The Chassidishe Rov Who Wasn’t Afraid to Take a Stand

Born in Kublich, R. Yehoshua Nemoytin (5620-5702) was a chossid of the Rebbe Maharash, Rebbe Rashab, and Frierdiker Rebbe. He was a shadar of the Rebbe Maharash, and served as rov in a number of cities, including Beshenkovitch and Vitebsk. R. Yehoshua was a famous talmid chacham, and some of his correspondence with the Rogatchover Gaon has been published, while other chidushim of his remain in manuscript.

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R. Yehoshua’s father, R. Yosef Dovid, was a poor melamed, and he would visit Lubavitch once a year on foot. When a few years had passed since his marriage, and he had not yet been blessed with children, he made a special trip to ask the Tzemach Tzedek for a bracha.

After his yechidus, he joined the customary “yechidus tantz,” a treasured chassidic practice in which those who entered yechidus would dance together, as the other chassidim stood around them. In the circle, he met an old friend whom he hadn’t seen in years. When he inquired what brought him to the Rebbe on an ordinary weekday, the friend replied that he had come to get a bracha for children.

Hearing that, R. Yosef Dovid noted the hashgacha pratis that they both received brachos for children. He concluded that certainly one would have a son and the other a daughter, and they should decide a shidduch between them. There and then, they shook hands on it. Indeed, R. Yosef Dovid had a son, Yehoshua, who later married Rochel, that fellow chossid’s daughter.

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In the town of Beshenkovitch, there was a heated fight between two groups of Yiddishe wagon drivers, and no rov wanted to assume leadership in that town out of fear of retaliation by whichever side would lose the din Torah.

When R. Yehoshua took up the rabbonus, he immediately called for both groups to hear their arguments. Having decided the halacha, he called for the leader of the losing side. When the man entered, he grabbed him by the head and told him firmly, “Will you accept the psak or not?”

Afterwards, the man left the rov’s home and returned shortly with a bottle of mashke. He placed the bottle on the table and said, “This is the kind of rov we were waiting for!”