Was all that necessary? What did this Hasidic appearance mean? Was it a fashion statement of some bizarre sort? You looked like a clown, and you spoke of the things no one could understand. Was it meant to spark some interest in the modern Soviet Jews that never went to a synagogue and often did not know where one was? No, Aaron’s Russian was not good, but they did not speak neither Yiddish nor Hebrew. English was neither a common language. Were they Jews at all? What kind? They claimed to be, and they suffered for that. They really did. Did he? None of them, but the very old people, really believed in God. They kept saying that religion was not that important, but the blood, the ethnicity, the heritage was. How could that be? The Hasidic teachings stated that religion was the driving force. The religion did not drive those people. What did he miss? What did they miss? The Rabbi could not be wrong, so, those people are. Yet, there are so many of them, and they do not see that. He must work harder and be more patient. Who said it would be easy. No, it has to be hard to produce the results.
All that was a little confusing, but Aaron trusted the Rabbis. They studied sacred books and knew that better. He did not make any friends there but was ready to do it again, and again. Aaron was arrested on the second trip to the Soviet Union and escorted out of the country. No, the Soviets did not do anything to him, but could. The Soviet law was on their side. He was lucky not to be imprisoned that was common at the time. Yet, Aaron felt like something was protecting him in the Soviet Union, and he thought that was God. Someone told him later that people he gave the books also were arrested, and imprisoned, but he doubted that. He was spreading the word of god, and that should not be punishable, even in the Soviet Union. Why would it be? How little did he know? He was so naïve, and the entire operation was so dangerous. It was not in America. Almost all people who encountered the Jewish emissaries were punished in one way or another, and the prison sentences varied. Aaron’s beliefs had very little to do with the rest of the world and mainly, the Soviet Union. The world had its own opinion and lived on its own schedule. It was not the world of the Chabad, but what it always was only much later.
Aaron Cohen strongly believed that God and his Messiah, Rabbi Schneerson, would always protect the faithful and he, Aaron, was the one — the faithful, the righteous, in all its glory. Every time the question of Jewish pride, faith, decency, honor, and the freedom were facing the doubters, Aaron was ready to fight regardless of the odds. And, he fought at the tables of his parents, in-laws, and the friends, in kosher restaurants, and the offices of the IRS. He would fight in the White House, but no one ever invited him there. He had his own battlefields where the fight could mean something. Even the Jews in the IRS offices called him the meshuga (crazy) Hasid, but they liked and respected him. Many laughed at him, and some listened to him. Often, they thought he made sense. He was not loved, but he was popular, and his accounting business was bumming. The Hasidim of Williamsburg trusted Aaron Cohen, CPA with money matters as they believed the Rabbi with the spiritual stuff. Aaron, even with his slight stature, commanded the confidence and respect of people as a giant, and he was a giant when it came to money and honesty. He knew it all and, if he did not understand something, he would genuinely study it and get the answer. He thought that the right way. When he worked for you, he really worked, and for you. Aaron also was sincere, and that was so rare. Who was really sincere in modern society? It was rare in any community, and not only in the religious ones. It was just rare in the rarest possible way. It was rare even in this community where honesty was one of the founding blocks of the credence. Hasidic… It should stand for everything good and decent. Yet, Aaron was pure and honest, and no one ever doubted that.
Rabbi Shneur Zalman was the most prominent Aaron’s ancestry on the father’s mother’s side. His grandfather used to say that it was why the Cohens never had any money but not even once was short of good thoughts. All members of the extended family tree on that side of Aaron’s ancestry were known and present down to the sixteenth century. There were many of them and so many generations. Then, the Inquisition. In the sixteenth century, it was getting complicated somewhat. That was a confusing century in many parts of the world. It was not just the time of the lost people, but the lost records as well. The Jews were trying to survive misleading the enemies; thus, hiding some, if not most, of the information. So many pieces were missing, and so many parts did not fit. Knowledge, documents, and the facts were not there any longer, and all the present Cohens had was only guesses and just some ideas. One could not eat the ideas and facts… One could not drink the guesses. It could be too hard to swallow. One could not make the borsht (the beet soup) out of nothing. One could make gornisht (nothing) out of nothing, and that’s precisely what they had. Just the bits, and pieces, and no substance… Who could know the history of the Jewish family for certain? It was so long ago and often, so far away. Witnesses did not survive, and, again, who knows what they witnessed. Was it less than what they told or much, much more? That’s the story of the Jewish people, and the Cohens did not differ much from the mainstream. Not in any typical way that one may notice. Every Jewish family at one time or another had experienced and suffered more or less the same injustice and the level of tragedy. So had some other nations but to a somewhat lesser degree.
What was there to be so different about. A Jew is a Jew is a Jew, and that was it. That was the beauty of it. Farshteyt (Yiddish-understand)? This family was like a typical cell of the living organism called — the nation of Jews. Just one of them. Yes, it was a nation, and for about thirty-five hundred years already. Some say it was for much longer. Some say it was for fifty-five hundred or so. Such a long time. Does it really make any difference? Could anyone remember anything from back then and there? It was there back then, and it is here now, stronger than ever. Do you see that? It was like the Phoenix rising from the ashes of its predecessor. The more it was hurt, the more powerful it would rise. Yes, that’s the story of the Jewish nation, in a nutshell, and the nutshell is at least thirty-five hundred years old but most likely more. Fifty-five hundred or even more. No matter what kind of twists and turns affected the nation, the Cohen family was touched in precisely the same way. Almost every Jewish family could act as a cross-section and an indicator of the Jewish turmoil projected to that specific area and the time, and then, you move to another place, and anything could happen there. That’s the bulk of it.