At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a war between Russia and Japan. Sadly enough, many young Jewish people were drafted. They all came to the heilige Sfas Emes, the deepest of the deep. And they asked him for his blessing. He blessed everyone that a miracle should happen, and they should not have to go to the war. There was one man, so eidel [gentle], so holy; really, he was not fit to be a soldier.
The Sfas Emes said to him, “Wait a minute.” The Rebbe went into his room, and came back with a book. It was a little manual on how to do circumcisions, how to make a bris. The Rebbe said to him, “Here, learn how to make a bris, and I bless you, even when you go to the army, you should come back beshalom [peacefully], and with joy.” The boy began crying, and said, “Rebbe, please bless me that I shouldn’t have to go to the war.” But the Sfas Emes was already talking to somebody else. The boy gets drafted and goes to basic training. Without saying anything bad, all those Russian and Polish peasants are just so dirty, their officer is ashamed of them. They don’t shine their shoes, they don’t take care of their rifles.
Suddenly a general comes to look at the basic training, at the new soldiers, and the officer tells him. “I’ll tell you the truth, I’m not so proud of all the other soldiers, but there is one Jew here. He is very clean and he looks very well-kept.” So he is introduced to the general. The general says, “I want to talk to you in private.” He takes him to his office, takes a pistol in his hand and says, “Is it true that you only eat Kosher food?” The young soldier says, “Yes.” He holds the pistol to his heart and he says, “Hey, you are a soldier of the Czar of Russia, and the Czar doesn’t want you to be hungry, the Czar wants you to eat all the food you can get your hands on. So, I’m ordering you to eat treif food.”
The boy answers says, “I’m sorry, I’m a servant of G-d, not of the Russian Czar.” The general walks up and down the room and then he comes up to him again and says, “I heard you keep Shabbos.” He answers, “Yes.” He says, “You are crazy! You are a soldier in the army of the Russian Czar, and you keep Shabbos!? The Czar needs you to work everyday.”
Mamish, this young man knew that this is the test of his life. He says, “I’m sorry, I’m a servant of G-d.” The general was holding the pistol against his heart. Suddenly he smiles and puts down the pistol and says to him, “Listen to me, nobody knows, but I’m Jewish. My wife just had a baby and I need a mohel to do the bris. I’m not religious, but one thing I know: A mohel has to keep Shabbos and eat kosher food. So I just wanted to test you to see if you really eat kosher and if you really keep Shabbos. But now that I see that you do, I’ll tell you what I’ll do for you. I’ll sign you out from here and say I need you and take you with me. And after you do the bris, after you circumcise the baby, I will give you civilian garments and you can just run home.”
