SECOND INSTALLMENT RE ZAIDY'S AGE

 

Dear Family,

 

I hope that you have read the first installment.

 

I have taken the Liberty to scan and send the following documents:

 

The first page (labeled page 2) is a list of the Bochurim in the Lubavitcher Yeshiva in Vilna on the 25th of Sivan 5696- 1936. It says there that Zaidy was 13 years old, which was the average age of his class, the second class. If so, then Zaidy would have been born in 1923. In the second attached page it quotes Zaidy, saying that shortly after his Bar Mitzvah he went to Vilna, after Pesach. This would seem to indicate that they did not make a mistake by a year, since his Bar Mitzvah was in 1936-5696. Unless we will say that Zaidy remembered that he went to Vilna shortly after his Bar Mitzvah, and he did not remember which year it was (as is probable). It was the interviewer that inserted 5696, since we have a document saying that he was in Yeshiva during that year. Possibly, he was born 1922, Bar mitzvah 1935-5695 and entered the Vilna Yeshiva in 5695 shortly after his Bar Mitzvah in the first class, and the document that we have is of his second year there.

 

The next two documents state that Zaidy was learning in Vilna after the war had begun. They had left Otwock before Rosh Hashana to Warsaw, and had managed to escape from the Germans (see Tanta Fruma's letter). There is a lot to talk about in the details of their escape. We will have to leave that for another time. Actually these documents do not add much to this discussion of Zaidy's age. I included them by mistake, and did not want to omit them, in case anybody was interested.

 

The fifth document gives an overview of Zaidy's history, as well as some of his family. It mentions that Uncle Chaim was born in 1915 and learned in Vilna 1929-1931.f so, he entered Yeshiva when he was 14 years old. So too with Shmuel Avrohom (incidentally, he was called just Shmuel in one of the documents). He was born 1917 and entered the Vilna Yeshiva in 1931 when he was 14 years old. Though Zaidy went to Yeshiva when he was 13 years old.

 

In the 5th document it says that Zaidy learned in Glubocke during the years of 1935-6 until Pesach. Zaidy told us many times about the simple Bar Mitzvah that he had while learning by his Melamed in Dukshitz. It seems that the family's house was quarenteened at that time because of (the typhus?) disease that was spreading. Though a Yeshiva did start in Glubocke during those years, and Zaidy's Father Reb Ben Zion was very much involved with this amazing undertaking, it would seem that Zaidy did not attend. possibly because the Yeshiva was not well organized or at an appropriate standard.

 

In the 6th document, it says that Zaidy was learning in Otvock during the winter of 5698, and was 17 years old. It is possible that this was before or after his Birthday on Chanukah. Yet, if Zaidy was born in 1922, the years would not fit?? Unless we say that they made a mistake? Incidentally, it says that Zaidy had just arrived in Otvock that winter. Apparently he was in Vilna for the 3rd class too.

 

I also reviewed a 100 year calendar. Though Chanukah can never fall on October, it is possible that it should really have said December 20th. They mistook a 10 for a 12.

So 12/20/ 19 falls on the 28th of Kislev, Zaidy's birth day is on the 3rd Lichtele of Chanukah, or the 27th of Kislev. In 1920 it fell on the 9th of Teves. In 1921 the 19th of Kislev. In 1922the first of Teves, or the 6th Lichtele of Chanukah during that year.In 1923 it fell on the 12th of Teves.  

 

Please review this and share your comments with us. I am inclined to settle on the 1922 date. What do yoy think?

 

All the best

 

Have a wonderful Shabbos, especially as today is The Alter Rebbe's Yahrzeit.

 

Ben Zion