A Belzer Chassid told me a story about how tens of thousands of Galician Yidden were killed by the Nazis Y'mach Sh'mam. However, a large group was sent to Siberia. He remembered how as the Trans-Siberian train made a stop, a Novardoker entered the train and started screaming: כָּל מַאי דְּעָבֵיד רַחְמָנָא לְטַב עָבֵיד "Everything The Lover [meaning Hashem] does, is for the good." He went from section to section of the train, encouraging everyone that going to Siberia is actually good.
At the end of the war, they saw the truth of his words. All those “fortunate” ones who didn’t go to Siberia, ended up perishing by the Germans. And all those “unlucky” passengers on the train to Siberia, ended up surviving.
I heard similar stories about Novardokers during the war, making their rounds to be M'chazek people. Especially R' Shalom Kaiber Zatzal who was a Rosh HaVaad in Pinsk. There are legends about his conduct of fearlessness during the war. Encouraging and helping was their line. This comes from a Chinuch of not fearing people [by loads of public speaking etc, and by learning to have an Achrayus for the Klal]. We do this in our Novardok shul in Lakewood, and the “Olam” becomes more and more happy and self-confident.
I Wish I’d Be Like So and So!
R’ Yonasan Blau Shlita has told me how he has seen hundreds of Novardokers who survived the war, and so many had so little in Olam HaZeh, yet they were all super happy! In pre-War Europe there was an Alter Bachur who finally married a Sephardic girl. Her looks were very unappealing, and she was very different than him. All she knew was Hebrew, and all he knew was Yiddish.
Don’t ask me how they communicated! Novardokers have no trouble with these things, and being “pretty” has no meaning to them. Yet, they are much happier than a 21 century Frum Yid who is concerned about the Chitzoniyus of his wife. Shouldn’t the person with a beautiful wife be much happier?
You have no idea how much power your environment has over you. The weirdest dress and the craziest foods, if everyone is doing it, then you “must” have it! A Novardoker’s brain is in a different world, totally involved in his Olam HaBah. All they talk about all day is their:
- Torah and Mitzvos level
- how Zikkui HaRabbim and Chasadim are doing
- working on Ka'as and Ta’avos etc.
If this is all you think about, you’re in another world, and your life is much happier! This Novardoker would go out of his way to buy his wife things. Sometimes these things were very much against his nature and even his principles, but he would buy them anyway since she needed them! He had incredible respect for his beloved wife who didn’t really connect with him! When she was sick in the hospital, he bought her a tape with Sephardi niggunim. He was always looking for ideas how to cheer her up, and he was heavily involved in trying to understand her way of thinking. In the next world, they don’t ask you if you were able to marry a pretty woman or buy a magnificent house.
Other people would be preoccupied with thoughts like: “What a crazy wife I married. She has such weird needs and nutty habits”. They would feel shortchanged that they fell into such a Meshugener Shidduch. They’d go for years of therapy to make themselves more compatible, or they’d get divorced. But a Novardoker is totally in an Olam HaBah mode. All he cares about is the burning question they’ll be asking him in Shamayim: “Were you M’chabed the woman that Hashem gave you? Were you thankful for being a married person instead of a Bachur?”
They would love such a Shidduch! What an opportunity to grow in:
- patience
- Ha’tavah B’makom Hakpada
- being Dan L’kaf Zechus
- Anava
In Boro Park there was a Novardoker who lived in utter poverty. He lived right under the elevator train, which can make anyone crazy. Some say he had rats in his house. But his Simcha level was much higher than all of us. They say he would always be humming to himself. I suspect he was really learning Mussar, like saying to himself all day: “Olam HaZeh is only a preparation for Olam HaBah”.
[I heard R’ Galinsky say these words to himself: “Olam HaZeh is only a preparation for Olam HaBah”]. It truly puts you in a different world. It makes you happier when you live with the truth, and realize that all your pecklach are temporary. Yissurim don’t depress you and make you run to a therapist all your life. Aderaba! חֲבִיבִין יִסּוּרִין! Yissurim are precious!
This person married late, and he had only one child. Chaim G. was extremely worried about Ayin Hara, and when he’d make a private Simcha, he wouldn’t invite anyone except for this Novardoker, who had zero jealousy in his system. In fact, he was so happy with another person’s Simcha, it was as if it was his own Simcha and more!
He would work as a night worker in the post office in Manhattan, and he would travel regularly on the most dangerous lonely trains. He had zero fear. He was loaded with good-old Novardoker Bitachon. When he couldn’t make it to Shachris on Erev Pesach and be Yotzei with a Sium [since he was a Bechor], he would fast, and nobody knew about it. That year he was still an older Bachur, eating at Chaim G.’s house. He was in no hurry to start the Seder, until Chaim G. realized that his guest was fasting, and hurried up the whole Seder. He never, ever, got in Ka’as, despite different potential inflammatory situations; and he never ever spoke Lashon Hara. He once heard the slightest criticism on a Ben-Torah, and he was very disturbed. He said: How can you say that about a Ben-Torah?
Chaim G. said that he would live long because of his unusual Shmiras HaLashon, as it says: מִי הָאִישׁ הֶחָפֵץ חַיִּים נְצֹר לְשׁוֹנְךָ מֵרָע (Tehillim 34:13). Indeed, he was Niftar in his nineties.
This person would sing old Novardoker niggunim, which made jokes out of the fake world of Olam HaZeh. I knew many Novardokers who married women from different cultures, and it didn’t mean a thing to them. People who are always learning Shaar HaK’niya [a favorite in Novardok] have no trouble adjusting to different situations, strange cultures, or people who aren’t their “type”. The Anav who isn’t looking for Kavod, isn’t pained by what makes the rest of the world crazy, with never ending complaints.
But you have to keep learning Mussar, before the rest of the world’s Hashkafos destroy your sanity, and convince you how unfortunate you are. Even Chashuva people don’t realize how Kavod destroys, and how so many of their Shitos are essentially Redifas Kavod and: מָה יֹאמְרוּ הַבְּרִיּוֹת What will people say?