0059 - A Russian Woman's Mesiras Nefesh

00:02 Another thing that happened with Shaikeh Sadrebe when he gave our trip to Russia, one of the places we went was to Odessa. And there we went to a family and all the protims, not to give to this thing in here, but we were in the house. We saw a baby that was, like I said, put in time. And the baby looked like it was about a half a month old, half a year old, about six months old. So we're talking to the mother and the mother said to us like this, that this baby was born like a week or two before Yom Kippur. In Odessa, there was no mail. So if any person wanted to do a bris, had to take the child someplace to a big city. We'd go to Moscow. But you can't take a baby that's just a week or eight days old to Moscow. So they would wait. The baby grew up a little bit, became a few months old. And then they would take, especially the mother couldn't go either. The mother just had a baby. She's a kimpeton. So how could she travel? So they would wait. She tells me, she tells us this woman says that, but I thought to myself, how in the world could I have my baby go through Yom Kippur without having a bris? Impossible. So I decided no matter how, even though I just had the baby, so I'm still weak and the baby is so weak and so small, we're going to

01:09 Moscow. So she tried to make a reservation on the plane, couldn't get a reservation. She took the train for 24 hours and came to Moscow, had the bris and right away took the train back. All in order for before Yom Kippur, the baby should have a bris. And she told it to me without bragging or being so proud of it. I said, don't be a posher. How else could it be? Then we were talking. I asked her which mikvah does she use? The mikvah wasn't, there was no mikvah in Odessa. She says, well, I go to the Black Sea because Odessa is on the Black Sea. So I said to her, but it's very cold. Even though we know the Black Sea doesn't actually become ice, but it's freezing water. How do you go in the winter? She looked at me and said, well, what? You got to go to the mikvah. You got to go to the mikvah. I mean, tapash, there's no. And to me, I'm thinking such a thing. This is Romesira Snafish, both things. But to her, it was nothing. I came back to New York. I wrote to the Rebbe report. So first I came back and it was Friday. I wrote to the Rebbe report, the Kitsa Nimrots. And then after that, I sat down and wrote a long report. But one of the things I wanted to write to the Rebbe was these two stories, these two things about this woman, which gave me such a sederis because

02:14 it's so that the main thing is it wasn't, he didn't even think of it as something special. So I wanted to write to the Rebbe, but I was so mevulvul and I sat down and I wrote the report. I forgot to put this in. So when I gave it to the Rebbe, I forgot I wanted to do this. I called up Rebbe Groner and I said to him, I was in New York. I called Rebbe Groner and I said to Rebbe Groner that I wanted to tell the Rebbe, write this thing I didn't. If you get a chance, if you don't mind, if you could tell this to the Rebbe. That's it. Friday night, I was on a 770 downstairs. So I get, people are telling me Rebbe Groner is looking for you. So I went and found him and he says, yes, he told the Rebbe that these two things and the Rebbe told him these words. Tell him to tell this to the people here who think that, he didn't say the word think who, the people here who go on Mesires Nefesh, sarcastically, meaning people here think they're really going on Mesires Nefesh. So he said, tell him that he should tell this to the people here who go on Mesires Nefesh, basically meaning who think that they do Mesires Nefesh.