Little six-year-old Eliezer was very excited. He had travelled a few weeks with his father to go and see the Rebbe Reshab. The day had arrived; they had finally reached their destination. That night they were the most distinguished guests as they had travelled the furthest.
Little Eliezer stood at the door with his father to go into the Rebbe. The moment finally arrived and they entered the Rebbe’s study. The Rebbe spoke to Eliezer’s father and gave him a Beracha. He then turned to Eliezer and asked him, “What is your name?”
“Eliezer.”
“What does Eliezer mean,” asked the Rebbe.
“Ki Elokei Avi Be’ezri vayatzileini micherev Pharaoh,” the boy replied. (Because the G-d of my father was my assistance and saved me from the sword of Pharaoh. This is the explanation Moshe Rabbeinu gave when he called his son Eliezer.)
“How do you know,” asked the Rebbe?
“I heard how my brother were reviewing his Chumash classes,” replied Eliezer.
The Rebbe bent over to young Eliezer and whispered into his ear so his father shouldn’t overhear. “So it will be, the sword of Pharaoh will have no power over you.”
Little Eliezer Naness grew up and even merited to study in the Yeshiva of his great Rebbe - Rabbi Shalom Dov Ber Schneerson Zt”l – the Sixth Grand Rabbi of Lubavitch
But then the dark era of Communism started. Torah study and keeping Mitzvos were forbidden. It wasn’t too long that Eliezer found himself in Siberia. Twenty years Eliezer was in Siberia but Eliezer was determined and come what may he never desecrated Shabbos. He wouldn’t even go to work on Shabbos. Instead, he did an extra day’s quota during the week. More than once Eliezer was brought to the court in Siberia for not following orders. The officers threatened to kill him. But Eliezer wasn’t moved. He turned to the officers and said, “you can’t kill me.”
“What do you mean,” asked the officers? “We kill people all the time!”
“But I have a promise from my Rebbe that you can’t do anything to me.”
On Shabbos Eliezer would run around in his room to avoid freezing in the ice-cold weather of Siberia that would reach- 40 degrees Celsius / -40 degrees Fahrenheit.
One Shabbos he collapsed. While he lay on the floor the Rebbe the Reshab came to him in a dream. “Not only what I said that the sword of Pharaoh will have no power over you, you will also merit to go and live in Eretz Yisrael.”
Rabbi Eliezer Naness survived the horrors and the cold of Siberia and lived in his later years in Yerushalaim where he passed away at the age of 99. He penned his years in Siberia in the famous book ‘Subotta’
Reprinted from the Parshas Pekudei 5785 edition of Rabbi Dovid Caro’s Inspired by a Story.
