A Rebbe's Premonition

Rav Hershel Mashinsky studied in Torah Vodaath and then in Aish Dos, a teachers' training school organized in Monsey by Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, which was the forerunner of Torah U'Mesorah. When the Klausenberger Rebbe arrived in Williamsburg, Rav Shraga Feivel sent nine bochurim to greet him and to daven Mincha with him. The Rebbe's kavanah on the words “Hatov ki lo chalu rachamecha” took almost an hour, as he thanked the Ribbono Shel Olam with deep fervor. Young Hershel said, “This is my Rebbe.” He heard the Rebbe say, “In the war I lost my entire family. I simply lost everything. But G-d I did not lose.”

In 1947, while still a bochur, he became a rebbe in the Yeshiva of Spring Valley. The next year, around Pesach, he became engaged to Malka Lea Felsenburg, and they set their wedding for the 18th of Elul. When he went to tell the Rebbe, the Rebbe said, “Better you should marry on the 17th of Elul, a day earlier.” His close friend Rav Moshe Wolfson also came to tell the Rebbe that he was a chosson, and that he planned to marry on the 3rd of Elul. The Rebbe told him to change the date to the 18th. That year, Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, their rebbe, passed away on the 3rd of Elul, and the two young men understood why the Rebbe had spoken as he did.

The author of this account recalls that his children still remember the warmth of Rav Mashinsky when they came each Purim to deliver matanos l'evyonim to his home on Orchard Street in Monsey. He greeted the boys with a warm "Simchas Purim," took each boy's hand between his two hands and asked, "How are my tzaddikim?" When the author's eldest son had him as a seventh-grade rebbe, the boy said, "My Rebbe loves me." Many of the children wanted to learn simply to please him.

Rav Mashinsky learned from the Klausenberger Rebbe, and he treated every talmid as if he were his only child.