PART I
Many Chassidim lived through the hellish years in Communist Russia, among them outstanding models of truly devoted Chassidim, “maskilim,” “ovdim,” as well as everyday simple folks. There was one however who stood out as totally different than all the rest in his personal conduct, the Chassid R’ Yosef Schiff.
He was no ordinary Chassid; he held a top position in the local government and in the Communist Party and was an important figure of great influence in all areas of life in Samarkand that extended also to Tashkent. He utilized his position for the benefit of his fellow Chassidim in particular, and for the Jewish community in general. Along with this, he was a very talented communal activist, determined and dynamic, and a tremendously generous and giving person.
I heard the following story from R’ Betzalel Schiff at a yahrtzait gathering for his late father R’ Yosef Schiff:
PART II
There is a famous early twentieth century Russian novel that was later turned into a play and eventually a movie, titled “Tashkent, City of Bread.” This became a cultural expression that resonated with many Jews as well. Why so?
During WWII, hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens, among them thousands of Jews, poured into the Central Asian Soviet states to escape the terrors of war and the killing machine operated by the Nazis and their collaborators. The Russian government directed these people there since they believed that the enemy would not reach Central Asia, and Tashkent in particular. Exhausted, wrung out and starving, the Jewish refugees were able to still their hunger with the warm lepyoshka breads, aromatic and toasty, offered to them by the local Bukharian Jews who greeted the Jewish refugees with great warmth. As a result, the Jews also began to refer to the city as the “city of bread.”
At the conclusion of the war, many men returned home from the front lines or from the work camps in Siberia. Many of them did not find their loved ones in their home cities, and upon hearing that a large Jewish presence had developed in Tashkent, they headed there in the hope of reuniting with their families. There were others who came home to discover that their entire families had been wiped out in the horrors of the war, and they had no idea where to turn, and so they too headed for Tashkent.
As a result, quite a few solitary Jews ended up in the city.
In 1947, there was a considerable shrinkage in the Chassidic population of the city after many of them succeeded in escaping across the border under the guise of Polish expatriates. Despite that, many Jews remained in the city where they found a supportive community.
* * *
Friendship Park is one of the large public parks in the city center of Tashkent. This park, which has large tracts of greenery, drew many of the local Jews as a place for social encounters. It was in this park that R’ Betzalel Schiff met with many Jews, some of them quite interesting and amazing people. One of those was Avrohom Sher.
It happened one day, as R’ Betzalel was sitting in the park with other Jews, that an unfamiliar Jew came over to him.
“Are you the son of the late Yosef Schiff?”
“Yes, I am,” said R’ Betzalel pensively. It was completely unexpected when Avrohom leaned over and gave him a fierce hug.
“Your father was a real Chassid, a talmid chacham and a person with a big heart! He saved my life! You ought to be proud that you had a father, a tzaddik, like that!”
R’ Betzalel was very curious to hear more and he invited his “new friend” to sit down next to him. R’ Avrohom sat down on the facing bench, took out a handkerchief and wiped the tears that filled his eyes. He was obviously emotional and could not speak. He surely could not talk about himself.
Later that night, Betzalel Schiff met his friend Betzalel Gurewitz and asked him about this Avrohom.
“Avrohom spoke to you?” Gurewitz was surprised to hear this.
R’ Betzalel nodded and told him what happened.
“That’s very odd, because he is almost always silent.”
PART III
Avrohom Sher was one of the “broken souls” who arrived in Tashkent after the war. Nobody knew exactly where he had come from and what had happened to him. He would wander the city all alone, always dirty, with torn clothes, lost in his thoughts, as if disconnected from what was going on around him. Mostly, they saw him walking around the Alayskiy Bazaar market or the Victory Park and occasionally near the shul in the Kashgarka area. He survived on the tz’daka that he got here and there from compassionate Jews.
Many rumors were told about him, but nobody knew which were true and which were guesses. Some said he was from a famous, rich family in Warsaw and that he had been miraculously saved from the Nazis. But nobody could verify this.
As mentioned, he was usually introverted, but he sometimes came out of his shell and made contact with those around him. Then people discovered that he was an interesting conversationalist. For example, when the elders in shul learned Ein Yaakov or Chok L’Yisroel, Avrohom would carefully sit at a distance from them so they wouldn’t throw him out because of his stench. He sometimes got involved in the learning and provided interesting explanations. Those were in his more lucid moments. But sometimes, he had an attack of madness when his eyes moved from side to side and he would raise his hands upward and say, “How could G-d allow it to happen? Such a catastrophe!” Then he would get up and leave, while still waving his hands.
This led listeners to guess that Avrohom experienced the horrors of the Nazis which addled his mind. That’s the way he was, odd but not dangerous.
One day, two key figures in the Chabad community in Tashkent, R’ Yosef Schiff and R’ Zev Krogliak, were walking down the street. The connection between the Schiff and Krogliak families was close, back from the days when R’ Yosef Schiff hid in the Krogliak family’s house when the police in Samarkand were looking for him. As they walked together, they met Avrohom Sher.
R’ Yosef Schiff had never met him before, while R’ Zev said the Jews in the community were apprehensive that one day the police would arrest Avrohom Sher and when they would see he was crazy, they might put him into an insane asylum where he would live out the rest of his days.
R’ Yosef, being the dynamic activist that he was, could not see a Jew fall into total despair. The very next day, he went to the Alayskiy market where he found Avrohom.
As though they were old friends, the two sat down to talk. Nobody knew what they spoke about but suddenly, Avrohom grasped his head with his two hands, then he raised them upward as he began to shout, “How? How could G-d allow it to happen?” As he said this, he got up agitatedly and began pacing the marketplace.
R’ Yosef watched him in silence. He had made a firm decision.
A few days later they met again.
“R’ Avrohom,” R’ Yosef said to him in a practical tone, “I have a job that only you can do properly, but first I need to consult with the rav.”
The next time, when Avrohom saw R’ Yosef, he ran over to him questioningly, “Nu, is there an answer from the rav?” R’ Yosef placed a loving hand on his shoulder.
“Yes, I spoke with Rabbi Shmaya Marinovsky and he gave his consent to the plan.”
R’ Yosef sat down and had Avrohom Sher sit next to him. “We have a large community in Tashkent and we have a rav, a shochet, mohel, melamdim, and everything a Jewish community needs. One important job though is missing. We need someone to be the first to meet with Moshiach, welcome him, and announce his coming to everyone else. We are obviously living in the period right before Moshiach comes.
“Therefore, we cannot miss this special moment. We decided that in Tashkent there must be someone who is always ready for the coming of Moshiach. I spoke with the rav about it and we reckon that Moshiach will first go to the shul. We need someone like you, Avrohom, to be in shul to meet Moshiach in a respectful way. Of course, this is a salaried job. We think that nobody can do it better than you.”
Avrohom listened and after a pause expressed his agreement. The two arranged the details of the job with a firm handshake and Avrohom’s eyes sparkled.
R’ Yosef, who dealt decisively with communal issues his entire life, immediately went to R’ Mordechai Luxembourg, one of the gabbaim of the shul. The two of them arranged for a room to be designated for Avrohom in the yard of the shul in Kashgarka, where he would live. They arranged a suitable room and brought a bed, table and chair. Avrohom looked at the new place with satisfaction.
“Now you need to look all proper,” declared R’ Yosef. “You cannot welcome Moshiach the way you look now.” And without waiting for a response, R’ Yosef led Avrohom to the bathhouse and from there to the barber’s chair. R’ Yosef obtained new clothes for him as well as bedding.
“From now on, you are officially responsible for Moshiach’s coming to Tashkent,” explained R’ Yosef solemnly to his new friend. “This job on behalf of the community must be treated with the utmost seriousness and responsibility. Whatever happened previously, is over,” alluding to Avrohom’s eccentric way of life.
When Avrohom arrived for the first time to the davening in the shul, the people did not recognize him with his new appearance. They were all happy with the change, even if they did not know about the new job that was invented just for him.
For the first months, Avrohom took the job very seriously. He did not move from the shul and made sure to always be on duty lest Moshiach come suddenly.
A few months passed and it was apparent that the job was weighing on him. The nonstop tension and alertness were taking their toll. He had also stopped being a guest for Shabbos meals in fear of failing his job, lest Moshiach suddenly come.
When R’ Yosef found this out, he went to the shul, went right over to Avrohom and told him that the Tashkent community had found a replacement for him for Shabbos and from now on, he was excused from doing his job on Shabbos and holidays.
Avrohom spent the following Shabbos at the home of Shmuel Baschinsky, who was known by his fellow Chassidim as “Shmuel der engineer.”
After that, Avrohom Sher’s life changed beyond recognition. In the following weeks he undertook additional jobs in the shul like cleaning, arranging the s’farim and other necessary functions.
Since the shul office had a phone, R’ Yosef would call occasionally to find out how Avrohom was and whether there was any news regarding the coming of Moshiach.
Some other Chabad Chassidim in Tashkent were brought in on the secret arrangement and they did all they could to save this unfortunate soul from falling by the wayside, such as “R’ Michel der milchiker” who took care of Avrohom’s salary.
PART IV
“One day, I met Avrohom again,” said Betzalel Schiff. “I wanted to talk to him and hear more about my father, but he apologized and said he was rushing to his job.
“‘My job has not yet been canceled,’ he said with a shy smile and went on his way.
“I think Tashkent was the only city in all of the Soviet Union, and perhaps the entire world, that had a person whose jobit was to wait for Moshiach and inform the people of his arrival.”