mentalblog.com comments:
R'Fishel sounds like a fascinating person.I wonder if anybody(Shneour?)can add some more details such as info about his kids and grandkids, when he passed away..etc..
What ultimately happened to him? From the post it looks like he was in Berlin, and around 45-50 years old, at the outbrake of the war...
I believe he was in Israel later on, there are stories of encounters with Chassidim in Israel.
Tzemach, your translation of the letters from the FR are probably not accurate, I don't think he wrote "our master and teacher", and it does NOT show great respect. The Rebbe wrote very similar titles when addressing Academics, and when read probably are meant to be very PARVE titles, not addressing the recipient's lack of religious observance.
I spoke to my friend Bere Gourary about Dr. Fischel Schneersohn.
I had read his novella CHAIM GRAVITZER and I found it most impressive . An account of the internal spiritual struggle of a real Chabad chassid , his neffilah so to speak. Actually the novella reads like a Maamar Dach so to speak. The theme is Ein eyd Milvade. (There is none besides HIM). An unusual story. Pt. 2 of the novella describes the protaganists spiritual journey to the Chages velt (Chernobil) and Brisk (The Lithuanian Teyre world). Pt. 2 I found weak.
Bere told me the following that Dr. (or Prof. as he was known) was admired by his grandfather and in Otwock he came to see the Rayaatz often.
He was a shomer shabbes Yid and a very spiritual person who liked communing with nature like davening mincha in the Otwocker forrests.
Its unclear how close Fishel was th e Rayaatz , certainly not a member of the inner circle.
His only child, a daughter became a well known flamingo dancer in Spain and Argentina, so I remember Barry telling me.
His brother was a ish chashuv "Rabbi" Isaac Schneersohn the kozioner (Crown)rabbiner of Czernigow and later a activist in Paris. His published memoirs are a fascinating account of pre war Jewish life in White Russia and the Ukraine. His father in law was none other than Rav Mordechai Dov Twerski of Hornestaypel the son in law of the Divre Chaim.
Thats all I remember of our discussion about Dr. Fishel Schneersohn .
Avremel,
Why "think" where a 5-minute reference check will do the job? The Previous Rebbe addressed Professor Fishel Schneersohn thusly (in both addressed letters [ חלק ט' מב, קיח ])* :
כבוד ידידי ש"ב הנכבד והנעלה הנודע לשם תהלה גזע תרשישים מוה"ר פישל שי' פרופ. שניאורסאהן
That is, indeed, only a proper salutation to a man of such stature and is not completely telling. However, here is what the Previous Rebbe wrote about him [ חלק ב' תקיא ] :
הוא כלי ראוי' לטוב הגמור.
The Verdict [drum roll/////]:
"our master and techer" - no
"great respect" - yes Perhaps not based on the way the letters are addressed, but based on their content, spirit and the above-mentioned statement, there is no room for any doubt. It is, however, not clear why you would want to deny this man Previous Rebbe’s "great respect". ???
* There is another very beautiful and very long letter [ חלק ג' קלז ] that is not addressed. It is believed to have been written to Professor Fishel Schneersohn in 1932 [the Rebbe notes it so and leaves it marked with a "?"] but it was not completed and never sent...
I would like to point out that I did not translate this but copied SSD book. There is also a facsimile of some of the original letters in the book. I will have to take a look at it later. There is also a page that follows this desciption that tells about correspondences of the Rebbe with Dr.F.S. and his children.
מוה"ר is pretty much standard operating procedure with regard to any academic/intellectual/respectable businessman, especially a member of Bais HoRav, but it does not show anything as far as respect. It shows as much as a person writing a letter to a politician adressed "the Honorable so-and-so", that's the way it needs to be written.
By the way, does anyone know how i can get a hold of a copy of "Chaim Gravitzer"?
Shneur what are R Isaac Schneersons memoirs called
"Rabbi" Isaac Schneersohn the kozioner (Crown)rabbiner of Czernigow and later a activist in Paris.
Schneur, I believe you were refereeing to kazenuy ravin. An Rabinic title in Russia. The word kazenuy is derived from the word kazna which means government budget or fund. This title was bestowed on Rabbis who were supported by the Tzarist government in an official capacity, as opposed to Rabbis hired by a congregation. So I do not believe this term, if I understood you correctly, means "crown".
Yitzchok Schneerson was the "Rav MiTaam" of Chernigov during the Czarist regime. He attended the Petersburg conference of 5670, which played host to many other Giants of Jewry, Including the Rebbe Rashab, Reb Chaim Brisker, The Rogatchover, Reb Meir Simcha, and The Chofetz Chaim. Much has been written recently about this conference, some of which taken from his memoirs, in Kfar Chabad Magazine.
(He was not a Rov in the classic sense, Schneur, your desription of him was somewhat misleading)
I did just notice you put the "Rabbi" in quotation marks, so maybe that's what you had in mind.
Avremel, you are walking a thin line. Obviously you did not read or understand what I wrote. You current contributions lack substantive input. Consider this a warning.
Finally, the recognition I deserve! Thank you, thank you!
I believe the Rebbe once explained that to the FR, every Jew is G-d fearing at heart or even subconsciously, and there he addressed them as such. And Fishel did indeed have Semichah, as Tzemach pointed out, hence Morenu Horav.
Chaim Gravitzer was one of those books that no one was supposed to read in Chabad, but everyone did. Pity that no one even knows that it exists today.
Where can i get a copy?
Firstly in English the title of the rabbinic position of the sort held by Isaac Schneersohn was Crown rabbi and there is a volume in Hebrew by a rabbi Shochet with a detailed history of the position. I do not know Russian but I believe my dad called ita Kazyoner rabbin in distinction to the real rav who was called a duchovner (spiritual ) rabbin.
Among people holding this position were varied types as different as Sholem Aleichem (Yiddish writer) and rav isaac Rubinstein in Vilna one of the YAD from Slobodka to Slutzk.The most famous Crown rabbi was rabbi Jacob Mazah of Moscow. My father hd a mofes which this modern rabbi had a part in . Amolike maskilim were also poel yeshuoth !! By the way the 4 volume memoirs of rabbi Mazah are fantastic especially together with Schnersohn's memoirs (the first 200 pages are fine the rest are somewhat non essential for modern readers)
I distinctly placed the title rabbi in Genzen fisselech to indicate that although he was baki in poskim (by his own account) he was not a rav and I certainly did not mean to mislead anyone there. He was a askan.He ws a lay leader . The rebbe exchanged correspondence with him and R. Gorodetsky officiated at his funeral in paris.
The gravitzer book is available at The YIVO INSTITUTE. I copied it there over 30 years ago. I also copied a copy for Barre Gourary who enjoyed the book.
Schneersohns book is also available in JTS and Columbia. They both have on line catalogs so just look up Schneersohn or Schneerson, Isaac . He has that 1 volume of memoirs in Yiddish which I read a few years ago. YU does not have either volume.
it says under his photo, if i am reading correctly, that he was a "Kunstler", was he an artist? has anyone seen works by him?
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