Soul Stories - Episode #2 - The Conductor

this is soul stories where we tell real life stories that yeah touch your soul i'm rabbi landau thank you for joining us welcome to episode two it was a pitiful sight as the jews of a small town in poland were viciously marched outside of the town's limits men women children babies dragging just one case that's all the nazis had allowed them to bring with them as they were being resettled the nazis told them to take the most important objects the most precious and valuable objects they would need them for the new life that they were about to begin as the jews marched to the outskirts of the town the local polish population followed with glee with sinister joy finally their town would be euden reine it will be free of the jews that had lived there for over 500 years at one point the nazi made the column stop they ordered the jews to deposit all their valuables their personal belongings at the side of the road in a large pile the trucks would be coming they said they would take them to the final destination and then in a moment of irony the nazi commander turned to the local polls and said my dear partners we share something in common we have a common goal here help yourself to the spoils help yourself to the booty of the jewish community take the valuables it's yours everybody did the polls attacked the pile viciously clawing to try to get the most valuable objects but two women two relatively young women had their eyes on something more valuable you see at the end of this sorrowful column was a young woman wearing a long ankle length beautiful fur coat they wanted that coat and they were pretty sure that there probably were valuables in the pockets and maybe even in the lining of that coat they ran behind the column they knocked the woman to the ground they ripped off her fur coat she screamed bloody murder let go of my coat let go of my coat they kicked her over the nazi drew his gun and said give her your fur coat they dragged the fur coat away to the side of the road they began to go through the pockets sure enough jewelry diamond rings necklaces they looked at the inside there were some inside pockets a pair of valuable silver candlesticks a kiddush cup but as they traced their hands down the lining of the long fur coat what they found near the bottom of the coat made them shudder there was a small little zippered pocket and in the pocket was something that was moving it was a brand new born baby girl couldn't have been more than a few days old now what they wanted the fur coat they wanted the valuables but what with this little baby one of the women turned to the other and said to her my friend listen i'll make you a deal you can have the gold and the diamonds you can have the jewelry i've never had a child of my own i always wanted a child promise me that you will never breathe a worth to anybody that i am adopting a jewish child and i will raise this child as my own if so you can have all the valuables deal or no deal her friend said for sure she took the child home and she raised this little girl as her own she showered her with love and with care and the young girl grew and flourished first she was an elementary school girl extraordinarily bright perhaps beyond all the polish school school girls in her class and then into high school where she excelled at science at biology she went to college and enrolled in pre-med eventually she went to medical school graduated at the top of her class did a residency and then a fellowship in pediatrics and slowly but surely became one of poland's greatest pediatric specialists she was renowned throughout the country and beyond her practice grew her practice flourished and she was successful beyond anyone's expectations her mother had so much nachas so much pride and joy from her daughter and her incredible accomplishments when her mother was old she passed away suddenly and the young doctor was left there to mourn for her mother and as she was sitting in her home one day with tears rolling down her face grieving and mourning her mother there was a knock at the door she opened the door and standing at the door was an old polish woman that she thought she recognized at some point in her life the woman said can i come in there's something important i must share with you sure she said she sat down and she says you know your mother and i we are friends from when we were little girls but that's something your mother never told you and now that she's dead i can't go to my grave with the secret on my conscience and she shared with her the truth you're not her child she said you're not her biological child she shared the whole story you're a jed she said you're a jew the doctor the pediatric specialist looked on in disbelief herself a jew no way she was a pole just like her mom is that even possible she looked at the old polish woman and she sat there you've lost your mind you don't know what you're saying you're foolish you're old no she said and i can prove it if you go upstairs to your mother's bedroom she has a jewelry box take out all the jewelry look underneath all the compartments and you'll find something that will prove beyond any shadow of doubt that you're a jew what she says what should i be looking for she says when we found you at the bottom of that fur coat there was a tiny gold locket around your neck and there was a tiny little pendant at the end of the gold locket with strange letters perhaps jew letters go you'll find it and you'll see that my story will be verified she ran upstairs she went into her mother's room she emptied out the jewelry box and at the bottom of the jewelry box underneath all the compartments she found a little tiny necklace with a tiny little pendant with strange letters and she knew in her heart of hearts that what the old polish woman was saying was true beyond any shadow of doubt she spent the next weeks and months walking around in a trance a jew not her mother her whole world had collapsed upon her but she still focused on her career and tried to do her best the secret laid very heavily on her and every time that she took the necklace with the pendant she felt a certain connection to it so much so that she went to a jeweler she had the chain elongated she began to wear the chain with the pendant underneath her blouse so nobody would see it but on top of her heart where she felt it belonged one day she was vacationing abroad when she was walking down one of the main streets and she saw two jewish boys to yeshiva she knew they were jewish she'd seen them on tv she went over to the boys and she said do you speak english they do they said how can we help you she says don't be afraid i need to ask you an important question she shared with them her entire story she pulled out the necklace with the pendant and she said to them tell me what do these letters say they smiled and they said it's your name your name is now what she said i'm jewish what do i do where do i go we don't know they said we're just yeshiva boys we're just young men there's no way in the world that we have anything to tell you but you know what our rabbi back in the united states he's a brilliant man and you know what he can perhaps advise you can we take your contact information down maybe we'll take your contact information and if our rabbi has something smart to say we'll send it to you we'll call you we'll send you a letter and you'll know exactly what to do she waited anxiously until they would come back and come back they did and they sent her a letter and the letter said they'd spoken to their rabbi the rabbi advised that she traveled to israel there was a need for pediatric specialists in israel perhaps she can figure something out professionally and when she was in israel who knew who knows maybe somehow some way she could figure out more about her personal identity she liked the idea she took a small break from her job she traveled to israel she toured the country the kaisala mahravi the western wall north dakharmon south to eilat and on her last few days there she also visited many of the hospitals on her last day there she visited hadassah hospital in yerushalayim in jerusalem she met with the head of pediatrics and they were beyond impressed at her medical acumen and on the spot they offered her a job she said she needed time to think about it she went back to poland but she couldn't sleep at night she knew she belonged in israel she quit her job she moved to israel she joined hadassah medical center and slowly but surely became a very successful pediatric specialist in israel at the same time her soul was thirsting for more about her past and she enrolled in a mid-rasha in a seminary for ladies learning to learn more about their background and their heritage and she began to learn about yiddishket about judaism and it was like putting a fish into water she loved it and she drank it thirstily a few years passed she met a wonderful young man of alchuva somebody who too had not grown up with religious roots but began to love and care about observance and they established a wonderful beautiful home and they had children and life was perfect one day she left the children at home with a babysitter and her and her husband went to the city center to have some coffee to have some pastries and spend a little bit of personal time a little bit of me time with one another as they were sitting in a cafe sipping delicious israeli coffee and munching on wonderful pastries all of a sudden they heard the dreadful sound of a terrible explosion it was the infamous sabaro a bus bombing where terrorists walked into a pizza parlor in the center of yerushalayim with a explosive vest packed with ball bearings and nails dipped in rat poisoning to maximize the damage and he blew himself up self up killing and maiming dozens she looked at her husband and she said to him go home to the children i am going to be court holden hospital which literally was one block from the side of the explosion she ran at the bakerholding hospital where a very hairy triage had been sent set up she identified herself as a pediatric surgeon and began to administer care to the many children that were injured in this horrific barbaric suicide bombing as she's going from patient to patient all of a sudden the doors of the triage burst open and an old man walks in shrieking where's my granddaughter where's my granddaughter he had a distinctly european accent and he was looking desperately for her granddaughter she went over to them and she said please leave here we can't administer care when there's panicked family members here please go away no he said my granddaughter i took her out for some pizza and she disappeared in the smoke and in the terrible explosion please please find me my granddaughter she looked at the manager she said calm down sir standing here is just going to make it worse what does your granddaughter look like he gave her some identifying symbols she has blonde hair she has fair complexion she says she may not even be recognizable is there anything that i could identify she says yes she's wearing a beautiful gold locket with hebrew name and it had her name on it if you find it please let me know she went she sent the man out and she went she continued from patient to patient administering care she came before a little girl a girl that was pretty badly injured but still alive she cut away her blouse to administer care and sure enough there was this particular necklace with a name pendant on it wonderful she thought to herself i can go outside and tell the man that his granddaughter is alive but as she looked at the pendant and as she cleaned off some of the ash and soot on it her heart stopped the pendant was identical to the one that she was wearing around her neck just with a different name as in a trance she walked out to the old man and she said to him who is this he said it's my granddaughter is she alive yes she said god willing she'll be okay but let me ask you a question that necklace that pendant where'd you get that from the man sighed he said i made it i'm a goldsmith it's unique it's the only one in the world and then he sighed and said there used to be another one it was on my little daughter and a tear escaped his eye but the nazis the poles they took her she didn't survive the war but at least one of my daughters did and this is her daughter right here she looked at the old man she reached beneath her shirt she pulled out the pendant and she showed it to him just one word escaped the old man's throat ghana my daughter he fell on her shoulders a father that had found his long-lost daughter and a daughter that had found the father that she never even knew existed amongst the horror the carnage amongst the terror amongst the utter destruction of that suicide bomber a brand new life of two people a father and a daughter began again she found the family that she never had her siblings her parents her nephews and her nieces and she finally found where she belonged you hear a story like this you can brush it off it's a coincidence stuff happens but as jewish people we know that there is a conductor a master conductor that is putting the pieces together and sometimes it could take 50 or 60 years and sometimes it could be amongst a terrible most horrific event but the conductor knows exactly what he's doing and on that horrific day there was a silver lining as the conductor brought together two intricate pieces of his vast orchestra a father and a daughter that had never seen each other at least not consciously unbelievable the yad hashem the hand of god but this story isn't the only story that i know that spans 50 years and over the 50 years perhaps the hand of god was hidden but now all of a sudden we saw it there's another amazing story that i must share with you when we're talking about this and that is the story of jacob schiff jacob schiff was born in germany he was a young man born to a family a prolific german family many rabbis in his genealogy born at the end of the 1800s and eventually moved to the united states where he got a job in finance and was very very successful but while he was successful he began to realize the plight of his jewish brothers and sisters around the world particularly his brothers and sisters in russia which was a virulently anti-semitic country in those days the times of the kitchen of pogroms where jewish people were massacred mercilessly and their blood spilled and no one did anything jewish blood was free it was cheap and whoever wanted to spill it there was no accountability and jacob shifts blood boiled when he saw how the russians treated his brothers and his sisters across the pond jacob slowly but surely became incredibly successful and jacob became one of the united states most wealthy individuals he was a philanthropic fellow a community leader and he did amazingly well in the stock market and the financial world in general one of the things that jacob schiff was most well known for was financing an entire war you see the japanese and the russians were fighting one another bickering with one another japan the russians threatened the japanese that they would destroy those monkeys in just a day all the way in the south of russia and the port of vladivostok and the truth is they were able to the japanese army was outdated the russians were a modern world superpower but when jacob schiff heard about this the memories of his hatred to the russians rose to the surface and he hoped that perhaps at this juncture he could have his revenge against the russians he made a meeting with the ambassador to japan in washington dc and he shared with him he says if somehow you and the russians go to war they will decimate the japanese it's going to be a massacre you have to do something to delay the war and somehow rearm yourselves to retrain and re-equip that's the only shot you have the japanese ambassador said but we have nothing we have no arms we have no equipment there's nothing we can do jacob schiff said i have a proposal for you i can help you finance a war against the russians and jacob schiff came up with 200 million dollars in the early 1900s that is the equivalent of 4.5 billion dollars in today's standards and he equipped and financed the war with the most current arms and most current artillery and the most current fighting member fighting methods the japanese were able to delay the war and when they did ultimately have a war with russia and the port of vladivost stuck they decimated and destroyed they totally wiped out the entire russian navy in those ports and perhaps one of the most humiliating defeats of the russian superpower took place because of the incredible financial resources of jacob schiff well sounds like a cool story a wealthy jew finances a war has revenge on the anti-semitic russians and it seems like the story is over and perhaps it was but let me fast forward many years later about 30 years ago or so the personal diary of the emperor of japan hirohito during world war ii was declassified and a secret something that had been bothering historians for decades came to light you see no one really understood why it was that the emperor of japan a member of the axis of evil and a close ally of hitler never killed out and annihilated the jews in japan hitler pushed the emperor countless times he shared with him that to be a member of the access he the jews must be must be annihilated he had to destroy the jews yet somehow the emperor kept pushing it off kept delaying it and he never killed the jews of japan no one knew why until they read one journal entry and the diary of the emperor and here is what he wrote he says i was a young private in the japanese army by the russo-japanese war when one jewish man from across the ocean a man by the name of jacob schiff arranged 200 million dollars 4.5 billion dollars for our country and we were victorious the amazing japanese empire was victorious what everyone thought that we would go down he said to himself if one jew on the other side of the world hated the russians because they persecuted his jewish brothers and sisters imagine he said if i persecute the jews of japan during world war ii what the american jewish community will do we will lose the war because of that totally illogical totally irrational yet in his mind the memory of the power of a jew and of the incredible solidarity that one jew had the jews he'd never met was so strong in his mind that he refused to go after the jewish community and thus thousands tens of thousands of jews in japan survived the war including the mere yeshiva they relocated to israel the united states and other places and today there are probably hundreds of thousands of descendants if not millions of those jews that the emperor saved and did not did not liquidate during world war ii why because of a memory as a young private of one jewish person on the other side of the world that cared about his brothers and sisters remarkable story fascinating so many years had passed from the moment that he was a private until he became the emperor yet somehow the master conductor the almighty himself had all the pieces of the orchestra exactly where they needed to be to save the jewish community of japan and make sure that the mere yeshiva and many torah scholars and many very successful and wonderful jewish people would have a shot at rebuilding the jewish community you know sometimes it takes 30 or 40 or 50 or even 60 years to see the hand of hashem to see how the conductor knows exactly what he's doing but other times we see it quickly we just need to open our eyes we need to look in the rear view mirror of life and all of a sudden we could see the yad hashem we could see the hand of god it's my challenge to you look at your own lives look in the rearview mirror open your eyes and you'll see that the master conductor knows exactly what he's doing that each instrument in his beautiful philharmonic orchestra is exactly where it has to be and that the beautiful symphony of the world of hashem is constantly piping the most amazing music let's open our eyes let's open our ears let's open our hearts and we'll see the incredible hand of hashem in each and every one of our lives if you enjoyed this podcast please share it with your family and friends if you loved it why not sponsor an episode contact sponsor kalatorakula.com that sponsor k-o-l-h-a-t-o-r-a-h-k ul until next time