Children’s Rally Marks 1st Yartzeit of Rabbi Shmuel Plotkin

This Wednesday marks the first yahrzeit of Rabbi Shmuel Yosef Litman Plotkin. In his honor, a children's rally will be held at 770.

By Rabbi Aaron L. Raskin

This coming Wednesday, the 19th of Tishrei, marks the first yahrzeit of my beloved father-in-law, Rabbi Shmuel Yosef Litman Plotkin. In his honor, a children’s rally will be held at 770. Mincha will begin at 2 p.m., followed by the rally, during which the Twelve Pesukim will be recited, many of them by his great-grandchildren.

Rabbi Shimon Hecht of the NCFJE, who runs the rallies, said: “I am very excited to hold this rally in honor of such a special person. I knew him throughout my entire life as someone who spent many hours davening and studying Torah in 770.”

Among my father-in-law’s many remarkable qualities, one stands out: he never stopped working on himself. He continually reinvented himself. At an age when most people look forward to retirement, he decided to become a shliach of the Rebbe. With the Rebbes constant encouragement He invested countless hours and many months in reclaiming and galvanizing the famous chassidic City of Berdichev, including its synagogue, and then traveled there numerous times a year to teach and to draw many people back to Yiddishkeit as baalei teshuva. He worked to revive other cities as well, among them Zhitomir.

Every week, he would recite a maamar by heart between Mincha and Maariv. This practice continued even in his hospital bed, where he recited a maamar once again.

It was in the hospital that he taught me not only how to live as a chassid, but how to depart this world as one. When visitors came to his room, he would begin singing Chassidic melodies with them and then share words of Torah. He recited Mishnayos by heart almost without pause. He asked my wife, Shternie, who spent many hours at his side, to recite the entire Tehillim together with him, and he recited all of it from memory, fulfilling a request of the Lubavitcher Rebbe that he learn Tehillim by heart.

He passed away on the morning of the 19th of Tishrei, on Shabbos Chol HaMoed Sukkot, and the timing speaks volumes about the man.

Shabbos was the day he came alive. Although he spent many hours each weekday immersed in Gemara and Chassidus, and davened at length every day, on Shabbos he was truly transformed. He would daven at great length and then farbreng, radiating life and spirit. Though advanced in years, he had a special rapport with the younger bochurim and students, and he inspired them with his vitality.

It was also Sukkot, the season of joy, and he was always b’simcha. And it was the 19th of the month, alluding to the 19th of Kislev, the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus. He was a true dugma chaya, a living embodiment of what a chassid is meant to be. He lived Chassidus, he breathed Chassidus, and he davened as a chassid.

On this first yahrzeit, as he ascends ever higher in the heavens, may he be a faithful intercessor for his wife and family, and for his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. May he storm the heavens and plead before Hashem to bring Moshiach, and may we very soon be reunited with him, when our Rebbe leads us out of golus, speedily in our days. ‎

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