Sept. 18, 2025

I INTERVIEWED MY HONORABLE FATHER ESQ. ABOUT HIS INCREDIBLY RARE SEFER BY THE CHOFETZ CHAIM OWNS!

Perched on our family bookshelf is a remarkable relic of Jewish history: a rare edition of "Nidchei Yisrael" (The Dispersed of Israel) by the revered Chafetz Chaim. Its significance transcends its age and content, primarily due to a profound personal connection etched within its pages. My great-grandfather's name is listed among the patrons who financed its publication, forging a tangible link to our family’s Eastern European heritage. Authored by the Chafetz Chaim, this practical guide was ...

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Season 8

Perched on our family bookshelf is a remarkable relic of Jewish history: a rare edition of "Nidchei Yisrael" (The Dispersed of Israel) by the revered Chafetz Chaim. Its significance transcends its age and content, primarily due to a profound personal connection etched within its pages. My great-grandfather's name is listed among the patrons who financed its publication, forging a tangible link to our family’s Eastern European heritage.

Authored by the Chafetz Chaim, this practical guide was intended for Jews immigrating to America during the massive early 20th-century exodus. Despite his initial reservations about leaving Europe, he acknowledged the realities confronting many Jewish families. Consequently, he crafted this indispensable handbook to help them uphold religious observance in their new homeland. The book addresses fundamental aspects of Jewish life—Sabbath observance, kosher dietary laws, family purity, and Torah study—all presented with clarity and accessibility.

What truly captivates me is how this single volume illuminates the struggles faced by immigrant Jews. Men often arrived in America alone, sometimes never reuniting with their wives. Kosher food certification, as we know it today, was nonexistent. The powerful allure of assimilation constantly threatened traditional observance. Through this book, we gain a poignant glimpse into an entire world in transition—Jewish communities grappling with centuries of tradition amidst the uncertain promise of American life.

Adding another layer of intrigue are the mysteries concealed within our copy. An original donation envelope remains tucked inside, prompting questions about whether my great-grandfather ultimately fulfilled his promised contribution. The Russian script on the cover serves as a stark reminder of its Eastern European provenance. Moreover, a dedication reveals names of ancestors previously unknown to me, extending our family lineage back generations to Dvinsk, now part of Latvia.

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Questions or Comments? Please email me @ michaelbrooke97@gmail.com



00:00 - Discussing the Nidhe Yisrael book

01:43 - Purpose of the Chavetz Chaim's writings

03:05 - Family connection to Nidhe Yisrael

06:37 - History of American Jewish immigration

08:37 - Family heritage and Russian origins

10:45 - Translating the Russian title

WEBVTT

00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:03.334
Well, Dad, are you able to locate the Nidhe Yisrael?

00:00:03.962 --> 00:00:07.011
Yeah, what's your interest in the Sefer all of a sudden?

00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:09.663
All right, so we have interest, If I recall.

00:00:09.663 --> 00:00:10.848
Oh, here's the Sefer.

00:00:10.848 --> 00:00:11.470
You have it right here.

00:00:11.470 --> 00:00:12.423
This is the Sefer.

00:00:12.423 --> 00:00:16.129
Nidhe Yisrael Today is the 92nd Yard site of Chavetz Chaim.

00:00:16.129 --> 00:00:18.207
What Sefer are you holding there, Dad?

00:00:18.207 --> 00:00:20.001
Is that a Sefer written by the Chavetz Chaim?

00:00:20.001 --> 00:00:20.760
It?

00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:23.062
was the Nidche Yisrael that you asked about.

00:00:23.082 --> 00:00:33.847
In my estimation, the Nidche Yisrael is a Sefer authored by the Chavetz Chaim and it's all about.

00:00:33.847 --> 00:00:37.609
I think Nidche is that giving or spreading out of Israel.

00:00:37.810 --> 00:00:39.390
No, it's the dispersed.

00:00:39.390 --> 00:00:51.616
It's a Sefer about the Jewish people that have been spread out to the four corners of Europe, primarily European Jews who left Europe to go to America.

00:00:51.616 --> 00:01:03.929
That was the primary concern of the Chavetz Chaim, first warning them they shouldn't go, but realizing, practically speaking, that they were going.

00:01:03.929 --> 00:01:05.034
And so we see them in Davidim, that they were going.

00:01:05.034 --> 00:01:06.299
And so, um right, we see him in Davening.

00:01:06.299 --> 00:01:13.361
Um Israel, right, uh uh Israel they should be.

00:01:13.522 --> 00:01:14.926
Jewish people should be able to come out there.

00:01:14.926 --> 00:01:17.739
It means but, but, uh, but that wasn't the primary focus.

00:01:17.739 --> 00:01:30.810
That's the first couple of Procum and then later on mostly the safer talks about if you are going to go to Artsos, to America, that basic halacha, what you should do.

00:01:30.810 --> 00:01:31.932
You have to keep Shabbos.

00:01:31.932 --> 00:01:40.816
You have to know there's the Yitahara, you have to know about Kashris, you have to know about davening and Torah learning and all that.

00:01:40.816 --> 00:01:41.879
It's a very basic Sefer.

00:01:41.879 --> 00:01:53.224
He wrote a similar Sefer for soldiers that got drafted into World War I and he didn't want them to be drafted, but he recognized it was an inevitability that Jews would have to go to war in World War I.

00:01:53.224 --> 00:02:00.781
And so he said, minimally, here's the basic things that you have to do to keep up your Torah Judaism if you're going to be in the army.

00:02:01.361 --> 00:02:03.325
I forgot the name of that.

00:02:03.325 --> 00:02:05.787
I forget what that one is also, but it's amazing.

00:02:05.787 --> 00:02:07.629
The Chabot Chaim wrote Sepharim.

00:02:07.629 --> 00:02:15.609
It seems like to address specific needs of the congregation and I think it's pretty cool.

00:02:15.609 --> 00:02:25.379
Rabbi Lopiansky talks about how people often write Sepharim that are their own findings and their own estimations of certain topics that interest them, software and their own estimations of certain topics that interest them.

00:02:25.379 --> 00:02:30.610
Uh, software and and and copyright and Halacha and their beautiful, brilliant Sfarim.

00:02:30.610 --> 00:02:41.364
But real Torah giants write things that the congregation needs Right, practical, uh simple text and very um deceptively clear.

00:02:41.364 --> 00:02:42.207
Um.

00:02:42.207 --> 00:02:48.561
Dad, I wanted to bring you onto the podcast because you have a very unique Sefer of Nidche Yisrael from the Chavetzim Right.

00:02:48.561 --> 00:02:53.366
Legend has it that Grandpa old Zaydeh was involved.

00:02:53.366 --> 00:02:53.948
What's the story?

00:02:54.159 --> 00:03:29.844
It was found amongst the belongings of your great-grandfather, my grandfather, isidore Brooke, who was born in Divinsk and came to Northern Virginia in Virginia, probably in the 20s and 30s, and somehow somebody well, it wasn't somebody, it was the Compete's Climb's son, aaron Kagan, who got to the Norfolk community, either in person or through someone else, and asked to raise money for the printing of this particular and your Zadie.

00:03:29.844 --> 00:03:40.210
My Zadie, came up with the money and he and some others from the Virginia area got recognition on the front piece of the safer right here.

00:03:40.659 --> 00:03:46.170
Can you hold it up, Daddy-O you can see it, you can see it there, but these are all the donors.

00:03:46.381 --> 00:03:46.887
You put news.

00:03:47.008 --> 00:03:53.246
Well, that was the top guy top donor, but underneath there you should be able to see.

00:03:54.502 --> 00:03:55.242
I see it right there.

00:03:55.582 --> 00:03:55.883
Right.

00:03:55.883 --> 00:03:57.866
So Brooke Be'er Rish, gov.

00:03:57.866 --> 00:04:23.071
Kuf Me'er, norfolk, le'ilius Nishmas, aviv, in memory of his father, lev Hirsch, ben Shalom, yaakov so that would be your great-great-grandfather, zatzal Nifter.

00:04:23.071 --> 00:04:25.291
Dalad Elol is a great-great-grandfather.

00:04:25.291 --> 00:04:26.312
Zatzal Niftur Daladelol is a speaker here.

00:04:26.312 --> 00:04:32.737
He was a Yortza who just passed, and there's other relatives, afram, who also gave to the cause.

00:04:32.737 --> 00:04:37.562
Yeah, it's a lot of famous.

00:04:37.562 --> 00:04:42.093
There's some Newport News Peninsula people on the second page.

00:04:42.093 --> 00:04:44.644
I know some of these families, the Wilkes family.

00:04:44.665 --> 00:04:45.387
Yeah, on the second page.

00:04:45.387 --> 00:05:11.750
I know some of these families the Wilkes family, yeah, and they also gave no-transcript that inside the safer is the donation envelope here from the payable returnable to Aron Kagan, and the only reason that's concerning is it causes one to worry whether they sent the safer and then your great-grandfather failed to send in his check.

00:05:11.750 --> 00:05:13.586
But I don't think he would have done that.

00:05:13.586 --> 00:05:15.767
But it's a nice little piece of history there.

00:05:15.767 --> 00:05:22.766
Kabakor Station, new York, po Box 66, rav Aragagan, he took upon himself the son of Chavetz Chaim.

00:05:22.766 --> 00:05:25.773
He came to New York because where else was he going to go?

00:05:25.773 --> 00:05:35.947
And he took it upon himself to print the Svar of his father and became a Torah giant in his own right, got a PhD out of nowhere, from.

00:05:35.947 --> 00:05:39.451
Torah giant in his own right, got a PhD I don't know where from, and he wrote the.

00:05:39.451 --> 00:05:39.773
He wrote the.

00:05:39.773 --> 00:05:43.749
There's also an English version of it there where you can see the.

00:05:43.769 --> 00:05:46.127
Disperse of Israel by Rabbi Israel Marikohen.

00:05:46.127 --> 00:05:53.084
This is a work, is a form of Shulchan Aruch intended to stress the Torah way of life in the United States of America.

00:05:53.084 --> 00:05:54.095
That's it.

00:05:54.095 --> 00:05:55.041
It's a good read.

00:05:55.182 --> 00:05:55.985
It's a short read.

00:05:57.461 --> 00:05:58.947
Why do you think Zayda crossed out?

00:06:01.146 --> 00:06:04.923
No, he didn't cross out, I think, when the envelope was sent in.

00:06:04.923 --> 00:06:08.107
The Safer Rabbi Kagan just changed the address.

00:06:08.107 --> 00:06:15.646
It's a change of address from from Broom Street in New York to PO Box 66.

00:06:15.646 --> 00:06:17.927
I don't think this is just an envelope.

00:06:17.927 --> 00:06:21.951
But the better question is why didn't he mail it in?

00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:23.685
We don't really know the answer to that.

00:06:24.060 --> 00:06:28.007
Hopefully he did, and it's a nice work.

00:06:28.007 --> 00:06:37.170
I learned it many years ago with my friend Phil Schwartz and I found it to be very interesting, both as a historical piece and as a basic holocaust safer.

00:06:37.170 --> 00:06:39.233
What's important, what counts in this world?

00:06:39.233 --> 00:06:40.625
Okay, you have to live in New York.

00:06:40.625 --> 00:07:01.829
What was really happening was that men were leaving without their wives and in fact when it was your Zeta they left, they weren't married and that was causing all kinds of problems, because no sooner did they come to the United States and they started to mix into the melting pot of American culture and there was things going on.

00:07:01.829 --> 00:07:03.987
Sometimes the wives didn't get brought over.

00:07:04.920 --> 00:07:07.769
The kashrus was very suspect in the United States.

00:07:07.769 --> 00:07:10.208
The Chavitz Chaim knew exactly what was going on.

00:07:10.208 --> 00:07:13.146
He knew about the Chilul Shabbos, he knew about the kashrus issue.

00:07:13.146 --> 00:07:17.110
There was no OU, so there was no way to be sure that anything was kosher.

00:07:17.110 --> 00:07:24.764
So Kosher was a patchwork of Rebaim and semi-Rebaim who said things were kosher, nothing like we have now.

00:07:24.764 --> 00:07:25.827
And so he knew.

00:07:25.827 --> 00:07:27.427
He knew that that was slipping.

00:07:27.427 --> 00:07:41.507
He wasn't in favor of it, but he realized, practically speaking, that if Jews were going to go to this country under these circumstances that he didn't like, then at least they should have a safer that would help guide them in trying to hold on to the Yiddish code in this country.

00:07:41.728 --> 00:07:42.550
Wow, wow.

00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:43.904
So it's a good read.

00:07:44.740 --> 00:07:48.660
And that'd be pretty cool to actually learn from the safer itself.

00:07:48.660 --> 00:07:54.529
That is maybe not 100 years old now, but that's pretty cool.

00:07:54.529 --> 00:08:01.942
So that is your father's father grandfather.

00:08:02.004 --> 00:08:12.192
My grandfather, in memory of my great-grandfather, in memory of my great-grandfather, your great-great-grandfather, Wow oh my grand-grandfather.

00:08:12.192 --> 00:08:15.127
Yep, and so it's a good name Solemn Jakob.

00:08:15.127 --> 00:08:18.850
That's the great-great-grandfather, so I might hopefully take that name at some point.

00:08:19.112 --> 00:08:19.995
Right, where is he from?

00:08:21.129 --> 00:08:21.771
Where is he from?

00:08:21.771 --> 00:08:22.968
You know?

00:08:22.968 --> 00:08:23.891
I really don't know.

00:08:23.891 --> 00:08:32.245
I would have to guess if my grandfather was born in Davinsk, so you'd have to think that they were from that area, which is Latvia Now.

00:08:32.245 --> 00:08:35.211
Current date, avigspolz, what they call it.

00:08:35.211 --> 00:08:38.599
Very simple, you've asked about that Very simple Davinsk.

00:08:38.599 --> 00:08:40.725
So hopefully there's some connection there.

00:08:40.966 --> 00:08:41.105
When.

00:08:41.105 --> 00:08:42.846
So hopefully there's some connection there.

00:08:42.846 --> 00:09:00.215
When people ask me, where is your family heritage, where are you guys from in Europe, your lineage, your yichos, I will tell them that I'm a benacher, ben of Rav Meir Simcha of Davinsk, and my great-grandfather learned the chavrus all the round.

00:09:00.215 --> 00:09:04.096
I'm with Rav Meir Simcha and he was part of the writing of the Ursa Meir.

00:09:04.177 --> 00:09:06.798
I mean it might be stressing things a bit.

00:09:06.798 --> 00:09:23.499
I mean, the real story is that, even though he was born in Davidsk, he came to Lithuania very quickly after that and he lived in Lithuania and he actually knew your great-grandmother because they were third cousins.

00:09:23.499 --> 00:09:28.677
And then they came to this country one before the other, like the Huffington Client was worried about.

00:09:28.677 --> 00:09:39.417
They were not married but they remet in the Berkeley section of Norfolk and quickly became married After your great-grandmother dated two other men named Isidore Isn't that crazy?

00:09:39.417 --> 00:09:42.072
Two other men, both named Isidore.

00:09:42.072 --> 00:09:42.908
She ended up marrying the third Isidore A third time.

00:09:42.908 --> 00:09:43.153
Crazy Two other men.

00:09:43.068 --> 00:09:43.538
They're both named Isidore.

00:09:43.538 --> 00:09:43.830
She ended up marrying the third Isidore.

00:09:43.830 --> 00:09:52.293
A third time's a charm, or three strikes and you're out, depending on how you look at it, which leads to the old family joke Wait, your grandfather Isidore.

00:09:52.293 --> 00:09:55.370
Right, right, and that's what Isaac was named for, right?

00:09:55.370 --> 00:09:56.254
Yes?

00:09:58.647 --> 00:09:59.269
But the name here.

00:09:59.269 --> 00:10:02.571
There's been some dispute about the name but but the name here.

00:10:02.571 --> 00:10:04.364
There's been some dispute about the name, but here it is.

00:10:04.364 --> 00:10:05.750
I mean it's right in writing.

00:10:05.750 --> 00:10:13.014
It's presumably him Yitzchak Yitzchak Bar-Lev Hirsch Lamed Yud-Yud Beis-Ayen Hirsch.

00:10:13.014 --> 00:10:17.370
Hey-yud-resh-shun Brook Beis-Resh-Lov-Kuk.

00:10:17.370 --> 00:10:20.788
So there you go, and yeah, it's a good.

00:10:20.788 --> 00:10:22.753
It's amazing looking safer.

00:10:22.753 --> 00:10:31.139
I like this piece, this right here, because you got Israel the front piece Ooh, the binding, dad, the binding it's falling apart.

00:10:31.384 --> 00:10:36.293
It needs work, but published in Russia, and then here it is in Russian also.

00:10:36.293 --> 00:10:37.671
I know a little bit of Russian.

00:10:37.671 --> 00:10:42.077
So it's Nidhe Israel.

00:10:42.077 --> 00:10:43.971
Oh it is, it is.

00:10:43.971 --> 00:10:45.096
It is.

00:10:45.096 --> 00:10:50.895
This H in Russian is a.

00:10:52.164 --> 00:10:53.731
Oh, I didn't realize that I was being serious.

00:10:53.825 --> 00:11:03.193
I thought that you were just saying over the name of the safer, because you know that's what it says on top no, no, no, no, safe, safer Mid-hay Israel.

00:11:03.193 --> 00:11:04.302
Oh wow, the Sefer Nidke.

00:11:04.302 --> 00:11:07.133
Yisrael, oh wow, the H is an N in Russian.

00:11:07.133 --> 00:11:11.216
This backwards N is a I.

00:11:11.216 --> 00:11:13.890
This looks like a delta.

00:11:13.890 --> 00:11:15.075
It's like a delta, that's D.

00:11:15.075 --> 00:11:20.933
This X is like a chi letter, a chi, so Nidke.

00:11:20.933 --> 00:11:25.756
And then this is how you say Israel, i-s-s-r-o-e-l-t and it's a need to pay.

00:11:25.756 --> 00:11:27.804
And then this is how you say is your I S S R O E L T.

00:11:29.006 --> 00:11:31.153
And why does father know Russian?

00:11:32.066 --> 00:11:40.836
You know, I like to try to know a little bit about a lot of things, so I know some of the Russian letters and I like to try to read when I can.

00:11:40.836 --> 00:11:42.429
So there you go.

00:11:42.429 --> 00:11:43.427
Good safer.

00:11:43.587 --> 00:11:48.412
Thank you to your honorary judge for sharing that information.

00:11:48.412 --> 00:11:49.796
Substitute judge.

00:11:49.796 --> 00:11:56.583
Substitute judge Avi Murray Esquire, you can return to our scheduled programming now, already in progress.