Weekly Chasidic Story #893 (s5775-16 / 14 Tevet 5775)

Two Widows and the Potato Patch

In the winter of 1932, the Segalov family--including five small children and their pregnant mother--was put out onto the street, in the middle of a freezing snowstorm. .

Connection: Seasonal--the 8th anniversary of the passing Bubbe Mariasha Segalov...at age 106!

 

Two Widows and the Potato Patch

 

At the time of this particular incident in the life of Rebbetzin Mariasha Shagalov, of blessed memory, the family lived in a synagogue gallery in the town of Gomel in Russian.

Years before, they had lived in rented accommodations belonging to a wealthy man. However, when private property was nationalized in Russia every family was given a room, including the previous home owners.

To qualify for these accommodations, the family had to work, which meant working on Shabbat.

Her husband, Rabbi Yitzchok-Elchonon HaLevi Shagalov, however, would not work on Shabbat, no matter what! They were warned by the bailiff that unless Rabbi Shagalov took a job they would be thrown out of their meager accommodations.

The day soon came, in the winter of 1932, when the family - there were five small children and Rebbetzin Shagalov was expecting a sixth - was put out onto the street, in the middle of a freezing snowstorm. Having no other choice, the Shagalovs took all their meager belongings and found refuge in the unheated women's section of a synagogue in the outskirts of town.

In 1937, Rabbi Shagalov was arrested for his Jewish activities. Rebbetzin Shagalov never saw her husband again. He was one of the chasidim left in Russia by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, to carry on with Lubavitch activities of spreading Judaism in the Soviet Union. Now the family was truly destitute, but in spite of the tragedy they were not without hope.

The upkeep of the building had come out of the proceeds of a large potato patch at the back of the shul. Rebbetzin Shagalov suggested to the widow who lived in a room downstairs in the shul that together they arrange to sow the patch and from the potatoes and the proceeds they would be able to live.

The two women eventually found someone who was willing to do the work for 50 rubles - a tremendous sum even in the best of times. The widow was shocked at the exorbitant sum, but Rebbetzin Shagalov exclaimed with certainly, "G-d will surely help." She hired the man, though she did not yet have the funds to pay him.

On the third day, when the work was nearly finished and the worker had to be paid, a stranger walked into the shul and said to Rebbetzin Shagalov, "I am a friend of your husband's. When a man I know heard that your husband had been imprisoned, he gave me 50 rubles to give you."

Rebbetzin Shagalov thanked the man and asked for the address of the friend so she could personally thank him. The man gave her the address and Rebbetzin Shagalov went there. No one in the building knew of anyone by the name she had been given.

When the potato patch began to sprout it had to be watched carefully, for if anyone walked on the young potato shoots the potatoes would surely be ruined.

Just at that time, the government wanted to close the synagogue. Rebbetzin Shagalov decided to save as many holy books as she could. Since taking the holy books out the front door and storing them somewhere else would be too conspicuous, she decided to take them out through a window in the back, right near the potato patch.

Since the widow was adamant that no one should walk on her half of the patch, Rebbetzin Shagalov suggested that they should exchange patches, so that the area they would have to walk on, in order to save the holy books, would only be in her patch.

When the widow asked Rebbetzin Shagalov with what she would feed her children, the Rebbetzin at once replied, "G-d will surely help us."

Night after night, the Shagalov children would sneak into the shul, and pass the holy books out to safe hands on the other side of the window, whereupon they were carried across the potato patch, to a side door in an old man's house, from where they were distributed to other safe houses.

Because of all this activity, a path had been trodden on the patch. When the time came to dig up the potatoes, they were normal size everywhere except where the path was. Under the path they were gigantic!

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Source: Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from a booklet published by Rabbi Yosef Y Shagalov, and distributed at the wedding of Yehoshua Yaakov David HaLevy and Rachel (Fried of Safed) Shagalov, 25 Tevet 5770.

Biographical notes and connections to this season:
In the early hours of the morning, on the 4th of Tishrei, 5698 (September 9, 1937), while still up and learning Chasidus, as was his nightly custom, Rabbi Yitzchok Elchonon Halevi Shagalov was arrested for spreading Yiddishkeit in Russia and shot to death (at the age of forty) in prison less than five months later, on the 25 Tevet, 5698 (December 29, 1937).

In 1953, his wife Rebbetzin Mariasha Shagalov, settled in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York, where she lived until her passing, at age 106, after 70 (!) years of widowhood, on 20 Tevet, 5767 (January 10, 2007). By the grace of G-d, she merited to enjoy the blessings of many descendants (including GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-grandchildren!), all of them chasidim, and many of them (250!) emissaries of the Lubavitcher Rebbe on all five continents. At the time of her passing she had nearly 600 descendants!

(From Living with Moshiach, issue 460, pp. 16-22) See also: story #738 in this email series.

 

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Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.

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