Part IV
This was first published in 1994.
For Part III of this series click here.
The first part introduced HaRav Zeitchik and the general Novardok experience. The focus here is on his later years in Eretz Yisroel. It discusses various ideas and themes that were part of the life of HaRav Zeitchik zt"l. This is in the middle of a discussion about life in Siberia.
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Organizing a Minyan
Later on, as I continued to be persecuted by the treacherous regime of evil, I undertook to organize communal services, like gathering a minyan and so on. These were considered counterrevolutionary activities, punishable even by death. But I persevered, and emerged safely from encounter after encounter, each one a miracle which I sought to etch in my memory so that I would continue to appreciate Hashem's divine Providence towards me, personally, event after event, year after year.
A Moment of Truth—And Its Aftermath
In 1950, the newspapers reported a typical incident which sheds light on the convolutions of the human spirit which are brought to light in all their glory only in time of danger. And when that danger passes and everything quiets down, the soul dons its former inscrutable garb.
An airplane was en route to Prague when a motor broke down. The captain announced to the passengers that they would have to make a forced landing. Worst of all, they would not be able to reach land in time. Many passengers fainted out of fear; others wept and wailed. One leaned over and whispered to his wife that since death was nigh, he wished to confess and beg her forgiveness that in his youth, he had been unfaithful to her. The wife, equally terrified by the specter of death, generously forgave him, for what did such things matter in the face of death?
Meanwhile, somehow the situation stabilized and the airplane found itself out of danger. The captain announced that they would soon be reaching their destination. In a flash, everything returned to normal and all the passengers reverted to their petty, selfish interests and foibles. The very man who had confessed his breach of faith now retracted his words and dismissed them entirely. His wife, who had forgiven his misdeed, took back her forgiveness and demanded justification. All of her gentleness vanished in a flash and she became a harsh, vindictive female.
The above scenario should serve us as a clear testimony to what the threat of danger can do to a person by way of purification. The moment of crisis puts everything into a different perspective; it makes man shake off all his pettiness and look at things squarely. All the vanities and falsity of life fall by the wayside and become inane in the face of a life-death situation. When life returns to its routine, things fall back into their rut and the soul wallows in lies, hypocrisy and masquerade.
Only at the brink of death can the soul recapture some measure of purity and begin to doff its defiled garments which it wore during life and which concealed its true beauty and clarity. Our Sages say that at the moment of death, even the wicked are given a glimpse of the Shechina.
When a tzaddik is confronted with death, he becomes all the more purified, but he will retain the glory of the moment of truth forever afterwards. He will maintain the level of purity and will be reinforced by his glimpse of eternity. He will realize that his brush with death was contrived in order to improve and purge him and he will relish, recall and revel in that unique experience for the remainder of his life.
Yitzchok Ovinu said: "Lo, I have aged and I do not know the day of my death." The Sforno comments that the closer a person comes to his actual point of death, the more powerful is the blessing he confers, just as we later see with Yaakov and Moshe, for at this point, the soul is being severed from its material shackles.
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This applies not only to the tzaddik of a high level but also to the common man. There are many opportunities in a person's life when new vistas are opened to him. This can happen in a moment of life-threat, of great fear, when he suddenly sees the naked truth in a brilliant revelation of clarity and he will see life at its true worth. Whoever has been given a glimpse of such truth must hold on to it with all his might lest it slip his grasp and his perspective become befuddled with materialism.
When he compares the sublime moment of revelation and the pure thoughts that accompanied it to the general obscurity which enshrouds him during his daily lifetime, of what value can the hypocritical life have? Having glimpsed it, that person will surely attempt to enrich his life with the precious light he once viewed in a time of crisis, danger and great trial.
In those days we experienced such grave dangers and the sense of living at the brink of life and death many times a day! And that truth stared us in the face in all of its pristine beauty and clarity; it cried out to us from the depths: Do not ignore me! Do not reject me! Admit to whom the seals belong, as it were! It is the very seal of truth which we signed with our very bodies and souls and which we promised to be eternally faithful to.
Can we deny those moments when we poured out the misery of our souls and begged Hashem for a decent burial, no more? How many times a day did we drag our faltering feet in the untenable cold of forty and fifty degrees below zero for many kilometers in the desolate wilderness, in order to dig up a grave of a Jew buried among gentiles so that he could be given a Jewish burial? To say nothing of the dire danger involved politically from the aspect of defying the authorities!
How dreadfully shocking was the burial of that Jew, a shochet from Hommel who had found himself in our midst, a prisoner of shackles and misery, who returned his soul amidst terrible suffering in a dungeon. I, together with a cobbler from Kharkov, Reb Shmaryahu, a decent G-d-fearing Jew, pulled the sled through the snow and frost all day until we reached the burial place, only to be at a loss for his precise burial spot. We foraged around among the clay and dirt for an hour a half...
And then, completely at a standstill, we raised our eyes heavenward and wept bitterly. We asked Hashem to have pity for the dead and only a few moments later, we providentially discovered the site. We dug the grave with our bare hands, our tears irrigating our work, and suddenly had a deeper understanding of the interpretation of Chazal upon the verse in Tehillim: "For this does each righteous man pray to find in the time of need—a proper burial."
Botschatsch from the west
Early Days in Botschatsch
The chapter of trials and struggles began much earlier, while I was living in Botschatsch, where I had the privilege to head an illustrious yeshiva. It were only proper that I mention its founders who helped me with the yeshiva's administrative upkeep. When the war broke out they went to Vilna, leaving me alone at the helm.
When the Bolsheviks invaded in 1940, they immediately began persecuting all Torah-true Jews. All the rabbonim were forced to masquerade as very simple laborers and craftsmen. Hunger, fear and pain were our daily fare and even though I had been warned countless times by all my friends and relatives to leave the holy work of the yeshiva and its ever present danger not only to me and my family but to the entire yeshiva, I fortified myself and refused to heed them. Divine Providence granted me special powers and, with the model of my masters before me, I persevered and verily risked my life in order to sanctify Hashem's name in public.
With the increase of informers, the yeshiva had to seek refuge in the attic of the beis medrash. We shut and barred all the windows and learned by candlelight. But obtaining such a simple commodity as candles presented in itself a great danger. We were constantly being hounded by the authorities and could barely scrape together the few pennies needed for them. We stationed guards day and night. At the hint of danger, they would sound a bell and we would scurry to burrow our way into the mounds of sheimos in the attic.
Botschatsch Talmud Torah in the 30s
We could not help seeing in the flesh how we were privy to miracles by the hour! The holy breath of the yeshiva students had the power to banish the tainted reeking breath of the despised Communists. Our dedication and courage evoked much awe and wonder among the townsmen and the yeshiva students themselves became attached to the yeshiva body and soul.
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The student's enthusiasm and desire to learn surpassed all bounds. Denying themselves sleep, they would arise at four-thirty a.m. in order to hear my first lecture. This caused students from the other shiurim to emulate their zeal and to begin the day with their teachers at that time, too. Each day, the immense fire of Torah vigor was kindled before dawn, to last far into the night.
The elderly laymen of Botschatsch who had always been accustomed to rise early in order to begin their work day, were deeply impressed by the holy and glorious scene that was unfolded before them during prayers, when the students poured out their hearts and literally wept tears of joy and enthusiasm. It did the old-timers' hearts good to see this young generation so devoted to their heavenly Father. The unity and brotherhood in the yeshiva ranks was also something to marvel at. And if one student happened to falter and consider leaving, all would immediately surround him to encourage and plead with him and to offer him all kinds of incentives and appeasements, both material and spiritual, to make him change his mind and remain within the camp of the Shechina. And how great was their joy when they succeeded in winning him over!
They applied themselves diligently to their studies, from early morning to late at night and even continued to study up to candlelighting time on Fridays. Nevertheless, when the need arose to offer their services to the community, they did so unstintingly. They helped in the support of refugees and exiles, who streamed into town from all sides and also raised money to maintain the mikveh, whose existence constituted a miraculous feat, considering that such a religious institution was anathema to the Communists.
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While in the exile of Siberia, I nursed a dream that I would someday live to restore the yeshiva's crown to its rightful place, and that I would yet see my students in that setting. This dream sustained my crushed spirit and enabled me to survive the barbs and curses of my fellow prisoners who despised me for being a Jew.
During my time in prison, I got an insight in the meaning of a Midrash in Shir Hashirim. Hashem told the Jews that they would be redeemed from Egyptian bondage. But He had also told them elsewhere that they would not be freed until they had suffered at the hands of seventy nations.
The Midrash provides two answers to this paradox: If one Jew is exiled to Barbary and another to Satari, it is considered as if all the Jews had been exiled collectively to both places. The other answer is that when one country subjugates Israel, it also tyrannizes other nations, and if one Kusi or one Berber subject persecutes a Jew, it is as if his entire people persecuted them.
How eternally meaningful are these words of chazal! Written with divine inspiration, we see them being realized before our very eyes. But just as they were right regarding the punishment and destruction which our people underwent, so will their prophetic comfort also be realized.
Remembering
If we had remained in the very places where we experienced the dreadful holocaust, where our people's blood was shed so arbitrarily, we would have no need of mementos to call up the memories for we would be able to tangibly feel the miracle of our survival. But had we remained there, our very bread would be tainted with the blood of our brethren and the very bricks would scream out the miracle of our survival. And wherever we turned, we would reconstruct the forms of those who had passed on and the blood of our brothers would shout out to us: remember and don't forget what they did to us!
They would remind us not to forget the miracle of our lives granted to us by Heaven. They would charge us with the mission to sanctify Hashem's name through our lives, as they did through death.
And hearing this cry reverberating each day, we would remember the suffering and persecution they underwent before dying a tortured death. And the thunder of their voices would straighten out all the kinks in our hearts.
Just think! If we suddenly found ourselves at the very places where those yeshivos were situated, how would we feel? Who could describe our emotions?
But time and place have caused us to forget. We have distanced ourselves from that Holocaust to the point that we feel several generations removed from it. And we, ourselves, can no longer evoke the pain which we ourselves felt on our own flesh.
We can talk about it and lecture about it complacently, indifferently, without emoting as much as a single tear or sob.
The Sea of Modern Comforts
We find ourselves in a situation and place which must shake us out of our lethargy. We are like the Jews who fled the bondage of Egypt, only to be faced by the threat of the sea; they are in a dilemma. We, too, escaped the fiends and the persecutors, only to come to the brink of a raging sea. The sea of modern comforts, which beguile and tempt a person and demand satisfaction.
Let us not succumb to this test. Let us not forget the holocaust for a moment, nor the great miracles which were so wrapped up in it.
Let us publicize and reveal to all the beauty of splendor of our souls. Let us raise our voices in lilting music that praises and extols Hashem, His mighty works and His great Torah!
Let us renew and rededicate our lives through Torah and mussar, as we did in the places of our forced relocation during the exile years of the Holocaust. And may we thus merit to see the return of the Shechina to Zion when Hashem's glory will be revealed to all the nations and all of the consolations of the prophets will be realized in full.
"For Hashem will be an everlasting light and the days of your mourning will be completely past. With exceeding wrath did I conceal My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting mercy will I show My mercy upon you, says your Redeemer, Hashem!"
