Weekly Chasidic Story #1071(s5778-40/ 5 Tammuz 5778)

Fearless Final Words

The Nazi officer waved the tefillin in the air and said, "Dog! I sentence you to death by public hanging for wearing these."

Connection: This Friday (9th of the Jewish month of Tammuz) is the 24th yahrzeit of the Sanz-Klausenberg Rebbe, R. Yekutiel-Yehuda Teitelbaum

Fearless Final Words

Rabbi Yosef Wallis, director of Arachim of Israel, spoke about his father, Judah Wallis, who was born and raised in Pavenitz, Poland:

While he was in the Nazi concentration camp Dachau, a Jew who was being taken to his death suddenly flung a small bag at my father, Judah Wallis. He caught it, thinking it might contain a piece of bread. When he opened it, he was disturbed to discover a pair of tefilin.

Judah was very frightened because he knew that were he to be caught carrying tefilin, he would be put to death instantly, so he hid the tefilin under his shirt and headed straight for his bunkhouse. In the morning, just before the roll call, he put on the tefilin.

Unexpectedly, a German officer appeared. He ordered him to remove the tefilin, took note of the number on Judah's arm, and ordered him to go straight to the roll call. In front of thousands of Jews, the officer called out Judah's number, and he had no choice but to step forward.

The German officer waved the tefilin in the air and said, "Dog! I sentence you to death by public hanging for wearing these!" Judah was placed on a stool and a noose was put around his neck. Before he was hanged, the officer said in a mocking tone, "Dog, what is your last wish?"

Judah replied, "To wear my tefilin one last time." The officer was dumbfounded. He handed Judah the tefilin.

As Judah put them on, he recited the verse that is said in most prayer versions while the tefilin are being wound around the middle finger of the left hand (Hoshea 2:21-22): 'I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you to Me with righteousness and with justice and with kindness and with mercy; I will betroth you to Me with fidelity; and you shall know G-d.'

It is hard for us to picture this Jew with a rope around his neck and wearing tefilin on his head and arm, but that was the scene that the entire camp was forced to watch, as they awaited the impending hanging of the Jew who had dared to break the rule against wearing tefilin. Even women from the adjoining camp were lined up at the barbed wire fence that separated them from the men's camp, forced to watch this horrible sight.

As Judah turned to watch the silent crowd, he saw tears in many people's eyes. Even at that moment, as he was about to be hanged, he was shocked. Jews were crying! How was it possible that they still had tears left to shed? And for a stranger? Where were those tears coming from?

Impulsively, in Yiddish, he called out, "Jews, don't cry! With tefilin on, I am the victor! Don't you understand, I am the winner!"

The German officer understood the Yiddish and was infuriated. He said to Judah, "You dog! You think you are the winner? Hanging is too good for you! You are going to get a different kind of death."

Judah, my father, was taken from the stool and the noose was removed from his neck. He was forced into a squatting position and two huge rocks were placed under his arms, for him to hold. Then he was told that he would be receiving 25 lashes to his head- the head on which he had dared to position his tefilin.

The officer told him that if he dropped even one of the rocks, he would be shot immediately. In fact, because this was such an extremely painful form of death, the officer advised him, "Drop the rocks now. You will never survive the 25 lashes to the head. Nobody ever does."

Judah's response was, "I won't give you the pleasure."

At the 25th lash, Judah lost consciousness and was left for dead. He was about to be dragged to a pile of corpses, after which he would have been burned in a ditch, when another Jew saw him, shoved him to the side, and covered his head with a rag, so people didn't realize that he was alive. Eventually, after he recovered consciousness fully, he crawled to the nearest bunkhouse, and hid under it until he was able to regain some strength. Two months later he was liberated.

During the hanging and beating episode, a 17-year-old girl had been watching the events from the women's side of the fence. After the liberation, she made her way to the men's camp and found Judah. She walked over to him and said, "I've lost everyone in my family, and I don't want to be alone any more. I saw what you did that day when the officer wanted to hang you. Will you marry me?"

Judah agreed.

This couple, who would become Rabbi Yosef Wallis' parents, walked over to the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe and requested that he perform the marriage ceremony.

The Klausenberger Rebbe, whose self-sacrifice for Judaism is legendary, wrote out a kesubah (marriage contract) by hand from memory and married the couple. Rabbi Wallis has that handwritten kesubah in his possession to this day.

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Source: From a submission to a WhatsApp story group earlier this year.

Connection: This Friday (9th of the Jewish month of Tammuz) is the 24th yahrzeit of the Klausenberger.

Biographical note:
Rabbi Yekusiel-Yehudah Halberstam [10 Shvat 5665 - Shabbat, 9 Tammuz 5754 (January 10, 1905 - June 18, 1994 C.E).)], the Klausenberger Rebbe, also became the post-war Rebbe of the Sanz Chassidim. One of the foremost Chasidic leaders of his generation, he is best known for his revitalization of the study of Talmud through "Mifal HaShas" and the building of a hospital, Laniado, in Netanya, that functions at the highest standards of Jewish law and medical practice.

Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.

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