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Zionism. If this would cause him financial harm, they were “They used to say that a good yeshiva boy is able to come up
prepared to compensate him for his loss – but under no with his own novel insights for his bar mitzvah. Nowadays,
circumstances would he be allowed to speak! Unfazed, Rav though, it seems that all it takes to be a good yeshiva boy is
Nissenbaum responded: “The Zionists of this town invited the ability to understand what other people write!”
me to speak, and only the Zionists can cancel my speech. To
the demands of others – no matter who they might be – I As a young man, Rav Nissenbaum was offered an unusual
will not listen!” When the time came for Rav Nissenbaum’s job opportunity – to be the mashgiach ruchani, the spiri-
speech, the Zionists found that the doors of the shul were tual guide, at a Jewish school run by maskilim (activists
locked – and no one had a key! As a crowd gathered outside promoting Jewish “enlightenment”) with controversial
the shul, unsure what to do, the Gerrer Chassidim respon- and often secular goals. Concerned that working for the
sible for the prank laughed and celebrated their victory. school would ruin his reputation and damage his future
Fortunately, the synagogue’s non-Jewish maintenance man career as a community rabbi, Rav Nissenbaum turned
said: “Is it really impossible to open the synagogue doors to Rav Chaim Soloveitchik, the legendary founder of the
without a key?” and proceeded to break open the door! “Brisker method”, for advice. After he explained the situ-
Rav Nissenbaum concludes: “I went up to the bimah and ation at length, Rav Chaim said: “If you have the ability to
gave my drasha. That Shabbat was Parashat Shelach Lecha, influence Jewish children and share the spirit of Judaism
and so I spoke about the new meraglim (spies) of our time!” with them, no other consideration should be permitted to
stop you from doing so!” Though Rav Chaim was opposed
to Zionism, his son, Rav Moshe Soloveitchik, would later
A Who’s Who of early Zionism accept Rav Nissenbaum’s offer to become a Talmud instruc-
Rav Yitzchak Nissenbaum, it seems, knew everyone. The tor at Mizrachi’s Beit Midrash l’Rabbanim – Tachkemoni Gevoha
pages of his memoir are peppered with fascinating anec- in Warsaw, where the curriculum included both Talmud
dotes and memories of his encounters with famous rabbis and secular studies.
and leading Zionist figures, many of whom he counted Always honest, Rav Nissenbaum admits that the written
among his close friends. works of Rav Yisrael Meir Kagan, the famed Chafetz Chaim,
The brilliant and often caustic Rabbi Yaakov Dovid did not speak to his heart. But when he met the Chafetz
Wilovsky, known as the Ridvaz, then serving as the Rav of Chaim personally, he was deeply moved by his humility. “He
Bobruisk, attended Rav Nissenbaum’s bar mitzvah. He paid didn’t speak from the front of the shul, in front of the aron
close attention as the young Yitzchak gave his speech, an kodesh, where all the other speakers would stand, speaking
exposition of a complex halachic discussion he had studied instead from the bimah in the middle of the shul. And when
in Rav Eizel Charif’s Emek Yehoshua. At the conclusion of the he finished, he did not sit [in an honored place] at the front
speech, the Ridvaz peppered the young boy with questions. of the shul, sitting instead in the middle of the shul. Every
After hearing the young Yitzchak’s answers, the Ridvaz said: time he walked into the shul, people surrounded him and

Participants of Mizrachi's Journey to Poland and Lithuania in November 2022. During their walk on the Maslul HaGevura, the Heroes Trail, in the Warsaw Ghetto,
the group gathered at Rabbi Nissenbaum's monument with the modern-day HaMizrachi magazine.

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