Weekly Chasidic Story #1145 (s5780-08/ 20 Mar-Cheshvan, 5780)

One Hundred Signatures

Once, in Siberia, he was confined in a pit for a week, without food, and he said that he almost died. Rats were biting at his feet.

Connection: Seasonal - 24th of Cheshvan is the 72nd yahrzeit of Rebbe Gedalya-Moshe of Zevhil

Story in PDF format for more convenient printing.

One Hundred Signatures

Rabbi Gedalya-Moshe excelled in chesed. He said: "My father, Reb Shlomke, the Rebbe, zy"a, was prepared to give his life away to help another Jew. I am not on that level, but I am ready to give away my ten fingers to help another Jew."

He meant this literally, because it is known that the Zivhiler rebbes didn't speak with exaggerations. He was literally ready to give away all his fingers, to help his fellow man.

Two people came to R. Gedalyah Moshe, for a court case, and afterwards, they both ate dinner in his home. The Russian government went searching for these two men, because they thought that they were spies. The government officials asked R. Gedalya Moshe to reveal their identities, but he refused to do so. He was brought to court, and they gave him electric shocks, to force him to talk, but he remained quiet. He refused to cause harm to a fellow Jew.

The interrogators said, "If you will not cooperate with us, we will execute you." R. Gedalyah Moshe replied, "I'm not afraid of you. Unless it is decreed in heaven, you can't do anything to me."

One of the interrogators was a secular Jew who remembered the Zvhiller rebbes from his younger years, when he was still religious. Out of respect for the family, he saved R. Gedalya Moshe, by exiling him to Siberia, rather than executing him.

Obviously, his problems didn't end when he was in Siberia, but R. Gedalya Moshe accepted all these hardships, rather than to slander his fellow men.

Once, in Siberia, he was confined in a pit for a week, without food, and he said that he almost died. Rats were biting at his feet. Miraculously, a roll of bread fell directly into R. Gedalya Moshe's mouth, and that saved his life. He said that if the bread would have fallen to the ground, he wouldn't have the strength to bend down and pick it up.

He was in Siberia for eight years. In 1937, he joined his father, Rabbi Shlomo ("Reb Shlom'ke") Goodman, in the Holy Land, where he succeeded him as Rebbe in 1945.

In the year 1948, while war was raging in Eretz Yisrael, Rabbi Chaim Brim's wife was gravely ill. R. Chaim Brim spoke to Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky, then the chief rabbi of Jerusalem, about his wife's illness, who said that they should add to her another name.

"Go to R. Gedalya Moshe, the Zvhiller Rebbe. He is an expert in names. He will tell you which name to add."

R. Chaim Brim went to Rebbe Gedalya Moshe, and told him what R. Dushinsky said, but R. Gedalya Moshe told him, "It won't help. It is too late for that."

R. Chaim cried, "She is still young... What will be with the children?"

R. Gedalya Moshe told him: "Go to the bomb shelter and ask the people there to donate a half year of their lives to prolong your wife's life. If you can receive this donation from a hundred people, she will live another fifty years."

"But who will agree to give away a half year of their life?" R. Chaim asked.

"Tell them that I promised that whoever donates a half year will live through the war."

"They will not believe me, that you actually said this."

"Then I will write a letter."

Rebbe Gedalya Moshe wrote his promise on a piece of paper, and signed it. When the frightened people hiding in the bomb shelter saw that R. Gedalya Moshe promised them that they would survive the war if they donated a half year to Reb Chaim Brim's wife, they quickly lined up to sign the paper.

R. Chaim soon returned to the Rebbe with one hundred signatures. His wife became better. She passed away in 1998, exactly fifty years later.

When the rabbis of Jerusalem came to console him during the Seven Days of Mourning at home, Reb Chaim Brim repeated this great miracle. "5708-5758" (1948-1998), he kept saying.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Source: Adapted and supplemented by Yerachmiel Tilles from "Torah Wellsprings" (gleanings from the teachings of Rabbi Elimelech Biderman of Jerusalem), as translated by R. Baruch Twersky.

Editor's note: For the exceptionally inspiring story of his release, see story #1015 in this series.

Connection: Seasonal - 24th of Cheshvan is the 72nd yahrzeit of Rebbe Gedalya-Moshe of Zivhil

Biographical note:
Rabbi Gedaliah-Moshe Goldman [5647 - 24 Cheshvan 5709 (1887 - Oct. 1948 C.E.)], a direct paternal descendant of Rabbi Yechiel-Michil of Zolochov, an important student of the Baal Shem Tov, joined his father, Rabbi Shlomo ("Reb Shlom'ke") Goodman (? - 26 Iyar 1945), in the Holy Land in 1937, after eight years in Siberian exile. He succeeded him as Rebbe of Zivhil only a few years until his own passing.

Rabbi Gedaliah-Moshe was buried in the Givat Ram section of Jerusalem in the Sheikh Badr cemetery during modern Israel's War of Independence. A number of years ago, a family member in London had a dream. In it she saw Rabbi Gedaliah-Moshe, who asked her to publicize that he would intercede in Heaven for those who would come to visit and pray at his tomb on a Monday, on Thursday of the same week, and again on the following Monday. They should pray that their requests be answered in the merit of the Zivhil Rebbe and in the merit of visiting his grave - which until that time was not visited often [only afterwards was the Knesset built nearby!). Today his grave is visited regularly by hundreds of people" (http://littmann613.blogspot.co.il), and miraculous results are often reported. Dancing on the Monday-Thursday-Monday has also become part of the tradition.

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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