Tribute to Reb Yisrael Kozhominsky

it's half of evil today this is a tribute to a friend reviewing who passed on yesterday rafael the day when the world was created many people are not familiar with israel or as he was known as kaja but he was most definitely an icon in lubavitch of new york for the last 50 years or so his parents lived in argentina he was born in argentina he had one sister and they all came to america and they settled in paterson new jersey and in 1967 and by mayor greenberg i'd have a going of mayor greenberg the russia shiva of morristown the love of paterson and before that there of of worcester the talmud muvek of ripley muhammad who adds mira from him and i believe in abaja feinstein as well was makativ him and brought him to bedford and dean in 1967 to learn the laboratory yeshiva his parents were not very supportive but being the situation was that this boy this teenager showed an interest in yiddishkeit they allowed robert greenberg who they met who met him met them and and was brought them closer to this barracuda to go to the babaji yeshiva this is israel kozyminski in the bavitch we know him as the par excellence historian of the bavitch history because he would sit with rezama varkin and many others days and days and nights and hours and weeks and months and just take it all in all of the past was communicated to him but who was he as a person he was a baker who from the very beginning gravitated to see this kite spoke to his soul spoke to his neshama he wasn't you know from the best learners in the yeshiva and in fact he had a hard time in the yeshiva nevertheless he continued from la bavati yeshiva he went to farchabod and he got himself knowledge in sapphires he became a siphon then he came back and he he continued his love which was finding the soul of chabad hasidis and where did he fight that soul i tell you as myself a historian and a researcher and doing in this cave as well and he was one of my you know idols you might say someone who i looked up to and spoke to and listened to and questioned that coming from where he came and becoming who he was shows us that in the bavitch in chabad you don't need a pedigree you don't need and you don't need a lot of ascola and even a lot of avodah but the heart and the drive to want to be a husset to want to be makushir to want to be connected to the rabbayim and to want to know what lubavitch is about and in this case the history of labach this brought him to the forefront and to the one who more than any other bachelor in yeshiva he had this over anyone else i recall about 15 years ago or so i was sitting on simcastada in front of and he came by he was walking and he saw me and he sat down next to me and with a glow in his face he said in 52 before kazu was born i think he was born in 53. and he spoke to me as though he saw it about romelu he knew what about romelu from inside out and he lived with rav abraham elia axelrod and i had just researched about amelia and wrote about him in my book who's and then i made a a dvd about him and he was fascinated to re to review and to hazard with me and to go over dostoevs dust vegan did you know this did you know that and we were just sitting for a long time outside on a bench in front of the steps of 770 just transformed into another place in another time it was so geshmak so delightful and you could see the the pleasure the hanoa the taino the literal taino that he had from speaking about history i recall another time i went over tim i was writing about the the malach and the labavich in my book about portraits volume 1 and researching it and it's a fascinating topic and i wanted to hear what he had to say about it so i asked him so he said one vert one idea kirov he looked to me and i'm looking at him like what are you talking about this page i immediately ran home i got the safer exactly where the secret where he said the secret was that's where it was and the freedom which he identified as the nakuda as the ingredient that make made the the issue of dispute and and between the the malach and and the frida kadaba it's i'm not going to go into the details now what that is you know it's not relevant now but what mesmerized me was that eritrea newman he had he had it proper he had it right that it was good for stunning you understand because you read a lot then you say what's the bottom line what's the nakuda and he summed it up right and then years later i met rabbi rosenfeld so zion zone for boro park and he told me that he heard from his father belia simpson was a uh cadet he didn't speak much rebellious simpson told he asked him what she said akira at vote bringing up the vision he wanted to make a a a a a a majoricus a division between the rebel ashab and the frida kader and that bothered the city and that's also part of that secret that the that kozyminski pointed me to so i saw that the way eritas fashtan and the way he understood the issue was was correct and this was shame rebellious simpson i went to visit him about 10 months ago or so in the kingsbrook nursing home where he was and there was also another big hustler there old time who i went to visit and america was sleeping so i just saw him but i couldn't speak to him but to kashminsky he was very very much awake at the time but he couldn't speak and he had uh uh a glove on his hand and he was making with his hand and i'm saying them cause you're good thanks make it thanks man do you remember me you know me i couldn't i he couldn't speak so i couldn't hear his answer but he was making with his hand like like a boxer and i guess they were afraid he might hurt himself from his waving their hand and maybe punching his face or his body that that they put on this big glove that was my the last time that i saw him and i wished him well the story they tell over that uh the gorodetskis were in yejidas and i think in 72 or so and the rebbe asked if there's anyone helping her father rip shmuel levitton who wasn't well so she said yeah yes kosciuminski so they looked up their their becker from the parade and the rebel laughed he smiled i happened to be on the same float with his with kasia in 1980 but wc greenberg told me yesterday that he read the first time that he was a backer a baker on the float was in 1970 and when the rebbe saw him he burst out with such a smile he had such pleasure and i want to tell you the fact that that cousin made the rabbit smile and so happy that's it he he went straight into ghanaian he's right with the debba right now it's not even a question is the best design it's the best thing the greatest thing so in 1980 somehow in the shamayim i ended up on that float and we went went by that ever so when the rebels saw him in the same baker's outfit that ever broke out with a great great smile another thing that we we take from his life and we and we we try to implement in our life which is the ultimate of a tribute not just words but action behavior and to do something for his nishama is indeed this this interest in divre yemen and i'm not saying that shalom to exclude learning and davening and everything else and and mitzvah and maisie maple the idea of chabad history isn't just history for the sake of history it's an ethos it's a lifestyle it's an environment it's a culture and when you live with this culture you want to be more fruit you want to be more sadish or you want to be more liberated and you want to be more mukusha to the rabbi and you want mashiach more and therefore when he had a chance to sit with with rip shmool but absolute shimon i remember when i was in kailua in 84 he would come into the coil and he would sit and talk to themselves these people were by him his friends he told me once that he he gave an absolut shipment a safer a book a safe a book written by by someone who learned the lebanese but later he i don't know if he became not religious but he definitely wasn't the way he was in lupovic and he wrote his herrera's memories of the way it was lubavitch in 1911 1912 those years and if zombie shimon wasn't above extent so he has to absolutely say i'm sure i have this book and i want to give it to you but would you read it because maybe you won't read it because it's not by someone who's you know a husset and and you know shamayim and all that and he said fine he gave it to him he read it and then he asked him is it true and he answered told me what absalom shema told them and the words are exactly like the way he wrote it that's the way it was but this is also an important kuda you know sometimes we get all frazzled you know by what we're reading and you know there's no question there's a lot of non-kosher material a scholar material you have to be careful and i'm not suggesting you you read those things kosovo show them but what i'm saying is there's material that's neutral i remember a feature often that mushpia asked me get me everything you've read get me you know i want to read i want to have the the perspective the point is that there's so much out there and today it's not only available in book it's it's a way available on the on the internet to go to the internet but if you're going anyway for other sim you might as well take a look at the important good information that you could learn that's available there and uh who didn't have an easy life but he he went further even the story that he fell down in his apartment and people didn't know about him at 706 eastern parkway for a few days people cared about him so they went where is he we haven't seen in the 770s they went upstairs and they found him and they took they picked them up and they helped them we learned from this the important especially today there are people all around us that are by themselves and it's a very hard time for them loneliness depression melancholy so we need to know that we have to go and reach out and make a call where are you how can i help you what can i do for you it should help that uh but hopefully he's he's written things and will find his writing and it will be publicized and everyone will be able to have benefit from it and all those have a personal request all those that have heard things from him about lebavich history should please share it with us and i'd personally be very appreciative and thankful to you because he mamish took everything with him to the grave and he had so much information so anything that's known from his friends classmates a little older a little younger and i've been speaking to some please let me know it's possible and maybe who knows one day if we can gather enough information we can publish something with a memorial for him will the neighbors get lehigh