The City Of Ishpitzin By Rabbi Hillel Eisenberg

The city of Ishppiten, Poland, was a typical city in Poland before the war. It was a classic pre-war Jewish town around 3 and 1/2 hours from Warsaw. Not too big, not too small. Everyone knew everyone, and the Jews were, for the most part, happy. All of that horrifically changed with an episode that had global consequences that would wreck havoc in the entire Jewish world. One ordinary day the rabbi took issue with something that the town was doing and he decided to publicly declare that his was no longer trustworthy and this sparked many conversations in the tavern and in the backbench of the shul and in the crretchma and first there were murmurings and then there were rumblings and then there was an allout verbal war that took place with some people defending the rabbi and other people defending the and the climax was on Rashashana when moments Before Schaefer blowing, the Rav got up to call out Tatas and a man from the back of the Shaw yelled out, "Who do you think you are to ruin a simple person's life like that? And now you're going to lead Tia Schaefer. How dare you get out of town?" And immediately things heated up and the verbal jabs turned into an allout physical brawl. And in the middle of the show, people are punching each other and there's punches thrown and there's benches were being flipped over and things escalated into such a violence that the police had to be called in to restore order. And immediately afterwards, the Rev ran to his house, packed a suitcase, and walked out of the town only to collapse dead on the road from a heart attack. Now, you may not have heard of this town, but you have certainly heard of what this town became. A few months later, the town of Ishvitzen was overtaken by the Nazis. Electric fences were erected, railroads were built, and the name of the town was changed from Ishvitzen to Awitz. The sleepy little town ravaged by Makleus, became the largest death factory in human history. And those horrid gas chambers, the place where millions upon millions of Jewish souls were ripped out of their holy bodies, was built on the exact spot that the schul had stood only a few months prior. The exact same spot. Mahus tears us apart. It causes a thick blanket of darkness to descend upon the earth. Bitter fights destroy everything in its path, leaving room for nothing except the angel of death. [Music]