Due to his incredible diligence in learning, R. Yitzchok Halevi Hurvitz, became known in Tomchei Temimim of Lubavitch as “Itche Masmid.” Standing by a shtender with a candle, with his feet immersed in ice-cold water, Itche would learn through the night. But once his tiredness overcame him.

R. Yitzchok Halevi Hurvitz (5650-5702) was a chossid of the Rebbe Rashab and Friediker Rebbe. Born in the Cherson region, he learned in Tomchei Temimim in Lubavitch, where he earned the nickname “Itche Masmid,” due to his incredible diligence in learning.

R. Itche served as a shadar for the Frierdiker Rebbe and was legendary for his lengthy davening, intense yiras Shomayim, and heartfelt farbrengens. He was killed al kidush Hashem by the Nazis in Riga.

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Each night, the Zal in Lubavitch was converted into a large dormitory with bedboards that extended from the wall. R. Itche would continue learning while standing by a shtender with a candle, with his feet immersed in ice-cold water. Concerned for his health, his friends would sometimes extinguish the candle so he would be compelled to go to sleep.

Once, he dozed off out of sheer exhaustion, and fell with his shtender and candle on a sleeping bochur…

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R. Simcha Gorodetzky recounted:

It was in the middle of an overcast winter month, and the moon was yet to be seen. R. Itche was deeply distressed that he wouldn’t be able to be mekadesh the levana, and on the last day, it troubled him so deeply that he cried. On that last night, he kept on sending me outside to check if the moon was visible. With only an hour and twenty minutes remaining, R. Itche went out himself into the frigid cold and begged Hashem for the moon to show.

Twenty minutes before the end time, the moon suddenly appeared. R. Itche immediately recited the bracha, and just as he finished, the moon disappeared once again. R. Itche’s joy at being able to fulfil this mitzvah was indescribable.

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R. Leibel Posner a”h related:

I was a young child of 6 or 7 years old when R. Itche visited our home in Linden, NJ, for Shabbos. We knew him as our father’s teacher. My father had learned under R. Itche in the town of Rammen, and he was accepted to the yeshiva in Lubavitch without a test since R. Itche had sent him.

On Friday night, when mairiv ended, everyone went home for the seuda, but R. Itche remained in shul to daven. After the seuda concluded, I  went with my brother Zalman to the shul to check on R. Itche, and we found him standing alone, engrossed in his davening.

On Sunday, my father took us to R. Itche, and he gave us a bracha. I was a small child at the time, but this memory is etched into my heart.

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