236. The Chossid Who Fasted The Whole Pesach

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kindalech. We going-- getting closer to Pesach, so I'm gonna share with you a Pesach story. There was a Jew, a Hasid, by the name of Reb Eliezer Nanis. I still remember him when I was a child, and he used to come to my house visiting where I lived in Europe, and he stayed in my house for a few weeks every year. He used to come for a few weeks. He used to tell stories of his life. Reb Eliezer Nanis spent twenty years in a Russian prison, in a labor camp where he was forced to work day and night, from early morning to late night in the bitter cold weather below zero degrees, and he had Mesirus Nefesh for Torah and Mitzvahs. Now his story, his life story is already printed now. You can find it, you can buy it, and it's called Sabbata, but he has a few stories about how he survived Pesach in this terrible, terrible prison that he was forced to be all by himself, uh, for twenty years. First, Reb Eliezer tells that before he ended up in the prison and in the Gulag, in the labor camp, when he was a young man, the Friediker Rebbe was still in Russia, but he was preparing to leave Russia. If you know the story, the previous Rebbe also was in prison and after he came out of prison, which was a big nes, Yud Beis Tammuz because the Russians, the communists, they wanted chas v'Shalom to kill him, and that's

02:25 what they were planning to do. Chas v'Shalom, but that's what they wanted to do. But then there was pressure from other governments that they can't do this, he's a Rebbe. Anyways, it was also nisim, nisim, Hashem did nisim that not only did they not chas v'Shalom kill the Friediker Rebbe, but they also let him go out of prison. But then they forced him to leave Russia. They told him he can't stay in Russia because they knew the Friediker Rebbe had such a big influence on so many Hasidim, and he's the one who is telling the Hasidim to go Mesirus Nefesh for Yiddishkeit, and the communists didn't like it. They wanted the Hasidim to stop being Hasidim and stop doing Torah and Mitzvahs and become communists. But Friediker Rebbe would inspire and influence so many Hasidim in Russia not to be afraid and to go against what the government says and to do Torah and Mitzvahs, to teach the children Torah. So they didn't like it, so they decided, "You know what? If we can't kill him and we can't put him in prison, we'll just send him out of the country, so he won't be here. So he won't be able to influence the Hasidim." Before the Friediker Rebbe left Russia, a lot of Hasidim came to see him to say goodbye to the Rebbe because they knew that once the Friediker Rebbe leaves, they're not gonna be able to see him anymore because the Jews in Russia weren't allowed to leave Russia. They was

03:57 forced to stay in Russia. So Reb Eliezer was one of the Hasidim that also went to see the Friediker Rebbe. Hasidim were very sad, and they were crying. The Friediker Rebbe is leaving. They're not gonna be able to come to him for a bracha, for inspiration. So people was there, and the Friediker Rebbe told them the famous words that distance, no walls can separate between me and you. We will always be together. Even if I'm physically far away from you, I'm still with you. And in many ways, the Friediker Rebbe showed this, that from far away, from another country, he was able to help his Hasidim through his, um, through his koach, through his power that the Heavenly gave him as a Rebbe. Sometimes even through his thoughts. The Rebbe once said that mashava, the thought of a tzadik can have a very strong influence on what happens to the person he thinking about. So the Rebbe, uh, Friediker Rebbe, even when he was far away, had a big influence on the Hasidim that were still stuck behind the Iron Curtain, it's called. That means the, the borders of Russia, which didn't let anybody leave. This Reb Eliezer Nanis was there when the Friediker was leaving, and he managed to get onto the train when the Friediker Rebbe was leaving on the train. Finally he's leaving for good from Russia. So before the train closed, he went onto the doorstep and saw the Friediker Rebbe and said, "Rebbe, you should give me a bracha. Give

05:48 me a bracha that I should survive, I should come-- I should be able to get out of Russia one day." Friediker Rebbe told him, "Do you remember what I told you in Yechidus? If you do what I tell you in Yechidus, what I told you in Yechidus, then you will survive and come out of Russia." What did the Rebbe tell him in Yechidus? So Reb Lazar tells this later on in his book that what did the Rebbe tell him? The Rebbe told him like this, in the time of the story of Purim, when Haman tried to kill all the Yidden, chas v'shalom. Mordechai is the only one that didn't bow down to Haman. Haman was considered himself an avodah zarah. So Mordechai didn't want to bow down to him. Nothing. Not even nod his head to him. Nothing. And it says that Haman became angry. When did he become angry? But it says, "Mordechai lekam v'leizo mimenu." You know what that means? It means Mordechai did not stand up for Haman and did not budge, not move. Nothing. Not even his head, his finger. He didn't move anything for Haman. That means he stayed put where he was and didn't do anything for Haman. Lekam v'leizo. And what does it say right afterwards? "Vayimalel Haman cheima." Haman became filled with rage, with anger. Said the Friediker Rebbe, said Reb Lazar, "If you will be like Mordechai, you will not budge in front of the communists. Whatever the communist government and the police officers and the

07:28 KGB tell you to do, you don't do it. If they tell you to do something which is not Jewish, against Torah, you don't budge, you don't move. You stay put the way you are, who you are, and what you are, and you don't do what they want you to do. Then I promise you," he gave him a havtachah, a promise, "you will come out of Russia." Reb Lazar made a decision that no matter what happens to him, he will not do anything which is not according to Torah, against Torah. He will not work on Shabbos. He will not eat treif. And he ended up in prison. And as I said, he was in prison for a very long time. And from the first day, he was very, very firm. He will not eat treif. He will not keep-- only keep Pesach. Not eat anything which has even the slightest piece of chametz in it. And that was very, very hard. So one of those Pesachs, he was... Uh, at that time, you know, he went through different camps, different jobs they gave him. He was lucky at that time to have a little office where they made him work in a, in a particular room in an office. There were two other Jews in the camp that he got to know, and they would come and spend time together and, uh, maybe, uh, sometimes daven, put on tefillin. And then came Pe-Pesach time, they decided they need to make a little Seder. But where are

09:10 you gonna get matzahs? Now, Reb Lazar got a letter a, a month before Pesach from his wife telling him, "I will send you a box of matzahs be-before Pesach." So he was very excited. But Pesach came closer and closer and closer, and there's no matzahs. But Reb Lazar had a custom, a minhag, that every year he had matzahs which he got from home, and he would always save three matzahs from that pack of matzahs for the next year, because who knows, maybe the following year I won't get matzahs. So he always saved for the whole year from a previous Pesach three matzahs to have for the next Pesach. So here was Pesach, he still didn't get his matzahs. It was the first Seder. The three Jews got together, Reb Lazar and his two friends. He pulled out the three matzahs and they had a Seder. And they read the Haggadah by heart. They didn't have Haggadahs. But they, they, they, they drank water and tea instead of the four cups of wine, and they made a Seder. The second night of Pesach, second Seder, they didn't have matzahs anymore because the matzahs didn't arrive. Reb Lazar didn't know why it didn't arrive. But what is he gonna eat the whole Pesach if he doesn't have matzah? Reb Lazar didn't trust anything. He wouldn't eat anything which may have chometz in it. So from the second day Pesach, Reb Lazar basically fasted, didn't eat anything. He drank. He drank water, drank tea, but nothing else. On

10:59 the third to fourth day, no food, no food. His friends, the two Jewish friends who were not so careful, they kept insisting, "You need to eat. If you don't, you're gonna fast for eight days. You're gonna die. It's impossible." Reb Lazar says, "No." And he says, "You know what? I have a promise from the Friediker Rebbe, and the Friediker Rebbe promised me that I will survive Russia and come out of Russia if I don't budge, I don't move even one bit when it comes to Torah mitzvahs. So I'm not worried." But he got weaker and weaker until he was so weak. On the seventh day, Shevi'i shel Pesach, he was like, couldn't move. So one day on Chol Hamoed Pesach, the nachalnik, the, the woman who was in charge of his, uh, place, of his p- the part of his camp, and she was also in charge of all the mail that came in. So she came into the, into the room. She sees that he's, like, so weak that he can't even stand up. So she said to him, "Listen, I'm gonna bring you some rolls, fresh rolls, and I know that you're worried about kashrut. I'll make it myself in a new pot, in a new pan, so you, it wouldn't be treif." And he said, "No, no, no, no, no, no, I don't want it because it's Pesach. I don't eat bread. I can't eat bread." The next day she came with two fresh rolls baked, and she told him, "Listen, you

12:34 have to eat this." And he smells the, the, the, the, the rolls that were just baked and, like, he's going crazy because he so much wants to eat because he's so starving. But he said, "No, I'm not gonna eat it. Don't give it to me." She came to him a few times like this. He didn't understand why is she so nice to him. It was already after Pesach, and he was like half fainting. He couldn't even speak, he was so weak, but he decided he's not budging. He's not doing anything. He's not gonna eat chametz until Pesach is over. By the time Pesach was over, um, his friends were there, and they brought him some food. He couldn't even get up to eat the food, so they fed him food in his mouth. And that's how he slowly, slowly became healthy again. But then he found out that this woman who was in charge of the mail room actually did receive his matzahs from his wife, but she sent it back. You know, you can say, "Oh, oh, uh, this package has to go back to who sent it, and we're not gonna deliver it." She was a very bad person, an evil person. She did not give him his matzahs and didn't tell him that it arrived even. But then she felt bad, so she brought him some rolls and some bread 'cause she felt bad that he's not eating. She thought that if he doesn't have his matzahs, he'll eat all the other

14:04 food. Okay, it's pikuach nefesh, right? In the Torah, if your life is in danger, you're allowed to do it. But she didn't know that he's very stubborn, and he wasn't gonna eat even one crumb of chametz, even if he dies. He didn't wanna do it. That the previous Rebbe told him, "Don't budge even one bit." So in the end, he told the leader of the whole camp that this woman made him die, almost die because she didn't give him his matzahs. As a result, she was fired and sent away from her job because she didn't give him his matzahs. But this is an example of one time a Hasid who decided when he went into prison for twenty years, he's not going to do anything that is not kosher according to Torah. He's gonna-- He didn't work on Shabbos, and not to work on Shabbos, they had to beat him. So he said, "Okay, you can beat me, but I'm not working on Shabbos." And so on and on, every mitzvah, he made sure that he did all the mitzvahs and did not do anything wrong, did not budge, and did not move one bit. Just like Mordechai 坤 ולו זע did not get up, did not move even one bit in front of Haman.