At 105, the Rabbi Doesn't Sleep Late
By COREY KILGANNON
Published: December 7, 2004
A century of poring over ancient Jewish texts has carved deep circles under Rabbi Yehuda Chitrik's eyes. Decades of Sabbath- table storytelling have left him speaking softly and seldom. At 105 years old, he seems almost mortal.
"He is not so good," his daughter Shaindel Schneerson, 72, said the other night. "Right now, he's saying his morning prayers" - she reported after dinner. "In the evening, he is doing this."
But even at "not so good," Rabbi Chitrik rises at 5 a.m. to study, attends synagogue at least twice a day, teaches a class and works with his regular study partner: a whippersnapper rabbi from Crown Heights named Meir Itkin, who is 95.
Rabbi Chitrik has learned directly from the last three leaders of the Lubavitch movement. He has a keen knowledge of Torah, the Talmud, and other texts that his relatives believe has contributed to his longevity. But it is his storytelling that has made him a fixture in the Lubavitcher community.
His grandson Ari Chitrik, 51, calls him "a walking encyclopedia of Hasidic tales."
And a great-grandson, Eliezer Zalmanov, 25, says, "He can repeat stories word for word that he heard 50 years ago."
And the stories do not remain at his table.
His stories are collected in a book called "From My Father's Shabbos Table" (Moznaim Publishing, 1991). One tells of a rich man who pays young scholars to fast for his ailing daughter. The rich man then learns that one of the scholars has used the money to buy himself a hearty feast. When he is questioned by the rich man, that scholar, explaining his actions, says that the angels were surprised to see him being able to afford an expensive meal, and learned of the rich man's generosity. So the angels grant his daughter a quick recovery.
The stories are part of an active oral tradition, told and retold around the world by the many Lubavitcher emissaries related to the old rabbi, a global diaspora of Chitriks spanning five generations.
Rabbi Chitrik has four children, 18 grandchildren and more than 100 great-grandchildren, Mrs. Schneerson said, adding that an exact tally is difficult and that anyway: "Only money likes to have count; children don't need counting, because whatever number you have, you never have enough."
The Lubavitch movement emphasizes intense study of Talmudic, Hasidic and mystical texts. Rabbi Chitrik has been studying them intensively since childhood.
"He's never slowed down," said Ari Chitrik, the grandson, who manages real estate in Manhattan and has six children. "He's always reading, writing, talking, discussing."
Rabbi Chitrik's relatives attribute his longevity to blessings he received from Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh rebbe who led the Lubavitch movement from 1950 until his death in 1994. Rabbi Chitrik also had contact with the two previous grand rebbes.
"All three grand rebbes gave him a blessing for a lengthy life," said Ari Chitrik.
At a recent gathering at Mrs. Schneerson's house on East 12th Street in Flatbush, Rabbi Chitrik sat at the head of the table, along with a dozen other Lubavitcher rabbis - four generations of Chitriks. At his right hand sat his son Hirsch Chitrik, 77, who owns a jewelry business in the diamond district. Mrs. Schneerson was bustling about the kitchen.
Asked by a visitor how he has lived so long, Rabbi Chitrik whispered in Yiddish to his son, who then said, "He says it's because he's been blessed with wonderful children." This brought a snort from Mrs. Schneerson, who was now leaning in the doorway with a wet fist on her hip.
"What I think: The man lives like Maimonides," she said, referring to the 12th century Jewish sage who lived by and outlined a strict code of living. "He's up at 5 every morning, dressed and sitting at the table studying his books."
Her husband, Rabbi Sholom Schneerson, a cousin of Rebbe Schneerson, whispered his assessment to a reporter. "The man never leaves the table full," he said.
Mrs. Schneerson heard that, and shrugged in agreement.
"This is true," she said. "He eats a very small breakfast."
That evening, he did not touch the cakes, nuts or Ritz crackers that were on the table along with ancient Jewish texts. There was also a bottle of vodka, and Rabbi Chitrik clasped a shot glass of it as he listened to the lively conversation and occasionally joined in the lilting Hasidic tune being hummed continuously by several rabbis.
Known as shluchim, these rabbis are dispatched from Lubavitch world headquarters in Crown Heights. They settle permanently in locations all over the world and establish educational and spiritual centers to foster Jewish awareness. The men at Rabbi Chitrik's table the other night had settled in places as disparate as Westchester County; Indiana; Nuremberg, Germany; Turkey; Israel; and Uruguay. They were in New York to attend the annual International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries.
One of Rabbi Chitrik's grandsons, Mendel Chitrik, an emissary living in Turkey, said, "This man is a living example of the importance of one Jew."
"He has touched so many lives," he said. "He's responsible not only for all of us in this room, but for our followings. He's like Adam."
"When he's not feeling well, he says, 'None of it bothers me - not the pain, nothing - unless it interferes with my learning.' "
At the table, Rabbi Chitrik spoke in halting Yiddish of his days as a young yeshiva student in the town of Lubavitch. He was born in 1899 and began studying at age 14 in Lubavitch, the seat of the Lubavitch movement. After the Russian Revolution, Rabbi Chitrik and other Jewish students scattered, studying covertly to keep the Lubavitch movement alive.
Rabbi Chitrik became a rabbi in his early 20's and met his wife, Kayla, in Ukraine (She died in 1983.) They had four children, and Rabbi Chitrik worked making shirts, sweaters and soap. In 1946, the family fled Russia, lived briefly in Belgium and then moved to Montreal, where Rabbi Chitrik taught at a yeshiva. He retired in the 1970's and moved to Brooklyn, where he lives alternately with Mrs. Schneerson and with Hirsch Chitrik in Crown Heights.
"He inspired us all," Hirsch Chitrik said. "His message is that we should not live for ourselves." Hirsch slapped the table to silence a side discussion between Shlomo Wilhelm and Sholom Herzel, two rabbis who married into the Chitrik family and whose wives exemplify the tangled Chitrik family tree. Rabbi Wilhelm married Rabbi Chitrik's youngest granddaughter, Esther, while Rabbi Herzel married the rabbi's eldest great-granddaughter, Devorah. The twist is that Devorah is older than Esther, despite being from a latter generation.
When the evening's discussion was over, the men began singing loudly and clapping. They stood and danced around the table, arm in arm, so that the 105-year-old rabbi was practically carried around by his shoulders.
Later, Ari Chitrik observed that a lifetime of nourishing himself on the sacred Jewish texts seems to have given his grandfather the gift of the extraordinary life spans described in the Torah.
"I recently showed him how an odometer works, how it resets again when it gets to 100,000," he said. "So he told me when he reached 100, he starts again from zero
 |
|
|
