find a volume of Gemarah and Torah commentary or a contemporary Halachah journal, and the CD would probably be one of Torah classes.

Every day after dinner (and a day of trading with the sort of pressure that only Manhattan can subject a human being to), Zeide went to his study. Gemara, Shulchan Aruch and poskim, Parshas Hashavua and Sichos of the Rebbe (which he so loved).

On Shabbas, that was obviously his main occupation.

It was impossible to have a conversation with my Zeide for more than 5 minutes without him referring something to Torah. It was Impossible.

THE MORNING CHAT

A few weeks ago Shluchim of the Rebbe from around the world convened in Crown Heights for the international Kinus conference. Apart from the thousands of emissaries who come to “recharge the batteries,” there are also “friends of Chabad” that come with their respective Shluchim to spend this unforgettable weekend in Brooklyn.

This year we had the pleasure of hosting 3 friends from Uruguay. On Sunday night, after the famous and inspiring banquet, I asked one of them what was his “highlight” of the weekend.

“Actually, what struck me most was when I was in your grandparents’ home on Friday morning eating breakfast and your cousins’ son came in,” he said.

“After greeting each other, the first thing that your grandfather asked his great-grandson, aged 10, was what where his recent studies in the “cheder” and began to talk about the subject.

“Look, here’s an 84 year old man, his great-grandson (one of more than 100 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Bli Ayin Hara) comes into his house and your grandfather gives him full attention and talks to him about his studies!”

WHAT HE PROVED

Being in the competitive business world, and at the same time being fully immersed in the world of Torah and Mitzvos is what Zeide demonstrated and personified.

Zeide survived the persecutions of Joseph Stalin and the years of famine in the Soviet Union but his greatest triumph was the fact that he proved that G-d exists in the “Free Country” as much as at the foot of Mount Sinai 3,324 years ago.

Zeide, I miss you very much. The lessons instilled in me and others by your example will last forever. I hope to personify them so that next time I will not be asked if you were my grandfather, because it will be self-evident.