A Moment in Time | Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff

The escape of the Mir Yeshiva en masse from the clutches of the Nazis, ימח שמם, to Shanghai, China is the stuff of legends. They were traveling on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok, and Moreinu, R’ Chaim Shmuelevitz zt”l, told over that the Bochurim were terrified that at any moment they'd be arrested by the NKVD agents and shipped to Siberia. They got onto a tramp steamer that was so unseaworthy, on its return voyage, it sank at sea. They were accompanied by a Russian destroyer. They were enemies of the Rodina, of the state, and the Bochurim were terrified that at any moment they would be rammed by the ship, and רחמנא לצלן, all hands would be lost at sea. When they reached international Boundary Waters, the destroyer turned back to Russia, and the Bochurim burst out in euphoric dancing. It was like Kabbolas HaTorah, it was Purim all over again. קיימו וקיבלו היהודים the skies had opened up and they were delivered from their imminent danger. R’ Chaim Shmuelevitz said he knew he could never recreate that euphoric moment, but he internalized it. He quoted the Gemara in Masechta Sanhedrin that talks about Palti ben Layish, who was given Michal bas Shaul as a wife. Shaul had nullified the marriage to Dovid HaMelech. But the first night, he took a sword and he drove it between the two beds and he said: Whoever crosses over the sword, ידקר, will be run through. Now the question is: It’s a magic sword? It's a scimitar that will come after him? Said R’ Chaim: He was marking time. He was reminding himself years later, there was a moment in life when I realized and I recognized that to cross that sword, to cross that boundary, was an איסור of אשת איש. She may be a married woman. And even though I couldn't recollect those feelings in their entirety, I remember I was once on such a Madrega. That's what happened with R’ Chaim Shmuelevitz on that ship, and that's every day of our lives. Every day that an individual resists the temptation of the Yetzer Hara, he looks away, he doesn't look a second time, every moment of Vayimaen, he's marking time, Carpe Diem, he’s seizing the day and the moment. I'm a different person. And it could very well be the temptation will arise again, but he has to focus on the fact that he won, that he controlled. That's the whole Yesod of Yiddishkeit, to mark our moments, our triumphs, our success stories, and internalize them, to reflect on them for years to come. May we be zoche to drive that sword into the earth of the Yetzer Hara, to recognize that we are in control, and be zoche to live lives of ריבוי כבוד שמיים, בקדושה ובטהרה.