As a Bachur, Rav Binyamin Zev Deutsch, the principal of Yeshivas Ponovezh, lived in Hungary. One day, he and another forty-nine Bachurim were summoned to be drafted for the Hungarian army. Their parents put together a large sum of money to bribe a doctor to “find” illnesses in the fifty Bachurim, so that they wouldn’t be recruited.
The majority of the bribe money came from Rav Binyamin Zev’s parents and the parents of one other Bachur, as they were the wealthier ones and could fund it more than the others. The bribe worked, and in the doctor’s documents, he attesting to each Bachur’s “illness”.
The letters with his “findings” arrived on the morning the Bachurim were ordered to present themselves to the army. However, the doctor only sent forty-eight documents, and seemed to have forgotten to include the exemption letters for Rav Binyamin Zev and the other wealthy Bachur.
As a result of this, and because it was the last day for them to report in, these two boys had to flee Hungary as quickly as possible. Rav Binyamin Zev did not even have time to say goodbye to his family, as he quickly packed up what he could, ran to the port, and escaped to Eretz Yisroel.
Rav Binyamin Zev would say that he always considered that day “a dark and bad day.” He was envious of his friends who had been able to remain with their families, while he and his friend had to escape like thieves. Furthermore, Rav Binyamin Zev was alone in Eretz Yisroel, which was very difficult for him as a young Bachur.
However, soon after his escape, the war broke out, and only he and this other Bachur from the original group of fifty Bachurim survived. Rav Binyamin Zev eventually got married and had children and grandchildren, with some of them becoming important Roshei Yeshivah.
Rav Binyamin Zev would encourage people by telling them that even when something seems to be “bad,” it is really only good in disguise. He would say, “With time, B’Ezras Hashem, we will understand how it is good, but for the time being, we must know it and trust it!”
Reprinted from the Parshas Toldos 5785 email of Rabbi Yehuda Winzelberg’s Torah U’Tefillah.
