A Life of Self-Sacrifice and Kiddush Hashem

By: Yaakov Rosenfeld, Ganzach Kiddush Hashem

In these days, days of sorrow and anxiety, worry and distress, it has been eighty years since the the Rebbe, Rabbi Kalonymous Kalmish Shapira was murdered in sanctification of G-d’s name (kiddush Hashem) in the Trawniki camp, 40 kilometres from Lublin.

The Piaseczno Rebbe, Rabbi Kalonymous Kalmish Shapira (second from left) with his father-in-law at his side, the Bolchow Rebbe, Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Perlow at a place for healing

Eighty years since, the cry of the Holy Rebbe of Piaseczno has been silenced, the terrible cry that echoed in the ghettos of dying Poland. And the days, the days of the “Operation Harvest Festival” – a code name invented by the diabolical German mind for a massive killing spree that was carried out immediately after the Treblinka and Sobibor uprisings – the Nazi command, fearing a similar scenario in other ghettos, ended up ordering the elimination of the rest of the surviving Jews, the inmates of the camps in and around Lublin.

The versions differ on the exact circumstances of the rabbi’s death, but there is almost a complete consensus that it happened on November 3rd 1943/Cheshvan 5, 5704, this being after he resolutely refused to take advantage of a special permission obtained for him with toil and sweat and preferred to stay with the suffering Jews, those who found calmness and comfort under his wings.

The works of the Piaseczno Rebbe were published before and during the war, and until its end, in many different places and languages. The story of his life, character, work, and thought, has already been revealed in long documents, and it seems that there is no one who has not been exposed to them to one degree or another.

As part of the educational and documentary enterprises of Ganzach Kiddush Hashem, special projects were carried out for the Torah lessons and chapters of the Rebbe’s life; educational, literary ,and research productions have taken place over the years on the character of the Rebbe, whose thought and legacy have become iconic. Worthy of mention is the textbook that was published for school students; a special and important production, full of high-quality, historical, and thoughtful content, encompassing the image of the tzaddik (righteous man) in every way.

The Rebbe, the man of education who raised up generations of righteous people and worshipers of G-d, did not stop educating and infusing the dew of revival even while he walked in the valley of death. The words of Torah that he wrote down with his own hands in the dark days and with the fear of death are silent testimonies to that sacred fire that never stopped whispering, flickering, and burning in hearts with the fire of faith and G-d’s work until the last moments of life.

In this framework, we will discuss the life and the words of Torah of the Piaseczno Rebbe in the valley of tears, the words of Torah that were preserved and saved in the milk jug in which the treasures of the Oneg Shabbat Archive were buried, and were miraculously discovered after the war during random building excavations. Their publication at the time aroused intense excitement among the survivors in particular, and among Jews in general; to this day, the words that have already seen the light of day in many editions evoke a feeling of excitement and admiration in the hearts of readers. But before that, let’s look at chapters of self-sacrifice and kiddush Hashem in his years of life, which are expressed in many of his books and writings.

His book Eish Kodesh(Holy Fire) is like a continuation of the two books that preceded it, those that, between the two wars, conquered the Torah world at every site and shone a miraculous light in the lives of many.

Although the book Eish Kodesh, by its very nature, deals a lot with self-sacrifice and kiddush Hashem, we find many echoes of these holy ideas in his previous books as well, those written long before the war, in the years in which Polish Jews were faced with the difficulties of earning a living and the hardships of the time. They did not dream of the nightmare scenario that they were going to experience during the years of horror and anger; they did not imagine that in a few years, most of them would all rise to the center of kiddush Hashem and there would be almost no survivors of glorious Polish Jewry.

These quotes, a drop from the sea of his speeches and writings, give us an easy glimpse of the meaning of the term “self-sacrifirce and kiddush Hashem” in his lifetime.

“A Though of Self-Sacrifice”

Not even the thought of self-sacrifice in reciting the Shema will be a thought alone, only imagination and real vision, the focus of the fire in your eyes, and you jump into it to perform a kiddush Hashem. And as we mentioned above, the holy words of the Noam Elimelech with a small arrow, and his likeness and painting, etc., it is not a thought alone, only a figure and a painting, and it is a thought of self-sacrifice that is considered an actual act, a real thought that your whole body is moved by, until sometimes your body actually shakes from the jump to the focus in your mind.

When G-d helps you and you feel and see, then you will prove that it is not a big step (…) that you will have difficulty with.

(Bnei Machshava Tova)

An Enigma for the Whole World

And from now on, everything about and the essence of the Jewish man, who is an enigma to the whole world, is already understood. The Midrash Eicha (chapter 1) says that the nations of the world are puzzled and ask why the Jewish People are killed and slaughtered for Him, and they want to stone, burn, kill and strangle themselves for the sanctity of His name. Oh you who are perplexed, we will add to your bewilderment and stupor to the point of being shocked at your stupor, why is the whole life of an Israelite a life of self-sacrifice, a life of trials? From the time that he came out of his mother’s womb, until his last breath he was persecuted, his whole head was sick and his whole heart was dying; and from the holy Jews not even a hair’s breadth would move. Yes, he was consumed and so is his whole essence, also the beating of his heart and the breathing of his soul with full dedication. He studies the Torah, observes Shabbat, educates his sons in the Torah and all his other work for G-d is neither superficial nor casual, only all with devotion. And why do you bewildered ones wonder and ask about us? Don’t you know that a simple power of the world’s powers is revealed in us? Don’t you see that the woman is exalted, the valiant wife crowns her lofty husband. His son is clothed and in our midst she works; she is above the world, and all the trials of the world with all its troubles will not hinder her and the deeds of G-d will not stop her.

I Am Also Ready to Give Up My Neck

In the well-known Shabbat Shuva (the Shabbat between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur) sermon, which he delivered with devotion right out of a dangerous illness that attacked him, the Rebbe said:

When I started dealing here with matters of Shabbat guidelines, they sent me three letters about my rabbinical position. But burning fools, do they want to scare me with this so that I will not make guidlines to G-d’s commandments? Am I willing to leave only the rabbinical office for God’s sake? I’m also ready to give up my neck! Don’t you know that an Jew who says ‘Shema Israel, the L-rd our G-d, the L-rd is One,’ is ready to be stabbed, slaughtered, and burned for the sake of God?

The Yeshiva Students – They Are The Holy Ones

And now that America’s charity has stopped, the yeshivas are about to be closed, G-d forbid, and all Judaism in Poland is in danger, and they are the foundation of the entire Jewish People. And how do we treat the yeshiva students, the Jewish forces who protect the whole Jewish community from being lost and destroyed, how tortured and overwhelmed they are!

As far as I can imagine, there is no nation that is even the most cruel, that even those who are tortured suffer as much as these guardians of the Jewish People. They have neither food nor sleep, are neither clothed nor rested. The same Jews, the merciful sons of merciful, will allow those great Jewish men to suffer in the future too.

When I see those young men, the chosen of Israel and its glory, when they are tormented so much, I wonder – why are they not called holy people, because the Gemara says “Had they flogged Chanania, Mishael, and Azaria (instead of casting them into the furnace), these three would have been induced to worship the graven image” (Ketubot 33b) because the torments that are are always present are even more difficult than a one-time devotion, and why do the disciples stand so much in constant trial and are they not the holy people of the Jewish community?

(Derech Hamelech, from the great gathering of the Committee to Assist and Save Yeshivas in Poland and Lithuania)

Self-Sacrifice for Saving a Jewish Soul

The terrible war was expected by everyone, but the surprise of its suddenness and intensity required the Rebbe to move from Piaseczno to Warsaw, and the days, and this was in the month of Tishrei of 5740 (1939). Warsaw, the great and sturdy city, became a city of ruins, and its streets, exposed to the German bombings, were full of casualties and wounded.

Within a few days, there were thirty thousand Jewish deaths as a result of the aerial bombardment, and among the fallen, sadly, was the Rebbe’s young daughter-in-law, Gittel, may G-d avenge her blood, who was killed by a shell in the hospital courtyard, where she was standing to hear what had become of her husband, the only son of the Rebbe, who was injured earlier.

The pain was bitter, since the rebbetzin had passed away a few years prior, and she had been a righteous housewife, who with talent and diligence took care of all the needs of her home.

At the same time as the Rebbe’s daughter-in-law was in lying in the field, her aunt, Rebbetzin Chana, the sister-in-law of the Rebbe, who was the daughter of Rabbi Yerachmiel Moshe of Koznitz, lay with her as she had also been killed in the same attak. In order to save the two women from dishonour, a young man, a Piaseczno chassid, gathered their jewelry and accessories, whose monetary and emotional value were great, as they were an inheritance from the holy mothers of the Koznitz dynasty. The young man was caught by a Nazi patrol for the crime of looting, and was expected to face a bitter military trial, the results of which were clear. The Rebbe, who was busy mourning and was still standing before the burial of his dead, and on the other hand was surrounded by worry and anxiety for the fate of his only son who was lying seriously injured in the hospital, ignored all his personal matters and with indescribable devotion, went to the Gestapo headquarters in order to beg the wicked for the life of the young man who expected his speedy trial. Miraculously, he was then saved from their jaws after being told that “the matter will be investigated”, and that he should return the next day.

At dawn on the first day of the holiday (of Rosh Hashana), after he asked a student to go to the cemetery and plea at the grave wife of his for the soul of her son whose condition was deteriorating hour by hour, he ran again to the Gestapo headquarters and after a while he was seen leaving there accompanied by the young man and his eyes beamed with happiness and pure joy. He got to save a Jewish soul. It was self-sacrifice in the simplest sense.

On Friday night, the first day of chol hamoed (intermediate days) of Sukkot, as the Rebbe was sitting at the head of his dying son, the holy Rabbi Elimelech Bentzion, the sick man suddenly felt that his hour was near. He asked for wine to make kiddush (blessing on wine), and immediately after blessing the wine, his soul left him in purity.

On that holy Shabbat, the Rebbe did not show any signs of sadness or grief, but when the Shabbat ended, he cried and said: “I have lost the war. May G-d help the Jewish People to win the war.”

“Eishet Chayil” (A Woman of Valour) in the Valley of the Shadow of Death

And here is a description from Simchat Torah, of the same year, in the presence of the Rebbe (from an article by Rabbi Aharon Surasky).

We were there less than a minyan (10) of people, broken and torn to the point of despondency. And suddenly, the Rebbe z”l walked in front of the ark and opened with the well-known melody of Eishet Chayil in the style of Karlin chassidism, enthusiastically and passionately, as was his holy custom. He continued this melody for over an hour out of the enjoyment and thirst of his soul that had just burst and overflew. He did not feel anyone, he was completely out of this world; warm tears would flow from his eyes like streams of water and the sound of his voice that evening shook hearts. No one could believe that the Rebbe was in the midst of his days of mourning for his only son.

Slowly the fear and depression between us faded away, we forgot the whole world (…) we floated in a completely different world.

We felt in practice how unique the mysterious dove is, the woman of valour, the crown of her husband, and even in this time when G-d’s face was hidden. “Come and you and I will rejoice”, we heard G-d’s voice emanating to us from among the mists of darkness, cloud and fog. What hidenness? What do we lack in these moments, we are enjoying the Shechina!

Those moments of happiness, experienced as a student, an ember from the fire, are engraved in my heart forever. I will never forget them.

What the Rebbe was thinking about during that long and innocent hour when he sang with devotion and tears, a third of the Eishet Chayil, then on the night of Simchat Torah, at the beginning of that black period when he had lost everything he had and at the end of which he surrendered his soul to G-d’s, we will not know. But ten years earlier he had already enshrined his intention with his heart’s blood by saying “Eishet Chayil”, heart-pounding words to which there is nothing to add but only to see:

And there are times during the eve of the holy Shabbat, when your spirit is lifted and you look at the holiness of G-d and the Jews, because you see not individual people amongst the Jews, only the exhalted queen, the light that shines from their bodies is the holiness of G-d when He is clothed in these bodies, and in your extra soul (received on Shabbat) as if you see with one overview all Jewish People when they are bowed to their knees under the pain of their troubles, sweating and blackened, tormented and moaning, and with all this they are rejoicing and singing and saying, Master of the World, to you, we answered, and because of you we suffer, in all our lives and souls, Your kingdom over the whole world, Your glory, and the parts of Your holy light, Your opinion, Your will in your greatness fills the world. And you are amazed and very enthusiastic at this sight of your soul, it is not broken and your soul is not depressed now, rather, it is lifted up and carried by a high tide on the sea, the kingdom of the assembly of the Jews, which is on high and which is amongst all Jews, is in you, and your soul yearns to sing her a song and talk to G-d about me. You have already said Eishet Chayil (a woman of valour) and you have already done holy things, but your mind has not yet cleared, you go with her to the window and your eyes are lifted up to the One who sits in Heaven, and such is not by your choice, your soul from itself, from your presence, sings to the Master of the World, a woman of valour (like this one) who will find and her value is more than pearls, her husband’s heart places trust in her etc. Her Husband trusts in G-d, as it were, because in faith and in the self-sacrifice of her soul she does his work, and the whole world to him will be blessed from her submission and to him she will bring praise. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life, (not only at an hour that was good for her). And arose during the night, (she brings him spoil etc., even in the bitter exile and even during times of dark pain she gets up). And gives food to her home etc. (from the holiness of G-d she will give to all the Jews, not in plain sight nor in the way of passage). With strength she girds her loins, and invigorates her arms (all her Torah and work is done with self-sacrifice, because her work is not in the land, nor as a foreign slave, the light of G-d is in her and she too). She discerns that her enterprise is good (she also feels the taste of her holiness and work) thus her lamp is not snuffed out by night (and this is her strength in dark times of pain and exile). Distinctive in the councils is her husband (Master of the World, who knows Your Name in the world if not for the Jews, and who sanctifies Your holiness if not us, your children, and not out of compulsion do we endure your suffering, and not out of desire for Your holiness, we pray only with joy and strength). Strength and majesty are her clothing, she laughs for the last day (of her life, knowing that all the days of her she served You in faith and sanctified Your holy Name). Her mouth opens with wisdom (the wisdom of G-d) and a lesson of kindness (G-d’s kindness always) is on her tongue (and now I can’t help myself and my soul sings to her). Her children arise and praise her (and not only us, also them), her husband (above) exhalts her. Many daughters have amassed achievement (all the souls that G-d revealed in the world releave His glory, but) you you have surpassed them all (because all of them are just a spark of the light of His power that reveals Himself, His knowledge, and His holiness as omnipotent). A G-d fearing woman, she should be praised (and therefore the Master of the World) gives her the fruits of her hand (raises her from dust and hastens to save her from troubles and exile).

You do not see the lowliness of Israel when they are despised and lowly, and you do not pity them, from the depths of your soul the song of Eishet Chayil rises up now, you only see greatness, everything is void, there is no world and no rain, the whole earth is filled with His glory and that is all, the Shekinah with Its parts, who are the souls of Israel, they are the main thing and it is everything. I said you are G-d, and you, yourself at this hour are nothing less than G-d’s children. The Shechina of the Jewish People dwells in you and you in it, neither pleasure nor joy you feel at this time only in the cancellation of selfhood according to your state of purity and more than your worth and blessedness and it is good for you here and later.

(Chovat HaTalmidim, Article 3)

To be continued, G-d willing.

A ‘kabala’ (something taken upon oneself) that Rabbi Shapira wrote for the Bnei Machshava Tova (children of good thoughts) group With the desire of my heart, and the desire of my soul and spirit , I accept upon me the holiness and work of chassidism, so that I may be blessed by it to wash and purify my body and soul, and to sanctify them with the holiness of the holy G-d, and to link them in His work, blessed with the will of thought, speech, and deed, as a stake that will not die. And from now on, by the power of the Torah, which gave power to the people of Israel to dedicate both the animalistic parts of themselves and the sanctity of the body, with this power I now stand before G-d and I enslave, subjugate, and nullify myself, my body, mind, spirit, and soul to His service, may He be blessed. And G-d, who is not tired of consecrating Israel, will not become tired of me either, and will pour out His holiness on me, and wherever I am, and in every world I find, G-d’s holiness will surround me, and G-d’s clouds of honour will surround me, from now on and forever. And with all my heart and soul I am now begging before G-d, that even if G-d overcomes my creation at some point in time, and fails me and throws me down for a moment, G-d forbid, by will or thought, or speech or deed, which are the opposite of G-d’s will, also G-d with his great mercy will not tire of me, and He will not take me out of the fold of the Holy of Holies, just as there is no sacred animal that goes out to the hovel for its animals, only with His open holy hand to receive them again, He will answer me in complete repentance, when my heart is now with me. Because with an innocent heart and a straight mind, I leave the mountains of separation (feelings of being higher than G-d) and the Sitra Achra (evil inclination), whose tiredness and abolition are completely worthless like the dust of the earth, and I am going to enter with all my power with every limb and sinew of the body and soul into the camp of the Shechinah. And I accept it upon me from now on to watch over all of my actions, thoughts, and words as befits a man sanctified in supreme holiness, and not that I will G-d forbid allow a free for all. And G-d will support me with his righteous right hand and guide me in His way through the holy path spiritually and phsyically, and may I and all the members of the covenant and all my friends, and the entire house of Israel, be blessed with long life and good years, happy and satisfied with good graces, graces revealed in matters of body, mind, spirit, and soul, and shine with the light of Above, Amen.