THE SURVIVOR’S DILEMMA
The Rav of Chug Chasan Sofer, R’ Shlomo Yitzchok Unger, survived the Holocaust and went to B’nei Brak to start his life anew. He took his unique talent of strengthening others and built a shul there, with most of its congregants also being survivors. True to his nature, he encouraged his fellow survivors to continue with their lives and to not lose their faith.
R’ Unger relayed to R’ Yankel Galinsky an incredible story. As is part and parcel with being a Rav, R’ Unger fielded many questions from his congregants, but because they were mostly survivors, their questions were more interesting than a Rav of a different shul might get.
One day, one of the fellow survivors, who we’ll call Shalom, prefaced his question with a story that took place during the Holocaust, which was the following:
In the same barracks as Shalom was an inmate from a prestigious family, named R’ Chaim’ke. One day, R’ Chaim’ke informed Shalom that tomorrow would be Pesach and that they therefore needed matzos to perform the mitzvah. Not only that, R’ Chaim’ke knew of how they would get them: Neighboring their work camp was a wheat factory, and R’ Chaim’ke knew of a whole bag of wheat that had exploded, leaving stray wheat kernels lying on the floor.
“Let’s go and ‘steal’ some kernels,” R’ Chaim’ke pressed him, “grind them and bake them, and with that we’ll be able to eat them for Pesach.” Shalom was reluctant, as breaking out of the camp to grab anything could be the end of them, but Shalom agreed. He ran there, found the sought-after kernels, ground them, and baked the dough on a burning hot tray. The matzos totaled two k’zeisim, enough for the two of them to each eat one and each fulfill the mitzvah.
Shalom joyfully took the matzos, tucked them under his arm, and headed back to the camp. His excitement was palpable; he was going to fulfill such a precious mitzvah!
As he entered the camp, the guard noticed him smuggling something under his sleeve. He detected the matzos, grabbed them away, threw them to the floor, and trampled them with his thick leather boots. The guard wasn’t done, though, and proceeded to give Shalom a beating like he’d never had before, leaving him a hairsbreadth away from death. Just before he could, the guard was distracted by someone else and left Shalom alone. That spared his life.
After the guard left, Shalom mustered whatever strength he had, or didn’t have, and collected the remainder of his matzos, a few crumbs that totaled only one kezayis, and headed back to the barracks.
R’ Chaim’ke, seeing Shalom’s dire situation, came running to him, inquiring as to what took place. Shalom told him the whole story, and R’ Chaim’ke gave him much-needed words of encouragement, lifting his spirit and giving him the emotional support that he needed to overcome the incident.
Once things calmed down, the question of which of them should eat the lone kezayis arose. R’ Chaim’ke claimed that since he was the one who introduced the idea and was the one who motivated Shalom to do it, the matzah should be his. Shalom, on the other hand, claimed that he nearly sacrificed his life for it, and it surely should be his. This was the question.
In the end, Shalom decided that he would give the mitzvah to R’ Chaim’ke on two conditions: 1) that R’ Chaim’ke says with him word for word the entire Haggadah, and 2) that the s’char, reward of the mitzvah, would be Shalom’s. R’ Chaim’ke agreed to these conditions.
That night, at the Seder, they got together to say the Haggadah. Many other inmates gathered to partake in their event, even though they wouldn’t have any matzah to eat. R’ Chaim’ke kept their agreement, R’ Chaim’ke got the matzos, while Shalom had the Haggadah dictated to him word for word.
The next day, they got up to go to work. During their work, while no Nazis were looking, they gathered and started to daven. They were so overwhelmed with their emotion that, as they got to Hallel, R’ Chaim’ke got so enthusiastic that he started to enunciate the words of Tehillim loud enough to be heard by the guards.
When the Nazis heard R’ Chaim’ke’s heartfelt prayers, they immediately marched right over to him and killed him on the spot. Shalom didn’t hear or think about R’ Chaim’ke after that, but just last night, he told R’ Unger, R’ Chaim’ke came to Shalom in a dream, requesting bitterly for the s’char of that mitzvah he’d agreed to give to Shalom. It means so much to him, R’ Chaim’ke told him, and he therefore requested that Shalom change his mind and grant R’ Chaim’ke the reward retroactively.
Hearing this question, R’ Unger said the question was too much for him to handle, and that it must be brought to “the higher-ups.” The question was brought to the Machnifk’e Rebbe, who replied that the s’char should rightfully be given to R’ Chaim’ke.
This puzzled Shalom. “Rightfully?” he exclaimed. “I was the one who endangered my life for it!”
The Machnifk’e Rebbe explained that since Shalom was blessed with children and the opportunity to fulfill the mitzvah many more times since that Pesach in the camp, unlike R’ Chaim’ke, whose last chance was that one broken-up kezayis, it should, therefore, rightfully be given to R’ Chaim’ke.
The Rebbe then instructed Shalom to head to the shul, open the Aron Kodesh, put his head inside, and recall the whole incident. Afterward, he should enunciate that he, Shalom, grants R’ Chaim’ke with the s’char of the mitzvah, and so he did.
Recalling the episode caused Shalom to revisit the old, heavy emotions. Weepingly, he ran home to finish his crying, which led him to a deep slumber. In his sleep, R’ Chaim’ke revisited him, his face glowing from joy, thanking him immensely for giving him the reward.
After he awoke, Shalom returned to the Rebbe, and reported the conclusion of the story.
The Rebbe was overtaken by this story. He was shocked not from the fact that his solution worked and that R’ Chaim’ke had returned to Gan Eden, but rather that he gained a powerful analogy from the story. “This man had gone through the war. With all the yesurim he confronted, he definitely got a complete kaparah for anything he needed. Yet, he still makes the trip from the Next World in order to get the reward of just one mitzvah!”
The reward for every mitzvah is infinity, and it was worth returning to This World to reclaim it. How lucky we are that we can do so many mitzvos, each of them having endless reward. (Heard from R’ Ephraim Wachsman)
