Sometimes it seems that such a corrected life is a pipe dream... The vast majority of the Jewish people are far from observing the mitzvot, and the opinion of the Torah receives no attention at all, but despite the seemingly gloomy situation, we must know that there is no room for despair at all!
Rabbi Friedman of Rexim related in this context that he had the opportunity to travel to the United States via Europe in previous years, when the flight tickets had an appendix intended for tearing off by the clerk. He found himself standing behind Rabbi Yaakov Galinsky, shlita, and now he saw that the clerk was glancing at the card, and when he looked at him with a stern look in his eyes, it lit up to him: "You can't get on, there's a signature missing..." Rabbi Yaakov did not understand English, but he also understood the problem. He turned to Rabbi Friedman and said to him: "Tell him that if Hashem wills, I will be there..." Rabbi Friedman said nothing, fearing what he was going to do, approached and handed his card to the clerk, and with a sigh of relief he saw that the clerk had approved his entry. "I prayed Ma'ariv in a minyan that was organized there" – Rabbi Friedman continues in his story – "and then I boarded the plane, and to my amazement I discovered Rabbi Yaakov Yashuv there... When he saw me, he said, "Well, I told you that if God wills, I'll be here? Do you see that you must not despair? Sit here, and I will tell you where I drew this faith."
I studied in Białystok - he began and said - after the Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement, Lithuania remained free, but soon the Russians occupied the place and began to harass the yeshiva students, and it was not long before we were all put on the train on the way to Siberia. We traveled for ten days or more as animals... The Russians were not allowed to leave the car for even the most basic needs, and the suffering was indescribable. Then the train stopped in Siberia, and we realized that it could be worse. We had been in Siberia for fifteen years, imprisoned for no apparent reason. Little did we know that imprisonment in this frozen corner would save us from certain death in the gas chambers of the accursed Nazis, who, in Operation Barbarossa, conquered all of Russia as far as Stalingrad.
In all those long and agonizing years, I had one dream that always accompanied me - one day, so I dreamed, I would get out of here and then meet my mother... I'll kiss her hand and say, "Mom, my mother, thank you so much for saving your last slice of bread to hire me a good teacher." But when I finally arrived in Israel, I didn't meet my mother, nor my father, nor my brothers, nor my sisters – everyone, they all remained there, silent and frozen forever... When I learned of the tragedy, I didn't want to live anymore. I didn't know what to do with myself, and I was shrouded in utter despair. Finally, someone advised me to go to Chazon Ish, and I listened to his advice and left. The Chazon Ish heard everything I had to say, and said to me: I want to tell you a story:
In Lithuania lived a quiet and calm Jew, who made a living in commerce. Every year the Jew would borrow a large sum of money, travel to the fair in Kovno, where he would replenish all his stores of goods, and throughout the year he would sell the goods he bought, cover the loan he took, and provide for his household with dignity. One year, after taking care of himself on a loan, the Jew fell ill and could no longer go to the fair as usual. He had no choice but to call his wife and say, "Look, there are things I can't give up, and yet I can’t go, so I ask you to take the money and go in my place." The woman agreed, listened attentively to all the instructions he gave her, took the money and tied it up in two bundles, put it in her bag - and left.
The commotion that greeted this woman, who had never left the village, caused her to lose her temper, and she fell and fainted. For a few minutes she lay like this, until her spirit returned to her, and knowing that she had no other choice, she got up and began to walk. She walked among the stalls until she found a seller, who seemed to her to trust his word, began to bargain with him, and when they both reached Emek Shaveh, she opened her bag to get the money out of there, and to her horror she discovered that... There is no money... Where's the money? Her hands trembled as she spilled the contents of the bag on the ground, but all the searches yielded nothing. No money. Apparently, when she fainted, the bundle fell, and someone maliciously took advantage of the situation, took it, and left... The money is not mine at all! - The woman began to cry out - what will happen to the hungry children and the sick husbands?! Her shouts attracted attention from the rest of the audience, and it wasn't long before credible testimony came about a man who was seen picking up the money. When they reached him, the woman asked him, "Did you find the money?" "Yes," replied the man, "but he is mine..." "He was wrapped in two bundles" - the woman gave the signs. "Yes," the finder agreed, "but the halacha is that a person who finds money in a city where most of the non-Jews are his, for two reasons: one, because it turns out that the loser is a non-Jew, and the second, because the loser apparently despaired, because a wrong person would find it and never return it. And if this is the halakha, then the money I found belongs to me by law! And there is no reason for me to give it back to you." The woman shouted, "Have mercy on me, the money is not mine!" But it is borrowed. Finally, the two of them went to Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spector, the rabbi of Kovno. The rabbi heard the woman's claims, and then the words of the other who claimed: "She cries out that I should have mercy on her, and of course, I feel sorry for her, but no more than I feel sorry for my own children... Heaven forbid I would touch that is not mine, but property that according to Halacha is mine – there is no reason to find mercy on it... I have four teenage girls in my house, and I believe that mercy for them precedes pity for that strange woman." Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan instructed him to return the money immediately and said that he would later explain to him why, and indeed, after he returned it, he said to him: "The whole reason for the law of 'these are his' is because the husband has certainly already given up, but in this case the money is not the wife's, but her husband's, and since her husband does not even know that he has lost the money, she is not the owner of the house because of her despair at all! And in any case, the money is not yours!"
At this point, the Chazon Ish raised his holy eyes to the broken young man in front of him and said: "Are you the owner of the house to despair? Are you the master of the world? After all, the world belongs to God, and as long as He is the owner, there is no room for despair at all!" "By virtue of this" – Rabbi Yaakov Galinsky concluded his story – "I gathered the faith and confidence that if the Holy One, blessed be He, wants me to get on the plane, there is no room for despair! He is the owner – and He is the one who decides!" We also need to know that there is no room to despair about his situation; let the Creator of the world "arrange" the world in the best possible way, and focus on what we need to do – knowing that we have no life without the holy Torah, and true devotion to our Father in heaven.
