Rabbi Tzemach Yosef Yitzchak Wilansky - Rebbe shliach as children's teacher for 45 yrs - RC Dalfin

This is a tribute to the shamah of Reb Tzemach Yosef Yitzchok ben Reb Yehoshua Wolensky aka Yossi Wolensky a machuten of mine a friend of mine and someone who I call a tzaddik in our time. And I really mean it. Yossi Wolensky was a Yid who was kol kuloi entirely kedusha. Holiness. How? Well, let's start from his humble beginnings. He was born in Springfield, I believe, Massachusetts, where his father was on shlichus to be a rebbe in the yeshiva there. The rebbe then told Reb Yishaya Shaya Wolensky, we can call him to move to Brooklyn for chinuch. And Yossi learned in the Lubavitch yeshivas. And he was active in all of the rebbe's inyonim. Release Time Mivtzoim a kabolas oilam. You know, we think of Reb Nissan Nemanov, the great chossid as Mr. Kabolas Oilam. Well, I want to tell you something, Reb Yisrael. Yossi Wolensky was a Nissan Nemanov in our time. With all the with with no accolades and no fanfare just a simple example. He would walk around being in Montreal or in Crown Heights, wherever he went, saying Tehillim as he walked in the streets. I remember I offered him a ride once in Crown Heights and he said, "Nah, what do I need a ride for? I rather walk and and and just you know, walk." And I said to Yossi, "But, you know, you're you're older um and you know, it's it's difficult. I'll give you a ride." So, he said, "But, this way I can say Tehillim in the streets." Yossi was a melamed d'darkei, a teacher for Jewish children, for kleine kinderlach. I think first grade or something like that. For 45 years, Reb Yisrael, a 71-year-old man who's still WHO'S TEACHING CHILDREN 45 YEARS WITH THE same chiyus, the same energy, the same enthusiasm when he was 70, 71 as he was when he was 25, 30. And look at the pictures. Look at the videos. Someone sent me a video. His His His His students his first graders are pushing him on a sled I guess in the yard of the yeshiva in Montreal. During a SNOW SNOW'S COMING DOWN. HE'S WEARING HIS HAT AND his coat and he's playing with them. I melt. I melt away for such a Yid. WE'RE SO FAR FROM THIS REALITY. The The humility. And it's natural. It's not like I have to be [laughter] humble. I have to do something now to to to show THAT I'M HUMBLE. THIS IS WHO HE WAS. His training was in Lubavitch yeshiva all the years. We grew up together in East Flatbush. East Flatbush today has had a renaissance much bigger than when I was growing up there and Yossi was growing up there. His brother Moishe is my chaver, he's the head shliach to to Portland, Maine. Good friend, very good friend. And we all grew up together. The Wolensky boys were on Remsen Avenue and the Dalvins were on Clarkson corner East 55th. It's perpendicular. The streets are perpendicular to each other, like this. And our parents davened same shul on East 92nd Street. Rabbi Goldstein, Yankel Goldstein's father, we hired was hired as the rov and I remember my father [clears throat] and and some other people schlepping the the Aron Kodesh and this and that to set up a little shtiebel in a basement or somewhere like that. I don't remember the details. I was a young boy. Later, my father and Shaya Wolensky spent time counseling each other for in business, different things that they were doing and they were very very good friends. I remember clearly vividly Yossi's mother Chama, I believe. Remember her. I remember the the the zaide Gordon. I forget his first name now. Um Nachama's father. I remember him, too. Feisty good little man, you know. I remember him. Very fine person. So, Yossi comes from good stock. Wholesome stock. Togetherness. You know, simplicity and sincerity at its best without fanfare and shtick and and and ego and all that narishkeit nonsense. >> [clears throat] >> When my daughter became a kallah to his son Noach Noach my Noach Naftoli, my wonderful son-in-law so we we was talking and he would call me he would call me every Friday at the time and then he would call me on my birthday and he would say Tehillim and he would send a a sefer very very, you know, human decency, thinking about another person. And he came to the chassunah. He dressed up I forget like a bear, I think. When they sang the Spola Zaide's niggun, he came in like a bear, I think, and just like playful and and just wonderful. Ish ben Adam anoshim, a man amongst people, amongst men. You know what I'm saying? There's so much more to say about Yossi. And if you look on the comments online on the different Chabad websites you'll see that he got more comments than other people, rabbis, shluchim, others who passed on the same week or two etc. I'm not making a I'm not I'm not pointing this out to say one's better than the other. That's that's not my point, but look at the comments and look at the quality of the comments. You'll see that this was this was a a real shliach of the rebbe. This was a real oved Hashem. A real sincere oved Hashem. His dedication to his family to his wife, Malki, may she be well and only have yiddishe chassidishe nachas from the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren to see everyone under the chuppah, im yirtzeh Hashem is palpable. It's palpable. What does a person leave over after 120? Children, grandchildren, future generations. Yossi has that. He has it today. He He'll have it more and more. For some reason, we don't understand Hashem said, "Your mission is finished." And within 4 months or so, he passed away from when he was diagnosed and passed on. Do we understand? No, we don't understand. We never will. And we And And And we shouldn't even think. It's The mission is finished. The shlichus is finished. It's very hard. It's very difficult. But, he's more alive than many people THAT ARE 100 AND 105 YEARS OLD. I'M TELLING YOU. THE MAN LIVED SUCH AN ACTIVE full life with so many mitzvos. He He established thousands of children who are today >> [snorts] >> parents, grandparents, shluchim, chassidim oved Hashem finally Eden, dear Jews, good Jews, family people. All started with Yossi Wolensky in Montreal as a melamed as a teacher. You know, Reb Soloveitchik, the great Reb Yisrael Ber Soloveitchik, when they would ask him, "What do you do?" He says, "Ich bin a melamed." I'm a teacher. He taught older students. But, "Ich bin a melamed." Rabbi Soloveitchik, the genius of geniuses the head of the Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchok Chanan who ordained over 2,000 students, who's a grandson of Reb Reb Chaim Brisker. And you ask him what he does, he says "Ich bin a melamed." Like, I'm barely a teacher. Yossi Wolensky, Reb Yisrael Wolensky was a a teacher melamed from d'darkei from Jewish children. Look in the Medrashim. Look at the Gemara. The compliments. There's no question that he went straight into the rebbe's chamber. He's sitting there with the rebbe. There's no question about it. And now he's asking the rebbe to come back together with everyone else. Moshiach should come. And that's what we need. There's so much more that we could say about him. But, let this be a brief memorial a tribute for his neshama Reb Yisrael Reb Tzemach Yosef Yitzchok ben >> [clears throat] >> ben Yehoshua. He was also a son-in-law of Harav Yitzchok Hendel the rov of Montreal great chossid. So, from alle seiten, from all sides, he's plugged in and we wish the family children, grandchildren to continue his ways of pushing having a a a a a sincere love of Hashem. And for Jewish children. And to continue his legacy and his his his his mission, which is to help you then. He also was involved with the Russian Jews at the Russian center in Montreal. Very involved. I remember another thing when we spoke about printing up invitations or something and he said, you know, the the place that I I every Friday he prints up either thoughts for the week or something like that to give out on the time. AND HE DOES IT HIMSELF without an organization. So he said that he'll take the invitation to the same person to see about printing it. And I said to myself, here I am. I'm not seven. I'm you know, five five or so years younger. And I'm not doing that. And if I do something, you know, people do it for me. You all see him sell slips down every Friday or every Thursday, whenever it was, to the printer to print the things, etc. That's the dedication we're talking about. So let us learn from him and let us let him be a male a good advocate for his family for for Israel. He will rise from the dust and come back.