PRE-HOLOCAUST CHASSIDIC CULTURE: CONGREGATION AVIV HADASH HEBREW SCHOOL

I am a young girl of 17 living in Poland in 1939. This is what my life, my family and home are like.

I want everyone to understand how wonderful my life was before Hitler invaded my small town in Poland. My entire town was wiped out during the Holocaust.

Now, close your eyes and listen. You might just think I am that young Polish girl.

Just so everyone knows what my family is like, I will tell you. My family is Chasidic. We follow the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. He was born in the 1700's and became a religious leader. He taught that G-d was everywhere and in everything and should be served with joy. Baal Shem Tov taught that mysticism or the Kabbalah should be part of our religious beliefs.

A very learned man in our town in Poland is our rebbe, or spiritual leader. His job is to teach the followers of Chasidism in our town, to pass on his knowledge of the teachings of Baal Shem Tov to our village. After the death of Baal Shem Tov, Chasidism was kept alive by scholars who felt that the religion should be less ritualistic and have more warmth and joy.

Here in my town in Poland, the Chasidic people are like all other Chasids in other towns. We are governed by a rebbe who welcomes us into his synagogue, called a Shtible. Here, the men of our town rejoice in the religion. The Shtible is a place of worship and joy, music and dancing, a place for the men to study, ask questions and focus on G-d, not the outside world.

Thursdays are a very big day in our town. It is the day that we all prepare for the Sabbath. We go to the market in the center of town. It is almost festive in the market where grandmothers, mothers, and daughters are getting ready for Shabbat. There are butchers selling fresh meats, farmers selling fresh vegetables and cheese and colorful booths selling sweets of all kinds. Friday mornings is also the time when the boys and my father go to the mikva, to cleanse themselves for Shabbat. On Friday evening, the Rebbe goes around the town, telling everyone that the market has to close for Shabbat.

Saturday and holidays are festive and lively. The Chasidic atmosphere is holy, the feeling of the day is holiness and everyone is dressed in finery. On Shabbat, everyone wears their best clothes. The men go to the Shtibles to pray and rejoice in their religion. You would never know that the people who are dressed so nice and going to pray are the same people who were selling meat in the market yesterday. The men are wearing long black coats and tall hats. It is strange that our people wear different clothes than the Polish people who are not Chasidic. Most of the Polish people wear European clothing.

My mother is the rock of our family. She is our nurse, our cook, our protector and our teacher. She teaches her daughters to be good cooks, how to sew and be ready to have our own home when we are old enough. My mother is a balebuste! My mother is also the breadwinner of our family. She is a seamstress. There is a comer of our living room that is her workplace. Women come from other towns to see my mother and have her sew their clothes, especially their Sabbath finery and their wedding dresses. My mother has already made my wedding dress for the time that I will marry. She makes enough money so that my father does not have to work. My father is able to pray every day and study with the other scholars at the Yeshiva. I hope that I will be a good seamstress like my mother when I am married so that my husband will be able to study and not worry about taking care of our family.

We live with our parents, even after we are married. Young girls are married to scholars whom our fathers have picked. We take care of the home, our families. We cook all the meals, clean our houses and work to support our families and husbands, so they can concentrate on studying the Talmud and become top scholars. When I am married, it will be to a scholar that my father has chosen from the men at the Shtible. It will be a man much older than me who my father feels is learned enough for our family. The better the scholar, the higher regard my father has for him.

I will have a very large family who will be able to take care of my husband and me when we are older. We are surrounded by family, always. From when we are little, until we are old, our extended family is around us, keeping the teachings of Baal Shem Tov alive in all of us.

So, this is the way we live in our town in Poland. We keep our faith alive, G-d is part of us in everything we do. We keep our family together, we keep Chasidism alive in all of us. I hope this small look into our town has helped all of you see what a beautiful life we have had here, free to worship as we please, here in Poland.