135. The Rebbe Rashab Saved A Chossid From Danger

00:16 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlach. Eh, I wanna share with you a story. A Hasid of the Rebbe Rashab, his name was Reb Boruch Yosef Kozliner. Boruch Yosef Kozliner lived in a city called Disna in, in Russia. Everybody called him Boruch Yosef the Melamed. He was a teacher. And Reb Boruch Yosef had sons who learned in Lubavitch, in yeshiva, in Tomchei Temimim by the Rebbe Rashab. Now the city of Disna where he lived was a place where they had, um, a s- base of the army, the Russian army, and everybody who was supposed to be drafted and taken to the army to become a soldier had to go through Disna. And that's where all the officers were there, and they checked out every person who was supposed to go into the army to see if they're healthy or sick. If they're sick, then they wouldn't have to go to the army. And they had doctors there. All the doctors were there. It was a big center where everybody came there to Disna to be checked and make sure that they go to the army if they're healthy, and if they're not healthy, they can go free. They don't have to be soldiers. Now you understand that the yeshiva bachurim of Lubavitch did not wanna go to the Russian army because if you went to the Russian army, there's no kosher food there. You can't be a Jew. You can't live life like a Jew. You can't do mitzvahs there. You can't learn Torah. It was very dangerous for

01:49 a Jew to go there. But it wasn't only dangerous, uh, spiritually, the mitzvahs that you couldn't do, but it was also dangerous, um, physically 'cause Jews there in the army suffered a lot. So of course, all the bachurim wanted to get out of the army. So many times bachurim would go to Disna, where you have to go and show up in front of the officers, uh, that check you out. Uh, and, um, and then you go there and, and there were people in the city, some Chaba- Hasidim or other people, they would, um... Some people it was for money. They would... If you give them a little bit of money, they would go and bribe the officers with money, and they would make sure that the officer would write something in the document that the person is sick and he can't be in the army, even though it wasn't true. But they would do it for money, that the Goyim, the officers who had-- c- could decide what they wanted. They could say, "Okay, this person should go to the, to the army. This person can't go to the army because he's too sick. His eyes are very bad, so he can't be a soldier." So they can decide whatever they wanted, and then the papers went to St. Petersburg, to the capital, and they, uh, decided, okay, based on what those papers were saying, um, this person should go to the army, this person doesn't have to go to the army. So the, in

03:19 Disna, there were a lot of people who make a living, they make a business from this. They would be paid by people who didn't wanna go to the army, and they say, and they would take money from them and say, "Okay, you pay me a certain amount of money, and then you give me money that I can bribe the officers with, and they will do what I tell them to do. They'll say, 'Okay, this person cannot go to the army.'" And many of the people did it for money, but there was this Boruch Yosef Kozliner, Boruch Yosef the Melamed, who also did this. He specially did it for bachurim from Tomchei Temimim from Lubavitch who couldn't go to the army. It was terrible. It was too dangerous for them to go to the army. So how, how did he get out of going to the army? They would go Boruch Yosef. He didn't do it for money. He didn't do it for himself. He didn't take any money for this. He just did it because he wanted to help the bachurim from yeshiva. They shouldn't have to be taken to the army. And he helped a lot, a lot, a lot of Temimim, a lot of bachurim from yeshiva that were able to go free and not to go to the army. One day, somebody, um, somebody, um, told on him to the government. Apparently, they told on many people in Disna because many people in Disna did this, and many of the Russian officers

04:39 in the army base would take money. So both were in trouble because those that gave the money and bribed the officers, and the officers themselves who took the money were also in a lot of trouble, 'cause if they are caught they did this type of thing, they lied on the papers, they c- go- all go to prison, and, uh, it was, be many years in prison and a harsh sentence. So Reb Boruch Yosef was also accused. So many people, the, the government from the capital, from, from St. Petersburg, sent high-ranking officers to do an investigation, to go and check whether it's true. And many people were arrested and sent to prison, including many officers from the army, Russian officers, w- who were caught that they took b- bribes from people, and they were all sent to prison. The Boruch Yosef knew that he's also going to be arrested sometime soon because the people that told on them, told on the people, um, were telling on everybody, including Boruch Yosef. So he knew he has to run away from the city, but he didn't know where to go. Should he go to Poltava, to Krinchatuk, to different cities? But he knew if he stays in the city, he'll be arrested and sent to prison for many, many years. And who knows if he was gonna survive because in the Russian prison, if you were Jewish, Chas v'shalom, you could die also. Decided to go to Lubavitch. He traveled, took a train, went straight to Lubavitch to

06:13 the Rebbe Rashab to ask his opinion where he should move and run away. At first, the Gabai didn't wanna let him in. Rebbe Nachman was his name. He said, "No, it's not time to go to Yechidus now." And so what did he do? He ga- he sent in a note to the Rebbe Rashab through somebody else who went into Yechidus, and the Rebbe Rashab saw the note and said to Rebbe Nachman, his, his secretary, "Go tell Baruch Yosef that I wanna see him." And Rebbe Nachman had no choice but to let him in, and told the Rebbe Rashab the whole story. And the Rebbe Rashab listened to him and then, uh, thought for a few moments, thinking, thinking, and then he turns to Baruch Yosef and says to him like this: "Does anybody know that you came here to me?" So he said, "No, only my wife knows that." Then the Rebbe asked him another question. "Did you... When y- when you had money that helped to bribe the officers, did you ever use any of the money for yourself?" You know, sometimes people use Tzedakah money to help other people. They, they're able to get a lot of money to help other people, but then, "Oh, yeah, I need to buy something for myself. I'll borrow a little bit of money here. Maybe I'll pay it up later when I have more money." You know, people do that thing sometimes. But the, uh, alter Rebbe, the Rebbe Rashab asked him, "Did you ever do

07:46 anything with the money for yourself?" And he said, "No. I promise I never ever used the money for anything other than just to save the Bachurim from yeshiva and to bribe the officials for that." So the Rebbe Rashab then thought again, and he's sank into his thoughts. And after a while, he took out his watch from his pocket, looked at it and says, um, "I think if you go now to the marketplace, you can still catch the wagon drivers and go back home. If not, if you missed it, uh, they all left already." But the-- I mean, the wagon drivers would take him to the s- train station in Lubavitch or near Lubavitch, and then he would go home to Disna. Said, "If not, I'll give you my wagon. I'll tell the-- my helper to, uh, loan you my, my horses and my wagon, and they'll take you to the train station, and you go back home. And Hashem will help you." The Melamed left, uh, went outside Yechidus, left Yechidus, and he thought to himself, "But I didn't ask this. I said to the Re- Rebbe, I know I have to leave. I have to run away. I just wanna know which city to move to. Where should I move? Should I move to Kamień Krajeński, to Poltava? Where should I go? Instead, the Rebbe tells me to go home? Uh, if I go home, the next day they're gonna arrest me and send me to prison." But the Rebbe said so, so he

09:16 managed to find the wagon drivers in Lubavitch, and they took him to the train station. He went home. The next morning, he was already home, and he's waiting in a panic. He's, like, panicking, and he's very scared. Every day, they'll knock on the door, and the police officers are coming to take him to prison, 'cause a lot of people were arrested already. He's sitting in his house, very broken, waiting every day that they're coming to take him to prison. After a few days, uh, Baruch Yosef had a good friend in Disna. His name was Rabbi Yaakov Reuven. Rabbi Yaakov Reuven was also a Hasid of the Rebbe Rashab. Rabbi Reuven came to him and said to him, "I have a good news for you. I think that you will be saved." So he asked him, "How do you know?" He says, "You see, I have a business. I deal with vegetables. You know, I have a garden in my-- the back of my house. I also have other gardens that I rent, and I grow vegetables, and I sell it to all the big, important people in the area called the Goyim. So I do a lot of business. But one of the big officers from the, from the Russian government that lives, uh, near Disna, and today I went to their house because I needed to make a Cheshbon, right? An account with his wife because I brought him a lot of vegetables and she has to pay me. So I went there to,

10:42 to give her, you know, a numb-- uh, the amount how much she has to pay me. As I'm standing there by the door, uh, to work out the price, how much he owes me, how much money she owes me, I hear crying inside the house. I ask her what happened. She tells me, 'Listen, you know that the government sent a whole delegation of officers from Peterburg to investigate and to check out whether there are any people that gave bribes and were there any officers from the Russian government that took bribes, because both are gonna be in trouble. Now, my husband is sort of the assistant to the very big officer. He's the main officer of the whole area, the main, uh, minister. He's the most important person. And my, my, my husband is sort of his assistant. Now, my husband used to take bribes for a long time, and he would, you know, sign papers the way he wanted. People would pay him, you know, make sure that it says on the paper that he's cannot go to the army, and you sign your name. And he would do that for money. People would give him money. But then the main officer, the big minister, right? Who I was his assistant, he heard what I do. He said, "Okay, maybe I should do this for money." You know, he saw an opportunity. It's a great opportunity to make money. So he said, "Okay, I'll do it." And he did it for a long time till

12:07 today. He's still-- He was doing it till very recently.' So him, they caught and he's taken to prison. My boss, the main, main big, big minister who took a lot of money for bribes was taken to prison. "But, but my husband," she says, "only did it a while ago, but he stopped doing it. Now what happened today is that the g- the government delegation of, of, of officers came to town, and they were investigating. They were waiting. They, they were asking, you know, for papers of people that were accused of taking bribes and giving bribes. And my husband was sitting with his secretary, and they were looking through different papers, who's being accused because the delegation, the officers of the, of the capital, of the government is coming soon to pick up those papers to take to Petersburg, and then they would send soldiers to, to arrest the people." So my sec-- The secretary of my husband saw that one of the papers was accusing her husband himself with taking bribes a few years ago, and it said there, "Why is this officer free and not in prison? He also took bribes some years ago." So the secretary tells his boss, the officer, "Do you know there's an accusation against you?" He said, "Really?" He took the paper. He says, "Oi. Do me a favor. Give it to me. Let me hold onto it." He, uh, so they're coming any minute now to the office to pick up all the papers and, and he, and

13:46 he, he sticks it in his pocket. He was not gonna give it to them, so they wouldn't be able to arrest him. But when they came in and they asked him, "So where are the papers? We need all the papers of all the people that are accused of giving bribes." He got, like, very, very, very frantic and very scared, and because he got a little bit confused, he gave them the document that had the accusation against him, against the officer. By mistake, he confused the document of Reb Boruch Yosef with his own, and instead of giving Reb Boruch Yosef's document to the, the big officers that came from, from the capital, he gave his own, and Reb Boruch Yosef's he put away in his pocket some where they couldn't find it. When the officers saw the paper, they said, "Oh, you're under arrest." They said to the officer, "You're under arrest." And that's what the wife of the officer is telling this chassid of Bianca Reuven. So Bianca Reuven tells this. He comes back to her and she says, "I think a nes happened over here, that they by mistake gave the wrong piece of paper, and you're saved." The end was that Reb Boruch Yosef was never arrested, and he stayed home.