44. Three Holy Sailors

00:16 Good . It's almost Shabbos, Parshas Beshalach. We just had Tu B'Shevat, which is the yahrtzeit of the previous Rebbe. The previous Rebbe, in one of his reshimas, brings a- an incredible story that was told by his father who heard it. His father was the Rebbe Rashab. He heard it from the Rebbe Maharash on the second night of Rosh Hashanah, tof reis shlome tes. The Rebbeim, all the Chabad Rebbes had a custom that on the second night of Rosh Hashanah, they would tell a story, a short story, something related to the King of Russia, the Tsar. Either a, a story that relates for how the king is nice to his people, or how the king has to be nicer to the people, and how the soldiers of the army are very devoted to the king. Something related to kingship, to government, and this has to do because of Rosh Hashanah is a time when we coronate and appoint Hashem as our king of the universe, of the entire world. So they would talk about kings of their country. There's a deeper reason for this, but this is what used to happen every Rosh Hashanah, the second night. Not on the first night, on the second night. On the year tof reis shlome tes, on the second night of Rosh Hashanah, the Rebbe Maharash told an incredible story about three Jewish soldiers who had mesirus nefesh, as you'll see in a moment. There was a city called Velizh. Velizh is a Jewish city, and in that town

02:08 was born a Jew by the name Shimon Lievin. Shimon was his first name, Lievin was his last name. He was one of those children that were taken by the Tsar's soldiers at a very young age. When he was a child, he was taken to the army. As you know that in the time of the Tzemach Tzedek, the Tsar made a s- very terrible decree against the Jews where every Jewish family had to give up one child from age seven or eight that had to be taken to the Russian army, and they never saw their parents again. And they had to serve in the army for 20, 25 years until they became adults. And these children weren't allowed to keep Yiddishkeit. They weren't allowed to daven. They weren't allowed to eat kosher. They made sure that they ate treif. They wanted them to become like Russians, like Goyim. They're known by the name the Cantonists. I'm sure you heard stories about them. Many brave stories of how these Jewish children tried very hard to stay Jewish. This Shimon Lievin who came from Velizh was taken by the army, by the s- Russian soldiers at a young age, and he served for quite a few years in the army. At first, he was stationed in a army base, uh, in a place called Kronstadt. That place, Kronstadt, uh, was once visited by the Tzemach Tzedek. The Tzemach Tzedek was once invited by, by the soldiers. There were j- many Jewish soldiers in this army base in Kronstadt,

04:02 and they asked the Tzemach Tzedek to come to them in the year tof reis gimel. And the Tzemach Tzedek went and visited those Jewish soldiers. They, they, they spoke Yiddish. They hadn't forgotten their Yiddish from home, and they asked the Tzemach Tzedek to say a ma'amar for them. The Tzemach Tzedek told them a ma'amar in, in, in Yiddish, and then the Tzemach Tzedek also told them that one of the things they must remember that even though they're not able to learn Torah, and sometimes it's very hard to keep all the mitzvahs, but they have to remember one thing, that if they're asked to worship idols, if they're asked to convert to another religion, they must resist. They must say no. Absolutely no. Even if the Tsar himself says to a s- Jewish soldier, "I want you to convert to Christianity, to the Goyish religion," you must say no even if it means that the Tsar is gonna kill you. As you know, kinderlekh, that in the Torah, a Jew is supposed to keep all the mitzvahs, of course, but if his life is in danger, you don't have to do the mitzvahs. The Torah says your life comes first, except for three things. One is Avodah Zarah. A Jew is not supposed to worship idols, even if his life is in danger. That means he'd rather die than worship an idol. Also, another one is murder. If a Goy tells a Jew, "Go kill this other person, and if you don't, I will kill you,"

05:37 the Jew is not supposed to kill the other person, and if the Goy kills him, so let it be. You're not supposed to commit murder, even if it means saving your life. And the third one is adultery. Uh, adultery, an example for adultery is a woman who's married, and she goes and marries another man. That you're not supposed to do. It's a big aveira. Even if your life is in danger, you're not supposed to do it. So the Tzemach Tzedek said to these soldiers, you should remember that, you know, other mitzvahs, if your life is in danger, according to the Torah, you're allowed to commit the aveira because you have to save your life first. But if it comes to aveiras zarah, absolutely not. Not even if the czar himself. This Shimon Lievin was in Kronstadt at the time when the Tzemach Tzedek visited and he heard the, he was very young then, but he heard the Tzemach Tzedek say his Torah, the maimer, and he still remembered it. Now, this Shimon Lievin was very, very brave. First of all, he was very strong physically and he loved his work. He was actually part of the Russian Navy. That means these are sailors. You know that in the army, when they have to fight a war, they have to fight a war in different places. They have to have foot soldiers that walk into the field where they have the fight and they shoot at the enemy. Then you have to have people that ride

07:12 on horses. Today it's vehicles like cars, special cars for the army or tanks. And then there are people who they are supposed to fight from the sea. They go into ships and they have to sometimes attack a country through the sea, from the side of the sea, if that country is bordering on the sea. So this Shimon Lievin was a very, very powerful, strong and brave soldier. He was a sailor and he was part of the Russian Navy. He knew how to maneuver a ship even in the most dangerous waters. You know, sometimes there's a storm in the sea, you know, when the soldiers are taking a riding in the ocean and there's a big storm with lots of rain and then the waves go wild and go very high up and they can drown the ship. Shimon was never afraid of anything. He would right away take the sails and he would manage to get the ship out of danger. Everybody talked about Shimon. They called him Simeon in Russian. His real name, his Jewish name was Shimon Lievin, but they called him Simeon. In fact, he had a special name, a nickname, Simeon Badri. Badri means the powerful one, the brave one, because he was always very brave. Now the general, one of the main general of the army heard so much about Shimon, about Simeon, and he decided to move Simeon from Kronstadt to another place. He made him an assistant to one of the high-ranking generals in one of the most

09:05 important army base for the Navy, most important army bases for the Russian Navy in a city called Sevastopol. Sevastopol was a city that was by the sea and there there was a huge, huge float, right, an army, ships from the Russian army, hundreds, maybe thousands of ships. And there were tens and thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of soldiers in that army base in Sevastopol. That was a very important army base. And this general decided to move Shimon to this very important army base by this port city. A port means where there is a harbor, there's an ocean. And he placed him in that army base and said, you will be the assistant to the most important general of the whole army base. And while Shimon, Simeon and Shimon was there, he was very, very successful. He became more and more brave and more and more powerful, more and more successful as they passed by. Every danger in the sea, no matter how raging and terribly dangerous it was, he was never afraid. He would immediately get into action and he would save the ship. He was very successful at this. And as I said, that's why they called him Shimon, the powerful man, Simeon Badri in Russian. The king Nikolai, who was the king of Russia, decided one day, the czar himself decided one day, Nikolai, that he wants to come and visit with all his important generals and all his important ministers and entourage with a lot of people. He's coming to visit the

11:07 famous army base in the port city of Sevastopol. And the army base, people were supposed to prepare the army base for the czar's visit. And everybody was very anxious. The czar himself is coming to visit and to observe. He wanted to see how good the soldiers are and how nice the place looks. So they cleaned the place and everything. And they also prepared a special show for the czar himself to watch together with the hundreds and thousands of people that are going to watch together with the czar. The brave acts of the soldiers. And who do you think was chosen to be the main actor of that show? It was Simeon Badri, as we know him as Shimon Lievin. Shimon was going to be the main show, and so when the king came to the army base, they made a big stage. Thousands of people were sitting down and watching, and Shimon had an incredible skill. He was able to climb the mast. You know what the mast of a ship is? The big, big, tall, you know, beam that goes up in by the ship where the sails are hanging from, so it's very, very tall. He would climb, dressed with all his uniform and his, uh, arms and guns and knives and, and, and his backpacks. Heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy stuff carrying on him. He was able to climb the mast all the way to the top in seconds. It was unbelievable. Everybody was amazingly impressed. He would climb the mast with all

12:59 the heavy stuff on him so quickly, and then when he got to the top, he would jump from the top of the mast into the sea, and then he would come up and swim up back onto the ship. And that was so impressive that everybody was shocked and stunned. It was amazing. People couldn't believe their eyes. Even the King Nikolai himself, he was, like, totally, totally, uh, impressed, and when he heard that, he asked, "What's his name? Who is this soldier? It's such an amazing guy." So they told him his name is Simeon Badree. So the tsar was sure he's a goy, he's a Christian, he is not Jewish. He didn't think even that he was Jewish, so the... He told the tsar, was so impressed with Simeon's act that he told the general, the main general of the entire Sevastopol, uh, army base, he said, "I want you to make a special, um, show where everybody's gonna come together in 12 hours from now." That means tomorrow morning. "And I wanna honor this sailor, this soldier, Simeon Badree, with special honors and with medals, and I want everybody to be here. I want you to prepare the entire army base for this special, uh, ceremony." And so the, the tsar went home. He went to his, uh, room where he stayed near the army base, and then all the soldiers started quickly preparing the army base for tomorrow morning's special ceremony where the tsar himself is gonna come and honor this Simeon Badree with

14:44 special honors. And the tsar had asked that everybody should show up, the entire army base, the tens and thousands of soldiers, everybody should come, and they should also come with all their cannons and their horses. It should be like a whole army display where we see the power of the army, and right in front of all those special people and, and, and, and hun- tens and thousands of soldiers and all the cannons and all the, the wagons and all the, the guns and all the special, uh, f- ammunition they had, everything should be there on display, and we're going to show and the, the, the great power of our army, and right there I will honor Simeon Badree in front of everyone. And so that's what they did. The whole night people worked to clean the place and to set up the place, and by the morning, very early in the morning, everything was already set up beautifully. Eight o'clock in the morning, Tsar Nikolai showed up. He was very happy, very satisfied. He was very much looking forward to give honors to this special soldier, Simeon Badree. And the king sat down on his special chair and everybody, thousands and thousands of people around also sitting down on stages and watching. And then came the special ceremony where Simeon Badree was walking together with the greatest general of that army base. Together they were walking towards the tsar. And when the tsar saw Simeon, he got up from his chair. This is a very

16:23 special honor, that the king would get up from his chair and walked over to Simeon, and he stretched out his hand to shake his hand, and he said, "Shalom, shalom. Peace on you, Simeon Badree. I'm giving you five honors, five medals for what I saw you do yesterday, and I'm going to honor you with a special title. From now on, you are called General Simeon Badree. You're not just a, a soldier. You're gonna be a general, General Simeon Badree." Shimon listened to the king, and then he thanked the tsar. He says, "Thank you, Your Majesty, but I just want you to info- to inform you that according to the laws of your kingdom, I'm not allowed to accept this gift from you because my name is really Shimon. I'm actually a Jew." The king, when he heard this, was so shocked. He didn't think that he was Jewish. This, the last thing in his mind, he thought, oh, Jewish? Never thought about this. "If that's the case," says the king, and he's quite angry now. Nobody told him that he's a Jew. They should have told him in advance he's a Jew, but nobody told him, so he says, "If that's the case, you're Jewish." Then he turns to Shimon and then also to all the other generals that are standing nearby, "Then you are going to convert to the Christian religion. You're gonna become a goy. And then if you do so, if you do that, I will make you the head of the

18:09 entire navy of Russia." And you will have a lot of honor and glory, a lot of money. You'll be very wealthy. Shimon, instead of responding to this suggestion of the king, he says to the king, "Your Honor, I'd like to give Your Honor, uh, Your Majesty, another moment of pleasure. I know you enjoyed so much what I did yesterday when I climbed that mast and jumped into the sea. I'd like to demonstrate before you again, one more time, what I'm capable of doing on this ship. Would you allow me to climb that mast again very high, high, high up, and then do what I know how to do, and give you the pleasure of watching me do this?" And the king said, "Yes. Go ahead and do it." And so the king sat down. Shimon ran over to the ship, climbed the mast all the way to the top, and then he cried out with a powerful voice so everybody on the whole army base could hear, "Exalted King, Honorable King, this has been 12 years that I have been successful in this special navy of yours. I love the navy, I love the army, but I want you to know I am first a Jew, and I'm afraid maybe I will not be able to pass the test, because if I g- tell you that I can't do it, I'm not gonna convert, then I know what's gonna happen to me. They're gonna torture me, and maybe when I get tortured and I'm in

20:03 a lot of pain, I might give in and do the wrong thing as a Jew. I will give over my neshamah now to my God while I'm innocent, so I don't end up doing a terrible aveira of converting to Christianity. You should know that I have never eating tr- eating treif. For 12 years I've been in the army, I've never had any treif food in my mouth, and I never was mechallel Shabbos, and never mechallel Yonsef." Apparently, Shimon secretly would always make sure that if there was treif meat, he would not eat it. He'd made in a way that nobody knew that he's not eating it because it's-- he's Jewish. He would just say, "I don't like it." On Shabbos, he tried to find a way where he wouldn't have to work, and same thing with Yonsef. He says, "I never, ever ate treif in my entire 12 years, so I want you to know I'm first a Jew." And then he cried out with a powerful voice. He did something very shocking. He said, "Shema Yisroel Hashem Eloheinu Hashem echad." And when he said this, he jumped from the mast into the sea, went underwater, but this time he did not come back up. He actually drowned. This incredible sight made a huge impression on the king. The king was silent. Everybody, the tens and thousands of people who were sitting there watching this in amazement, they were all quiet. They couldn't speak. They were speechless. They didn't know what to think. What just

22:08 happened? After a few moments of silence, the tsar got up from his seat, went back to his room, where he stayed, very distraught, very disturbed. This was a very shocking scene. The tsar told the soldiers he wants them to find the body of the holy, righteous Shimon Lievin. Of course, the tsar did not say that. He wanted them to find the body of the soldier. Now, after three days, they searched. They sent down soldiers who knew how to go deep inside the sea and look and look and swim. And after three days, it took them three days to find the body of Shimon Lievin, the holy Shimon Lie-Lievin. But in the chevra kadisha from the community of Sevastopol... Chevra kadisha is the... Every community has a group of people that they volunteer. They do all the things that need to be done to someone who's dead. Somebody died, you have to bury him according to the Torah, and wash the body and clean it and dress him up in special white clothes, and then you put him in a coffin, and then you bury him according to the Torah. And a Jew must be buried in a Jewish cemetery. You cannot bury a Jew in a non-Jewish cemetery. So when the chevra kadisha of the city of Sevastopol, there was a Jewish community there, they heard that the army had found the body of Shimon Lievin. So they went and sent a messenger to the, um, minister, the minister of the army, to ask him

23:58 that they should-- he should-- they should give the body of Shimon to their hands so they can bury him in a Jewish cemetery. But the minister of the army and a few other ministers, they consulted each other, and they decided they have to let the Tsar Nikolai know that they found his body and ask him what to do. The Tsar Nikolai had a gallach that he asked him all his questions. So Nikolai asked his gallach what to do about the body of Shimon Badri, Simeon Badri, and the gallach said... The gallach's name was Peter. Peter said to Nikolai, um, "We should take the body of Simeon and put him in a box, a special box, and put him in a special room, and put honorary guards, like soldiers, around his coffin for three days to watch him, 24 hours a day, ev- for, for three days. And at the end of the three days, after they leave his body in the coffin there..." That was a way of honoring somebody special in the army. They would have an honorary guard for three days stand around the body, andthey would take his body and bury him in the army cemetery, which is a Christian, a non-Jewish cemetery. So Nikolai ordered the people from the army, the generals, what they should do with his body. They should take him, put him in a coffin, and have an honorary guard from the navy. They should watch his body for three days, and then he'll be buried in

25:37 the Christian cemetery. Now, Shimon, who is a Kadesh, he's a gave his neshamah, his life for Hashem, so that he wouldn't, uh, be forced to convert to, to another religion. Now this Simeon had two friends in the army. They were also in the same army base. They were also Jewish, and they also kept it a secret, but they knew each other. They were very close friends. They also kept mitzvahs secretly. When they heard and saw... When they saw what their friend Shimon had done, the Mesirus Nefesh, that make a huge impression on them. And then when they heard that the Tsar had commanded that they should take his body of this holy Shimon, their good friend Shimon, they, they should take his body and bury him amongst the Christians, those who worship idols. The two friends became very sad, and they started talking to each other, "What should we do? Uh, it's not right to take our friend, a chaver, Shimon, a holy tzadik, who gave his neshamah for Hashem, they should bury him amongst the Goyim." So they decided they will do something secretly to save Shimon from being buried amongst the Goyim. What they, what were they gonna do? They were gonna go to the Christian cemetery. They're gonna find a new kever from a Christian soldier who was buried a few days ago. He died a few days ago, and they buried him a few days ago. To pull out his body, the Goyishe body, from the cemetery, to put him in

27:25 a bag. And they, these two friends, were also going to be for one night, one of the nights of the three days that they were supposed to watch the body of Shimon, they were going to be part of the honorary guards. So they were gonna take the body of the Goy, hide it somewhere near the building, somewhere nearby, and they were... When they're gonna be honorary guards, there'd be other soldiers there, because there were ten, 15 soldiers watching the body of Shimon. They'll bring a bottle of Mashke, of vodka. You know Russians, that's their favorite drink, is vodka. Not Coca-Cola, it's vodka. So they'll say l'chaim, they'll have a farbrengen, but not a Jewish farbrengen, a Chasidish farbrengen, a Goyishe farbrengen. Farbrengen with Russians. And they'll g-offer the mashke, and of course, they're gonna love it. They're gonna give them so much to drink till they fall asleep. And while the rest of the soldiers are sleeping, the two friends of Shimon are going to open up the coffin of Shimon, take out Shimon from the box, and then they'll grab the body of this Christian that they pulled out of the ceme- Goyishe cemetery, and they'll put him instead in the box, then close the box and seal it off, and then take Shimon's body and sneak out and bury him secretly in the middle of the night in the Jewish cemetery. And these soldiers will sleep for hours and hours. By the time they come back, everyone say a word, everything will be

28:53 normal. They'll think that Shimon is in this box, but Shimon is really not in the box. Shimon is already buried in a Jewish cemetery. It's really that Russian soldier that they, they put there instead. But this way, they'll give Shimon a Jewish burial. It worked. It was successful. When they were guards, honorary guards, they brought a big bottle of mashke, and they started pouring for all the soldiers, and the soldiers were so happy, and they drank one cup and another cup and another cup until they all fell asleep. They were so drunk. They're like throwing up and sleeping and i-it was... And then the two friends of Shimon sprang into action. They opened up the coffin quickly, took out Shimon's body, and they put in the Goyishe body instead and dragged Shimon away to the Jewish cemetery. They had a wagon prepared to ride quickly to the Jewish cemetery. They buried him in a Jewish cemetery. Great. A few months went by, two months, and the army found out what had happened. We don't know how. Somehow, the generals, the officers, found out that the body that they buried with ceremony and, uh, and with the honorary guards was not Shimon's body. It was a different body. And they found out that these two guys who were Jewish are the ones who switched the body around. So they took the two soldiers to put them in prison, and they started torturing them. "We want you to tell us where in the Jewish cemetery did you

30:39 bury Shimon, Simeon Badre. We wanna know where you buried him." And they refused to tell. They tortured and tortured them. One of them died from the torture. The other soldier did not die from the torture, but at the end of the torture, and they saw that they couldn't get any information out of him, they had him killed by a firing squad. So both of those Jewish soldiers died Al Kiddush Hashem Mesirus Nefesh because they did not want to tell where they buried their friend, the Kadesh, the heilige Shimon Leven, so he would have a burial in a Jewish cemetery. This story the Rebbe Rash told, and then the Rebbe Rash said, "These three Jews who had such Mesirus Nefesh." Shimon who had Mesirus Nefesh in order not to have to convert to, uh, uh, the Christian religion, even though he was offered great honors and to become a chief general in the army. And the two friends who wanted to make sure that he has a Jewish burial, and they died Al Kiddush Hashem in order to make sure that he has a burial. He says, "In their zechus. Their zechus is so great, we can't even begin to understand how great their zechus is. Their zechus is so powerful it can protect the entire Jewish people for three generations." You know what three generations means? About 100 years. For the next 100 years, the Jews can be protected from all problems in the zechus of all these, these three Jews, these three sailors. That

32:35 tells us, Chas v'Shalom, we should never have to face such a test. But you know, it tells us that if these soldiers were able to give up their lives to do the right thing, and, uh, then we-- We don't let-- Mesirus Nefesh doesn't mean you have to die. The Rebbe says many times, Mesirus Nefesh means... Mesirus that means to give up what you want. Sometimes you want something that you shouldn't want. It's not good. It's not good for your neshamah. It's not for you good-- you as a Hasid. And you say, "No, I'm not gonna do it, even though I want it." That's called Mesirus Nefesh, too. And in Shamayim, by Hashem, this is so precious, so amazing. So kindalech, have a good Woche, and look forward to the next story.