“In Jewish Warsaw the approach of Pesach was felt already in the cold and frosty nights of Tevet, several months before the advent of the festival. The climate was still far from suggesting the spring season. The houses were covered with a white blanket of snow, the windowpanes decorated with ice flowers…”
Thus opens Rabbi Symcha Elberg’s philosophical-romantic essay about the preparations for Passover in Jewish Warsaw, that is no more. It is one of nearly 50 essays and articles included in Imrei Symcha (vol. 2) which came off the press a short time ago.
Rabbi Elberg, long time chairman of the executive of the Agudath HaRabbanim and editor of the rabbinical monthly HaPardes, is a phenomenon in the rabbinical world.
It can, verily be said of him that he has been endowed with two pens. Both feed on the same sources, the living waters of the Torah, but they write about different subjects.
One pen corresponds with leading rabbis in matters of Halakha and turns out Hiddushim in many and varied fields of Torah.
The other pen addresses itself to a broader public. Beautiful essays, based on Talmud and Midrash and interlaced with sayings of the Maharal of Prague, Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, Hasidic leaders and the sages of the Mussar movement, speak in praise of fundamental Jewish values and condemn and sharply criticize human weaknesses. Powerful portrayals of Jewish life in the past, interwoven with personal reminiscences and philosophical reflections, edify the reader. The vivid emotion-laden descriptions of the shared ideals of the Jewish family, the warmth of the Beth haMidrash, the uplifting Sabbath atmosphere, the serenity and humility of the true Talmid Hakham and the devotion of the Yiddish Mamme to the Torah education of her children, throb with longing and veneration for various aspects of the life of vanished East European Jewry.
Rabbi Elberg grew up in Warsaw, where he sat at the feet of two great masters: Rabbi Menachem Ziemba and Rabbi Nosson Spiegelglass. Both men were, to use an expression of Rabbi Elberg, “Baalei Battim Geonim,” i.e. giants in Torah, who didn’t occupy an official rabbinic position (only in the 1930s- an account of his adverse economic situation– did Rabbi Menachem Ziemba, who had an ironware business in Praga, a suburb of Warsaw consent to becoming a member of Warsaw’s Vaad HaRabbanim).
Rabbis Ziemba and Spiegelglass were murdered by the Germans. Rabbi Elberg described their personalities in Rabbi Dr. Isaac Lewin’s Eileh Ezkerah (vols 2,7). The two essays, no doubt belong to the best biographical sketches of rabbinic leaders of our generation.
Rabbi Elberg was one of the editors of the Torah periodical Emek Halakhah,put out by Rabbi Spiegelglass’ Yeshiva of the same name. Later in 1936, he published Minchat Bikkurim, which included “reflections, contemplations and notes in various fields of Torah.” The young author’s volume carried enthusiastic approbations with comments by his teachers, Rabbis M. Ziemba and N. Spiegelglass, his grandfather Rabbi Eliyah Yehuda Lipschitz, rabbi of Grojec, near Warsaw and one of the founders of the Agudat HaRabbanim of Poland and Rabbi Yitzchak Zelig Morgenstern of Sokolow.
The outbreak of World War II, found Rabbi Elberg in Waraw. He succeeded in escaping from German occupied Poland to Vilna, from where he made his way with other Yeshiva-Leit, via the USSR, to the Far East.
In Shanghai, he married the former Miriam Slutsker, a Melumedet in her own right. Her father, Rabbi Yehuda Selig Slutsker, had been a prominent student of the Yeshiva of Slobodka. Following World War I, Rabbi Yehuda Selig settled with his wife Dina in Harbin, Manchuria, China.
After the end of World War II, Rabbi and Rebbetzin Elberg came to the United States.
(Continued next week)
The Jewish Press, Friday, January 29, 1993 p. 44
In the late 1940’s, Rabbi Elberg joined the late Rabbi Shmuel Aaron Pardes in editing the rabbinical monthly Hapardes, which was then published in Chicago. He eventually became the editor of the periodical.
(The late Rabbi Pardes, who served as rabbi in several localities in Poland, founded HaPardes in Piotrkow, Poland, in 1913. The periodical was suspended during World War I. It was resumed after the war. In the 1920s Rabbi Pardes transferred it to America. A selection of Rabbi Pardes’ Divrei Torah and Derashot, originally published in HaPardes, is now in print in Israel. The volume which was edited by Rabbi Elberg, includes articles about Rabbi Pardes by the editor and other rabbis.)
For several decades now, Rabbi Elberg has been editing HaPardes which is the oldest rabbinic periodical. He contributes Hiddushim in many fields of Torah, reviews new sefarim and writes the leading articles commenting on events in the Jewish world especially such that affect Torah Jewry.
He has also contributed to other Torah publications and has published articles on timely topics as well as the aforementioned essays on Jewish values, life and tradition in Hebrew and Yiddish newspapers, both here and in Israel. His articles and essays have been well received. During my last visit to Israel, I called an old friend at the HaModia daily, Reb Moshe Akiva Druck the editor of the paper said to me: “Tell Rabbi Elberg that we are waiting for his articles.”
Rabbi Elberg has served for many years as chairman of the executive of the Agudat HaRabbanim and has been the guiding spirit of this organization. For 33 years now, he has been teaching the Daf Yomi in the Agudat Israel of 14th avenue, Boro Park, Brooklyn. This writer had the privilege of attending his Shiurim for a number of years. He is a fine teacher. In Kodshim, he is terrific. Rabbi Elberg has not only taught the Daf Yomi. He has also explained its importance in articles and speeches and has called upon Jews to join in the study.
In 1969 he published his Warsha shel Ma’alah a moving 330 page book about Warsaw, the metropolis of Torah, its Torah life and Torah personalities. The book, which the author said he had written with a trembling hand and a throbbing heart, ” made a great impression in wide circles.
Some years ago, Rabbi Elberg embarked on publishing collections of his Hiddushim, which were printed in various books and periodicals. Five large volumes of Shalmei Symcha have thus far appeared. They include some of his extensive correspondence with Gedolei Yisrael. Reading the exchanges of Torah letters, you sense the high regard in which the great rabbinic authorities of our time held their younger contemporary. Rabbi Elberg has indeed been beloved by Gedolei Yisrael, who appreciated his wide erudition and outstanding literary talents. I heard the late Rabbi Yehezkel Abramsky, who was very circumspect with words, praise him exceedingly.
Two years ago, the first volume of Imrei Symcha, a collectionof his essays and articles was published. Volume two, as mentioned earlier, was published recently. Rabbi Elberg states in the introduction to the second volume that the reader will find in the book ideas and reflections about authentic Judaism as well as fundamental insights of which every Torah-true Jew should always be cognizant.
In this introduction, as well as in his prefaces to other books, he expresses thanks to his wife Rebbetzin Dr. Miriam Elberg for having encouraged him to dedicate himself to the study and teaching of Torah and to devote his pen to the defense of authentic Judaism.
The rabbi is now preparing for print a book of essays describing the lives and personalities of Gedolei Yisrael and Jewish leaders from different countries who he had known personally and with many of whom he had been very close.
The Jewish Press, Friday, February 5, 1993 p.53