The young yeshiva bachurim were not the only ones who were deported to Siberia. The Russians had also imprisoned a large part of the Lithuanian government including the parliament and many of the military leaders. The Russians took great pleasure in demoralizing the prisoners.
The higher of a position a person had held in Lithuania, the more humiliating of a job he received in Siberia. The Minister of Education of Lithuania was a brilliant man who spoke fifteen languages. He was awarded with latrine duty.
All the prisoners had a tremendous amount of respect for the yeshiva bachurim. When the prisoners would get into arguments amongst each other, they would go to the yeshiva bachurim to pasken their din, as they knew the bachurim could be trusted.
One night, one of the yeshiva bachurim, Yankelev, later the well-known maggid in Eretz Yisrael, Rav Yaakov Galinsky, awoke to soft rustling. From the corner of his eye, he watched how a fellow prisoner awoke and was rummaging through a bag. The man took out a uniform, got dressed and stood in front of window.
The night was black and he was able to see through the window’s reflection how this prisoner, dressed in a Lithuanian high ranking uniform, started saluting, marching, and strutting back and forth for fifteen minutes. Yankelev watched in fascination. Eventually, the prisoner took off the uniform, returned it to the bag under the bunk and went back to sleep.
The next morning, Yankelev approached his fellow prisoner. “What was going on? I saw you get dressed in middle of the night – what was that all about? What are you up to?”
The prisoner confided, “I’ll tell you the truth. I was a general in the Lithuanian army. Now in Siberia, the Russians use every opportunity to humiliate me. I must keep reminding myself who I really am. Therefore, every night I stand in front of the mirror, put on my uniform, and I remind myself that I am an honorable general, as I march back and forth, saluting myself. That is the way that I will not forget who I am.”
This is our avodah in this world. We are the precious children of the Ribono Shel Olam and we must remind ourselves of this at every opportunity.
I was privileged to be involved in raising money for a young chosson who is a ger tzedek. Among the donations, I received a three page letter from a woman, who wrote the following:
I see that you’re raising money to marry off a chosson who is a ger tzedek. I want to share with you the story of our son-in-law.
Our son-in-law was a non-Jewish young man who lived in Mexico. He was a soccer star. When he came onto the fields, the crowd on the stands would erupt into cheering and screaming. His future ahead of him held anything he could ever dream of. He was the star.
Inside, however, he felt hollow. The cheering was great, but once it was over, there was nothing there.
One while he was walking back home, he heard strains of beautiful singing. When looking where the inspiring tunes were coming from, he saw that the house he was passing by had the front window wide open. He watched in amazement at the regal looking grandfather dressed in honorable clothing who sat around the elegantly set table with his son and grandchildren. They were all sitting at a Shabbos table, singing zemiros.
He stood there transfixed. He began to tremble. He was watching and watching. He couldn’t get over what he saw. He stood there seeing for the first time in his life the Shabbos table of a Yiddishe family.
After that, he never turned back. He never went back to his fans. He never went back to soccer. He found a Rav. He began to learn. He was megayer. Today, he sits and learns day and night.
He says he feels the same rush of adrenaline when he comes into beis medrash as he felt when going onto pitch. When he’s learning a Tosfos, he hears the storm. He says that is the same feeling that he felt when he had thousands of fans cheering for him. The difference is stark, however. When the cheering was over, the feeling would disappear. When learning Tosfos, the feelings lasts eternally.
Can you imagine what it means to turn your back on all that fame? Where does that come from?
It comes from greatness. There is a spiritual greatness that we all have. We must energize it and never forget that we have it. Let us always understand the greatness of our neshama, which will affect our relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu so positively.