PART I
A group of Chabad Chassidim from the city of Telenesht (a city in Bessarabia [now Moldova] in Eastern Europe) made its way to Lubavitch in order to see the third Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek. It was a long journey in those days, from their homes to the capitol of Chabad Chassidus. They wanted to spend Pesach with the Rebbe and had left home a few days after Chanuka.
They had bought an old horse and wagon on which they loaded their baggage. Since they did not have much money, the wagon was average size and could not seat all of them. Some of them sat on the wagon while others walked alongside it and every so often they switched places. It was a slow pace but they were very excited to be going to Lubavitch! The journey wasn’t easy in the wintertime with the rain turning the ground to mud and the snows covering the roads, and yet, they were ecstatic to be making this trip.
They arrived in Lubavitch shortly before Pesach and joyously made their way through the pathways of the Chassidic town.
As Pesach approached, they decided that being far from ordinary guests, unlike the local residents and not like the guests who came more frequently, they wanted to spend the seder with the Rebbe, this holy night with wondrous revelations.
The guests planned it all out. They did their preparations early and after Maariv they hurried to where they were staying and made a quick seder, reminiscent of the haste of the exodus. Then they all hurried to the Rebbe’s house.
They had not expected to find the Rebbe’s personal assistant standing in the doorway, determinedly blocking their approach to the door.
“We would like to enter and join the Rebbe for the seder,” they said. Some added, “We are not ordinary guests. We spent months walking here, hundreds of miles, in order to be with the Rebbe. Who knows if we will be able to be with the Rebbe again in our lifetime, so we ask, with all our heart, to be allowed in.”
The assistant understood them but did not budge. He explained that such a large crowd could not be allowed to enter, especially since the Rebbe, despite his age and weakness, had toiled that day in baking the matzos. Therefore, it was doubtful that he would make a lengthy seder.
Still, the guests pleaded that he have compassion and let them in. But the gatekeeper refused.
“I have an idea for you,” he finally said. “Go to the Rebbe’s son’s house, to R’ Yehuda Leib, and maybe you will be able to convince him to say a maamer Chassidus for you.”
The guests saw they would be unable to get past him and so they agreed to seek perhaps half of what they wanted. They went to the home of Maharil. A full moon shone peacefully overhead. It shone as it did thousands of years earlier on the night the Jewish people left Egypt.
Maharil, R’ Yehuda Leib Schneersohn, the second son of the Tzemach Tzedek, was a beloved grandson of the Mitteler Rebbe who leaned on him when he said Chassidus. He therefore lovingly called him “my shtender.” In the lifetime of his father he already behaved in Rebbishe ways and after his father’s passing he opened a Chassidic court in the town of Kopust which attracted many Chassidim.
They showed up at Maharil’s house only to find another gatekeeper blocking entry. Here too they begged him and presented many convincing reasons to be allowed to enter until he finally suggested that they come inside and wait for further word.
“Maharil is resting now, for about an hour and a half, as he does every night. When he gets up, maybe he will accede to your request to say a maamer Chassidus especially in your honor.”
They didn’t have much choice and so they waited in the room next to Maharil’s room. Through the cracks they saw how he read the first section of the Shma and then napped on the pillows on which he had reclined earlier at the seder.
Exactly an hour and a half passed and R’ Yehuda Leib woke up. He washed his hands, said the morning brachos even though it was still night. Then the assistant told him about the group of guests, Chassidim who had come a long way, and wanted to hear a maamer on this holy night. R’ Yehuda Leib agreed to let the Chassidim enter his room. As for their request to hear a maamer Chassidus, which they “deserved” more than the other guests who had come to Lubavitch for Pesach, he apologized and said that the time wasn’t right to say Chassidus.
The faces of the Chassidim fell. Maharil was deep in thought and a deep silence filled the room.
Suddenly, he looked up and said, “Although it is not the time to say Chassidus, if you want I will tell you a miracle of my father, the Rebbe, a story that I witnessed last winter.”
The guests were thrilled and were appeased by hearing a story from a firsthand source.
Maharil was quiet for several minutes and then he began.
PART II
One month last winter, I begged my father to let me be secretly present when he received people for yechidus. I wanted to see how my father conducts himself at the time when a Chassid bonds with his Rebbe with his nefesh, ruach, neshama, chaya and yechida. To my great joy, my father agreed and allowed me to enter his room at the time designated for him to receive Anash. I hid behind a curtain.
Anash entered, one after another, and presented their requests and questions to the Rebbe on a vast array of subjects, spiritual and material. My father responded to each one according to what he asked and the root of his soul.
At one point the door opened and in walked a tall young man, powerfully built and dressed in the uniform of the czar’s army. He introduced himself as a soldier in the army, one of the Jewish boys who had been kidnapped to serve the czar for many years (known as cantonists). He and his Jewish friends suffered terribly in the army for wanting to maintain their Jewish identity.
“Neither my friends nor I have given up,” said the soldier to my father. “But now it has come time for us to go to the front lines. I ask the Rebbe’s permission and for his bracha for me to escape from my unit and do so successfully.” The soldier’s fear was apparent.
My father cast compassionate eyes upon him and said, “No. Return to your unit and Hashem will protect you from anything untoward and will help you leave the army a free man. You will merit long life and will see children and grandchildren k’das Moshe v’Yisroel.”
The soldier hadn’t dreamed of receiving such a blessing, a bracha for health, long life, to be saved from the blazing carnage of the front, to find his shidduch and even to see upstanding children and grandchildren. Who would have believed…?
Nevertheless, the soldier did not seem fully at ease and he continued to stand there, erect as soldiers are wont to do.
“Just to escape from my unit to come here I was absent a few days and my commander can have my head for that,” he worried. “Furthermore, my commander is wicked and a sworn anti-Semite.”
My father’s kind gaze did not waver from him for a moment. “I promise that nothing will happen to you and all will work out well.” My father reassured him, “Go back to your unit and it will be fine.”
The soldier nodded slightly and began to leave the room when my father’s voice stopped him.
“I have a request to make of you. Please fulfill it.”
The soldier stood up straight and nodded his consent.
The Tzemach Tzedek went on to say, “I am sure that your commander will release you and the other Jewish soldiers to celebrate the first days of Pesach in Shklov. Surely you will go to the shul there to pray on Yom Tov. After the davening, surely one of the householders will invite you to the seder and even offer that you stay and sleep in his home.
“I request of you that you not sleep in his house but that you go to sleep in the green beis midrash, one of the well-known battei midrash in the town. Do that on both nights of the s’darim. Then return to your unit and join them. On the last days of Pesach, surely you will have reached the town of Mohilev and will receive permission again to join your brethren for Yom Tov. Then you will go to shul and surely one of the householders will invite you for the Yom Tov meal and to sleep there. After the meal, decline to sleep there and go to sleep at the hekdesh (public lodging for wayfarers).
The soldier nodded. He nervously returned to his unit and immediately saw the fulfillment of the Rebbe’s words. The commander gave him a murderous look but accepted his excuse for his absence in that he wanted to see relatives in a nearby city.
PART III
The tired soldiers finished the first leg of their long journey and arrived in Shklov on Erev Pesach, hours before Yom Tov. The soldiers submitted their request and their commander gave them two days leave.
The soldiers rushed to wash and change their clothes for Yom Tov and then they all walked to the beis midrash for the holiday prayers.
After the davening the householders approached the soldiers and invited them to their homes. One of them hosted the soldier who had been to the Rebbe.
The soldier eagerly awaited developments for he knew that it wasn’t for naught that the Rebbe had given him detailed instructions. To his dismay, even before the seder ended, he was overcome by a deep sleep due to his exhaustion. He had journeyed far that day and the rain had not helped matters.
When he finally opened his eyes he saw that the candles had long since extinguished and the members of the household had gone to sleep. He was at the table alone.
He remembered what the Tzemach Tzedek had told him and he sprang up and wanted to leave for the local beis midrash. The host, who had slept fitfully, jumped up. He was afraid lest the guest had stolen something which would explain why he was leaving at this hour. The soldier, who realized what the host was thinking, emptied his pockets and showed the host that he hadn’t taken anything. It was just that he wanted to sleep in the beis midrash and not in the house of his hosts.
It was dark in the beis midrash when he entered it. Only the faint light from the ner tamid dispelled a little of the darkness while casting shadows on the walls. The soldier sighed in relief as he took off his shoes and lay down to sleep in a corner.
He suddenly heard a heavy sigh from somewhere in the beis midrash. The soldier jumped up. He hadn’t figured that there would be someone else in the beis midrash at that hour. He quickly went over to the source of the sound and in the shadows he saw a man on one of the benches. He looked at him closely and figured he must be one of the beggars who regularly slept there.
“Why are you sighing?” asked the soldier.
The beggar waved his hand in a dismissive motion. “Ach, a strong soldier like you, how will it help if I tell you? Go to sleep.”
From his voice, it sounded as though the beggar was an older man and someone who suffered and was beaten down. The soldier went back to his place to try and sleep but the old beggar’s moans moved him. He got up once again and went over to the old man and begged him to tell him why he was moaning. It was only after he pleaded with him that the man agreed to tell his tale.
“My name is Efraim. All my life I supported myself with tailoring and I was a man of means. After many years of marriage I was suddenly widowed. Some time later, a match was suggested for me. We met and married soon after.
“We lived peacefully for several weeks and then one day, a band of gypsies came to town. My wife became friends with one of them, by the name of Voshka, and this was behind my back.
“Once, when I wasn’t home, the two of them took all my money and fled. If that wasn’t enough, my creditors evicted me from my home and land in exchange for what I owed them and now I remain without a wife, without money or a home. I don’t have a penny to my name and this is because of my wicked wife and the wicked Voshka.”
The soldier felt terrible for him. He began to console the old beggar and finally offered the following. “Since I move with my unit from city to city, I have occasion to be in many towns and villages. If you describe your wife and the gypsy to me, perhaps I will recognize them in one of the places I happen to be and I can be of help to you.”
The beggar emitted another sigh and said the chances were very small. The soldier repeatedly asked him until finally the old man described the pair and gave other clear identifying signs.
PART IV
Right after the first two days of Yom Tov, the soldiers continued on their way. On the eve of Shvii shel Pesach they arrived in Mohilev on the banks of the Dnieper River.
This time too, the commander allowed the Jewish soldiers two days off for the holiday upon their request. Once again, after the davening, the householders invited the soldiers to their homes. Our soldier was also invited to one of the homes for the holiday meal.
After the meal, he went to the hekdesh to sleep as the Rebbe told him to do. He quickly fell asleep.
Late at night he was woken up in a fright by a loud noise. He sprang up and saw a group of people talking among themselves in loud, coarse tones. He had nearly gone back to bed when one of the men caught his attention. He thought that he looked like the gypsy described by the old man he had met in Shklov. His suspicions were strengthened when he saw the man go over to a woman who was sitting off to the side and exchange some light words with her. He realized that she was the beggar’s young wife who had robbed him and run away.
Now the soldier understood precisely why the Rebbe had sent him to sleep in the beis midrash and in the local hekdesh, and not in the home of his hosts. He had to take action.
In the early morning he rushed over to the house of the rav and woke him up. He asked his pardon for waking him up so early and told him the course of events.
The rav believed him and accompanied the soldier to the home of the police chief and told him the story. The police chief, who had great respect for the rav, sent a pair of policemen to arrest the couple of thieves. The two were soon behind bars.
Right after Pesach, the rav sent for the beggar from Shklov who hurried to Mohilev where he identified the woman and the gypsy. After a mutual agreement the old man gave his wife a divorce and all his money was returned to him down to the last penny.
***
“In the days before Pesach,” concluded Maharil, “the soldier returned here and had yechidus. He excitedly said, ‘Rebbe! You sit here and see what is going on in the entire world!’”