5595. Slavita.
A thin ray of light pierced the darkness, a sign that the morning had begun. The shamash of the shul walked through the empty streets, as usual, in order to open the shul at dawn.
When he opened the door, he let out a shriek. The body of a man was hanging in the shul! The frightened shamash rushed to call the police. The man was identified as Lazer, someone who worked in the printing house of the brothers, Rabbi Shmuel and Rabbi Pinchas Schapiro.
The police opened an investigation and the results were clear. Lazer was a drunk and a bitter man and he had done this to himself. Nobody else was involved.
FALSE ACCUSATION
Enemies of the Jews who heard what happened, took this opportunity to harm the Jews. The priest, Bendertzovsky, may his name be erased, asked the police to investigate yet again. “The Schapiro brothers are the ones who killed Lazer,” he said. “In the printing house, they print Jewish books and pamphlets which contain material against the government. Lazer informed on them and in order to quiet him, the Schapiro brothers killed him!”
The police knew good and well that this was not true, but they were also anti-Semites and they cooperated with the evil priest.
One day, the police burst into the printing house and handcuffed the Schapiro brothers. Another twelve Jews from Slavita were taken along with them since the police had “proved” that they were also involved.
The righteous Schapiro brothers, sons of the tzaddik, Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz, were sentenced to terrible suffering. For three years, during which the harsh interrogations took place, they were cut off from the world, without being able to speak to anyone and see skies and trees.
In 5598, they were sentenced to exile in Siberia, but that wasn’t all. The chief minister of Kiev decided to add a punishment, to beat the brothers 1500 times!
The Jewish community in Slavita were horrified when they heard about this, but were unable to move the evildoers’ hearts of stone.
NOT ONE STEP
On 17 Menachem Av 5599, R’ Shmuel and R’ Pinchas were taken out of prison. Outside, there were two rows of anti-Semitic soldiers waiting for them. The brothers had to walk between the soldiers who beat them mercilessly.
With great heroism, the brothers did not utter a sound. A few moments before the terrible punishment ended, R’ Pinchas suddenly stopped walking. He stood there and kept getting beaten.
“Why isn’t he walking?” wondered everyone. Then they saw that his yarmulka had fallen off and without it, he wouldn’t take one step!
It was only after they put his yarmulka back on his head that he continued walking.
When the cruel blows ended, R’ Pinchas and R’ Shmuel were barely alive and they needed medical treatment. However, this punishment did not satisfy the evil ones who waited until the brothers were fit enough to be sent to Siberia.
A SMALL SEFER TORAH
Their exhausting trip began. On the way, they arrived in Moscow from where they were going to continue by train to Siberia. However, the local Jews did not rest but exerted every possible pressure to cancel the cruel punishment. Finally, the government allowed the brothers to remain in Moscow and not be sent to Siberia.
They were put in jail where the jailers were more merciful. They brought in kosher food, water for drinking and netilas yodayim, a cup for kiddush and havdala and even a small Sefer Torah.
When the brothers received the Sefer Torah, they were thrilled. It was a special Torah written by a G-d fearing scribe who sanctified and purified himself before writing each letter and crown. Even the ink to write the Sefer Torah was made with holiness and purity.
The brothers looked around and asked one another, “This place is filthy. We cannot have a Sefer Torah here. What should we do?”
They came up with an idea. They would separate the sheets of parchment and then it would no longer have the holiness of a Sefer Torah. They immersed themselves in studying Torah and forgot, to some extent, their terrible lot.
In the meantime, the Jews were trying to get them released, but Czar Nicholai was stubborn and cruel and did not allow it.
THE SEFER TORAH COMES TO THE REBBE
Years passed, the wicked czar died and was replaced by Alexander II. He was a bit more compassionate than Nikolai and allowed the brothers to be freed after twenty years of suffering.
When the brothers went free, they sewed the sheets of parchment back together to form a kosher Sefer Torah. They obtained special atzei chaim (wooden rollers) that were made by a G-d fearing craftsman with special kavanos. These atzei chaim were sent by the Maggid of Kozhnitz to the tzaddik, R’ Michel of Zlotchov, but before they arrived, R’ Michel got other ones. It worked out that the special atzei chaim reached the Schapiro brothers who used them for their Sefer Torah.
Many years passed and the small Sefer Torah was passed down in the Schapiro family, survived the Holocaust, and reached Eretz Yisrael.
R’ Abba Shmuel Schapiro, who had the Sefer Torah, had financial difficulties and was also unable to protect the Sefer Torah properly. He looked for someone to buy the Sefer Torah.
R’ Pinchas Altheus heard about this and he suggested to Rabbi Moshe Ashkenazi that he buy it in order to give it as a gift to the Rebbe. R’ Moshe had no money, yet he took out big loans in order to be able to buy the Sefer Torah for the Rebbe and dedicated it to the memory of his father, R’ Meir Ashkenazi and inscribed it on the small “mantel.”
The Sefer Torah reached the Rebbe before Rosh Hashana 5715 and the Rebbe had an aliya with this Torah that Rosh Hashana. Right after Yom Tov, the Rebbe sent a thank you letter to Abba Shmuel Schapiro and informed him that he had an aliya in the special Torah.
Since then, the small Sefer Torah is in 770, waiting, like all the Chassidim, for the speedy hisgalus of the Rebbe.
