Episode 79: The End of a Wicked Man and a Good Ending - All Is Well in Lizna

00:01 The gripping story of the blood libel in Liozna continues with Rabbi Shmuel. On the second day of the fast, before Minchah, memorial candles were brought into the beis midrash, and six- and seven-year-old children chosen by lot lit them. Everyone recited Chapter 179[?] of Tehillim, and it was announced that every Jewish man and woman past the age of bar or bas mitzvah must undertake a full-day fast, during which they would also refrain entirely from work. Everyone remained in the beis midrash for the entire day, saying Tehillim. On the third day, after Shacharis, the entire community went to the cemetery to say Tehillim and pray that the evil decree be averted. They went to the cemetery in two groups, taking turns so that one group always remained in town to guard it. In the afternoon, everyone gathered again in the beis midrash. After the rabbi delivered words of rebuke and introspection, the entire congregation recited Vidui. The rabbi and two elders, one on either side of him, ascended the bimah wearing talleisim and kittels and holding lit black candles. The rabbi announced that these three elders stood in correspondence to the Heavenly Court. Reb Yeshayahu the chazzan and Reb Baruch the gabbai also ascended the bimah. The aron kodesh was opened. Reb Baruch sounded the shofar. Reb Yeshayahu began reciting Chapter 79 of Tehillim, with the entire congregation repeating each verse after him. The gabbai sounded the shofar again, and the chazzan recited Chapter 140 of Tehillim, with the congregation again repeating each verse. Four men chosen by lot took out four Torah scrolls and carried them around the entire beis midrash, while everyone kissed their mantles with awe and love. The Torah scrolls were then handed to the four men standing beside the rabbi on the bimah, and the elderly rabbi began reading from a parchment scroll the text of a cherem against everyone who had abducted the Christian child and anyone connected with the abduction. Although the days of fasting had meanwhile passed,

03:04 the rabbi announced that until the danger was lifted, no Jew would eat meat, not even on Shabbos. The rabbi and those who had fasted with him for the three full days took a little bread and hot water, then resumed their fast. The following Shabbos, two days after the cherem was proclaimed, the rabbi and the community leaders were summoned to the police station, where the priest was also present. They were given a final warning: if the child was not returned, alive or dead, by Tuesday, bloody revenge would be taken against every member of the Jewish community. The priest even had the audacity to demand that the elderly rabbi kiss the cross hanging on his chest. The rabbi replied firmly and with dignity that such a demand could come only from a mamzer and an apostate acting out of spite, for an honest person of genuine faith would never dare force someone else to act against his beliefs. The priest ground his teeth in anger but said nothing. Meanwhile, he sent his men to all the surrounding villages to summon the non-Jews to gather in large numbers at the church on Sunday. There he addressed the large crowd, loudly repeating his incitement and declaring that the child had been missing for a week and that there was no doubt the Jews had abducted him to use his blood. Suddenly, a man stepped out of the crowd and called to the priest that he had a special message for him. As he approached, he announced his message aloud. A fellow farmer from his village had asked him to deliver it after suddenly falling ill a few days earlier with pains in his head and stomach and dying. Before his death, the farmer had called for this man and asked him to go to the priest and remind him of his promise to bring him to heaven in return for carrying out the priest’s demand: he and another farmer were to abduct a child and hide him at his brother’s home in a neighboring village. The priest heard the farmer telling his story loudly and innocently and was completely flustered, but quickly recovered

05:49 and began shouting that the farmer was drunk and did not know what he was doing. He harshly rebuked him for coming drunk to church and disrupting the service, and ordered him thrown out. The crowd immediately did so, giving him a sound beating as well. The farmer did not understand what they wanted from him. Even outside, he continued telling his story and expressing his bewilderment at the priest’s reaction. He could not understand what wrong he had done. He repeated to the people outside the church the message his dying neighbor had entrusted to him. Meanwhile, word arrived that the second non-Jew, whom the farmer had named as his neighbor’s partner in the abduction, had also suddenly fallen ill and died. Others from the villages said they had seen the priest visit that man before his death. As the crowd continued milling about and retelling these stories, a policeman and two men from one of the villages suddenly appeared, bringing with them the missing Christian child whose disappearance had led to the blood libel against the Jews. Everyone could now see that the child was alive and that the entire accusation against the Jews was a fabrication. How had the child suddenly been brought to Liozna safe and sound? Quite simply. One of the policemen, a friend of the Jews, had never believed that Jews used Christian blood for Pesach. When he heard the farmer’s story, he hurried with two villagers who guided him to the home of the brother of the man who had hidden the child. They found the child there. The homeowner said it had been done on the priest’s orders: he had promised heaven and full payment to both the abductors and whoever hid the child. They immediately took the child to the square by the church in Liozna, where the priest and the crowd listening to him still stood. When the people saw the child alive before their eyes, a great uproar broke out. At first, the priest lost his composure, but he quickly overcame

08:19 his shock and brazenly climbed onto the platform, crossed himself, and swore that everything he had said was true. Apparently, he claimed, once the Jews realized he had exposed their deception, they had been forced to abandon their plan to slaughter the child and had rushed to bribe the policeman and the two villagers to invent a new story blaming him. As soon as he finished speaking, the priest fainted and was carried home unconscious. Meanwhile, the police chief arrived. After hearing everything that had happened, he declared before the crowd that the Jews were innocent of any wrongdoing. He warned that anyone who laid a hand on a Jew would be hanged in the town square. The police chief ordered the immediate release of the two Jewish hostages and instructed that the town’s Jews be informed that the accusation had been dismissed. He ordered the crowd to disperse at once. The people from the surrounding villages went home, leaving only Liozna’s residents in the square. The two Jewish prisoners were brought there. The police chief invited two prominent non-Jewish townsmen to accompany him as he escorted the prisoners home, intending to meet the leaders of the Jewish community and ask their forgiveness for the distressing accusation. Meanwhile, word reached Liozna’s Jews that the police chief was approaching with the two prisoners, accompanied by two of the town’s non-Jewish leaders. Not knowing what had actually happened, the Jews assumed the prisoners were being led to their execution, Heaven forbid. A rumor spread that the sentence would be carried out in the synagogue square before the eyes of all the Jews. Some even imagined that afterward their bodies would be wrapped in Torah scrolls and burned at the stake. Wailing broke out among the Jews, and they hurried to gather in the synagogue, where the rabbi, the community leaders, and other Jews were still sitting, wrapped in talleisim and kittels and saying Tehillim. As more people arrived and the rabbi and community leaders heard that the two prisoners were being led toward the synagogue, they rose and went out to meet the police chief. Assuming

11:05 When it seemed the end had come, one of the community leaders pleaded with the police chief to give them time to daven Minchah together and say Vidui before their deaths. The police chief burst out laughing. He explained to the Jews what had happened, asked their forgiveness, and expressed his joy that the truth had come to light. All the Jews greeted the news with great rejoicing and went home. Only the rabbi and the community leaders remained in the shul to fulfill the commitments they had undertaken. That same day, word spread that the priest was dangerously ill and writhing in agony. He remained in that condition for two weeks, until he died. Jews and non-Jews in Liozna and the surrounding villages knew well that everyone who had played a part in the blood libel had met a terrible end. Yisroel, the second student Chaim Shimon had befriended at the Minsk yeshivah, was distinguished by his extensive knowledge of mathematics and astronomy. He was also a skilled woodcarver. Before coming to Minsk, he had spent four years at the yeshivah of the gaon Rabbi Mordechai Tuklis [unclear] in Berlin, where he had also studied mathematics and astronomy. Over two years, he had even managed to build a miniature Beis Hamikdash measuring two cubits by two cubits. Chaim Shimon had long been drawn to mathematics and astronomy, and now his friend Yisroel introduced him to these subjects. Their friendship grew stronger. While at the Minsk yeshivah, Chaim Shimon lost both his parents, one after the other. His friends shared in his grief. Chaim Shimon found comfort in devoting himself even more deeply to Torah study, and in studying mathematics with Yisroel’s help. Yisroel became engaged in Minsk to the daughter of Rabbi Shmuel Zanvil, who earned his living combing flax. Rabbi Shmuel Zanvil was a renowned Torah scholar, but preferred to support himself through his own labor. As he combed flax, he would review tractates of the Talmud by heart, one after another. His son-in-law Yisroel followed the same path. He even refused to be supported by his father-in-law, and immediately

14:20 after his wedding, he began working at a trade. While still in Berlin, he had seen a machine there—a machine for making woolen knitwear. Now Yisroel built such a machine from memory and began producing woolen knitwear, which immediately provided him with a comfortable living. Later, when Rabbi Yosef the stove builder of Dobromysl [unclear] chose Chaim Shimon as a husband for his orphaned granddaughter, Chaim Shimon remained at the Minsk yeshivah for another year. He then decided to learn from Yisroel how to make knitwear so he could support himself after his wedding. His friend taught him both how to build the machine and how to operate it. And indeed, after his wedding, Chaim Shimon set up a workshop in Dobromysl [unclear] and began making knitwear. The quality of his products soon became known, and people came from near and far to buy them. Chaim Shimon was very friendly and had fine character traits. Though still young, people began to take him and his opinions seriously, and he was chosen as one of the community’s representatives to the city authorities. Naturally, people began calling him Rabbi Chaim Shimon. People had long since stopped adding “the stove builder” to Rabbi Yosef’s name. He no longer worked at that trade, supporting himself instead from his garden and field, while spending the whole day in the beis midrash engaged in Torah and avodah. For a few hours, he would snatch some sleep on a hard bench in a room adjoining the beis midrash. People often asked him, “Rabbi Yosef, why don’t you rest at home in a proper bed?” Rabbi Yosef would say that he fondly remembered his youth and his years of study in yeshivah, when he always had to sleep on a hard bench. In this connection, he would also quote the teaching of our Sages: “This is the way of Torah: Eat bread with salt, drink water in measured amounts, and sleep on the ground.” Someone who is too pampered cannot succeed in his studies, Rabbi Yosef would say. Rabbi Yosef felt a strong personal bond

16:59 with his granddaughter’s husband, Rabbi Chaim Shimon. They had a regular study session together, and each greatly enjoyed the other’s scholarship. One thing, however, troubled Rabbi Yosef: Rabbi Chaim Shimon’s tendency to react heatedly to any show of pride or boasting. Even if the person boasting was a Torah scholar, Rabbi Chaim Shimon would not let it pass. Rabbi Shimon’s hatred of arrogance and arrogant people ran deep. He had acquired it from his first teacher, Rabbi Yekusiel, the melamed from Liozna, who also could not bear people’s arrogance. Rabbi Yekusiel would repeatedly remind his students what had become of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his words were engraved in Chaim Shimon’s memory. “All Pharaoh’s troubles,” old Yekusiel would say, “came upon him because he considered himself a deity, to the point that he had the audacity to say, ‘Who is Hashem, that I should heed His voice?’ So Hakadosh Boruch Hu punished him with the Ten Plagues, and in the end he and his army drowned in the Sea of Reeds. And Korach, too, was punished because of his arrogance,” Rabbi Yekusiel would say.