Pre-Pesach, 1945, in Bergen-Belsen. The Bluzhover Rebbe had an unstoppable teshuka to eat matza on the leil ha’seder. Out of his great ahavas ha’mitzvos, he approached Haus, the Nazi Gestapo, to get permission for them to bake matzos. He presented his offer on behalf of 40 people who were willing to forsake eight days of bread in exchange for the deal.
The Gestapo complied, but he added that he would only grant permission if he got approval from his commander. “In Germany, we are very civilized,” explained Haus. “Nothing can be done without permission.” Three weeks after he sent off the request, he got a letter from his commander enabling them to bake matzos. A mofeis.
An hour after they started, Haus the Gestapo stormed into the barracks where they were baking, burning in anger. He ran over and kicked their makeshift oven. Haus explained that he’d learned of a letter that had been prepared to be sent to the Swiss government, detailing what was happening in the camps. “Is this what you give me,” Haus thundered, “after all the care that I’ve given you?”
It was over. There was no more baking. They’d lost their chance. Haus took the matzos, threw them on the floor, and trampled them with his big leather boots. He then went ahead and gave them all a hard beating, leaving his worst blows for Rebbe. While the Rebbe was being beaten, lying almost unconscious, the Rebbe managed to grab hold of a small piece of matza, tucking it beneath his clothing to preserve it for the seder night. The Rebbe, who at the time was already 56-years old, miraculously survived the beating.
At their secret seder, they all gathered around the Rebbe as he recited the Haggadah in the corner. They’d gathered their water, what the Nazis called “coffee,” and used that as their “daled kosos.” The matza was whatever had been salvaged after Haus’s rampage, and they certainly had plenty of marror.
Kiddush began with the Rebbe’s face beaming with joy and continued with the rest of the Haggadah. The understanding was that the matza would be eaten by the Rebbe, as he was the one who had initiated the baking. As they reached Motzi Matza, the Rebbe was approached by Rebbetzin Bronya Kashski, requesting that the matza be given to her son.
“All the adults here have already eaten matza in their childhood,” she said. “They’ll have that memory for the rest of their lives. But here is a child who has never tasted it. Precedence should be given to him. After all, this Yom Tov is about the children. He hasn’t experienced eating a matza, and so he won’t have any recollection of that auspicious mitzva to renew again when he’ll be freed. Priority should be given to him.”
The Rebbe agreed that her son would be the one to consume that matza. As the boy uttered his bracha, “al achilas matza,” the room filled with emotion and uncontrollable sobbing.
A while after the war was over, Reb. Kashski was redt a shidduch. Before proceeding with it, she went to consult with her daas Torah — the Bluzhover Rebbe. She told the Rebbe that she was redt to someone named Yisrael Spira, and she wanted the Rebbe’s consent. The Rebbe confirmed that the prospective husband was befitting for her, and that she should go ahead with it.
At the appointed meeting, she was shocked. The person who showed up was — the Rebbe himself! His name was Reb Yisrael Spira, and Reb. Kashski hadn’t known his first name. During the war, the Rebbe had lost his first wife (and only daughter), and she was the prospective shidduch that was suggested. Within a short time, they got married, and the Rebbe raised all her four children.
A while later, the Rebbe explained what he found striking in the shidduch. While many people in the camps were sinking in their present trauma, her head was in their redemption. She didn’t get caught in the present darkness, rather she had the authentic emuna that Hashem Who took us out of the Mitzrayim will take them out of that galus. That is who he wanted as a wife. And over the next 40 years, the Rebbe raised her children as if they were his own.
After the Rebbe was nifter in 5750, his stepson, the one who ate that matza, filled his position and continued on his legacy. The Rebbe gave up his matza to transmit the mesora for that boy, and then that boy was the one to transmit the mesora of the Rebbe.
