The Power of Sh'ma Yisroel
R' Yaakov Galinsky Zatzal fled from Lita to Poland during WWII to escape from the cursed Nazis, Y'mach Sh'mam. When the Germans reached Poland and conquered it, he was able to escape, and somehow found himself on a train going to Bukhara. The train finally arrived its destination in the evening. When he stepped off the train, he did not recognize a soul, nor did he understand the language (all he spoke was Yiddish, and a spatter of Polish). It was wartime, and he was afraid that if his foreign identity became known, he could be reported to the police. **
R' Yaakov noticed a man sitting in a little booth near the train station, where he had a shoe-polishing stand. His face looked Jewish, but R' Yaakov couldn’t say for sure. He thought to himself: “On the one hand, I can’t ask him directly if he is a Jew, because if the answer is no, he will surely report me to the police. On the other hand, if he is indeed Jewish, he can provide me with a place to stay and a safe haven”. He came up with a plan. I will walk over to him, and whisper: “Sh'ma Yisroel, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad”. If he is Jewish, he will realize that I am a Jew. And if he is a Goy, he won’t understand a thing I'm saying, and he will leave me alone. ***
R' Yaakov walked over, and said the Passuk “Sh'ma Yisroel”. The person emotionally replied: “Baruch Shem K’vod Malchuso Le’Olam Va’ed”! The man kissed and hugged him, brought him to his home, and gave him to eat and drink. R' Yaakov stayed there until the end of the war, and in the end was saved. He came to Eretz Yisroel, and established a Novardok Yeshiva in Chadera; all in the Zechus of the Sh'ma Yisroel he said in the train station in Bukhara. ****
The Sh'ma Yisroel that Saved the Jewish Children from The Monastery
In the years after the Holocaust, R' Yosef Shlomo Kahanman Zatzal, the Ponivezer Rov, would travel around, looking for Jewish children who had been hidden in monasteries during the war, and bring them back to Yiddishkeit. The Rov heard about a certain monastery where many Jewish children were hidden. He approached the priest in charge, and requested a list with the names of all the children, so he can take the Jewish ones. But the priest objected, claiming that there are many Jewish sounding names common among gentiles (Miller, Frank, etc.). “Let me at least meet with the children face to face!” “No, this is against policy”. *****
The Rov was not Nis'pael & remained persistent. Finally, the priest agreed to let the Rov greet the children while gathered all together, for exactly one minute. “In one minute, he surely won’t be able to identify any Jewish children”. The Rov stood before the children, and with tears in his eyes, cried out: “Sh'ma Yisroel, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad!!!!!!!!!!!!” Instantly, cries of little voices were heard from all directions “Tatte!” “Mameh!” In spite of being detached from Yiddishkeit for some time, and from such a tender age, the Kriyas Sh’ma before going to bed that they said with their parents was rooted in the depths of their Neshamos. Throngs of small children swarmed towards the Rov, who took them under his wing, and back to Eretz Yisroel. They came back to Yiddishkeit and were saved from spiritual extinction, all in the Zechus of Kriyas Sh’ma.
