Reb Menachem Ziemba 
5643/1883 - 5703/1943
"Shabbos, the third day of Chol Hamoed Pesach 5703. All the houses around Kupiecka 7 are burning. The tongues of flame are licking at our hideout. Inside there is a quiet but desperate struggle. Because of the heavy smoke and immediate danger of fire, there are some who want to leave. The Rav, however, does not want to leave and asks us to try and put out the flames. He begins carrying the water himself. We listen to him and do not leave.
By noon, the entire building is engulfed in flames. The air in our hideout is so thick with smoke that it is nearly impossible to breathe. The fire has already reached the stairwell and if the stairs collapse we would be trapped in our attic as had happened to so many others. We leave with the Rav. But where do we go? The murderous SS are most certainly standing in the street waiting for the flames to flush their victims out into their arms. We go down into the cellar knowing beforehand that we can't stay there long. We decide to try to get across the street to the building where the Volia Rav, Rav Ber, is hiding.
During a momentary lull in the shooting, when it seemed safe, Reb Menachem Ziemba's daughter Rebbetzin Rosa Weidenfeld (daughter-in-law of the Tshebiner Rav) is able to peer out of the cellar. Not noticing any police, she calls for us to follow her across to the neighboring house. She runs across first and then motions with her arm. Tragically we misunderstand the signal. Believing it to be safe, we begin running across. The Rav is first, holding his five year old grandson Yankele Ber (also grandson of the Ozehov Rav) by the hand. We follow. Suddenly we hear wild screams and gunfire coming from the ruins of Naleuki 39. For a moment we couldn't orient ourselves to what was happening. We see the Gaon only a few steps ahead of us, falling down. We can't go any further. The gunfire is becoming heavier and we are forced back into our cellar.
Until the late afternoon hours we can't tell for certain what has occurred. We find his holy body at the courtyard gate. The catastrophe has befallen us.
The terrible news is with incredible speed spread to all neighboring hideouts. In spite of the great danger, a number of minyanim gather. A beis din is set up and decides to bury the Rav temporarily in a grave in the courtyard of Kupiecka 4.
In the middle of the night, eerily lit by the dark light of the smoke covered flumes, we buried the Rav.
(From an article by Rabbi Avraham Ziemba.)
Early Years
Reb Menachem was born in Praga, a suburb of Warsaw, on 13 Elul, 5643 (1883). His father, Reb Elazar, passed away while Menachem was still a young boy and the orphan was brought up in Warsaw by his grandfather Rabbi Avraham Ziemba. Reb Avraham had been a chassid of the Kotzker Rebbe and a student of the Chiddushei Harim, and now was a follower of the Sfas Emes. He was totally committed to the philosophy of Kotzk - that is, a passion for truth. This he instilled in his grandson. He taught Reb Menachem not to become involved in pilpul or dialectics but to strive constantly to understand the core of the problem at hand.
At the same time that Reb Menachem was charting his own course in the "sea of the Talmud," he was being saturated with Chassidus, of the Gerer genre. He was constantly brought to Ger by his grandfather. There he found a way of life that he cherished his entire life. Although he was also a gaon in chassidic thought, he always remained a simple chassid. Even in later years when he was world-renowned, in Ger he was just one of the many thousands that came to learn from the Gerer Rebbe, and to absorb the kedushah they felt in his presence. World-famous and idolized by others, in Ger he was never put on a pedestal. He was called by his first name by everyone, as though all who came to Ger were his equals. But that was exactly how he felt. For years he refused to sit at the Rebbe's table, an honor usually reserved for the gedolim who would come to Ger. After he became a Rav in Warsaw, some of his friends felt that the dignity of his position demanded that he be addressed with the title "Rav." When Reb Menachem heard the plan, he spoke against it. He felt that it would effectively cut him out of the fellowship of the chassidim. A compromise was reached. Among "foreigners" he would be given the honor due him. But among his own - the chassidim of Ger - he would remain simply "Menachem."
The Warsaw Connection
Living in Warsaw enabled Reb Menachem to come in contact with all the great Torah personalities of the day, both those that lived there and those that were passing through the capital city of Poland. He made it his business to talk to every gadol he could reach, whether from Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, or Galicia, to discern and comprehend their method of study. Indeed, from the few sefarim he left, we see how he incorporates and synthesizes different methods into a synergistic whole that is uniquely his own. In the words of Rabbi Mendel Kasher (written in a eulogy upon learning of Reb Menachem's death): his bekius (encyclopedic knowledge) was similar to that of the Gaon of Rogatchov, his amkus (depth) similar to that of the Avnei Neizer, his clarity to that of the Ohr Some'ach, his ingenuity to that of the Chiddushei Harim, his pilpul to that of the Beis Yitzchak and his creativity to that of Rabbi Yosef Engel.
His relations with the gedolim were those of mutual respect. For example, the Gaon of Rogatchov, who was not known for his patience with younger students, had a special love for Reb Menachem. They exchanged hundreds of letters and whenever the Gaon was in Warsaw he asked that Reb Menachem come and talk with him so that "I don't forget how to speak the language."
Youthful Years of Growth
When he turned eighteen, he married Mindel, the only daughter of Reb Chaim Yeshaya Tzederbaum, a wealthy merchant from Praga. As a condition of the marriage, his father-in-law promised to support him for twenty years in order to allow him to devote his entire time to the study of Torah. These twenty years were always remembered by Reb Menachem as the happiest time of his life. All his needs were cared for and he was able to study for twenty hours a day, seven days a week, interrupted only for krias haTorah on Mondays, Thursdays and Shabbos. He once confided that during those twenty years, he wrote more than 10,000 pages of chiddushei Torah. When his father-in-law died in 5680, he wrote and published a sefer, Totzaas Ckaim, on the laws pertaining to carrying on Shabbos, in his honor.
Even during this time of relative quiet, Reb Menachem's fame began to spread. Rabbi Meier Simcha HaKohen of Dvinsk, so astounded by Reb Menachem's genius, begged him to befriend his own son-in-law, Rabbi Avraham Luftbier, who lived in Warsaw. Reb Menachem agreed, and the two young men soon became fast friends. They constantly corresponded and exchanged chiddushei Torah. When Reb Avraham Luftbier died at a tragically young age, Reb Menachem published the correspondence exchanged between the two friends. The volume was called Zera Avraham (Seed of Avraham), and was dedicated to his friend who had left no children of his own.
When his father-in-law died, Reb Menachem's wife tried to continue the hardware business left her by her father. Reb Menachem was soon forced to help out in the store. Many towns and cities offered him a position as Rav but he refused them all, saying that he had more time to study working in the store than as a Rav. When someone mentioned that between customers Reb Menachem takes a moment to study a piece of Talmud Yerushalmi, Reb Menachem corrected him saying that while studying the Talmud Yerushalmi he takes a moment to wait on a customer. Every young talmid chacham who came to Warsaw felt it incumbent upon himself to take the time to travel to Praga and visit Reb Menachem in his store so that when he went home he could say that he spoke divrei Torah with Reb Menachem.
The Gerer Rebbe's Man
Reb Menachem was totally devoted to the Gerer Rebbe, the Imrei Emes. He would not become involved in the smallest matters without first consulting the Rebbe. The Rebbe, in turn, respected and honored him. When the Rebbe asked him to become involved in kehillah affairs, although it was against his nature since it would disrupt his study time, he at once acceded. He was appointed the representative of Praga to the Kehillah Council in Warsaw. The majority at that time was anti-religious but the respect and esteem in which Reb Menachem was held allowed him to assuage some of the anti-religious feeling in the council.
Asked how he explained his shift into politics, he said, "The last Mishnah in Berachos states that initially all blessings in the Temple were ended with the words 'Blessed is G-d from the world,' but after the heretics began to undermine the people's faith and claimed that there was only one world, the ending was changed to 'Blessed is the G-d of Israel from the world to the world.' Reb Menachem explained that initially the Rabbis and Sages were concerned only with the World-to-Come - the spiritual world. The present world, they felt, would take care of itself. But the heretics came and argued that there is only one world - that is, for each group. Since the Rabbis had chosen the spiritual world as their domain, the heretics would brook no interference in the affairs of this world, which belonged to them. That is when the Rabbis decided to say 'from the world to the world' and not take the present world for granted. Just as Torah and mitzvos are the controlling factors in the World-to-Come, so must they also be in this, the earthly world."
Another time, when asked how a holy man such as himself could sit in the council and constantly listen to diatribes against religion, he answered, "In the Haggadah the Wise Son is placed right next to the Evil Son. Why? Because the Evil Son needs the closest possible surveillance. Letting down one's guard even for a moment might prove fatal."
In 5684 Reb Menachem lost his son, Moshe Yehudah Aryeh, at the age of 19. The young boy was already known as an illui (genius) in the same mold as his father. As a memorial to his son, Reb Menachem published a volume, Gur Aryeh Yehudah, containing the boy's chiddushim together with some correspondence between father and son.
A Reluctant Leader
During the years 5690-95 (1930-35), the world economic depression affected Reb Menachem as well. His store, never very successful, was forced to close. He was offered the position of Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, but, after having secured a visa and a ticket, turned it down saying that he wanted to go to Jerusalem only as a simple Jew. After the untimely passing of Rabbi Meier Shapiro, he was offered the position as his successor as both Rav of Lublin and Rosh HaYeshivah. For unknown reasons, this also never came to pass.
In 5695 he, together with Rabbi Yaakov Meir Biderman, brother-in-law of the Gerer Rebbe, and Rabbi Avraham Weinberg, was appointed to the Warsaw Rabbinate. He now became one of the foremost spokesmen for Orthodox Jewry in Poland. He was not only involved in the day-to-day political activities of the Kehillah, but a new facet of his greatness was uncovered. He became a posek halachah l'ma'asah (a decisor of practical halachah) answering questions in applied Torah law from all over Poland and the world. Although he keenly felt and accepted the responsibility that was thrust upon him, he always regretted that he now had no time to study and write his chiddushei Torah.
From the first moment of the founding of the Agudath Israel movement he took an active part in all its functions. At the first Knessiah Gedolah, he was not yet forty when he was chosen to serve as honorary secretary in the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. At the second Knessiah Gedolah, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzenski agreed to serve as chairman of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah only if Reb Menachem would continue in his position. At the second Knessiah Reb Menachem was only forty-five years old and therefore felt that he should stay in the background.
At the third Knessiah, Reb Menachem was at the height of his fame. He spoke twice to the full assemblage and each time was greeted with hushed silence and awe. His second speech, in retrospect, seems almost prophetic. He spoke first about the mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem - sanctification of the name of G-d. Not only when one is forced to choose between religion and death is there a sanctification, he declared, but also each and every moment that a Jew overcomes adversity and is able thereby to glorify the name of G-d. He then spoke about Eretz Yisrael and how it too can serve as a medium for sanctification of His Name - Kiddush Hashem. He declared that the Sages tell us that if one is to know the glory of Jerusalem let him see what the prophet says: "And I will be for it Ne'um HaShem a wall of fire surrounding it." From this, they say, one can recognize the glory of Jerusalem. Ne'um HaShem is placed here in the middle of the verse, not at the end as is usually the case. Here it translates as the "words of G-d," that is, the words of G-d will be as a wall of fire surrounding Jerusalem. The glory of Jerusalem is not in architectural or technological achievements, but only in the words of G-d.
Light in the Darkness of War
With the outbreak of the war and the tragic events that followed, Reb Menachem pulled all his energies together and became the single most important moral force in the ghetto. In the darkest days of the ghetto, he strove to bring a note of optimism and hope into the lives of the people. He constantly railed against those who seemed to be lost in despair. He was fond of quoting the Sfas Emes: "And I will take you out from under the burdens (Sivlot) of Egypt. Sivlot is from the same root as Savlanut - passive acceptance. The redemption can come only if one refuses to accept the diaspora, refuses to make peace with his circumstances.
He set up secret places for the study of Torah - yeshivas, Talmud Torahs and Bais Yaakovs. At great personal risk, he would constantly visit these holy places in cellars, attics or bomb shelters in order to strengthen those who studied there. He himself continued to write his chiddushim. He wrote an entire work on the laws pertaining to the sanctification of G-d's Name - Kiddush Hashem. One page was introduced with the following notation: "Written on the day my dear wife was taken from me. She always sacrificed herself to bring up our children in the lap of the Torah and allowed me to immerse myself in the holy Torah." Even in the depths of his own despair, he could not stop writing chiddushim.
He was given two opportunities to escape from the ghetto. Once, through the efforts of Reb Chaim Israel together with the Sternbuch family of Switzerland, he was sent a Costa Rican passport and citizenship papers. His last name, however, was misspelled - Ziember instead of Ziemba. This was enough excuse for the authorities to disallow the papers. Another time, he and the only other two surviving members of the Warsaw Rabbinate, Rabbi Shimshon Shtockhammer and Rabbi David Schapiro, were suddenly summoned to the Judenrat. They were told that the Catholic Church was willing to rescue them. The three refused to go saying that although the Jews in the ghetto do not need the Rabbinate anymore, the mere fact that the Rabbinate is still among them may give the Jews some more strength to carry on.
Erev Rosh Chodesh Nissan 5703 was declared as a public fast for penitence and prayer. Reb Menachem spoke that day to the many people that gathered at his home. He spoke with a fervor that bordered on the unearthly. He again exhorted the people not to lose hope. He interpreted the verse. "Hashem knows the way of the righteous, and the way of the wicked is lost," in a novel manner. It is the way of the righteous to say, "Hashem knows." He knows what He is doing and therefore we must have faith. But the way of evil-doers is to say "All is lost," that is, to sow pessimism and despair.
That Pesach as in previous years, he was concerned that there should be enough matzoh and wine so that all who wanted could partake in the Sedorim. He set up a committee to set aside enough supplies for everyone. As one of the more prominent Jews in the ghetto, he was constantly under the closest observation and therefore could not become personally involved in the underground that organized the uprising. However, when money was needed to obtain ammunition, he was the first to donate, as well as adding his personal blessings to the movement.
The Uprising
The uprising began early on the morning of Erev Pesach. The battle raged the entire day, but Reb Menachem prepared himself for the coming holiday as if nothing was happening. He had a gift from G-d, he once said, of being able to concentrate all his faculties on one thing while at the same time understanding and absorbing everything occurring around him. In the evening, the fighting stopped and Reb Menachem conducted the Seder as though the times were normal.
The next few days were spent in hideouts watching the ghetto being burned. The Nazis, may their names be obliterated, were methodically destroying the ghetto, house by house, in order to break the resistance. Among the burning houses were his manuscripts - the tens of thousands of pages that were destined never to be studied by future talmidei chachamim. He had a treatise on the entire Rambam called Machazeh Hamelech. Another on the Talmud Yerushalmi called Menachem Yerushalaim, as well as hundreds of teshuvos and chiddushim on Bavli, Shulchan Aruch, Midrash and all other parts of the Torah. All these writings were destroyed. When the ghetto was finally liquidated, his entire immediate family was taken to Treblinka where they all perished. Not one survived. May Hashem avenge their blood.
In 5718, learning that the Polish Government was planning to rebuild the area of the ghetto that included Reb Menachem's grave, my father Rabbi Avraham Ziemba and my uncle Rabbi Yitzchok Meir Ziemba (Reb Menachem's brothers - who were with him to the very end and on whose writings this article is based) and others expended great efforts to exhume his body and bring it to Eretz Yisrael. After weeks of work by surveyors and others, his grave was finally located (all landmarks remembered by the survivors had been destroyed in the interim). His body was flown to Eretz Yisrael and after a funeral attended by all the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah and tens of thousands of people, he was finally laid to rest on Har Hamenuchos on Rosh Chodesh Tammuz 5718.