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Weekly Chasidic Story #940 (s5776-12 / 20 Kislev 5776) Double Jeopardy The Sadigorer Rebbe suffered more in prison from his coarse Ukrainian cellmate than he did from any physical pain. Connection: Weekly Reading (Yosef in Egypt) and Yud-Tet Kislev (the founder of Chabad, in Russia) - a tzadik in prison.
Double JeopardyThe Rebbe of Sadigora was in jail and the Russian government was in no hurry to pursue the investigation. Government officials still smarted from the memory of how the Sadigorer's father, the "holy Rhizhiner" Rebbe, had escaped through their fingers. They would get their revenge now - through his son. The chief prison warden was an anti-Semite. He didn't care that the rebbe was innocent or that the rebbe had been cruelly torn from his loving family and his devoted followers. Nor did he mind if the rebbe suffered physical hardships in prison. On the contrary. He found a special pleasure in inflicting misery upon the Sadegorer. The warden put the rebbe in a dark and tiny prison cell. No windows let in the light of day. There was nothing to sit on. All day long the rebbe had to stand. At night one of the guards unlocked and unfolded a shelf from the wall, and that was the prisoner's bed. Next door to the prison stood a church. At regular intervals the church bells tolled, disturbing the prayers and meditation of the rebbe. He would close his ears tight so that the noise would not interfere with his prayers. He had to do this many times each day. The rebbe was forced to share his narrow cell with a roommate--a vile Ukrainian, Jew-hating hoodlum who ridiculed and insulted the rebbe continuously. Coarse faced, course-tongued, and repulsive to look at, he made the rebbe's life miserable. When the Sadigorer chasidim bribed the prison guards to allow a sofa to be placed in the cell for the rebbe to sit and sleep on, the thug did not let the rebbe sit there. Instead, he sat there himself. At night when the rebbe began to study, the Ukrainian criminal would holler in protest, "He's not letting me sleep," until the rebbe had to give up and lie down resignedly on his hard shelf. The chief warden was delighted with the Ukrainian's pranks. The hoodlum had known what to do even without the warden's having to tell him anything. As a reward, the chief warden doubled his food portions. Seeing that he was rewarded for his mischief, the Ukrainian thought of new ways to torture the rebbe. When the rebbe prayed, the thug would sing at the top of his lungs. This made it very difficult for the rebbe to concentrate on his prayers. Somehow the Ukranian knew that this was the cruelest form of torture he could inflict on his fellow prisoner, for the rebbe suffered more from this than he did from any physical pain. One day while the rebbe was reciting the morning prayers, the Ukrainian was acting particularly obnoxious, hurling insults, cursing, and singing coarse Ukrainian songs. The rebbe could not take it anymore. He could bear physical deprivation, but not this. What meaning did life have if he could not pray to G-d with devotion? This was the final straw. The rebbe came to the place in the prayers with the following verse: "Look out from Heaven and see Over and over the Sadigorer repeated these verses. Suddenly a change came over the Ukrainian. He became very agitated. He threw himself wildly against the walls of the room, tearing out clumps of hair from his head. At first he could not speak. When at last he recovered the power of speech, he shrieked. "Help me! -- He's killing me! Save me!" His screams echoed down the dark prison halls. The guards came running to see what was the matter. The strangest sight met their eyes. The rebbe stood calm and unmoving in one corner of the cell, his face to the wall, wrapped in a tallit. Meanwhile the hoodlum was flinging himself in terror and screaming, "Get me out of here! He's killing me! He's tearing me apart, limb from limb!" A guard ran to the office of the chief warden to ask him what to do. He was shocked to see the chief warden acting much to same as the Ukrainian, writhing on the floor in agony. "Oh, no! Both of them!" thought the guard. He sped back to the rebbe's cell, unlocked the door, and pushed the Ukrainian with all his might until he got him through the door and out into the hall. As soon as the Ukrainian was out, he stopped screaming and subsided into quiet. Now that the Ukrainian prisoner was out of danger, the guard ran back to see how the chief warden was doing. Lo and behold, he too was coming out of his strange fit. After that, the Ukrainian adamantly refused to set foot into the rebbe's cell. He was afraid for his life. The chief warden, realizing he had been punished for afflicting the holy man, humbly begged the Sadgorer for forgiveness. To show that he really meant it, he transferred the rebbe to a larger, sunlit cell with a chair and a comfortable bed. He wanted to do more for the rebbe. He asked him, "What else can I do for you? As long as I am within the prison rules, I will do anything for you." The rebbe requested two things; first, that his gabbai be permitted to stay with him, and second that on Shabbat and Yom Tov a minyan of worshippers come so he could pray with a minyan. The warden promptly acceded to his requests. Eventually the investigation was completed. The Sadgorer Rebbe was found innocent and released. But the suffering had taken its toll upon him. After having stood on his feet for days and weeks, his feet had grown weak. They never regained their former strength. And from closing his ears so tightly, he suffered the rest of his life from painful earaches. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Biographic note: Connections: Weekly Reading (Yosef in Egypt) and Yud-Tet Kislev (the founder of Chabad, in Russia) - a tzadik in prison.
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Yerachmiel
Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor
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