In August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany entered into an agreement committing that neither country would ally with or aid an enemy of the other country. In addition, the two world powers arranged a secret protocol that divided territories of Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland into Nazi and Soviet “spheres of influence.”
Thereafter, Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and a little more than two weeks later, the Soviet Union began its own invasion of Poland on September 17, taking control of the entire eastern portion of Poland. This was in fulfillment of the terms of the infamous Ribbentrop-Molotov non-aggression pact, which insidiously divided the conquered country of Poland in half; Germany would control the Western sector, and Russia would receive the eastern sector. The city of Gorlitz was in the east and was subject to the full authority of the Red Army of Russia.
The Soviets offered citizenship to the Jews of Gorlitz but most refused, not realizing that in the grand scheme of things, being a Soviet citizen was far more favorable to their survival than being under Nazi Germany. The Russians did not take kindly to this refusal, and many of the city’s Jews were deported to the Siberian forest of Yekutza, including the Rav and the Av Beis Din, Rav Elisha Halberstam zt”l, a grandson of the holy Divrei Chaim of Sanz.
On Shabbos, June 29, 1940 (23 Sivan 5700), he was transported to Siberia in a boxcar crammed with 60 other Jews, whom he continuously encouraged and comforted during the 92-day journey. In the frozen tundras of Siberia, the Gorlitzer Rebbe kept the mitzvos at great personal sacrifice, including building and sitting in a sukkah despite freezing temperatures. People said that during the winter months in the remote forests of Yekutza and Uskudt, the temperatures could reach as low as 53 below zero. That was enough to freeze a man’s blood in his veins.
It took quite some time for the winter to thaw. Long before the holiday of Pesach arrived, many of the Jews wrote letters to relatives and friends everywhere, asking them to send matzah and other holiday staples, if possible. One of the Jews, Rav Chaim Friedman z”l, writes in his memoir (Samcheinu Kiymos Inisanu) that he received a package from his son in Lemberg before Pesach in 1941. The precious package contained raisins, from which they were able to make wine for the Four Cups. True, they had already made a sort of substitute for wine, an infusion of the wild plums that grew in that part of the world. But now they could make real raisin wine, and they did.
Although the custom is not to eat beans on Pesach, that year they did, because that was all they had to eat. They would have made do with potatoes, but the only ones they found were frozen solid, as hard as stone and almost totally inedible.
Somehow, they collected flour and managed to bake matzah in their cell block, in an oven they had fashioned out of a steel barrel. The Gorlitzer Rebbe cracked the ice and drew water from a nearby well and let it rest overnight, as the halachah dictates. For three days, they worked clandestinely at their oven, from morning until night, and managed to produce 29 kilograms (64 pounds) of matzah!
On the night of the Seder, the Gorlitzer Rebbe, Rav Elisha Halberstam, sat at the head of the long table with a glowing expression on his face. He looked other-worldly, and it wasn’t long before the people at the table found out why. One of his sons came to him to wish him a Gut Yom Tov, and he answered them strangely, “Yes, eternal happiness.”
The Rebbe conducted the Seder with deliberate actions. He drank the four cups of raisin wine, recited the Haggadah, and ate maror, all according to the halachah. He ate no matzah, however. The participants tried to figure out why. They told him that the flour had been properly guarded from fermentation until baking, but Rav Elisha only said, “Es shmekt nisht, it doesn’t smell right,” and he would not eat. Rav Chaim recalls that they never found out what the Rebbe’s worry was.
It was nearing midnight, and the Seder was concluding with the final Nirtzah recitals. Suddenly, Rav Elisha looked up from his Haggadah and pointed silently to the words that appear in one of the songs that many people sing at the end of the Haggadah: “VaY’chi BaChatzi HaLailah – And it happened at midnight.” A few minutes later, exactly as the clock struck midnight, the Gorlitzer Rebbe closed his eyes, and his pure soul left his body for eternal life.
Rabbi Dovid Hoffman is the author of the popular “Torah Tavlin” book series, filled with stories, wit and hundreds of divrei Torah, including the brand new “Torah Tavlin Yamim Noraim” in stores everywhere. You’ll love this popular series. Also look for his book, “Heroes of Spirit,” containing one hundred fascinating stories on the Holocaust. They are fantastic gifts, available in all Judaica bookstores and online at http://israelbookshoppublications.com. To receive Rabbi Hoffman’s weekly “Torah Tavlin” sheet on the parsha, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.