144. A Woman’s Mesirus Nefesh That Saved Over 1000 Chassidim Out Of Russia

00:16 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlach. I wanted to share with you a story about a woman, a Hasidisha woman. Her name was Tzippa, Tzippa Kozliner, and a mesirus nefesh she had to save hundreds and hundreds of Hasidim out of Russia, and the amazing dream that she had while she was in prison. As you know already from my previous stories, when the Jews were in Russia, and there was communism, and they didn't want Jews to learn Torah and to teach Torah to children, and they closed down all the schools, all the chederim, all the yeshivas, and all the shuls, and all the mikvahs. They closed down everything. They didn't want Yidden to learn Torah and do mitzvahs. And, uh, many of the Hasidim who went on mesirus nefesh, and they kept Torah mitzvahs and learned Torah with their children, were caught by the police, by the KGB, and they would send them away to prison. And many of them were killed in prison, or they sent them away for, like, ten, 15 years to a labor cam- labor camp far away in Siberia, where it was very, very cold. It was, like, 40 below zero. It's extremely cold, and they would have to work a whole day from five in the morning to late at night, chopping wood with barely any clothes on. People would freeze, and most people would die before the 10 years were over. So this was a terrible time for the Jewish people, especially for the Hasidim, the Chabad Hasidim who, um, went on mesirus

02:02 nefesh to do Torah, mitzvahs, everything properly. At that time, it was right after the war, the World War II. As you know, the Nazis, yimach shemam, they came and conquered Europe and, uh, Poland and Belgium and France and Holland. But at first, they didn't come into Russia, so many people from Poland, when the Nazis came into Poland, they ran away to Russia because the Nazis hadn't been to Russia yet, so they thought they'll be safe. But when they got to Russia, they sent away many of them to Siberia to work there, to work there in some factories and on the... in the woods. Many of them died. And when the war was over, which is 1946, תשע"ו, the Russian government decided to let many of these Polish Jews who f-fled from the Nazis, they ran away from the Nazis, to go back to Poland. Now, Russian citizens, if you were a Hasid, a Chabad Hasid who was from Russia, you're a Russian citizen, they wouldn't let you go out. You weren't allowed to leave. You had to stay in Russia and suffer. But those who were Polish, and they came only during the war, right? Beginning of the war, they, they ran to Russia. Those people, they let them go back to Poland. So then at that time, some Hasidim had a great idea that because the Russian government gave permission to Polish, uh, refugees, Polish Jews that ran away from Poland to, to Russia during the war can go back, so then if we

03:59 can get passports and give it out to all the Hasidim and their families to say that they are Polish even though they're not, this would be a lie. We have to print false passports that says Polish citizen. Mr. So-and-So is a Polish citizen, and all his children are Polish citizens, so they'll be able to leave Russia. This was a very dangerous thing to do because when the KGB catches you, the secret police, right, KGB is the secret police. When they catch you doing this, this, this fake passports, you can get killed. They send you to Siberia and then shot the person to death. They wouldn't let them live because it's a terrible thing for them. It's a big crime in Russia to do that. But nevertheless, the Hasidim weren't sure if they should do it or not, but they waited for the Friediker Rebbe to give them the response. They wanted the Friediker Rebbe to tell them whether they should take the risk of making fake passports and pretending that they are Polish citizens, and this way they'll be able to leave Russia, and then they'll be able to go to America, to, to the Friediker Rebbe, go to Eretz Yisrael, but they'll get out of Russia first. Now, it took a while for the Friediker Rebbe to give the answer, but finally, the answer came back in a letter, and the Friediker Rebbe said, "Look up this and this pasuk." And pasuk said, "וַיַעַל אַהֲרֹן אֶל־הַר הָר וַיָּמָת שָׁם אַהֲרֹן וְשִׁנַת אַרְבָּעִים לְצֵאת בְּנֵי

05:45 יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם." Aaron the Kohen went up on the mountain, and he, and he passed away on the fortieth year when the Jewish people came out of Mitzrayim. And Reb Mendel Futterfas, the great Hasid who was involved in printing false passports and saving the lives of hundreds and hundreds of Hasidisha families- He got the letter first. When he read it, he almost fainted 'cause he understood what the Friediker Rebbe was saying. Friediker Rebbe said that he is, uh, giving up his life. He's sacrificing his own life so the Jews from Russia can come out of Russia. This is what it says in the passage: "Aaron HaKohen went up on the mountain and died on the fortieth year when Jews came out of Mitzrayim." So the Jews coming out of Mitzrayim is like the Jews come out of Russia. And what does it say? Aaron HaKohen died after forty years of coming out of... Friediker Rebbe was hinting that he's giving up his life so the Yidden of Russia can come out, and basically Friediker Rebbe said they should leave, try it, and it will be successful. He promised it'll be successful. And of course, they needed to get passports and get the government to approve the passports because you can't just print a passport and then walk out and travel out of Russia. You had to have the passport stamped by a government office that says, "This is indeed a person who is a Polish citizen, and he can leave Russia." But how do you

07:23 get officials to print these passports? Every passport had to have a picture, and they knew that these people, um, had a certain name, and they said they're Polish citizens. But if the KGB finds out that they are all liars and these passports are not real passports, they're really Russian citizens, and they are just faking it, then the Russian police, the KGB, is gonna catch all these Hasidim and send them away, far away to Siberia. And who knows how many of them will actually live to ever come out. But the Friediker Rebbe said they should risk it, so there was this... They needed to bribe and give money to some of those officials. Who did they send to be the person who would take all these passports, go to this government office, and bribe with a lot of money these government officials, and so that they would agree to, to stamp them and not check whether it's real or not? It was this woman. Her name was Tzippa Kuzliner. She was a Hasidishe woman. Her husband was a Hasidishe Yid, and she was very, very smart, and she knew how to talk to these, to these officers in the office buildings. And she would carry a lot of money with her and take hundreds of passports and ask the officials, you know, she would say, "Here's some money." She would bribe them, and they would have to stamp the passports that they approve these people can leave Russia. So when she went inside the big building,

09:07 people were waiting. So a few Hasidim were waiting outside to make sure that she got the s- this, the passports approved. And the passport was supposed to go to many Hasidim who came from all over Russia. They were all coming from all over Russia to the city of Lviv, which was a city which was right, not far from the Polish border. So as soon as they get the passports, they go onto a train, and they leave Russia as quickly as possible before the KGB changes their minds. So people came from all over Russia with their families and came to visit Lviv and stayed in Lviv until they get the passports stamped by the k- by, by the officers of the government and, and give them permission to leave. And Tzippa came out a hour later. You could see that she was shaken. Apparently, something happened inside, and she hinted to the few people, Hasidim, who were outside waiting for her that they sh- like with her eyes, she sort of hinted that they shouldn't come close because she's being followed by the KGB, and she doesn't want them to get in trouble too, so they should pretend they don't know her. And so it really happened a few minutes later. The KGB officers came over to Tzippa, took her, put her into a car, and they took her away. She had a lot of the passports with her. They w- they arrested her and put her in a prison, and they started interrogating her every

10:42 night, a whole night interrogating, asking her questions about which Hasidim does she know, who is really faking, who is lying, who is really not a Polish citizen, but they're saying they are, and she should tell the truth about everybody, and who is helping her in this work of printing fake passports. She had to tell about everyone so they can catch those people too. But she knew as a Hasid, you don't tell on anybody else, 'cause then you get them in trouble. And they tortured her. They beat her, but she didn't open her mouth. She said, "I don't know anybody. I don't know anybody. I don't know anybody." And they made her life so difficult and miserable. She was in such pain, but she didn't open her mouth. She was very, very strong. Meanwhile, something amazing happened. Because the KGB officer got this Tzippa, and they thought that she will-- through her, they'll get to all the Hasidim that are trying to leave with, with a false passport. They didn't pay attention on the border anymore because they paid attention on her to get all the information from her, so they can-- through her, they can go catch everybody. So meanwhile, all the Hasidim that were in Lviv, nec- not far from the border, quickly, quickly really gathered their bags, and they printed new passports, and they gathered stamps, and they left Russia because the KGB officers weren't watching the border so much. So there was hardly any guards there to look at the passports. They

12:15 just let them go through. So because of her, because she was caught by the KGB officers, thousand Hasidim were able to come out of Russia in several trains. And my mother and her family were also in the-- on one of those trains, were able to leave. But meanwhile, Tzippe was in a lot of trouble. They put her in one prison, and then they took her to another prison, and they had a whole court case against her, saying that she's a terrible person, she's against the government, and they were waiting to give her, um, a verdict. That means decide what punishment to give her. Finally, the punishment came after a few months that she has to go to Siberia, far away in a very freezing, freezing cold place, and work very, very hard for many hours every day, and she's gonna be sent there, and for ten years. For ten years. Now, she was a tiny little woman, and ten years in these terrible places, nobody thought that she's gonna survive. She won't be able to live that long in such places. You don't get enough food, you starve, you, you're always hungry, and you're in the cold the whole time. Most people get sick, and they die. The night that she got the decision of the courts what punishment they give her, she had a dream. She was sleeping in a cell. She had a dream, and she saw she was standing in front of three Rabbonim, older Rabbonim with white beards. They were like

14:09 a Beth Din. You know, a Beth Din in Torah is made up of at least three Rabbonim, three Dayanim. She stood in front of the Dayanim, and she told them, "They took me, and they arrested me, and now they told me I have to go for ten years to a far place in a labor camp where I'm gonna have to work very hard. It'll be freezing cold and terrible, and they're gonna-- they give me a lot of pain and torture me." And the Rabbonim listened to her, and they said, "Well, y-you're not gonna be there more than a year. You're only gonna be there a year maximum, at the most. Not more than a year." Then they gave her brachos and brachos and brachos, and she woke up. Now, she waited to be sent to Siberia, but it took a few months, and then to go by train to Siberia also took a few weeks. Finally, finally, on the sixth of Av, she ended up in far away in Siberia where there was always several feet of snow. Everything was so cold, freezing, freezing cold. There was no hot, uh, rooms or bedrooms. You had to sleep in the cold. And there she had to work very, very hard. Meanwhile, the Hasidim of Chabad worked very hard outside of Russia. They-- to raise money to bribe different officials that they should let her come out, but it didn't work. Finally, after spending almost an entire year, um, the Frierdiker Rebbe and the Farbrengen in New

15:59 York, it was already in New York, and the Farbrengen said a special L'Chaim for her that she should come out soon. And indeed, exactly a year later, on Vov of Av, she came out of prison. They said that they change her punishment. She can come out. She looked at the calendar. She realized she was exactly a year in the camp, the way she saw in her dream. She thought that the year starts when they gave her the punishment, right? The decision. But no. No, no, no. It took longer than that. She realized when they said a year, means a year from the time she arrives in the labor camp, and that took exactly a year. In fact, she came Zayin of Av to the camp, and the next year, Vov of Av at night is when she came out. She saw that the dream was a real dream, and she was saved. She moved to Eretz Yisrael, and she lived for another thirty years in Nachlas Chabad.