THE AMAZING JOURNEY OF THE TORAH SCROLL

PART I

The Chassid R’ Pinchas Sudak and his wife Mrs. Basya maintained a home that was Chassidishe and G-d-fearing in every respect, despite the communist persecution against anything Jewish.

R’ Pinchas insisted on a Jewish education for his children, and the teacher who taught his daughter Batsheva (today, Mrs. Schochet, the wife of Rabbi Dovid who currently serves as the president of the Vaad HaRabbanim in Toronto) went to their house under the guise of a music teacher. That way, the neighbors did not imagine that the girl was secretly learning Torah.

When there was a sudden knock at the door, the student and her teacher would quickly scatter music books on the piano.

The same was true for other mitzvos; they observed everything despite the danger involved. One time, their daughter Batsheva rode a donkey for hours in order to bring home a sack of wheat which her father would use to make flour for shmura matza. Her parents assumed that the police who saw her wouldn’t pay attention to a girl innocently riding a donkey.

It’s not that R’ Pinchas wasn’t nervous. He was certainly afraid for his life. During the most difficult, threatening years, 1937-1938, when the NKVD mercilessly pursued the Chassidim and nearly every night took Chassidim from their homes, R’ Pinchas knew that he was also on the black list. He fled from home for a while.

What he feared eventually came to pass. One night, the black car of the NKVD came and several policemen burst into their home in search for him. How disappointed they were upon turning the house over and not finding him.

The angels of destruction began interrogating his wife about his whereabouts, but she shrugged her shoulders and said, “I don’t know where he is either. One day, he left the house and disappeared. He never came back. I’d be happy if you could tell me where he is!”

One of the interrogators cast an evil eye on her. “Where is your Tanya?” he asked.

Without blinking an eye, she coolly said, “Tanya? What’s that?”

She intuitively understood that his question was meant to trap her and incriminate her husband. Her clever, instant response eased the situation somewhat.

PART II

During World War II, the family had to leave their town because the Germans were quickly approaching. At first, they fled to the Caucasus where they stayed until the Germans approached Rostov. The family was well aware of the danger and was terrified. At a certain point, they crossed a river by boat and then joined other Chassidishe families who lived in Samarkand. There they remained until the end of the war, among a Chassidic community that took root in the city in those years.

In Samarkand there was a Chassidic minyan and there was even an underground Yeshivas Tomchei T’mimim. R’ Pinchas, with his resourcefulness, managed to find a source of income in knitting, and the family’s financial situation was stable. They lived under relatively decent conditions for those days.

Despite this, when an opportunity arose to leave Russia, R’ Pinchas decided to leave everything he had attained and escape with his family. When he was asked why he was doing this, he said, “Financially, it was good for me and there was no need to escape. When it came to chinuch, I was not worried about my children, because they grew up in a home with Chassidic values. I knew that they would forever know they are Jews and remain faithful in their beliefs. But I was very worried about the next generation. Who knew how my grandchildren would grow up in an atheistic country?”

The family left on a long, exhausting journey via Tashkent toward Lvov, a border city, where they had to get false Polish passports and leave Russia as Polish citizens.

They crossed the border and arrived in Poland, where they went to Cracow. The tremendous tension did subside somewhat, for they had successfully crossed the Russian-Polish border, but danger still hovered lest they be discovered to be Russian citizens and sent back to Russia.

One day, while in Cracow and waiting to continue their journey, R’ Pinchas met a Polish Jew who whispered to him to follow him. In a quiet place, far from peering eyes, he whispered that he had a Torah that he wanted to sell. He said the entire community had been killed Al Kiddush Hashem during the Holocaust with only remnants remaining alive. They had no choice but to leave Poland. They knew their community had no future in cursed Poland, soaked with Jewish blood and with numerous anti-Semites still walking the streets who were eager to shed Jewish blood.

R’ Pinchas understood that the community was disintegrating and that he had to rescue the Torah so it wouldn’t fall into gentile hands. He decided to buy it.

In his resourcefulness, even before starting his long journey, he had hidden diamonds in the double soles of his and his children’s shoes. He even taught his children, who were mature beyond their years, that if something happened in which they became disconnected from the group and had to take care of themselves, they could remove the diamonds from their shoes and use them.

When R’ Pinchas decided to buy the Torah, all the diamonds were taken out. The Torah was purchased and placed respectably in an improvised box and it joined the family on its journey.

PART III

From Poland they were supposed to cross the Czechoslovakian border together with a group of 46 refugees, all of them exhausted and having endured many hardships. They were supposed to cross in the dark of night, using hidden paths to avoid being seen by soldiers on the border. Before they left, their guide provided them with exact instructions and clear warnings: do not carry any suitcases and baskets. You can only take the most vital items. Since their walk would be through the forest in the dark, they all had to hold on to a rope held by the guide in the lead, and they had to walk in utter silence.

When given the signal, when the sky was pitch black and only the faint light of the stars peeked through the cloud cover, the group set out on its way. The young Sudak family was ready. Mrs. Sudak held her little daughter Bracha (today, Bogomilsky) who was only three years old. R’ Pinchas held the box with the precious Torah while also supporting his seven year old daughter.

The refugees walked for hours in the dark through the Czech forest, heel to toe. Around them it was silent with only the faint rustling of the leaves that they trod upon. Their hearts pounded with a prayer that they not be discovered and that the dangerous trip end well. They wanted to finally reach freedom and tranquility.

The hours passed and they kept walking. It seemed it would go on forever. At a certain point, Mrs. Sudak felt that she could not walk any longer while carrying her daughter. Wordlessly, she motioned to her husband that she was simply no longer capable of continuing, even one step more.

R’ Pinchas stopped. His breathing was heavy and he was exhausted. He knew that if his wife indicated that she could not go on, that this was true. There was a quick assessment of the situation and then, with tears in his eyes, he gave a final hug to the Torah, apologized softly and then left it under one of the thick trunks in the forest. Without saying a word, he took his daughter and began walking further.

After several more months of wandering, the Sudaks arrived in Eretz Yisroel where they were warmly welcomed by the Lubavitcher Chassidim already living there. Now it was easier for R’ Pinchas to raise his children and give them a Chassidic education, just as he wanted all those years. He had much nachas from all his children.

But he never forgot the Torah he had left in the forest.

PART IV

65 years passed. R’ Pinchas and his wife had long since passed away. The children had grown. R’ Nachman became a shliach in England, and the daughter Batsheva married Rabbi Dovid Schochet.

One Shabbos, Batsheva was a guest in Los Angeles in the home of Mrs. Faigy Estulin (wife of R’ Naftali). Both of them had left Russia illegally and had gone through the strenuous journey to freedom. Faigy’s family had made the identical trip three weeks after the Sudaks. Faigy’s father, the Chassid R’ Tzemach Gurewitz, and his wife Mrs. Chana Rivka and their family also went through the forest on the escape route in the middle of the night.

The conversation turned to their shared experience of the difficult and exhausting night journey, something neither could forget even after so many years.  It was at this point that Faigy shared a fascinating story that occurred to them on that fateful night.

At one point, the Gurewitz parents were not so alert, as it was quite difficult to maintain careful supervision of their children in the thick darkness for so many hours.  Suddenly, they realized that their five year old daughter was nowhere to be seen.  They could not call out her name, for fear of being discovered, and the search had to be done silently and quickly, in order not to hold up the entire group.

R’ Tzemach and his wife Chana Rivka were frantic.  In the heavy dark, they began to feel around among the trees and on the ground, in hopes of finding their daughter.  They quickly realized that the chances of finding her under such conditions were minuscule.  A few moments passed, which seemed like an eternity, when R’ Tzemach’s hand suddenly encountered a hard object.  By feeling around, he discovered that it was a relatively large box.  He checked the box, opened it, and to his great shock discovered a Torah scroll inside.  Next to the box sat his five year old daughter, as though just waiting for her father.

His excitement was boundless.  He understood that the little girl was a messenger from Heaven to reveal the hidden Torah scroll, and choked with silent tears, he kissed his little girl and the Torah alternately. He realized that this was a sign, and without hesitation, he took the holy Torah out of the box, wrapped it around his body and tied a gartel over the parchment, and that is how he brought it on the arduous journey until he eventually reached New York, where he lived out the rest of his long and healthy years.

Batsheva sat frozen in place, facing her friend Faigy, and staring at her with her eyes wide open.  A few moments passed until she could find her voice.  Tears streamed from her eyes, eliciting a shocked look from her friend. 

She began to tell her the story of that Torah scroll, which her father R’ Pinchas had purchased with tremendous self-sacrifice.  She described how they took the Torah with them, even in the most difficult moments of the journey, and how on that terrible night, seeing no other choice, her father was forced to leave it in the forest among the trees, while asking forgiveness since he had no choice.  “And it turns out that from Above, it was arranged that your father should find this Torah scroll a short time later, bring it to New York, and deliver it with full honors to a shul.”

Mrs. Schochet concluded her story by saying, “It was Divine Providence that brought me now to your home in Los Angeles.  It was also Divine Providence that directed our conversation to days gone by, stories of rescue from Russia and childhood memories.  It was Divine Providence that at the end of our conversation, I learned that the Torah scroll found a home, and it was certainly worth it for my father to sell everything that he had, in order to bring it at least to the forest.”