Thanks to Forde for the heads up
---
December 7, 2004
By COREY KILGANNON





A century of poring over ancient Jewish texts has carved
deep circles under Rabbi Yehuda Chitrik's eyes. Decades of
Sabbath- table storytelling have left him speaking softly
and seldom. At 105 years old, he seems almost mortal.

"He is not so good," his daughter Shaindel Schneerson, 72,
said the other night. "Right now, he's saying his morning
prayers" - she reported after dinner. "In the evening, he
is doing this."

But even at "not so good," Rabbi Chitrik rises at 5 a.m. to
study, attends synagogue at least twice a day, teaches a
class and works with his regular study partner: a
whippersnapper rabbi from Crown Heights named Meir Itkin,
who is 95.

Rabbi Chitrik has learned directly from the last three
leaders of the Lubavitch movement. He has a keen knowledge
of Torah, the Talmud, and other texts that his relatives
believe has contributed to his longevity. But it is his
storytelling that has made him a fixture in the Lubavitcher
community.

His grandson Ari Chitrik, 51, calls him "a walking
encyclopedia of Hasidic tales."

And a great-grandson, Eliezer Zalmanov, 25, says, "He can
repeat stories word for word that he heard 50 years ago."

And the stories do not remain at his table.

His stories
are collected in a book called "From My Father's Shabbos
Table" (Moznaim Publishing, 1991). One tells of a rich man
who pays young scholars to fast for his ailing daughter.
The rich man then learns that one of the scholars has used
the money to buy himself a hearty feast. When he is
questioned by the rich man, that scholar, explaining his
actions, says that the angels were surprised to see him
being able to afford an expensive meal, and learned of the
rich man's generosity. So the angels grant his daughter a
quick recovery.

The stories are part of an active oral tradition, told and
retold around the world by the many Lubavitcher emissaries
related to the old rabbi, a global diaspora of Chitriks
spanning five generations.

Rabbi Chitrik has four children, 18 grandchildren and more
than 100 great-grandchildren, Mrs. Schneerson said, adding
that an exact tally is difficult and that anyway: "Only
money likes to have count; children don't need counting,
because whatever number you have, you never have enough."

The Lubavitch movement emphasizes intense study of
Talmudic, Hasidic and mystical texts. Rabbi Chitrik has
been studying them intensively since childhood.

"He's never slowed down," said Ari Chitrik, the grandson,
who manages real estate in Manhattan and has six children.
"He's always reading, writing, talking, discussing."

Rabbi Chitrik's relatives attribute his longevity to
blessings he received from Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the
seventh rebbe who led the Lubavitch movement from 1950
until his death in 1994. Rabbi Chitrik also had contact
with the two previous grand rebbes.

"All three grand rebbes gave him a blessing for a lengthy
life," said Ari Chitrik.

At a recent gathering at Mrs. Schneerson's house on East
12th Street in Flatbush, Rabbi Chitrik sat at the head of
the table, along with a dozen other Lubavitcher rabbis -
four generations of Chitriks. At his right hand sat his son
Hirsch Chitrik, 77, who owns a jewelry business in the
diamond district. Mrs. Schneerson was bustling about the
kitchen.

Asked by a visitor how he has lived so long, Rabbi Chitrik
whispered in Yiddish to his son, who then said, "He says
it's because he's been blessed with wonderful children."
This brought a snort from Mrs. Schneerson, who was now
leaning in the doorway with a wet fist on her hip.

"What I think: The man lives like Maimonides," she said,
referring to the 12th century Jewish sage who lived by and
outlined a strict code of living. "He's up at 5 every
morning, dressed and sitting at the table studying his
books."

Her husband, Rabbi Sholom Schneerson, a cousin of Rebbe
Schneerson, whispered his assessment to a reporter. "The
man never leaves the table full," he said.

Mrs. Schneerson heard that, and shrugged in agreement.


"This is true," she said. "He eats a very small breakfast."


That evening, he did not touch the cakes, nuts or Ritz
crackers that were on the table along with ancient Jewish
texts. There was also a bottle of vodka, and Rabbi Chitrik
clasped a shot glass of it as he listened to the lively
conversation and occasionally joined in the lilting Hasidic
tune being hummed continuously by several rabbis.

Known as shluchim, these rabbis are dispatched from
Lubavitch world headquarters in Crown Heights. They settle
permanently in locations all over the world and establish
educational and spiritual centers to foster Jewish
awareness. The men at Rabbi Chitrik's table the other night
had settled in places as disparate as Westchester County;
Indiana; Nuremberg, Germany; Turkey; Israel; and Uruguay.
They were in New York to attend the annual International
Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries.

One of Rabbi Chitrik's grandsons, Mendel Chitrik, an
emissary living in Turkey, said, "This man is a living
example of the importance of one Jew."

"He has touched so many lives," he said. "He's responsible
not only for all of us in this room, but for our
followings. He's like Adam."

"When he's not feeling well, he says, 'None of it bothers
me - not the pain, nothing - unless it interferes with my
learning.' "

At the table, Rabbi Chitrik spoke in halting Yiddish of his
days as a young yeshiva student in the town of Lubavitch.
He was born in 1899 and began studying at age 14 in
Lubavitch, the seat of the Lubavitch movement. After the
Russian Revolution, Rabbi Chitrik and other Jewish students
scattered, studying covertly to keep the Lubavitch movement
alive.

Rabbi Chitrik became a rabbi in his early 20's and met his
wife, Kayla, in Ukraine (She died in 1983.) They had four
children, and Rabbi Chitrik worked making shirts, sweaters
and soap. In 1946, the family fled Russia, lived briefly in
Belgium and then moved to Montreal, where Rabbi Chitrik
taught at a yeshiva. He retired in the 1970's and moved to
Brooklyn, where he lives alternately with Mrs. Schneerson
and with Hirsch Chitrik in Crown Heights.

"He inspired us all," Hirsch Chitrik said. "His message is
that we should not live for ourselves." Hirsch slapped the
table to silence a side discussion between Shlomo Wilhelm
and Sholom Herzel, two rabbis who married into the Chitrik
family and whose wives exemplify the tangled Chitrik family
tree. Rabbi Wilhelm married Rabbi Chitrik's youngest
granddaughter, Esther, while Rabbi Herzel married the
rabbi's eldest great-granddaughter, Devorah. The twist is
that Devorah is older than Esther, despite being from a
latter generation.

When the evening's discussion was over, the men began
singing loudly and clapping. They stood and danced around
the table, arm in arm, so that the 105-year-old rabbi was
practically carried around by his shoulders.

Later, Ari Chitrik observed that a lifetime of nourishing
himself on the sacred Jewish texts seems to have given his
grandfather the gift of the extraordinary life spans
described in the Torah.

"I recently showed him how an odometer works, how it resets
again when it gets to 100,000," he said. "So he told me
when he reached 100, he starts again from zero."