The Brisker Rav
In the early stages of World War Two, the Brisker Rav (Rabbi Yitzchok Zev Halevi Soloveitchik, 1886-1959) fled together with most of his family from Warsaw to Vilna. For three days, their traveling party was in great danger.
The Brisker Rav took upon himself to follow the advice of his ancestor Rav Chaim of Volozhin in Nefesh HaChaim (3:12). Rav Chaim Volozhiner writes that one should reflect constantly on the phrase, “Ein od milevado,” in times of danger. No matter what was going on around them, the Brisker Rav thought only about this verse and its implications.
When it came time for Minchah, the Brisker Rav asked that the wagons stop so that he could daven properly, as it was difficult for him to concentrate in a moving wagon. His fellow passengers, however, were up‐in‐arms over the idea of delaying their journey in light of the danger in which they found themselves.
The Rav announced that he had no objections if they continued, but for his part, he would daven where he was, and follow after the party later. Out of respect for him, his fellow passengers agreed to wait. When they reached the next city on their journey,’ they found the streets empty of Jews. The streets were swarming with German soldiers, and it was only through a nes (miracle) that they didn’t notice the Brisker Rav’s wagons.
A gentile woman called out to the Brisker Rav’s party to flee the city immediately because the Germans had already gathered the city’s Jews and taken them away. The Brisker Rav’s fellow passengers all expressed their amazement at the Rav’s ruach hakodesh which had delayed them long enough to avoid the Germans.
But the Rav dismissed the suggestion that anything extraordinary had taken place. “What I did was perfectly logical,” he said. “I asked myself what reason is there to hurry. There we will be in danger, and here we are in danger; if so, there is no reason not to daven properly. Anyone who acts according to the halachah is zoche to the fulfillment of the words of the Medrash (Devarim Rabbah 4:5), ‘No man who listens to Me will lose because of it.”
Reprinted from the Yom Kippur 5785 email of Chayeinu Weekly. Compiled by Tzvi Schultz.
