Our Heros: Reb Moshe Aharon Geisinsky (1917-1993)

Horav Hachossid Rabbi Moshe Aharon Geisinsky was born on the 21st of Teves, 5677/1917 in the village of Tashan Pereaislav, a suburb of Kiev to Reb Ben Zion, a chossid of the Rachmistrivker Rebbes of the Chernobyl dynasty and to Mrs. Chaya Rochel, a daughter of a prominent Rabbinical family. This time period constituted an important chapter in the history of Chabad Chassidus marking the Soviet persecutions of the 1930’s until the present day.

Rabbi Benzion’s home was noted for its charitable acts. He was a generous person who was ready to offer a helping hand to any who were in need. Even when meat was scarce, it was known that Reb Ben Zion, a shochet, would distribute meat to the poor, although in his own home meat was available only on holidays.

Once when it appeared that he would leave none for himself, Moshe Aharon’s stepmother told his wife out of Reb Benzion’s hearing, “Rivke, run and hide a piece of meat for your father-in-law”. On another occasion Moshe Aharon was out walking with his father on a rainy day and the conversation turned to a certain poor man who had no boots and went barefoot. Later, Reb Moshe Aharon gave his boots to this man.

Rabbi Yitzchok Geisinsky

Reb Yitzchok Geisinsky, Moshe Aharon’s grandfather, was a Torah giant and a chossid of the Toliner Rebbe, the Tzaddik Reb Dovid. He would regularly inquire about his grandson’s progress and would occasionally test him. Reb Yitzchok was the Rabbi of Irlovitz in the Kiev Province. In addition to a vast and comprehensive knowledge of Torah and Kabbala, including the verbatim memorization of the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, he spoke several languages and was known for his secular knowledge. He was also an honored guest in the homes of government ministers, and on a number of occasions succeeded in intervening on behalf of his fellow Jews.

These two personalities, his charitable father and his intellectual grandfather were major influences on Moshe Aharon’s early development. However, his lineage did not stop there; he was a direct descendant of the Holy Reb Yehuda Leib of Shpolia, known as der Shpolia Zaide. Moshe Aharon took great pride in his illustrious ancestor, meticulously transmitting this pride to his family. Upon the Rebbe’s instructions, Reb Moshe Aharon published the Shpolia Zaide’s biography. He presided over the annual seudas hodoah, a meal to express gratitude to Hashem for the miracle that took place with the Shpolia Zaide, held by the Society of the Shpolia Zaide’s Descendants.

Among the Tmimim

The daily life-style to which the young Moshe Aharon became accustomed followed the ways of Chassidim. His father’s home was always open to guests, and became a center of local Chassidic life. Among the many people who came and went constantly, were the students of Yeshivas Tomchei Tmimim. Moshe Aharon was drawn to them as they sat around his father’s table learning, discussing, and farbrenging. All this took place during the period of the greatest religious persecution in the Soviet Union, and involved immense danger to Reb Benzion. The events taking place in his home came to the attention of the government authorities. This came to a climax when, after a farbrengen in honor of Yud Tes Kislev, Reb Benzion was arrested by the KGB.

At the age of fourteen, Moshe Aharon moved with his family to Kiev and shortly thereafter his mother passed away. The young scholar eased his grief by learning Torah. His primary teacher at that time was the Gaon, Reb Arye Leib Kaplan. Later, he became a full-time member of Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim. This was in the 1930’s, when the communist assault on Jewish religion was in full force; imprisonment, exile, torture, murder. In spite of this, the underground Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim network grew and blossomed. In 1934 the students in the Kiev Yeshiva were arrested. Moshe Aharon too young to be officially registered as a student, escaped. When he was older, he was “privileged” to be imprisoned briefly for the crime of learning Torah and keeping its Mitzvos. On one occasion he escaped by jumping out of a second-story rear window.

In the following years, he transferred to Tomchei Tmimim in Zhitomir, and from there to to Barditchev, and later to Poltava. Eventually, he himself was instrumental in founding branches of Tomchei Tmimim in various cities: Krievairog, Voroniezh, Kazinzie, Melitopel. The organizers and students of these underground yeshivos were forced to live the life of homeless wanderers, often suffering hunger as they hid from the authorities, having no permanent address or any kind of work permit. In spite of these enormous hardships, Moshe Aharon referred to this time as the wealthiest period of his life. This was due, in great measure, to the continuous inspiration and encouragement of the Previous Rebbe and the administrators of the Yeshivas, the great Roshei Yeshiva and Mashpi’im, and particularly the Gaon and Chossid Reb Shaul Brook. Many of these great personalities perished during the Communist and Nazi eras.

Tragedy and its Aftermath

During WWII, Moshe Aharon’s family was killed along with the rest of the Jews of Kiev. They were murdered by the Nazis at Babi-Yar on Yom Kippur night. Of the entire family, only Reb Moshe Aharon who was away from Kiev in an underground yeshiva and his father Reb Benzion, who was exiled in far-away Soviet, managed to survive. They moved from Ukraine to Russia proper, eventually arriving in Samarkand where Reb Moshe Aharon married Miss Rivka Dina Shtaingart. Her father, the distinguished chossid Horav Hatomim Reb Zev Wolf Shtaingart, was a great lamdan and scholar. He was imprisoned in Russia for twenty-two years, the longest sentence that any chossid received. When he was visited in prison he requested that a few pages of gemoro should be smuggled in to him. Her grandfather was the illustrious chossid Horav Hachossid Reb Meir Simcha Chein.

In the DP Camp in Benzheim

The Jewish community of Samarkand had large numbers of Chassidic members at that time, refugees from the war in Europe. Reb Moshe Aharon was naturally appointed one of the Chassidic teachers, and drew to himself a contingent of followers and admirers. After the war, Reb Moshe Aharon and his wife planned to travel to Israel with the Exodus Program, but the Previous Rebbe advised them not to. Later they learned that they had been saved from a dangerous situation. They settled in the D.P. camp at Benzheim, Germany. Here, amidst poverty and primitive conditions, Reb Moshe Aharon began to spread Talmud and Chassidus to the camp residents.

Teaching Refugees

It was Reb Moshe’s Aharon’s routine to spend almost the entire day in the hut which had been designated as a synagogue. There he would pray and study Torah. Young refugees, orphans of the war, would gather around him to hear words of Torah, stories, and Chassidic melodies. Through his inspiration, they became aware that not all had been destroyed and that the Jewish nation and its Torah had survived. When the Klausenberg Rebbe OBM established a network of yeshivos, called Sh’airis Hapleta, for war refugees in the Displaced Persons Camps and Reb Moshe Aharon was appointed the leader and Rosh Yeshiva of the Benzheim branch. His young followers were the first students.

Reb Moshe Aharon imparted to his students not only a vast knowledge of Torah, but also the character traits of his Chassidic refined personality which so endeared him to all who knew him. Reb Moshe Aharon was a serious and sincere person. He remembered the message of his teachers, the Rav of Kasbrod and the Chossid and Gaon Reb Chaim Shaul Brook that one needs to leave and forget one’s birthplace and wander to other places. He taught his students the Talmud and poskim with total commitment and had a personal relationship with them just as if they were his own children.

One of his students recalled. “Reb Moshe Aharon, then a young man of 29 was about ten years older than us. We felt hurt and lost – and yet we realized that he was a reliable image from whom we could receive much comfort and hope. He was a teacher, as well as a guide in a spiritual sense. His guidance remained engraved in our souls until this very day.”

Reb Moshe Aharon was blessed with a sharp memory which enabled him to memorize large amounts of material. In the aftermath of the war, Torah books were exceedingly scarce. Only old copies of the Talmud, printed without commentaries, were to be found. Reb Moshe Aharon could reproduce commentaries for his students from memory. Often, his brilliant mind enabled him to create original commentaries of his own. Afterwards, he discovered that many of his commentaries were identical to those of the classical commentators. His explanation for this phenomenon was that, “If you travel on the right road, you are bound to meet up with fellow travelers.”

Many of his former students, who are now practicing Rabbis and leaders of Jewish communities, stated, ”But for Reb Moshe Aharon, who knows what would have become of us; whether we would have remained faithful to our religion. Without him we would have been lost.“ It is remarkable that even now, decades later, his students still speak of him with great love and reverence. One scene which remains forever in their memories is their 29-year-old Rosh Yeshiva teaching them the famous four- stanza melody called the Alter Rebbe’s Niggun. He sang it with such yearning that ”The floor was flooded with tears!“

The Rebbe’s Kiruvim

Reb Moshe Aharon moved to Paris in 1948 and once again took up residence among Chabad Chassidim. Here too he became a teacher of young students. In 1950, he moved to New York, where he became one of the first Chassidim of the present Lubavitcher Rebbe. The Rebbe showed him special kiruvim because Reb Moshe Aharon’s father, Reb Benzion, was one of the few who had merited being close to the Rebbe’s father, the noted Gaon and Kabbalist, Reb Levi Yitzchok, in his exile in distant Kazahkstan. Reb Benzion would travel some 15 ½ miles to attend to Reb Levi Yitzchok’s needs.

On one occasion, the Rebbe sent Hachossid Reb Shmuel Dovid Raichik to Reb Moshe Aharon’s home to check on him.

In later years, when he came to the Rebbe to receive a dollar, the Rebbe told him Mazal Tov. Reb Moshe Aharon did not understand what the Rebbe was referring to. The Rebbe then told him that his anniversary was coming up. The Rebbe continued, “I need to remind you about your wedding date?!”

The Rebbe advised Reb Moshe Aharon to move to Cleveland, where he had relatives. In Cleveland, Reb Moshe Aharon served unofficially as an emissary of Lubavitch, as he had in Benzheim and in Paris, and taught Chassidus to numerous eager listeners. His Tanya class was attended by Jews from various circles, including students of the Telshe Yeshiva. He is especially remembered in Cleveland for his Torah discourses which he delivered in the shul during shalosh seudos.

In 1953 he returned to New York, settling in the East New York, where he became the Rabbi of a local synagogue. He remained in this position for twelve years, until almost all the Jews of East New York had moved to other neighborhoods. During this period, he developed contacts with many of the outstanding Torah sages of the generation. Among his admirers were the late Geonim; Rabbis Moshe Yo’ir Weinstock, with whom he maintained a regular correspondence years after Rabbi Weinstock had returned to Israel, Nissan Telushkin, and Moshe Feinstein OBM. Upon his arrival in the United States, Reb Moshe Aharon reestablished contact with his old teacher and admirer from his hometown Pereaislav, Reb Yehosua Zelig Diskin, one of the foremost Lithuanian Rabbis in Israel.

The Rebbe’s typesetter

During this time, Reb Moshe Aharon supported his family by the labor of his hands, working as a printer at the Balshon Publishing Co. Computerized typesetting had not yet been invented, and Reb Moshe Aharon set the type into columns and pages by hand. He felt happy that he was privileged to print sforim, especially of the Torah of the Lubavitcher Rebbes.

Once he was offered a better paying position and better conditions with another publisher. He declined the offer in order to be able to continue working on Chassidic literature, and to continue davening in his shul close to his working place, and to deliver his daily shiur. Whenever he learned that the Rebbe had instructed that a sefer be typeset, he would first run to immerse himself in the mikva and then would return to work. Reb Moshe Aharon took great pain to insure that the works were printed in the best format. On one occasion, the printers sent the Rebbe some work which was not of the highest standard. The Rebbe remarked, ”This was not done by Geisinsky!“

Personal traits

Reb Moshe Aharon was a talented person. On the one hand, he was a pleasant person, joyous and good hearted, who always had a sweet word for everyone who came in contact with him. On the other hand, he never forgot the troubles of the Jewish nation. All his life, he felt embittered about the events of WWII and of the troubles the Jews suffered in Russia.

His modesty was exceptional. Even his acquaintances and people who revered him did not know that before them stood a unique personality; an outstanding scholar, well versed in the different topics of the Talmud, Tanach and Medrashim. In addition to this, he was Baal Midos Tovos who loved a fellow Jew, would greet everyone, and was careful to respect another. His pleasant conduct and Chassidish modesty were unusual, and largely responsible for being mekarev Jews to Torah and Chassidus. Everywhere, yungeleit and older Jews would flock to him to hear a word of wisdom and Torah, to enjoy his chassidic stories which he recalled so accurately, or to hear him singing his sweet and hartzige nigunim. During the summer, Reb Moshe Aharon would farbreng for many hours on Shabbos and would contribute to a unique kiddush shem Lubavitch.

Bitul to the Rebbe

Reb Moshe Aharon’s stature certainly earned him a seat in a place of honor in 770, but he refused to sit. So long as he was able, he would come to all Shabbos farbrengens and would stand like a soldier in one of the back rows, listening to the Rebbe with total self-devotion. In earlier years, when he was a rabbi in East New York, it pained him that he was unable to attend the Shabbos Farbrengens, until friends comforted him with the thought that it was by spreading Torah and Judaism that he was fulfilling the Rebbe’s wishes.

When Reb Moshe Aharon became ill in 1983 and surgery was needed, the Rebbe inquired about each stage of the process. Subsequently, the doctors forbade him to fast on Yom Kippur, and Reb Moshe Aharon sought council with the late Gaon and Rav of the shechuna, Rabbi Zalman Shimon Dworkin OBM, about the detailed laws involved. On Erev Yom Kippur, Reb Moshe Aharon went to receive the customary lekach, a portion of honey cake from the Rebbe, and mentioned his concern over eating on Yom Kippur. Quoting from the Psalms 33, “Lhachyosom boro’ov”, with the deeper insight in the meaning, that the fast itself will nourish him, the Rebbe advised him to fast with assurances that he would incur no harm. Reb Moshe Aharon not only fasted that Yom Kippur, but was able to lead the prayers as Baal Tefila, according to his old custom.

His Many Talents

In addition to Reb Moshe Aharon’s comprehensive knowledge of Torah and his qualities as an outstanding scholar, he had other talents as well. Widely known as a Baal Tefila, he possessed the rare combination of a powerful and melodious voice. For many years he served as the High-Holiday Baal Tefila in the large shul of the late Rabbi Jacob J. Hecht in East Flatbush.

His talents as a Baal K’riah were also widely admired, and many former congregants, who had moved away to other neighborhoods, came from far to hear him read the Megilla on Purim. When reading the Torah or the Megilla, he was very particular about each tone of dikduk, Biblical Hebrew grammar, and indeed he was unusually learned in that subject. In his bookcases, there was a special shelf dedicated to works on dikduk. Almost all his life, as long as his health permitted, he would review the sedra each week, along with its liturgical notes, no fewer than four times (see Sh’mos Rabba 40).

His pen, too, was a source of intense admiration. He was a gifted writer and storyteller, whose memoirs appeared in print in the Kfar Chabad magazine and other periodicals. His writing style was held in such esteem that numerous authors would send their works to him prior to publication, for his comments and assistance in composing their introductions.

Reb Moshe Aharon was a gifted craftsman with “golden hands” who was skillful at building and repair. He also possessed a vast knowledge of Jewish history, physics, and mathematics, which he made use of for spiritual fulfillment. Despite all these talents, Reb Moshe Aharon’s priority was Torah, which he studied at every available moment, until the late hours of the night.

“I Repaid My Debt”

Towards the end of his life, Reb Moshe Aharon was weakened and in pain from his final illness, but bore his suffering in silence unwilling to become a burden to others or to be a source of anguish. Indeed, when his last surgery became necessary he was unwilling to go to the Rebbe for a blessing, so as not to cause the Rebbe any sadness. Only after his family begged him, did he go to receive a dollar from the Rebbe.

His life is perhaps best summarized by his comment prior to the night of the Yud Tes Kislev, two weeks before his death. Despite his illness, he conducted a Farbrengen for his family in honor of the occasion, according to the Rebbe’s wishes. As was customary, he concluded the Talmudic Tractate of Kesubos, and began a new tractate, Gittin. Referring to the siyum of Kesubbos, which he had taken upon himself a year earlier, he remarked happily to his wife, ”Rivkeleh, I have repaid my debt!”

Until his last moment he functioned with his exceptional midos intact and when one visited him he would exert himself with his entire being to graciously greet them. His physicians later shared that this made a deep impression on them.

Reb Moshe Aharon was nifter on the morning of the 3rd of Teves, 5752/1992.

He left his wife, Mrs. Rivka Dina; and may they live and be well, his son, Horav Hatomim Reb Elchonon of Crown Heights; his daughter, Mrs. Rochel Butman, wife of Horav Hatomim Reb Shmuel, a teacher and mechaneches in Bais Rivka High School, of Crown Heights; his daughter, Mrs. Minkowitz, wife of Horav Hatomim Reb Yosef, a teacher in Bais Rivka Academy in Montreal; his daughter, Mrs. Chana Lipsker, wife of Horav Hatomim Reb Shmuel, a teacher and mechaneches in Bais Rivka High School, of Crown Heights; his son, Horav Hatomim Reb Benzion, the shliach in Bethesda, Maryland; his son, Horav Hatomim Sholom Dovid, a Rosh Yeshiva in Mesivta Oholei Torah, of Crown Heights; grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, who are Shluchim and all following in his ways and teachings.

We should speedily witness “The ones who dwell in the dust will awaken and rejoice” with Horav Hachossid Hatomim Reb Moshe Aharon Geisinsky among them.