Family research is like the proverbial box of chocolates ... you never know what’s going to be inside.
"אף אבותיו של רבי שמואל חסיד 'שלשלת זהב, דור אחר דור'" היו "'אנשי השם, גדולי הדור'"
("...even the forefathers of Rabbi Shmuel Chassid, all linked by a golden chain, generation by generation, were renowned men, well-respected in their times").
So wrote Moshe ben Nechemia Zeira in his book “Raboteinu she-ba Gola” (Our Rabbis in the Diaspora), on page 33¹. He quotes from a book by our relative, Rabbi Ya’akov Bendetman, published in Vilna in 1874² (see illustration below). Word of our Rabbinic heritage has gone down the generations. And, Rav Shmuel Chassid is one of our ancestors.
This might suffice in terms of yichus. Nevertheless, now we are writing about his astounding great-grandfather, Rav Baruch Bendet, who also bears our family name, Bendet. Rav Baruch came to be known as Rabbi Bendet Podkover³: the Horseshoe. Why on earth would a Rabbi be named ‘Horseshoe’? Read on!
We get our incredible story from a book in the Hebrew language (see illustration below) called “Le-korot Ir Rassein Ve-Rabaneha”⁴ (The History of Rassein and its Rabbis). Our family comes from Rassein. The book takes us back to 1648, when “terrible times fell upon our people, at the hands of the murderer Bogdan Khmelnytsky, may his name and memory be eternally erased” (Markowitz, daf ח). On the eve of Reb Bendet’s wedding, “the Cossacks surrounded the city of Lublin”, where his wedding was to take place. “They murdered many Jews, amongst them the father-in-law to-be of Reb Bendet”. The bride escaped. Podkover escaped – but was almost killed. (ibid daf ח).
Markowitz tells a harrowing story. The Cossack riders gave chase to the fleeing, terrified Jews. One of them caught up with Baruch (Podkover) Bendet. Mercilessly, he rammed him with his horse, kicking the young man in his face, wounding him with his horse’s shoe until he bled profusely. The Cossack, seeing the man lying unconscious, presumed him dead, and galloped away.
Somehow, Baruch gained consciousness, and managed to reach the nearby town (Kalwaria) where Jews gave him help and refuge. Concussed, he had lost all his memory.
Etched on his forehead was the indelible scar of the horseshoe; ‘podkove’ in Yiddish. Thus scarred for life, Reb Baruch Bendet became known as Podkover. Eventually, Reb Baruch was taken in by the Gvir in Kalwaria, who also fostered Torah scholars. On one occasion, Reb Bendet contributed to a certain pilpul (Talmudic argument), and his comments, Markowitz points out, impressed the Gvir, who considered him to be unusually wise and insightful.
To cut a long story short, you guessed it ... the Gvir decided Podkover would marry his daughter.
You may think now that they all lived happily every after. But no.
On the eve of the wedding, after several days of joy and celebration, the Gvir hosted a Seuda for the town’s Jewish poor and destitute. All rejoiced, except, Markowitz writes, for the woman sitting at the very corner of the long table.
“Why are you weeping, woman?”, asked one of the guests. "We are all rejoicing at the coming union”.
The woman replied: “How shall I not weep when the very groom you see, was betrothed to me”.
A silence fell on the gathered company, but somehow, this information reached the groom, Podkover. The woman approached him. She mentioned bygone days and their betrothal. Suddenly, stunned and shocked, memory came back to our ancestor. He was faced with a terrible dilemma.
Should he marry the daughter of the Gvir, who he was going to wed the next day and live a life of study and comfort, or should he keep his original promise and marry his newly discovered first, now poor, bride, who had just approached him from among the destitute of the town?
Our ancestor, Markowitz narrates, made an instant decision. Podkover stood up and said the following:
“Surely, I shall marry her. I gave her my word. All I have agreed to with the daughter of the Gvir is now null and void, a pot that has no use”. Markowitz explains that both the Gvir and the rabbis in Kalwaria concluded that the original betrothal was null and void due to extenuating circumstances –nistakhefa sadehu⁶. However, Bendet, our ancestor, refused to listen to all of them.
He returned all wedding gifts to their donors. Thereafter, Podkover married his original bride and, as Markowitz says very clearly “lived with her, in Gordz, until the last day of his life”.
Nicknamed Podkover (horseshoe), the man became a legend. Although the name appears flippant, we see it as a profound testimony to our ancestor overcoming adversity, defying authority and doing what he thought was right.
We’ve told you our story. We are the most recent links in this “golden chain” of Jewish ancestry. But stop a moment. We told you the story. That’s because some of our direct Bialystok family (the descendants of Podkover) survived the horrors of the Shoa. Think how many did not survive. Think how many stories remained, and will always remain, untold.
We dedicate this story to them.
References
Zeira, Moshe ben Nechemia. "Rabboteinu she-ba Gola, Divrei Yemihem shel Geonei Yisrael ba Dorot ha Akhronot", Volume Two, Agudat Nakhliel, 1997, Jerusalem
Bendetman, Ya'akov ben Yehuda. "Zikhron Ya'akov", 1874, Vilna
Podkove פּאָדקעווע is the Yiddish word for horseshoe.
Markowitz, Moshe ben Shlomo Zalman. "Le-korot Ir Rassein ve-Rabbaneha", 1913, Warsaw
יWilliam.Davidson.Talmudי,Babylonian Talmud,.Tractate.Ketubot,.p2a.v10--נִסְתַּחֲפָה שָׂדֵהו
Personal footnote, thanks and illustrations
Last summer, my Great Aunt Ella Gera gave me a printed version of our relative, Yitzchak Ayzik Ben-Tovim's will, in which this story is mentioned. The document, in Hebrew, makes heavy reading, being 108 pages long. Thank you, Auntie Ella.
Markowitz writes that he was in contact with Ben-Tovim when researching the details of our family for "Le-korot Ir Rassein ve-Rabbaneha".
I would also like to thank our cousin Mr Rafi Harpaz, Israel Ambassador to the Philippines. He so very kindly sent us the picture of the 158 year-old Humash Vayikra, that was passed onto his father, Pesach Harpaz Z"L, too a descendant of Podkover.
Last but not least, I would like to thank Rabbi Yosef Serebryanski for sending me the relevant scanned pages from "Rabboteinu she-ba Gola".
Illustrations
