YOUNG GIRL IN THE LION’S DEN

The surprising series of events began when a coded letter arrived from the Rebbe Rayatz who asked that the middle daughter go to the military doctor and try to get her brother Mendel released from the Red Army. The girl was beside herself; how could she convince the doctor when others had failed? And what if the doctor decided to inform on the entire family? Nevertheless, she carried out the Rebbe’s order with a pounding heart and great fear. * This was the first of a series of military exemptions which the girl arranged for the bachurim. * From the book “So’arot B’demama” on the heroism of Chassidishe women behind the Iron Curtain. * Presented for 12 Tamuz.

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS

In an interview that Mrs. Mussia Katzenelenbogen gave, she said:

A few years after my parents Chaim Elozor and Chaya Doba Gorelick were married, they had six beautiful children. But five of them died within the first 6 weeks of life. Only one daughter remained, my sister Tzippa a”h (Kozliner). It was an immense tragedy. The family thought they had suffered from an ayin ha’ra (evil eye).

When my mother was pregnant once again, she was very worried. Shortly before giving birth, my father went to the Rebbe Rashab in Lubavitch (he would go to him every holiday) and told him the situation. The Rebbe gave a blessing that the birth should go well and he added a number of instructions: first, if the baby was a girl, she should be called Mushka; if a boy, he should be named Menachem Mendel. Second, move to another city.

My parents moved from Szedrin to Rogatchov. A girl was born at the beginning of the winter of 5668/1907. That was me, and I was named Mushka (Mussia). Fifteen months later, on Purim 5669, my brother Menachem Mendel was born.

Joy returned to my parents’ home. If that wasn’t enough, my mother was expecting another baby! This pregnancy wasn’t easy. She suffered from heart complications and the doctors said she could not give birth. My father went to ask the Rebbe for a bracha. This time, to his surprise, the Rebbe said he would come to us!

I was about eight years old and I don’t remember much. However, the details of this episode were related at home for many years to come. My mother was awe-stricken by the coming of the Rebbe and there was a great sense of anticipation in the house.

A few days later, the Rebbe arrived. My father welcomed him at the door. The Rebbe asked, “Where is your wife?” My mother came out and the Rebbe told her, “I heard that you are afraid of the doctors. You should know that He (pointing upward) is the best doctor of all. All will be well, don’t be afraid and Hashem will help you.”

My sister Mariasha (Vilenkin) was born with that bracha.

SHLICHUS FROM THE REBBE

My brother Mendel learned with mesirus nefesh in secret Yeshivos Tomchei T’mimim in Charkov, Nevel, and other places. There was always concern about him at home, but my parents kept repeating that this is what the Rebbe Rayatz wanted.

My brother received a draft notice before Rosh HaShana 5691/1930. The day he was supposed to show up was Rosh HaShana and my father decided that he would not serve in the army, come what may. However, one could not avoid presenting oneself to the draft office. The military doctor who lived in our neighborhood and was a member of the doctors committee at the draft office refused to cooperate. My father wrote to the Rebbe Rayatz and asked for a bracha.

Some time went by until he received a response, for the Rebbe was no longer in the Soviet Union. The answer arrived on Erev Rosh HaShana. The Rebbe’s response was, “The middle daughter should go to the doctor with a minimal amount of money and with caution, and Hashem will help.”

The middle daughter is me.

My father told me I had to go to the doctor’s house and the Rebbe’s bracha would accompany me. I tried to get out of it. I said that if my father had not managed to convince him, nor friends, what could I do?

My father understood my fear and did not pressure me but he confided in some of his fellow Chassidim. They maintained that if the Rebbe said so, then the salvation would come through me. They came to our house to convince me. “The Rebbe sees into the distance, and if he said to go, then you surely have what it takes to succeed,” they said. After much importuning, they convinced me.

I won’t deny that my heart beat wildly when I went to the clinic. I did not know how the doctor would react. It was possible that not only wouldn’t he help, but he could tattle on me and my family and then our end would be bitter. But I had no choice but to hope for the best.

When I arrived at the clinic, I saw the doctor standing at the entrance on his way out for home. I thought of what I could say to him. Being so overwrought, I did not say a word. The doctor saw me and his eyes lit up. “I was waiting for you,” he said, to my utter amazement. “Go home and tell your brother to come to me tomorrow after smoking heavily so I can write that his lungs are damaged.”

“I am sorry,” I said, finally able to open my mouth. I don’t how I mustered the courage, but I continued, “Tomorrow is Shabbos and a holiday and Jews do not smoke.”

The doctor realized he could not argue with that and he agreed that my brother should come without smoking, but it should look as though the effort was difficult for him.

The next day, on Rosh HaShana, my father, Tzippa, Mendel and I went to the draft board. We all stood in the corridor. My father, with a very serious face, said T’hillim, and we all waited anxiously to see how things would turn out.

Mendel waited a long time on line. When the director of the medical committee left the room for a moment, our doctor-neighbor came out and said, “Gorelick.” My brother jumped from his place and went into the draft committee room. Three doctors sat there and they told him to sit down and stand many times, quickly. He acted as though this was very hard for him and they immediately signed that this was hard for him and therefore he was exempt from army service.

As they signed, the director of the committee entered the room. He looked at the exemption and said with disappointment, “I was too late. Earlier, we saw the documents and read that he is talented in drawing and printing. In the army now there is a demand for recruits who are talented in this way, but if you already signed the exemption, it cannot be undone …”

Mendel continued to act as though he had problems breathing. He left the room while holding his hand over his heart.

It was only when we got home that we expressed our great joy. We had all seen the fulfillment of the Rebbe Rayatz’s bracha.

On Motzaei Rosh HaShana, we rushed to send the Rebbe a telegram which said: Mazal Tov!

Now we had to solve the riddle of why the doctor suddenly agreed to help Mendel. The one who provided the explanation was the doctor himself. It was a few days later when my father asked me to go to the doctor and bring him cake and wine along with an envelope containing 150 rubles, to thank him for saving Mendel.

When I got to the doctor he asked, “Surely you are wondering why I agreed to release your brother.” When I said yes, that was so, he told me, “Ever since your father came and asked me to help release your brother, I was not able to sleep at night. I am a gentile and you are Jewish, and we are different. I thought, why should I endanger myself for a Jew? However, the night before you came, I had a dream in which I was told that if you come to me, I had to do as you asked. But I still do not know why I did it,” he concluded.

I said, “There is one G-d and He gives each one a soul; every person has a purpose in the world and the purpose of your soul, apparently, is to save Jews.”

***

From then on, I became a shlucha of the Rebbe Rayatz, not just for my brother but for other bachurim.

In our city, Stari-Russia and its environs, there were many bachurim who received draft notices. They did not know how to extricate themselves from this calamity and they wrote to the Rebbe Rayatz. The Rebbe’s answer was, “Go to R’ Elozor Gorelick’s middle daughter and she will help you.” He even asked that they give me his letter with blessings for helping my brother be released from the army.

The bachurim came to me with the Rebbe’s letter and when I saw it, I felt an elevated feeling of being a special emissary of the Rebbe. Over a period of time, I was able, with the Rebbe’s bracha, to save seventeen bachurim from serving in the Red Army. Included were: R’ Lazer Lazarov, R’ Chaim Volovik (later my mechutan), R’ Dovid Rogatzky, R’ Michoel Teitelbaum, and R’ Shimon Katzenelenbogen (my future husband).

RELEASE AND BIRTH WITH THE REBBE’S BRACHA

In 5692 I became engaged, with the Rebbe’s bracha, to Shimon Katzenelenbogen, the son of Michoel and (Mumme) Sarah, a well-known Chassidic family.

After the wedding we lived for two years in Stari-Russia and then we moved to Malachovka, a suburb of Moscow.

My family (the Gorelicks) and my husband’s family suffered greatly from communist persecution. One Friday night in the year 5695, my father and brother Mendel were arrested. The next day, when I went to visit my parents, I found my mother very worried. She told me about the arrests.

My father was accused of teaching Torah to children and my brother was accused of learning Torah. For many weeks they were tortured in the interrogation cellars in order to extract from them the names of the organizers of the chadarim and yeshivos, and the names of melamdim and parents who sent their children.

In the criminal file which took up six pages (and was discovered in recent years in KGB archives), they wrote at length about their involvement in anti-government activities such as founding secret yeshivos and chadarim. They were sentenced to three years exile in the village of Shymkent in Kazakhstan.

This was a severe punishment, but in those years when many were killed for such crimes, it was a big miracle and we thanked Hashem.

Before my father went to Kazakhstan, we – the family – went to see him. We stood behind bars and spoke for a few minutes. We cried and cried. The sight of my father at that time is one I will never forget. He had a towel on his head. At first, I did not understand it, but then I suddenly realized that in prison it was forbidden to wear a yarmulke since it is a religious observance, so my father had a towel on his head instead.

While in exile, my father became sick and my sister Mariasha went to help him. Later on, my mother also went with her grandson Mottel (Kozliner) who was five. His parents wanted him to continue learning Torah with my father.

Now and then, we received letters from my father but we did not glean much from them since he knew that the censor went over everything.

In order to ensure that those exiled remained in their place of exile, they had to go each morning to the police station and sign in. The long exile was hard, far from family and Chassidim and under constant surveillance. We constantly yearned for the end of the exile but our disappointment was great.

Even when the three years were over, my father and Mendel were not released. Their release papers were lost and they had to remain in exile until the documents were found.

While my father and brother were in exile, my father-in-law, R’ Michoel, was arrested. It was Motzaei Simchas Torah. He was exiled, but until today we do not know what became of him.

In 5638, the Rebbe sent R’ Nachum Zalman Gorewitz to me for me to arrange his exemption with the doctor in Stari-Russia, the same doctor who had arranged my brother’s exemption.

When he came to me with his story, I did not know how I could help him since the draft notice he received was from Moscow and he had to be examined by doctors in that city and not by the doctor in distant Stari-Russia. But if the Rebbe had sent him, then there was a reason.

I suggested that he stay in our house in the meantime until I thought of what to do. I suddenly had an idea. I told him to go back to Moscow and ask his personal doctor for permission to travel to Stari-Russia to recuperate from an illness that of course he did not have. The city Stari-Russia is considered a resort town and I figured the doctor would agree.

Indeed, the doctor approved the trip. We went together to that city and went straight to that doctor. He was surprised to see me for we had not lived in that city for a long time. When I told him why I had come, he refused to help me. He said he had done enough for Jews and he did not want to endanger himself again. After I pressured him, he agreed, saying this was the last time he would give these papers.

After the exemption was arranged we went back to my house and from there R’ Nachum Zalman wrote to the Rebbe with the “Mazal Tov” news. Not much time elapsed and I received a response from the Rebbe: “Mazal Tov on the release of Nachum Zalman Gorewitz from the army, and all that is not good will pass; as for you – Hashem will help with what you lack. Write a letter to me in the language that is easy for you and send me your picture.”

I contemplated the Rebbe’s words and understood them thus: “And all that is not good will pass” referred to my father’s lost papers and that it would all work out. “Hashem will help with what you lack” referred to my not yet having children after being married for six years.

Over the years, we went to the best doctors who said all was fine and there was no natural reason for us not having children. We did not write to the Rebbe about it since there was no medical problem. When I received this clear answer from the Rebbe, I was fully confident that the Rebbe’s words would be fulfilled.

In 5699 I gave birth to my daughter Feiga. At precisely that time, my father, mother and Mendel returned from exile in Kazakhstan. When I left the hospital for home we met and our joy was double. My father said the SheHechiyanu blessing with Hashem’s name and with many tears.