The Woman Behind Ponovezh: A Story of Resilience and Faith

Rabbi Yisrael Meir Shushan recounted the founding of Ponovezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. This prestigious yeshiva, now home to over 1700 students and hundreds of scholars, was established after the devastating Holocaust by Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman zt"l.

Rabbi Shushan describes the profound loss suffered by Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman after World War II: "Following the horrific Holocaust, Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, the Rabbi of Ponovezh, was left alone and desolate, a widower and bereaved father. He miraculously had one surviving son, Rabbi Avraham Kahaneman. Before the Holocaust, in the city of Ponovezh, Rabbi Yosef Shlomo had a yeshiva with 300 students, a Beit Yaakov school for hundreds of girls. Everything was destroyed and went up in smoke, and thus he arrived in the Land of Israel, over the age of 60, broken and exhausted."

"When he reached Israel, Rabbi Kahaneman set up the Ponovezh Yeshiva, the grand empire of the Torah world. In the month of Cheshvan, 5704 (1943), 80 years ago, he gathered seven young men, among them Rabbi Gershon Edelstein and his brother Rabbi Yaakov Edelstein, Rabbi Chaim Friedlander, and a few others. The yeshiva opened in the 'Hileman' Synagogue, on Rabbi Akiva Street in Bnei Brak", recounts Rabbi Shushan, recalling the yeshiva's history.

"Rabbi Yosef Shlomo brought a prodigy, Rabbi Shmuel Rozovsky, the teacher, an extraordinary Torah disseminator, who instilled a tremendous love for Torah in the students. The young men studied with great vigor. Two weeks after the yeshiva opened, following the Mincha prayer, the Rabbi of Ponovezh arrived at the 'Hileman' synagogue. The cook had prepared two pots, a pot of soup, and a pot of potatoes. The rabbi told the students: 'Finish eating your lunch and come to the hill. Beyond Rabbi Akiva's path, there's a dirt path, and there we will lay the cornerstone.'

"The Rabbi of Ponovezh wept intensely and couldn't recite even one verse"

The cornerstone-laying ceremony for the new yeshiva took place in the shadow of the terrible destruction that befell the town of Ponovezh a few years earlier. "The students arrived. Maran the Chazon Ish was already there, waiting, along with a few other Jews. In total, there were a minyan and a half, including the Rabbi of Ponovezh, who was fasting that day. One of the students distributed siddurim to all participants, and they began to recite Psalms. But the Rabbi of Ponovezh, who was weeping so intensely, couldn't say a single verse. The small crowd continued to recite Psalms, and the Rabbi of Ponovezh cried and cried. The Chazon Ish approached him and whispered (translated from Yiddish): 'Cry, cry, one does not build Torah with money, only with tears. Only with tears...'

Upon hearing this, the Rabbi of Ponovezh intensified his crying, breaking into an inconsolable weep, as described by Rabbi Yaakov Edelstein: "It was an incredibly moving scene."

When they finished reciting the Psalms, they proceeded to lay the cornerstone. The Chazon Ish was honored to place the cement in the foundations, but he, too, couldn't hold back his tears, and thus, with tears mixed into the cement, they poured the foundations—foundations poured with the tears of the Chazon Ish and the Rabbi of Ponovezh.

'The real cornerstone was laid when I was just seven,' said the head of the yeshiva

Rabbi Shushan continues: "The students returned to their studies at the Beit Midrash. At eleven o'clock at night, the end of third seder, the Rabbi of Ponovezh arrived, very excited, and told them, 'Dear boys, I've prepared a feast in honor of the event, in honor of the ceremony.' At the small feast, Rabbi Yosef Shlomo told the young men: 'Dear students, you think the cornerstone was laid today? The cornerstone of the yeshiva was laid fifty-seven years ago. When I was a little child, a boy of seven, on my mother's back—that's when the cornerstone was laid.'

There was great awe: 'The rabbi was here? Fifty-seven years ago? The rabbi's mother carried him on her back? In Bnei Brak?' Rabbi Shushan continues to describe the students' astonishment.

The Rabbi of Ponovezh replied with a deeply moving story: "I was a small child of seven, living in the town of Kol in Lithuania, not far from Vilna. There were four of us siblings in the house. Every evening, we ate dinner, and each child shared experiences from his day at cheder, from his teacher who taught him. One evening was especially snowy. The snow was a meter and a half high, and mother declared, 'Tomorrow, no going to cheder without a coat and boots!' But we had only one pair of boots and one coat in the house."

"Twelve-year-old Shmaryahu declared: 'Mother, I get the boots! Tomorrow, the rabbi reads the Tosafot inside the text. Until now, he recited it from memory, but tomorrow he's reading it from the book—I must be there!' Eleven-year-old Zevi insisted: 'What about me? My rabbi is starting a new section of Gemara tomorrow, I can't miss it.' And I, " Rabbi Kahaneman recounts, "the seven-year-old who was learning Mishnahs, shouted: 'What about me? I want the boots too!' The argument was fierce and unresolved, a matter of life and death, so our parents decided to draw lots."

"We recited the Grace After Meals with heartfelt intensity. Then we said the nighttime Shema Yisrael, praying that we might be the one chosen by lot. That day, we went to sleep without knowing who would be the lucky one to get the boots and walk to learn with the teacher," Rabbi Shushan continues to quote the Rabbi of Ponovezh.

"Mother walked hours in the snow so her children could study Torah"

"At 5:30 in the morning, our mother, Mrs. Kahaneman, who was imbued with a love for Torah, calculated that by five in the morning, the synagogue caretaker had already lit the furnace, and the synagogue was warm, and it was possible to bring the children there. She approached the bed of Shmaryahu, her eldest son of twelve. 'Shmaryahu! Do you want to go to cheder?'

'Of course,' the child jumped out of bed happily. He dressed and put on the sweater: 'Mother, where's the coat?'

Mother replied, 'I will wear the coat and boots, and I will wrap you, Shmaryahu, in a blanket, carry you on my back, and bring you to the synagogue with two sandwiches, one for breakfast and one for lunch; at six in the evening, I will pick you up from cheder,' recounts the Rabbi of Ponovezh.

"The usual distance was a seven-minute walk from home to the synagogue, but mother took twenty-five minutes in the snow. Outside, there wasn't a living soul. Slowly, so as not to slip, with Shmaryahu on her back, she said, 'Shmaryahu, study diligently, I put my heart and soul into bringing you today, I want you to study well!' She left him with two sandwiches, kissed his forehead, and returned home with the blanket.

"At six-thirty, Mother woke Zevi. 'Sweet Zevi, do you want to go to cheder?' 'Of course, Mom! Did I win the lottery?' 'No,' Mother replied, 'I won the lottery. Mother gets the boots!' Now she made the second trip, bringing Zevi to cheder. At seven in the morning, Mother woke me: 'Yossele, do you want to go to cheder?' 'Of course,' I jumped up. I put on my clothes, and Mother wrapped me in a warm blanket, carried me on her back. Outside, there wasn’t a soul. And Mother, with the heavy load on her back, danced and sang, giving thanks to Hashem: 'How blessed I am that my three children are studying diligently in cheder,' continues Rabbi Shushan, sharing the Rabbi of Ponovezh's story.

"I give my soul to build the yeshiva anew – thanks to Mother"

I was a child, thrilled, jumping on Mother's back, and shouted into her scarf-wrapped ear: 'Mama, you're carrying us today so we can study Torah. When I grow up, I'll carry many students to the Beit Midrash, bringing them to learn Torah…'

"And if today," concluded the Rabbi of Ponovezh, "I give my soul and begin everything anew, it's not thanks to my Rosh Yeshiva or my supervisor, but thanks to Mother, who instilled in us a love for Torah."

Rabbi Shushan, who shared this moving story, concluded his words by addressing the audience: "No one knows which children are growing in their homes, what future 'Ponovezh-Rabbis' they might have in their homes. Hashem wants us to instill in them the fear of heaven, to say blessings with intention, that the children answer amen, the Grace After Meals, Torah study…"

"In Parashat Vayera, Hashem praises our father Abraham, saying: 'For I have known him, because he commands his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of Hashem, to do righteousness and justice,' Rabbi Shushan quotes the verse and concludes: "This is what Hashem wants from us, to invest in the fear of heaven, in pure education for the children, and if we make our investment, then one who comes to purify is assisted from above, and we will merit, with Hashem's help, that all our children and descendants will be planted in the courtyards of Hashem. And we will all merit the love of Hashem, and a complete redemption speedily in our days, amen."

Courtesy of the 'Dirshu' website.