Transcript
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a great
torah leader jew
very well known author
of
great
books in world war ii though
if climb zychick was younger
and less known
and unfortunately though
in the course of his life for that time
they had taken him and they had sent him
to the labor camps in siberia
so this haim zaichik gets sent off to
siberia and he describes it's written in
his biography
how horrible
and horrific the situation was over
there
that they were freezing they had thread
bare clothing he said they were worked
and beaten
close to death
so they were walking skeletons and they
only got a drop to eat every day a
little bit of bread
he said and even less of water because
the water in the area wasn't drinkable
and the only water they could get
was from a stream that was very very far
away so they only had they had a little
bit of bread and even less water he said
they were skeletons
he said and
one day they were looking for somebody
to volunteer to take the two pails and
walk the tremendous distance to the
stream to get the water and then carry
these heavy buckets all the way back
and as frail as he was
time zai chick
said
i'll do it
and he takes the two pails and begins to
walk
and the reason he volunteered
is because he had heard a rumor that
where that stream is
there was a town nearby and in that town
he had heard
that there's a jewish family
he walks all the way to the stream the
second he gets there he drops the
buckets and he runs to the town
and he starts
running through the houses looking for
that mezuzah that telltale sign of a jew
on the doorpost and finally he finds it
and he starts pounding on the door
and the woman of the home
she opens the door a little bit to see
who it is and she sees this skeleton
there
in tattered clothing
she realizes of course
this must be one of the prisoners from
the camp
they must
be desperate for
food
so she gets a slice of bread
and she sticks it out
through the crack in the door
to climb that chick
food
the most cherished
precious commodity
bakayams zaichik starts crying
he says no i don't need food
i don't need bread
it's
do you have any books of torah that you
could give me
do you have any books i could take back
with me please i beg you i don't want
food i want torah
she didn't know what to do she called
her husband
and her husband said to this sobbing
zaichik
crying for an ounce of torah
he said i'm not a rabbi i only own one
book of torah
one
tracked it of gemara
of talmud
i can't give that away
every time i just starts crying please
rock shame alive have mercy on me
i'll take even the title page just give
me something from that book
and his cries touched the man's heart
and he said let me go check the book
and he went he went and he looked and he
saw that he had
one book of talmud but like in some
editions it was really two track dates
in one nidorim and nazir so he ripped it
in half
and he gave the nadarim
chakrit nidorim
to abraham zaichik
rebecca and describes he tucked it into
his shirt and he quickly ran back
grabbed the water and ran back he said
in a running back that great distance
schlepping these heavy pairs of water
knowing he was going back to the labor
camp
he was filled with a profound joy
knowing that he had his gamora he had
his book
of torah
to study with him in a shirt
he went back and he was filled with joy
and he said that no matter from that
point forward no matter what happened
during the day no matter what type of
labor they put him through no matter how
they beat him or how they starved him
he said it made no difference because at
night
he would go
and he would pull out his gemara
he would pull out
that book of torah
and begin to learn
and with that he would come back to life
with that
he would touch
eternal life
so my friends my dear friends
as we
emerge out
of these times of unbelievable holidays
and we go back into the world
let's not go back
let's create
a bubble around us
of holiness of godliness
let's have a book that's close to our
chest close to our heart
that no matter what happens during the
day we pull it out at night
and we revive our soul
let's strengthen and encourage everyone
around us to go find that book
those rejuvenating waters
that life-giving tree
and bring it into their life
we have the power
to surmount and overcome
everything in the world
and it's through the power of this
unbelievable torah that hashem gave us
it's the eight's crying
never let anybody take it from you
remember what he screamed
i'm a jew i don't need bread i need
torah
we have toro that's what we need
we don't stop breathing and we don't
stop learning
you
