Chukas: 5782 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld with a wonderful story about the Rebbe Rayatz and the interrogators, for Gimmel Tammuz, at the conclusion of Rabbi Betzalel Mizrachi's daily Daf Yomi class in Nachlah. Watch

00:04 Speaker 1 Reb Sonnenfeld, please.

00:05 Speaker 2 Since we’re approaching Gimmel Tammuz: one of the things that happened on Gimmel Tammuz was that the Frierdiker Rebbe was released from prison. That was his first release; he was sent into exile. Later, on 12 Tammuz, he was released completely. The Frierdiker Rebbe relates that while he was in prison, he resolved not to be intimidated by them—not only in matters of holiness, matters of Torah and mitzvos, but also in the prison’s rules and routines. He would not accept them or take them into account at all. One way this showed itself was during his interrogations: although he was questioned in Russian, he answered only in Yiddish. He spoke to them only in Yiddish, as if to say that he was not taking them into account; he would speak his own language. Once, he came in for questioning. Many interrogators were sitting around the table, and the Frierdiker Rebbe began speaking to them in Yiddish. The interrogators were Jews, and one of them became angry and asked, “How do you know we’re Jews?” In other words, why was he speaking to them in Yiddish? How did he even know they spoke Yiddish? The Frierdiker Rebbe said, “I’ll tell you a story about my grandfather, the Rebbe Maharash.” The Rebbe Maharash was once in Petersburg, the capital. The Frierdiker Rebbe told the interrogators that his grandfather, the Rebbe Maharash, had been walking down a street in Petersburg when he saw a man dressed like an intellectual, as was customary in those days. He didn’t look Jewish, but the Rebbe Maharash immediately recognized that he was a Jew. So the Rebbe went up to him and asked, “Can you tell me where such-and-such street is?” He gave the name of a street and asked where it was—but he spoke to him in Yiddish. The man, who really was Jewish, became angry: “Why are you speaking to me in Yiddish? How do you know I’m Jewish?” He was trying

02:20 Speaker 2 to appear like an intellectual and not stand out as a Jew, and suddenly someone came up to him and spoke to him in Yiddish. The Rebbe Maharash told him, “When you had your bris and the mohel cut off the foreskin, he stuck it onto your nose. So I could see right away that you’re Jewish.” That was the answer the Frierdiker Rebbe gave the interrogators. They had asked him, “Why are you speaking to us in Yiddish?” You can see on your noses that you’re Jews.

02:48 Speaker 1 Laughter.