Rabbi Shapira, Rabbi of Prachnik, grandson of the holy
tzaddik of Bluzhov, was sawing a huge log with his
weak hands in the midst of the forest of Janow, to which
place the Jews from the ghetto had been herded for forest
clearing. He sawed the wood with twisted hands, emaciated
arms, his body racked with hunger, to perform a task of
"vital importance" in aid of the great victory of the
glorious Wehrmacht over its inferior enemy.
The keen mind of the Rabbi of Prachnik, polished to
perfection on the Talmud, was not functioning as
faultlessly as would befit one of his genius. The saw,
cutting deep into the great log, creaked agonizingly, and
pain drove every thought from Rabbi Shapira's mind. It seemed
to him as if flames of torment were whirling round in his
head. Even his memories deserted him in the depths of this
forest where the rifle butts of the S.S. torturers had driven
him. Who can picture the state of mind of a galley-slave, the
hopeless apathy, in which the sufferer no longer remembers
the past and no longer believes in the reality of the world?
The atmosphere was leaden and as heavy as if it had been
crowded with evil black shadows; and only seldom could a
stray thought enter the mind, the bitter product of constant
apathy and grief.
Thousands of victims had been brought to the camp that day,
among them many young mothers with infants in their arms,
curly-headed babes whose hair had never known scissors. The
older ones, the four and five-year- olds, played
thoughtlessly in the shadow of death; but the mothers, who
realized that they had borne their children for the lime-pit,
sat for hours on end, motionless, unutterable misery in their
eyes.
"What a devilish, foul crime," the thought preyed on Rabbi
Shapira's tortured mind -- "to murder these innocent little
children."
The saw ate its way groaning into the log, when Rabbi Shapira
heard steps approaching behind his back. Involuntarily, he
worked faster, because he was certain that an S.S. man was
standing behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and to his
amazement he saw a young Jewish mother with a little baby in
her arm. How had this unfortunate, condemned woman got into
the forest of Janow? How had she managed to come so far from
the camp?
Was she trying to escape? But the whole area was swarming
with kapos and S.S. men! She could not even get a hundred
yards from here!
But no, this unhappy young woman, betrothed to death, was not
trying to escape. On the contrary, she was coming towards
him, seeking him.
"Have you a knife? Give it to me quickly, I beg you," she
whispered, a wild defiance blazing in her eyes.
"A knife? For what purpose?" the prisoner asked in alarm, the
prisoner who had once been the Rabbi of Prachnik.
"A knife!" she repeated over and over again, almost
stubbornly, and he felt a strange resistance rising in his
heart.
"Don't throw away your life, wait for your time to come.
Perhaps before two hours are past, you shall share in the
most exalted Jewish fate and die the death of a martyr. You
shall die because your fathers, your forefathers, cherished
an unshakable belief in the triumph of a pure and ethical
life. Centuries, thousands of years ago, they could have
chosen the cruel, foolish way of life followed by other
peoples, but they obeyed the Will of the Creator Who
conceived the thought of placing souls upon this earth, who
represent the heavenly attributes of goodness and justice,
and spread light throughout the world. For this special task,
he found a race which replied `Na'aseh venishma,' we
will accept the yoke, we will shoulder it unconditionally.
Then Satan, angered by such boldness, resolved to fight this
people, Israel. When at the time of the Cossack-revolt in
1648, the blood of a hundred thousand Jews drenched the soil,
the saintly Reb Shimshon Ostropoler spoke to Satan:
"`Listen, Satan, why do you not fight another people, why do
you always persecute unfortunate Israel?'
"Satan's face broke into a truly devilish grin as he
replied:
"`I am willing to do so. Just give up to me the Sabbath and
the commandment of circumcision, and you will be free from
me!'
"`No, and a thousand times no!' proclaimed Reb Shimshon. `Let
millions and millions die, we shall never depart one iota
from the Commandments of the Torah.'
"So you see now, you who have been elected to martyrdom, of
what noble stock you are a descendant? And you want to
deprive yourself now of the merit of martyrdom before its
consummation?"
No sooner had he concluded his explanation of the sin of
suicide to the desperate Jewish woman, than he heard with
consternation the sound of heavy S.S. boots behind him.
"Du Schwein! Du Hund!" the S.S. man shouted, beside
himself with rage, and struck the rabbi with his heavy fist.
"Don't you know it is forbidden to speak to prisoners? Were
you two conspiring against us?" he roared and hit the rabbi
again and again.
"No, Sir, this unfortunate woman asked me for a knife,
obviously with the intention of killing herself, and I did
all in my power to dissuade her. I did not want her to lose
her salvation by committing such a grave sin."
The Nazi stopped his blows and looked incredulously at the
rabbi who had fallen to the ground.
"What strange, fanatical people you are."
Lowering his voice, he turned to the trembling woman who
pressed her child protectively to her bosom.
"Is it true what this Jew is saying?"
"It is the absolute truth," replied the woman. The fire
blazing in her eyes seemed to drive sorrow from her face. "It
is true that I asked this man for a knife, but I did not
intend to kill myself with it. I needed it for another
purpose."
"What purpose?"
The woman straightened up, radiating self-assurance and an
almost transcendent pride.
"We Jews have a Law," she said in a low but unhesitating
voice, "that all male children are to be admitted into
Avrohom's Covenant. My little boy has not yet been
circumcised. That was why I asked for a knife."
The pagan brute who was perhaps a village schoolmaster in
civilian life, and taught German children the superiority of
materialism, could hardly conceive that a downtrodden,
wretched woman, condemned to death, should possess such
fortitude. However, he did not want to seem sentimental.
"Idiotic fanaticism," he murmured.
"My child is a Jewish child. He was born a Jew, and I want to
return him to his Creator circumcised, in accordance with His
Command."
"I don't believe it," said the S.S. man. Then, obeying a
sudden impulse, he drew the bayonet and handed it to the
woman with a cynical smile:
"Here, perhaps this will do for your purpose."
And the young Jewish woman stood in the middle of the forest
of Janow, on the autumnal soil of a strange, accursed land,
as if she had stepped out of the pages of the Midrash.
She made the necessary preparations, then fervently
recited the benediction; and using the bayonet as a knife,
circumcised her son.
"Amen," the rabbi responded to the blessing and his face,
too, was transfigured with joy.
"Amen," replied the Ministering Angels, and the ancestors,
the great Jewish minds of all times. In that moment, the
Jewish genius shone with a strength intensified a millionfold
in the heavenly world.
"A Jewish Mother has once more saved the honor of mankind,"
proclaimed a Heavenly Voice and a tear sparkled in the Eye of
the Creator, as it were.
