Chapter 78: Chaim Shimon the Brave Foils the Scheme as Haters of Israel Suffer Blows

00:01 The story of Shimon the Brave continues. Nikolayev and Kozitsky were crushed and could barely stand. Chaim Shimon, on the other hand, remained steady, showing no sign of weakness or fear. At the priest’s suggestion, lots were drawn to decide who would be flogged first. The lot fell to Kozitsky. Once everything was ready and Jan Raus stood by with wet, twisted branches in his hands, Kozitsky was brought into the special room containing the bench to which those sentenced to flogging were tied. Kozitsky tried to fight the policemen as they began tying him to the bench. Unmoved by his resistance, they subdued him with a thorough beating. They removed his clothes, wrapped him in a wet sheet and laid him on the bench, tying his hands and feet with ropes. Jan Raus and his two assistants stood ready with the branches in their hands. Kozitsky stopped struggling, and his whole body shook with mortal fear. An official approached him and asked whether he was prepared to confess. Kozitsky tried to appear firm and declared that he had nothing to confess, because Chaim Shimon was not telling the truth. The governor gave the signal, and Raus began his work as Kozitsky writhed in pain. Raus struck one blow after another while the official counted them. At the sixth blow, Kozitsky could no longer bear the torment and declared that he knew the truth. Jan Raus stopped, and the official approached Kozitsky to hear what he had to say. But his confession was partial, and he refused to confirm everything Chaim Shimon had said. The governor rejected the confession and ordered Jan Raus to continue the flogging. Raus began striking again. The official counted fourteen lashes. The sheet wrapped around Kozitsky had already been torn to shreds by the force of the blows, and bleeding wounds had appeared on his body. Then Kozitsky began shouting that he confessed to

02:57 the whole truth. Chaim Shimon was entirely right; everything he had said was absolutely true. They released Kozitsky. Nikolayev was brought into the room, already knowing that his companion had confessed. As he entered, he saw Kozitsky lying there, covered in blood and groaning in pain. He turned pale and was terrified of what awaited him, but he summoned his courage and declared that both Chaim Shimon and Kozitsky were lying. Well, the order was given at once. Nikolayev was forcibly stretched out on the bench. Once again, they stripped off the prisoner’s clothes, wrapped him in a wet sheet and tied him to the bench. Jan Raus began flogging him. At first Nikolayev struggled to overcome the pain and, despite his cries, refused to admit what he had done. Only at the eighth blow did he break down and say he was ready to confess. The flogging stopped, and the official approached him. Nikolayev admitted that Chaim Shimon had told the truth. At the same time, he tried to convince his interrogators that Kozitsky was chiefly to blame. The two enemies of the Jews were led, bleeding, under heavy guard to prison. Chaim Shimon was released completely. At his request, he was allowed to spend the night there, since it was very late and a fierce storm was raging outside. The next morning he went home without saying a single word to his family about what had happened during the night. As on every Shabbos, he went with his father to shul and davened with great concentration, as though nothing had happened. His father and the rest of the household assumed he had spent the night at a friend’s house. It never occurred to any of them what a courageous deed he had carried out that night. In fact, no one in the town would have known what had happened in the governor’s office that Friday night, had one of the leaders of the Liozna community not happened to meet, on Sunday evening, one of the non-Jews who had been present. The man told him the remarkable story, though he could not say who the brave young Jew was, because

05:47 Chaim Shimon had never introduced himself during the incident. The non-Jews had been so caught up in the dramatic turn of events that they had not even asked the young man’s name or his father’s. On the third day of that week, the community leaders were suddenly summoned to the governor’s office, where they were given an official account of what had happened the previous week. They were astonished to hear that a Jewish young man had foiled the blood libel. The community leaders asked who he was, but no one in the office could tell them. The governor himself was especially eager to learn more about the young man, so he ordered the community leaders to identify him within two days and bring him in. Well, a search began throughout Liozna for the young man everyone was talking about. Everyone wanted to know who he was, especially since the governor had ordered them to bring him in. Chaim Shimon heard people talking about what he had done, but he remained silent and did not reveal himself. Only after the town rabbi announced in shul that the young Jew must identify himself, and that failing to do so would be considered a grave sin, did Chaim Shimon come to the rabbi and tell him that he was the one. The next day, the community leaders took Chaim Shimon with them to the governor’s office. After hearing Chaim Shimon praised, the governor announced the sentence he had imposed on Nikolayev and Kozitsky: twenty-five additional lashes each for having wronged both the priest and the governor by attempting to spread a disgraceful blood libel. The governor called an assembly of the town’s non-Jewish residents and forced Nikolayev and Kozitsky to tell those gathered about the libel they had plotted against the Jews. At the same time, he issued an unequivocal order that no one was to dare harm the innocent Jews. The governor also demanded that all upright Christians protect Jews against any possible attack, and designated

08:23 the two slanderers as answerable with their lives if any such attack occurred. The Jews of Liozna rejoiced. Everyone knew that the hero of the day was Chaim Shimon, who thereby earned the title “the Brave.” Chaim Shimon, for his part, attached no importance to it. To him, it was nothing out of the ordinary. He continued his studies and, immediately after Pesach, traveled to Minsk to study Torah in the yeshivah headed by the gaon Rabbi Aryeh Leib. In 5497, Chaim Shimon met two students at the yeshivah who stood out for their talents. One was Avraham, son of Rabbi Shmuel, the rabbi of Pozna. Avraham was the same age as Chaim Shimon, but his temperament was the opposite of the young man from Liozna. Whereas Chaim Shimon was bold and decisive, Avraham was timid by nature. He was afraid to stay home alone even by day, and afraid to go outside at night. This was because of the terror he and his family had experienced in 5496, when the non-Jews of Pozna had spread a blood libel against the local Jews. Many Jews were arrested and faced grave danger. Reb Yaakov the wealthy man, a communal advocate and benefactor from Pozna who was known in government circles, and the gaon Rabbi Aryeh Leib the preacher were among those arrested. These two were chosen as targets of the libel because they were the leading figures in the Jewish community. Both were subjected to the most severe torture in an attempt to wring from them a confession that Jews used blood to bake matzos. The two holy men endured the torture courageously and denied the accusation firmly and persistently. Their captors intensified the torture without letup until they gave up their holy souls. Rabbi Shmuel, Avraham’s father, was also sought, but miraculously he learned of it in time and managed to flee with his family to Lenzburg. He was thus spared the fate of the other holy men, who had been tortured to death. But the fear and terror of the danger and the flight left a deep impression on young Avraham and troubled

11:07 He missed him greatly for a long time. While they were in Lenzburg, Avraham vowed to walk to Brest to study at its famous yeshiva. He fulfilled his vow together with two friends who were also going there to study—and so... not to Brest, but to Minsk. Thus, two young men met at the yeshiva in Minsk, each of whom had lived through a blood libel. The outcomes of the two blood libels, however, were different, even opposite, both for their home communities and for their own personalities and character. The two friends told each other about what they had experienced and about the blood libels in their communities, which had led them both to Minsk to study Torah. At the Minsk yeshiva, where Chaim Shimon of Liozna and Avraham of Pozna came to know each other, they often exchanged recollections of those experiences, as we have related. Chaim Shimon had another story to tell about a blood libel in Liozna, one that had taken place many years earlier, when Liozna was just beginning to develop as a Jewish settlement. Chaim Shimon heard this striking story from the elderly Reb Yekusiel, the shamash. Reb Yekusiel was a well-known figure in Liozna. He was one of the oldest people in town. All that was known about his great age was that Reb Moshe the watchman, who was already about a hundred, and Zlota Chava the midwife were older than he was. Reb Yekusiel remembered Liozna from the time when it had no more than thirty Jewish families. His father, Reb Elchanan, was then the head of the community. The elderly Reb Yekusiel the shamash remembered when the Russians conquered Vitebsk and its surroundings, including Liozna. When that war broke out in the year 5419[?], he was already past bar mitzvah age. Many Jews, including his father and uncle, grew wealthy during that war. He himself, too, after his father married him off to the daughter of Reb Mordechai the scribe of Klysk, began

14:03 to devote himself to trade as a supplier of provisions to the Russian army, and he too grew wealthy. When Sheremetev, the Russian commander, conquered Vitebsk, he imprisoned many Jews of that city, but in Liozna he did not harm anyone. Many Jews from Vitebsk who feared imprisonment moved to Liozna, and its Jewish community grew. In his old age, Reb Yekusiel disliked the leaders of the Liozna community, for things had been different under his father’s leadership. He was especially given to rebuking the wealthy people of Liozna, who lived comfortably while their wives went out adorned. In his view, such behavior brought bad consequences: among other things, it aroused the envy of their non-Jewish neighbors, leading to denunciations and other troubles. The elderly Reb Yekusiel would explain his outlook. The Jewish people and the nations of the world are separate worlds. Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave this world to Esav and the World to Come to Yaakov. To enable Yaakov to survive, Hakadosh Boruch Hu did give him some share in this world as well, but Yaakov’s share in this world is different from that of Esav. A Jew’s life in this world is filled with mitzvos. A Jew cannot make the slightest move in the world without it involving a mitzvah. A mezuzah must be affixed to the door of a Jew’s home. His garments must have tzitzis. In the field, he must observe the mitzvos of leket, shikchah and pe’ah. When a Jew eats and drinks, he must recite a blessing before and after. He cannot enjoy this world without a blessing, for without one it is as though he were benefiting from stolen property. At the same time, a Jew must call out to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and return to Him in teshuvah with a whole heart, and then his sins will be atoned for. Reb Yekusiel had heard the story of this blood libel, which he told Chaim Shimon, from his grandfather, Reb Elisha. His grandfather was known as Reb Elisha

16:41 the Sweet, or Zisa, because he always accompanied his words with the phrase “the sweet Father in Heaven.” This is what he told. Once, a new priest came to Liozna. He hated Jews and began delivering sermons in the church full of venom and hatred toward them. The non-Jews of Liozna had never heard such things, and for the first time, the idea of hating Jews began to enter their minds. When winter came and Pesach began to approach, the priest told them to guard their children, because the Jews needed Christian blood to knead their matzos and might abduct Christian children and slaughter them. This astonished the local non-Jews. Until then, they had been accustomed to visiting Jewish homes on Shabbos and holidays to taste the special foods served there. They especially enjoyed Pesach: when offered matzah, they ate it with pleasure. Now, after hearing from the priest that matzah was kneaded with Christian blood and that they should keep away from Jews and Jewish foods, the incited non-Jews began coming to the priest to confess the sins they had committed in this regard in the past. They began distancing themselves from the Jews, and the Jews began shying away from encounters with them. The non-Jews’ hatred continued to grow. Reb Shammai, the eighty-year-old rabbi of Liozna, and the community leaders began to sense that the Jews faced great danger. They therefore announced that on the coming Monday, the Jews were not to leave their homes except to go to the beis midrash. It was also announced that the children from the chadarim should gather there with their teachers. Suddenly, a few days before Purim, armed soldiers appeared in Liozna and arrested two Jews. The rabbi and the community leaders were informed that the two prisoners were accused of abducting a Christian child in order to slaughter him and use his blood for Pesach. They were ordered to return the child alive, on the assumption that he might not yet have been slaughtered, or at least to return his body

19:27 if the accused had already carried out their plan. If they did not, the two hostages would be put to death, and the Jews of Liozna would also be severely punished and their homes burned. Despite his age, Rabbi Shammai undertook a fast of three days and nights. A considerable number of other Jews joined him, turning it into a communal fast. On the rabbi’s instructions, the people of Liozna immersed in the mikveh and then began spinning candlewicks: one wick for every Jewish soul—young people, the elderly, children and women. From each wick, ten candles were made. Separate wicks were spun for each wicked enemy of the Jews, according to a list prepared by Rabbi Shammai containing all their names—Nimrod, Haman and the other enemies of the Jewish people. From each of those wicks, three candles were made.