By Rabbi Yissochar Frand
The Chofetz Chaim was once traveling and he stopped at a Jewish inn. Shortly after he arrived, an extremely boorish person entered. He sat down at a table and shouted at the innkeeper to bring him fried goose and vodka. When his food was set down in front of him, he devoured it without reciting a berachah, while acting abusively to everyone around him.
The Chofetz Chaim was aghast at this man’s behavior, and he was about to go over and say something, when the innkeeper came over and said, “I must tell you something about this person.”
The Boorish Jew Had Been a Cantonist
We have all heard of the Cantonists, little children who were seized by the Russian authorities and taken to serve in the czar’s army for 25 years. Life in that army was a living Gehinnom. Raised from the age of 7 or 8 in the company of coarse peasants, some of these children eventually succumbed to the pressure and converted to Christianity.
This man, the innkeeper explained, had not converted. But he didn’t have even the most rudimentary knowledge of what it means to be a Jew. All he remembered from before he was seized was that he was Jewish.
The Chofetz Chaim walked over to the man’s table and said, “I am jealous of your portion in Olam Haba. For you to remain a Jew after all you went through and not convert to Christianity is truly amazing. Your nisayon (test) was greater than that of Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah” (see Daniel Ch. 3). Upon hearing the Chofetz Chaim’s words, the man started crying. From that day on, he became very attached to the Chofetz Chaim and eventually became a complete baal teshuvah.
Reprinted from the Parshas Kedoshim 5784 edition of At the ArtScroll Shabbos Table. Excerpted from the ArtScroll book – “Rabbi Frand on the Parshah 3”
