110. The Love Between 2 Chassidim In The Middle Of A Scary Russian Prison.

00:06 Hello, Kinderlach. It's almost Yud Beis Tammuz. Yud Beis Tammuz is the big yontif when the Friediker Rebbe came out of prison, where he spent some very painful days suffering a lot from beatings and many other things that the, the, the KGB did to him, and all because of his mesirat nefesh for Yiddishkeit. Not only did the Friediker Rebbe have mesirat nefesh, but he inspired all his Hasidim in Russia to also have mesirat nefesh for Yiddishkeit. So the following story is a story about two Hasidim of the Friediker Rebbe who spent time in prison, an incredible thing that happened to them. One of the things that Hasidim were, were taught to have is ahavat Yisroel. Hasidim love each other like one family, ein mishpacha. So there was a well-known, uh, Hasid in Russia. His name was Moshe Wishetsky. Moshe Wishetsky was a Hasid who learned in Lubavitch and, um, was one of the great Hasidim of Friediker Rebbe. Once the KGB arrested him, and they put him in jail. He spent in jail six years. And they put him in the most serious jail, the most harshest, most difficult jail. It's a jail where they only kept, like, the most vicious and terrible criminals. In that jail, they killed most people. Most people that came into that jail didn't live to come out of the jail. And the Friediker Rebbe sat in that jail as well years before when he came out on Yud Beis Tammuz. Before he came out, he sat in that jail. It's

02:10 called the Shpalerka. The Shpalerka. The Shpalerka was known in Russian as one of the most horrible and horrifying, scary jails in all of Russia. You could hear, as the Friediker Rebbe writes, at night, gunshots. When they took prisoners and decided to kill them, they would take them down to the basement and kill them. It was terrible. In that jail, they put this Hasid, Moshe Wishetsky. And in that jail, they put another Hasid, also very well-known Hasid, Rabbi Mendel Futerfas. Two Hasidim. Two Hasidim who were real Hasidim. They had a real Hasidisha ahavat Yisroel. They loved each other. They would do anything for another Jew. They would give, give up everything to help another Jew. And of course, the Hasidim, they loved each other too. Now, the KGB, what they would do, they would take their prisoners for interrogations. They would a-ask them for hours and hours questions. "Where you were? What did you do on this day? What did you do on that day? And how come you did this with... How about two years ago, we know you met this person." They would, like, ask them, like, very, very difficult questions and make them answer for hours, and sometimes they had to spend the whole night in interrogation. And then in the morning, they would let you go back to your room, but you weren't allowed to sleep during the day. If you went to sleep in the day, they would, like, hit you. You weren't allowed to sleep during the day. So this

03:51 way, you were, like, so exhausted because you barely slept at night, almost didn't sleep anything, and then during the daytime, you weren't allowed to sleep. If the guard saw you sleeping, he would, like, hit you right away. And the Russians, the KGB, did this because they thought when people get very tired and exhausted, they can't think straight anymore, then you, you would admit everything they tell you to admit, you know? What did they try to do? The, the Russians, the KGB, they tried to get you to admit, "Yeah, I did bad things against the government," which is not true. And then they wanted you to sign, and then they can say, "Okay, now we're gonna send you to Siberia for twenty years." But they wanted you to sign and say, "Yeah, you admit that you did it." But these Hasidim didn't admit. And they also wanted another thing. They wanted these Hasidim to tell on other Hasidim. "Tell us names of other Hasidim who do the same thing that you do. They learn Torah hiding and, and they go to a minyan. They have a minyan in their basement, and they learn Torah with other kids, with, with children." They wanted them to tell on other Hasidim so they can arrest them also. But the Hasidim wouldn't say a word, not a word. They were beaten, really harshly beaten, bleeding, bleeding, and they would still not say a word. They had mesirat nefesh not to give out other names. But the Russians, the KGB, thought

05:14 that if we really, really tire them out, we, we, we make them stay up all night answering, like, difficult questions, and in the morning they're so exhausted, but then they can't go to sleep during the day, so they're still exhausted. And they maybe sleep two, three hours, and then they wake them up again at night to go back to for more interrogations. So by, by, after a few days, these people just will tell you anything you want to know just to let them go to sleep because they can't take it anymore. So they were hoping to get out a lot of information this way, and that was a terrible thing. Now, when they used to take Hasidim or prisoners to interrogations, they always had two guards, and the guards had knives- With long swords on the side, and knives and guns in their belts, and a big rifle in their hands, and the rifle would be pointed straight to the prisoner. So behind the prisoner, they told the prisoner to go, to march, and two guards would be one on one side, one on the other side, and hold the gun, the rifle, pointing to the prisoner and say, "You start walking." And they would tell them where to go. And usually the walls were very, very dark. They were like painted in black. The ceiling was painted in black. Everything was black, and there was barely any lighting, like tiny little faint light. And why did they do this? They did this because it

06:46 made a very like scary impression on the prisoners. When the prisoners are walking through a very dark hallway, which everything is black and dark, and it's late at night, and you're exhausted, and now the darkness and the blackness from the walls makes you like feel like, like very down. And that will ensure, make sure that when they ask you questions and they want you to sign that, yes, you did this, you did that, or give out names of other people, you'll, you'll give out because you, you don't feel strong. You feel very weak. You feel very... Right? You can't get, you can't say no. So this was all things they did in order to make the people to do what they wanted. Now, another thing, they had a rule that when you carry a prisoner from his cell, from his room to the interrogations in a, in another room, they would take him through these hallways with two guards, as I said before, but they would never take two prisoners at the same time through the same hallway. They didn't want prisoners to meet each other. So never ever did they take a prisoner through a hallway to go to a certain, um, uh, room and another prisoner would be taken the same time. Only one prisoner at a time. And there were many hallways you had to try to go through because it was, you know, it took about 10, 15 minutes to get to the room. Now, there was another scary rule, very

08:23 scary rule. The rule was that if you were a prisoner and you were led by two guards, by the two guards to go to the room for interrogations, you were supposed to walk straight. You weren't supposed to turn right or left even with one foot. If you step one foot to the right, they shot you. You were dead. So you, you had to walk straight the way they told you to walk. You couldn't just do anything. You couldn't just even turn to the side. You can't do that. Once you did that, they killed you. So once, Rabbi Moshe Wishetsky, who was a prisoner, as I said, for six years, they took him one night, late at night for interrogations, and they c- they led him through the hallway with two, uh, tall soldiers who looked like very scary, with big rifles and guns and, and, and swords on their belts, and they walked silently, and they told the prisoner, "You have to walk straight, right? And if you don't, we shoot right away." And these guards made a mistake. Instead of taking him on a special hallway which only he would be taken at that time, because they knew that no other prisoner can be in the same hallway as another prisoner. So they took him on a prison- on a hallway, but they made a mistake. And they were taking him to the left, they turned to the right. Right? The hallway is going in every direction, and when they came to a point

10:01 they could make right or left, they went right instead of going left. But by going right, they carried there another prisoner, and these guards made a mistake. But they had made the mistake, and they're walking to the right, and Rabbi Moshe Wishetsky's walking straight. Of course, he's not moving anywhere. And then he sees that they're leading another prisoner, and guess what? It's his best friend, Rabbi Mendel Futerfas. And Rabbi Mendel Futerfas looks up and sees his best friend, Rabbi Moshe Wishetsky. And these two ...? When they saw each other, they forgot that they were in prison. They forgot that there were guards behind them with rifles and with guns and can shoot any second. They forgot, but they saw each other and they remem- oh, Rabbi Mendel and Rabbi Moshe, they ran to each other and hugged and kissed and said, "Hello, how are you?" And then they forgot completely. They, they like were so excited, two ...? To see each other, almost like brothers. And then they were-- they marched on. And they, till today, no one knows why the two guards did not shoot. This was an incredible thing. You weren't even allowed to move one inch to the right or to the left, and here the two ...? Ignored the guards, ran in front of the guards' faces. They ran to each other to hug, and they were so excited to see each other, so much love they had for each other that they were so happy to see each other, and

11:40 nobody shot a bullet. There was not even a single bullet that was shot. But that shows the great power of love, Ahavas Yisroel. When Hasidim love each other, they're really like brothers, right? You'd give away everything so that another Hasid should have what he needs. And when that love comes out, they are not within the rules of nature. From the rules of nature, the guards should have shot a bullet and killed them. But Hashem protected them because they were now expressing such love between each other, so that Hashem protected them. So that shows the importance of Ahavas Yisroel, Hasidim loving each other. Remember, when you're in Cheder, you're in school, the kids in your school, in your class, are your brothers. Don't treat them badly. Don't mock them. Don't bully them. That's so bad. It's such a terrible thing to do. A Hasid never, never does such a thing. For a Hasid, everyone in your class is like your brother. You love them, even if they're different from you. Always remember that. It's one of the basic things of being a Hasid, is to always have a love for every Jew, and the love to be so real that you can be in a Russian prison and you see your friend, you forget you're in a prison. You forget about the danger of moving out of line and running over to your friend to hug him because you're so anxious to, to hug him.