“The [Novarodok] yeshiva was reestablished in Gomel in 1914 with about eighty students...It was precisely during these arduous times that the yeshiva reached the pinnacle of spirituality. The students did not pay attention to their physical needs. Often there was no food and no fuel. They wore tattered clothing and sent hungry, but they set the yeshiva aflame with their desire for more Divine service, for greater and greater advancement, for more and more spiritual growth. Rav Yosef Yozel was at the peak of his powers...
“The war went on and soon in massive street sweeps conducted by the government to catch ‘deserters’ but somehow they were always able to escape. The searches, however, were becoming more frequent and Rav Yosef Yozel decided to spread his boys throughout the towns of Russia and the Ukraine...Each senior student was assigned a group of younger boys and was sent to a town. They moved into the local synagogues and, whether welcome or not, whether financially supported or not, they took root and flourished. Sometimes they had to overcome strong opposition; usually little material support was available. The youngsters succeeded against all odds and established major yeshivas in Kiev, Charkov, Nizhmi-Novgorod, Rostov, Tsaritsin (Volgagrad), Saratov, Pavlograd, and Tchernigov. A yeshiva was even established in the shadow of the Kremlin in Moscow but it did not survive. Each of the centers was surrounded by a network of elementary and grammar schools under the supervision of the mother institution...
“In 1917, the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional democratic government and seized power. The great teeming masses of the Russian empire were set feee from any authority as the Red Army battles the Whites and numerous local factions and militias fought each other. Murderous bands of demobilized soldiers and ruffians roamed the countryside, especially targeting Jews and merchants. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered. There was no order and no government and human life was cheap. Famine and typhoid and cholera epidemics ranged unchecked and roads and railroad stations were choked with refugees and the dispossessed. As the Communists took power, ‘class enemies’ were mercilessly eliminated or exiled.
“Novardok was not afraid. With heroic disregard for personal safety, the students continued their activities. They cared not for borders or decrees. They moved from place to place to spread Torah and Mussar. The boys infiltrated behind front lines to carry messages between yeshivas. Students fearlessly took the pulpit during Communist rallies and preached spiritual renewal. At times, they appeared in groups at show trials of the Jewish religion and made public demonstrations of their faith. They argued with the ‘prosecutors’ and broke into Mussar chants in the midst of the proceedings. They jostled with soldiers and speculators for space on the roofs of overcrowded train cars and braved epidemics to carry out their assigned tasks. Contact and communication between academies was not broken and the movement remained united. On a number of occasions, these boys were suspects of being counterrevolutionaries or spies (a crime punishable by death) and were imprisoned. Some were pressed into forced labor and several succumbed to contagious illnesses. Still they did not desist.
“Rav Yosef Yozel himself did the same. On Rosh Hashana he might be in Kiev, before Yom Kipper in Charkov, and on Yom Kipper in Gomel. Almost every Shabbos was spent in another place. Despite being over seventy years old, he jumped onto roofs of passing trains and pushed himself in between cattle cars. During one such occasion, he spent several hours hanging from a metal cable that connects railcars, in the middle of the Russian winter. When he arrived at his destination, his hand was frozen to the metal. He was forced to leave skin and flesh behind in order to disembark. Rav Yozel’s shining personality endeared him to his fellow travelers, the Russian peasants and soldiers, who often aided and assisted him. Amazingly, the annual gathering continued despite all obstacles. As Communist control solidified, however, personal communication become impossible. The yeshivas exchanged coded telegraph messages, based on biblical verses and statements of the Sages. Once, for example, Rav Yosef Yozel received a telegraph from Saratov. The Soviet government decreed that the local yeshiva be closed. He wired these two words in response: ‘Av Harachamim.’ This is the title of a well-known Sabbath prayer dealing with martyrdom; it indicated that they must be prepared to give up their lives for their faith in the manner described in that prayer. When the commissar and the soldiers came to close the yeshiva, the dean refused the obey. The official then pointed his loaded rifle at him. The Rosh Yeshiva opened his shirt and cried out ‘I am not afraid, shoot.’ Immediately, every student in the yeshiva lined up behind their teacher and did the same. Faced with this unexpected defiance, the Communists backed down and the yeshiva remained open.”
Novarodok: A movement that lived in struggle and its unique approach to the problem of man, by Meir Levin, pp. 23-28. Also see The Fire Within, by Hillel Goldberg, pp.142-147, and The Alter of Novardok: The life of Rav Yosef Yoizel Horowitz and his worldwide impact, pp. 161-231.
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