From the Margins of Chabad History: The wondrous story of R. Moshe Ronin, the son of a simple builder who became a rosh yeshivah of Tomchei Temimim in Schedrin and an important rov.
By Shmuel Super
Basic Biography
R. Yehoshua Moshe Ronin was born in 5620, apparently in the Belarusian town of Samov, to his father Menachem Nochum Yaakov. Known as the Samover iluy, he studied under R. Yehoshua Leib (Maharil) Diskin, the famous rov of Shklov. Settling in Liadi, R. Moshe served as a rov and rosh yeshivah, but refused to take a wage. In 5655, he became the rov of Samov, and ten years later, he was appointed the rov of Senna. For a period of time beginning in 5671, R. Moshe served as a rosh yeshivah in Tomchei Temimim in Schedrin, a branch of the yeshivah in Lubavitch. The last trace we have of him is back in Senna as the rov in 5677.
These are the biographical details of R. Moshe Ronin, as put together by Aaron Kastel in Kovetz Mayan Chai 7, pp. 14–15. But behind the dry biography lies an incredible story of an iluy born to a simple builder after years of waiting—all with the berachah of the Tzemach Tzedek.
Miraculous Birth
The story of R. Moshe’s miraculous birth is recorded by his talmid, R. Refael Nachman (Foleh) Kahn, as he heard it from R. Moshe himself (Lubavitch Vechayaleha, p. 97):
R. Moshe Ronin related that his father was a builder, and when the Tzemach Tzedek (of blessed memory) built the large zal—that later housed the yeshivah—his father was one of the builders…
His father was childless, and he had asked the Tzemach Tzedek several times for a berachah but didn’t receive a response. While he was building the zal, he fell from the roof and fainted. A commotion ensued, and the Tzemach Tzedek himself came out of his house, took some water, and splashed it on him. When he opened his eyes, he said, “Ah, my eyes have lit up.” The Tzemach Tzedek told him: “You will have a son whose eyes will shine in Torah.”
And so was born his son, R. Moshe. When he was young, he was called “the iluy of Samova.”
(A similar version of this story is recorded by another tomim from Lubavitch, R. Mordechai Perlov [Likutei Sipurim, Mador Tzemach Tzedek 16], but he confused R. Moshe Ronin of Liadi with the famous Liadier iluy R. Shneur Zalman Fradkin, later the rov of Lublin and mechaber of Toras Chesed.)
***
A Firsthand Account
A beautiful firsthand description of R. Moshe Ronin during his years as a rosh yeshivah in Liadi is given to us by a one-time talmid, Shneur Zalman Osipov.
Born in Liadi in 5643, Osipov was the son of R. Nochum Lannes, the gabai and chozer of the Rebbe of Liadi, Harav Yitzchak Dov Ber (Maharid).
Zalman Osipov strayed far from his chasidishe upbringing and became a radical socialist, living in London, Boston, and Miami. Nevertheless, he always retained a deep respect for his parents and the Rebbe of Liadi, and describes them warmly and intimately in his memoir, Mayn Lebn: Derinerungen un Iberlebungen fun a Yidishn Sotsialist. Excerpts from this book describing Maharid of Liadi and his chatzer were published by R. Amram Bloi in Bnei Hatzemach Tzedek.
In the following piece from his memoir, Osipov describes R. Moshe Ronin, in whose yeshivah he studied at age 13, in 5656. While he was apparently unaware of the story of the Tzemach Tzedek’s bracha, Osipov’s account adds background information about R. Moshe Ronin’s origins and gives us a firsthand description of him in his younger years as rosh yeshivah in Liadi.
The following selection appears on p. 42–43 of Osipov’s memoir, and was translated with the assistance of Aaron Kastel:
Moshe Noshke’s, or as others used to call him, Moshe Noshke-the-Builder’s, was a legend among us in the shtetl already during his lifetime. His father, Noshke the Builder, would stand with a hammer and chisel in hand and build houses. He was a very simple man. His occupation of building houses was sufficient to demean him, and the respectable Jews would look down on him, because in our area, building was usually an occupation for peasants. For this reason, the more respectable Jews of the shtetl often called him the peasant (poyer) rather than the builder (boyer).
He was, however, a very upstanding Jew. He would daven at length with kavanah, and he was also very much a man of his word. They said of him in the shtetl that on his word you could lay bricks. But his occupation… it just wasn’t “Jewish.” It was quite unusual to see a Jew in a long kapote, with tzitzis down to his knees and a yarmulke on his head, standing and doing the job of a gentile, building houses with his hammer and chisel.
It was to this very Noshke the Builder that a son, Moshe, was granted, who earned a reputation throughout the area as an iluy. At the age of twenty, he received semichah, but he did not want to become a rav. He would sit in the large beis medrash and learn, and his kol Torah would carry not just through the whole shtetl, but to the very heart of the Heavens. Indeed, it would reach the Heavens. When the old rosh yeshivah passed away, the shtetl decided that Moshe Noshke’s should become the rosh yeshivah…
At the time that my father brought me to him to be tested for admission to the yeshivah, he must have been around thirty-five years old. As long as I live, I will never forget the impression he made upon me. He was tall and thin, wearing a long satin coat, his waist encircled with a braided gartel, and the tall silken yarmulke on top of his head made him look even taller than he actually was. His fine face was clear as crystal, framed by a blonde beard and with a pair of eyes that looked at me full of both pain and love. . . .
The impression he made upon me was that of an angel. I don’t know why, but his appearance was exactly as I had pictured in my childish imagination the angels who came to Avraham Avinu to inform him that his wife Sarah would give birth to a son.
I reviewed a piece of gemara in Masechte Shabbos for him, and it seems I made a very positive impression. I remember until today how my cheeks burned as I learned and my little voice rang out through the whole beis medrash. When I was done, he said to my father, “Nu, Reb Nochum, it should be with good fortune. Im yirtzeh Hashem he can come learn right after Pesach” (This occurred on Chol Hamoed Pesach).
***
Interestingly, two years later, Zalman Osipov almost became one of the first temimim in Lubavitch. He relates how his father sent him to Lubavitch after Sukkos of 5658, just weeks after the yeshivah had opened. But the 15-year-old Osipov evidently wasn’t cut out for living away from home, and he describes what sounds like a panic attack when he was left alone in the dark zal on his first night in Lubavitch, seeing terrifying visions of sheidim. The concerned locals sent him home the next morning (Mayn Lebn, pp. 99–101).
Legacy
R. Moshe Ronin left behind a manuscript containing his chidushim and teshuvos. Titled Mei Hayam, the 477-page manuscript is prepared for print, complete with a hand-drawn title page and introduction. A handful of the teshuvos have been published in various journals over the past few years (as referenced in Mayan Chai), but the entirety of the manuscript lies in the library of Agudas Chasidei Chabad, waiting for someone to publish it.
There are many kisvei yad in nigleh from Chabad rabbonim that remain in manuscript in the Aguch library and other locations—a detailed index of them can be found here. But of all these manuscripts, Mei Hayam may belong at the top of the list of priorities for publication.
Many seforim of rabbonim from this area are dominated by questions of treifos, name spelling for gitin, and other issues that are now highly specialized fields that even most rabbonim do not regularly deal with. Mei Hayam, however, contains many teshuvos in the areas of Orach Chayim and Choshen Mishpat that are relevant and accessible for rabbonim and the yeshivah-educated public.
In addition, R. Ronin places great emphasis on clarifying the halachic positions of the Alter Rebbe and Tzemach Tzedek, and there is hardly a teshuvah in the sefer without an analysis of the Rebbeim’s opinions. Hopefully, someone will take on the project of publishing the chidushim of this great gaon.
R. Moshe Ronin also had a son who is worthy of mention here.
R. Nochum Aharon Ronin was born in 5648, and was a talmid of Tomchei Temimim in Lubavitch (Lubavitch Vechayaleha, p. 446). He served as a shochet in the town of Horodnya, Ukraine.
In a letter written to R. Avraham Yitzchak Kook in 5694, R. Nochum Aharon describes the terrible poverty and persecution he is suffering under Communist rule, and his pain as he watches his children stray from Yiddishkeit. He begs R. Kook to save them by recommending them for immigration permits to Eretz Yisrael. In the letter, he mentions his father, R. Moshe, and his patronym Noshke’s, hoping that R. Kook had heard of him.
No further information about R. Nochum Aharon is available, indicating that he never made it out of Russia.
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It’s appalling that after so many years and so much encouragement from the Rebbe to print chiddushei Torah, these manuscripts have not been published. Oholei Shem was established for this purpose but has become basically defunct.
So you be the ‘Parvanka’!