Thank you as always for the feedback, it is much appreciated.
I was recently given a copy of memoirs written by Mrs. Mussia Schtroks and Mrs. Riva Raskin about their father R’ Avrohom Yeshaya Schapiro OBM. The following excerpt, although set against a rather morbid background, contains an incredible lesson for all of us:
On the 22nd of June 1941, at 4 p.m., war broke out in Russia. Whereas food was never plentiful before the war, and one invariably had to queue for everything, now with the start of the war, rations came into force immediately... The Germans surrounded Leningrad and bombed it relentlessly. One day they let loose incendiary bombs on the food stores, and they went up in flames.
Famine reigned supreme. The bread rations went down dramatically to 125 grams (3 ounces) per person per day. Winter set in very severe. No food, no heating, only bombs were in abundance. The streets were strewn with corpses. It was devastation at its peak...
Father A”H fell sick... I well remember his loud groans of pain...
Father A”H became weaker, he was now confined to bed and was often delirious. Yud Tes Kislev came, father’s last in this world... R’ Peretz Beresin, his father and a couple more Chassidim decided to spend Yud Tes Kislev with our father ה"ע, having heard that he was sick. One of them managed to obtain a small bottle of mashkeh, another one got hold of some herring and even some latkes, and they made their way to our apartment. They found our home dark and bare and absolutely literally freezing. Father ה"ע was in bed delirious and oblivious to his surroundings.
They went out again to try and obtain some heating material. After a great deal of effort they found in a warehouse an old wooden door. Despite the risk involved (they could have received a severe prison sentence for this), they laboriously schlepped it to their destination, converted it into firewood, and proceeded to heat our home. With the room becoming a bit warmer, they approached our father, calling him by his name, and announcing “Today is Yud Tes Kislev”.
The Yud Tes Kislev call penetrated his consciousness and he woke up. Not just that, but he actually managed to sit up and take part in the farbrengen, which lasted for a lengthy period. Thus, just over three days before departing from this world (on the 23rd of Kislev), while being mortally ill, the fire of chassidism within overcame even the shadow of the Angel of Death.
[Tragically shortly afterwards (on the 11th of Teves) his wife, too succumbed to the hunger, followed, not long thereafter, by one son and daughter. But the 2 above-mentioned daughters survived, with the help of Hashem, to pass on the burning torch that sustained their father to the coming generations].
This was a young father and husband who was physically ill and bedridden. He was ravaged by illness and weakness that was, shortly thereafter, to claim his life, and had already made him delirious and unreachable.
But, even in such a situation, the fact that it was Yud Tes Kislev penetrated his consciousness, and drew him out of his delirium. The farbrengen of Yud Tes Kislev was not something performed in a superficial way; for these Chassidim this was their very life, in the most literal sense! It is something that we should all consider and learn from.
When we say about Yud Tes Kislev אור וחיות נפשנו ניתן לנו, this is not merely a slogan or a poetic expression. A chosid needs to recognize that his attachment to and adherence to chassidus is really the source of his very life and sustenance in a very physical sense.
And this has to be reflected in the manner in which we apply ourselves both to the learning of chassidus and conducting ourselves in its ways. A shiur in chassidus cannot be something that is pushed aside whenever some “important” distraction comes up. The realization of the place chassidus has in our life needs to be the guideline for establishing our priorities.
