During the era of the Cantonist Decrees in Czarist Russia, Jewish boys as young as twelve were forcibly conscripted into the army for 25-year terms. The true purpose of these drafts was to convert Jewish children to Russian Orthodox Christianity through isolation from their communities and relentless pressure. According to Halacha, saving these young souls from spiritual destruction was not only permitted but obligatory.
Reb Baruch Yosef Kozliner, a Torah teacher in Disna, Belarus, secretly dedicated himself to the sacred work of saving these young children. Working with the Lubavitch Yeshivah, he arranged draft exemptions for Jewish students through forged documents and bribes to government officials. Despite handling substantial sums of money, Reb Baruch never took a single kopek for himself.
There was trouble for the Jewish community of Disna when government officials were tipped off about the draft exemption scheme. Investigators from Petersburg suddenly arrived in Disna and arrests swept through the town. Nearly everyone involved in the exemption scheme was imprisoned. Terrified, Reb Baruch fled to Lubavitch to seek the counsel from the Rebbe Rashab (Rabbi Shalom Dov Ber Schneerson).
After hearing Reb Baruch's urgent plea to daven for his safety, the Rebbe Rashab asked him two questions: Had anyone seen him leave town and had he acted honestly with the funds he was given to save the Jewish children?
When Reb Baruch confirmed that only his wife knew of his trip and that he had taken care to be very honest with the money entrusted to him to save the Jewish children, the Rebbe Rashab unexpectedly advised him to return back to Disna immediately — directly into the apparent danger of incarceration from which Reb Baruch had been fleeing from.
Reb Baruch did not understand the advice but obeyed, nonetheless. Back in Disna, he waited anxiously as more arrests occurred every day, thinking that he would be next at any moment. Then, through Divine Providence, a miraculous turn of events unfolded.
A corrupt official in Disna who had once taken bribes himself, had in his pocket a letter detailing Reb Baruch's activities, and was ready to hand it to the investigators which would most certainly lead to Reb Baruch’s arrest. However, his secretary discovered a letter exposing the official's own past corruption and confronted him about it. In a panic, the official begged the secretary to hide the incriminating evidence against him. The secretary listened to the official and gave him the incriminating letter – now the official had both letters in his pocket.
At the precise moment when the secretary gave him the letter, the government investigators burst through the door. Flustered, the official reached into his pocket to produce the letter against Reb Baruch—but instead, pulled out the letter incriminating himself. The official was arrested on the spot and the evidence against Reb Baruch vanished forever in the official's pocket.
Reb Baruch was never arrested. He merited extraordinary Divine protection due to his complete honesty in the handling of the funds to save the Jewish children.
