Erev Rosh Hashanah 5701/1940, Telshe
Baruch Sorotzkin, a Telshe yeshivah bachur, sits next to the table, dipping his pen into ink, writing a critical question on a Lithuanian tourist postcard.
After fleeing the storms of war that had descended on Kaminetz, he had arrived in Telshe a year ago together with his friends. Painfully, he had parted from his rebbeim. Would he ever again merit to listen to the shiurim of his Rebbe, Maran HaGaon Harav Baruch Ber Leibowitz?? With head and heart full of sweet memories of the Torah discussions he had with the Birchas Shmuel, he fled for his life, traveling through Lodz, home of his older sister Tema Zajdenworm, until he reached Telshe.
When he arrived at the end of Cheshvan 1940, the Rosh Yeshivah, his cousin, Rav Avraham Yitzchak Bloch arranged the necessary documentation for Rav Baruch. He wrote to the Lithuanian government, attesting to his personal relationship with the refugee, explaining that Rav Baruch was accepted by the Telshe Yeshivah and that he would provide for his needs.
These rare documents were stashed away in the cellar of the Lithuanian government for eighty-five years!! Just recently, Lithuanian officials transferred these historic documents to Yeshivas Ateres Shlomo. Yellowed pages tell the story of yeshivah students who applied themselves to their Torah study during times of trouble and misfortune. Each day brought a new decree. But despite it all, every single day, they clung to their deepest aspirations; to toil and grow in Torah at all times, in every situation.
Pressured by Rav Bloch, the Telshe Chief of Police quickly sent a letter to the Lithuanian Ministry of Interior reporting that the refugee, Baruch Sorotzkin, arrived from Lodz. He does not have a profession, but is a yeshivah student who wants to study Torah by his relatives. He verifies the authenticity of the picture and asks for an expedited approval.
Just a few weeks earlier, the Red Army had victoriously entered Vilna, and then transferred it to Lithuanian control. Vilna would now be the capital of Lithuania instead of Kovno.
During that critical year, when everyone searched for an escape route, Rav Baruch’s father, Rav Zalman Sorotzkin, who had fled from Lutzk to Vilna, succeeded in procuring “certificates,” documents that enabled him to move to Eretz Yisrael. Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski helped procure these certificates during the last months of his life. Now, after enduring arrests, hardships, and a journey that started in Poland and wended its way through Lithuania, Russia, Turkey and Lebanon, it’s the end of Elul zman 5700/1940, and Rav Zalman, his wife and young twin sons are already in the Holy City.
Rav Baruch’s touching postcard begins, “May my dear parents shlita be written in the book of complete tzaddikim l’alter l’chaim tovim tikaseivu v’seichaseimu, together with my dear brothers, Bentzion and Yisrael sheyichu!”
Rav Baruch wrote from the yeshivah in Telshe, “At the threshold of a new year, I would like to give the blessing of a loving son who yearns to be close to his loved ones. Yehi ratzon milifnei Avinu shebashamayim…that soon Hashem will reunite our family…” Rav Baruch concludes the letter with a note about his brother Eliezer, who had also fled.
In Yerushalayim, the family breathed a sigh of relief. Now they had two pieces of information: Their son Baruch was in the yeshivah in Telshe, and another one of their sons, Eliezer, had traveled with the Mir yeshivah to a village in Kėdainiai, Lithuania.
“We received your telegram yesterday, and I am answering you today.” Baruch explains why he chose to write a letter, instead of sending a telegram that would reach them the next day. In a telegram, each letter is carefully considered and information is relayed coldly and concisely. He doesn’t only want to update his parents and relay his blessings, he also wants their opinion on a critical question, and needs to write a detailed letter: “Dear parents, I am in a situation in which I cannot know what to do on my own.”
“On one hand, I want to escape and join you. But, on the other hand, the Rav of Telshe told me that if I agree, he will take me as a son-in-law for his oldest daughter Rochele techiyhe, and we will travel together to Eretz Yisrael.”
“Woe is me, that I have to decide my fate on my own, without the advice of my dear parents.” He then details, “This is a good thing, because Rochele techiyeh has many lofty virtues. There is no one like her, and her good name is impeachable. She finds favor in my eyes, especially because as the son-in-law of the Rav of Telshe, I will be able to grow in Torah…but it will take time until they actually leave…And it will be easier for me to travel to Eretz Yisrael now and I don’t want to miss the opportunity…”
Young Baruch wasn’t sure: Should he escape at the very first opportunity and turn down a shidduch with the daughter of the Rosh Yeshivah, HaRav Avraham Yitzchak Bloch, who saw his hasmadah, ameilus and lofty middos and wanted him to marry his daughter, or should he remain where he was, tense and worried, hoping to move to Eretz Yisrael with his future father-in-law?
“Dear parents, tell me what to do. If you think I shouldn’t wait and should leave to Eretz Yisrael immediately, send me a telegraph telling me to set off on my journey. If you don’t answer this telegram, I will understand that you agree that I should wait here together with the Rav of Telshe shlita.”
In the margins, Rav Baruch wrote a line reminding his parents to try asking Rav Eliezer Silver to help him and his brother get visas to the United States. If their efforts to move to Eretz Yisroel failed, at least they would be able to escape the inferno.
Torah on his Wedding Day
Rav Baruch turned the postcard over and addressed it “To Agudas Yisrael,” but then he changed his mind, crossed it out, and wrote:
“To Rav Sorotzkin.
Yerushalayim
Palestine
Sender:
On the bottom, he added a few words of conclusion: “Your son and brother blesses you with a year of geulah and yeshuah, a year of redemption for our nation.
Baruch.”
Deep in their hearts, did they sense how critical and dramatic that year would be? Did they realize how many miracles would need to play out for their personal salvation and the rescue of the remnants of the Telshe Torah world?
During that period of time, many people in Eretz Yisrael asked Rav Zalman Sorotzkin to tell them what he witnessed in Lithuania. Journalists sat with him in his home and documented his words. “The yeshivah buildings were confiscated by the Soviet government, but the yeshivah students continue learning in the batei medrash and shuls.
“That’s what’s happening in Telshe, in Vilna and all other cities. Many yeshivos remained in their places. Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin is in Vilna…Rav Eliyahu Meir Bloch and his brother-in-law, Rav Mordechai Katz, left Telshe and traveled to the United States on a mission to reestablish the Telshe Yeshivah on its shores. Rav Avraham Yitzchak Bloch remains at the head of the Yeshivah in Telshe.”
In Yerushalayim, the family worried. Every single day, the Rebbetzin poured out her heart, saying Tehillim, pleading for her children to be saved. And now, all of a sudden, this important question reaches her.
Should her Baruch continue focusing on escaping to Eretz Yisrael, or should he stop all his efforts, establish a home in Telshe, and postpone his flight from Lithuania?
This shidduch suggestion wasn’t really a new idea. Three years earlier, in Elul 5697/1937, when Rav Baruch was much younger, Rav Zalman Sorotzkin met his nephew, Rosh Yeshivah Maran HaGaon HaRav Avraham Yitzchak Bloch, at the Knessiah Gedolah in Marienbad, Czechoslovakia. The idea was mentioned during their conversation, but not in a practical sense.
In Marienbad, the Gedolei Yisrael discussed the sword that was hovering over the necks of the Jewish Nation. Eretz Yisrael was the main topic of their discussions; the atrocities committed during the Arab Revolt, during which hundreds of Jews were killed in Eretz Yisroel, along with the changes that were starting to be felt as the Nazi government was rising to power in Germany.
After Minchah, everyone was still fasting, because a taanis tzibbur had been declared, HaRav Elchonon Wasserman announced that they would now say viduy with the chazan.
“Ashamnu, bagadnu…” The voices filled the hall of the Knessiah Gedolah in Marienbad.
“Words cannot describe the distress, the cries, the moans, that shook the amos hasipim at that uplifting occasion,” Reb Yitzchak Gerstenkorn, founder of Bnei Brak, wrote in his journal. “I have absolutely no doubt that even the most evil person would have had thoughts of teshuvah if he had participated in that viduy. A rav whispered in my year, ‘The long, arduous trip and the money that I borrowed to finance my travels is all worth it for this tefillah alone.'”
Achdus was apparent everywhere. A journalist who documented the event for the residents of Eretz Yisrael noted that, “Next to the Rebbes of Gur, Sochatchov and Alexander, sit the litvish geonim, Rav Elchonon Wasserman and the Lutsker Rav.”
Now, a few years later, at the height of misfortune and trouble, the shidduch idea was broached again.
Rav Baruch took the postcard and put it away. It was only a month later, on the 7th of Cheshvan, that he went to the local post office in Telshe to send it to Eretz Yisrael. A few weeks later, it would arrive in Yerushalayim, stamped by the “British military censor in Palestine.”
Rav Zalman responded to Rav Baruch by sending a letter to his nephew, Rosh Yeshivah HaGaon HaRav Avraham Yitzchak Bloch, with his agreement to the shidduch. In an exchange of letters, Rav Avraham Yitzchak wrote that though Rav Baruch is younger than his brother, and it usually would be appropriate to wait, during wartime, there are different priorities.
The wedding took place in Shevat. Young Rav Baruch was surrounded by yeshivah friends, Roshei Yeshivah and Gedolei Yisrael, but his parents weren’t there. For a few hours, everyone shook off the dust of the flames swirling around them and focused on rejoicing with the chassan and kallah. At the height of the simchah, on the day of his wedding, Rav Baruch gave a shiur that transformed the simchah into ritcha d’Oraysa fanned by kol sasson v’kol simchah. As soon as the days of sheva brachos concluded, reality hit them again.
Where should they go?
Then, soon after the wedding, the fate of those who would preserve and maintain the Torah of Telshe was decided.
Switching Homelands
The documents recently sent from Lithuanian government officials and the mayor of Telshe to Rav Baruch’s grandson, Rabbeinu Rosh HaYeshivah shlita, indicate the tireless efforts they had made to escape.
Along with the marriage certificate of Maran HaGaon HaRav Baruch Sorotzkin and the Rebbetzin, there are requests to leave Lithuania through Russia to Palestine. The couple declared that they plan to settle in Petach Tikvah, where Rav Baruch would learn in the Lomza Yeshivah. There are also requests to travel to the United States, a request for a transit visa to Kovno — perhaps the most important document.
During this period of time, when the path to the free world went through Japan and San Francisco, two Telshe yeshivah bachurim with Dutch citizenship asked the Dutch consul in Kovno, Mr. Zwartendijk, for visas to the island of Curacao, which was under Dutch rule. At the same time, Chiune-Sempo Sugihara, the Japanese consul in Kovno, was asked to issue transit visas to Japan for those “on the way” to Curacao, which, of course, was never their intended destination. They just wanted to force the Russians to allow the visa-holders to leave the country, and the plan was adopted by many Mir yeshivah students and groups from other yeshivos.
This escape route saved thousands of Jews from death and, to some extent, saved the Torah world.
But the visa was only part of the rescue mission. Each one of these Jews needed to come up with $180, an exorbitant amount of money at that time, to pay for the two-week journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway that would take them across Russia to the city of Vladivostok, from whose port they would sail to Japan.
Another complicated stage was submitting exit requests to the NKVD who were liable to terminate the rescue plan in one blow. Miraculously, the exit visas started arriving the very same month that Rav Baruch got married.
Today, over eighty years later, as we look at these poignant documents in the yeshivah in Kiryat HaYeshivah with the Kol Torah ringing out from the beis medrash in the background, we notice that some documents list Rav Baruch Sortozkin’s birthplace as Lithuania, even though he was born in Minsk, which was under Russian control. During those turbulent times, the laws changed constantly. At one point, the Russians announced that only Russian citizens would be allowed to leave the country and Lithuanian citizens would be prohibited from crossing the border. Later, they suddenly declared that it was actually the Lithuanian citizens that could leave, while the Russian citizens would be forced to remain in areas under Russian control.
Attempts to save Rav Elchonon Wasserman were thwarted by these changing laws. Rav Baruch Sorotzkin considered Rav Elchonon, one of the Torah giants that blossomed in Telshe, his rebbe, because he learned by him in Baranovich, before he continued on to Kaminetz. In Kislev 1941, Rav Elchonon stood for hours in line in Kovno, waiting to submit his documents so that he could receive an exit visa to Eretz Yisrael. The line was longer than the eye could see. A talmid offered to stand in line instead of Rav Elchonon, but Rav Elchonon refused. When it was finally his turn, the clerk glanced at the document. “You’re a Latvian citizen,” he ruled, because Rav Elchonon’s parents had lived in Latvia when he was a baby. “Today, Latvia is under our control, so you’re a Russian citizen. You can’t leave.”
Fleeing to the East
Within the sea of documents attesting to the attempts made to escape, perhaps preserved to teach us about the generation that toiled in Torah despite the uncertainty and turmoil, we see that one of the documents accomplished its task. The young couple received a longed-for visa.
Destination: United States
Journey: Leave for Japan together with other yeshivah visa-holders. That was the first step to freedom.
“To My Dear Uncle, HaRav HaGaon HaGadol Zalman Sorotzkin shlita and my Aunt, the Rebbetzin, and their dear children.” Rav Avraham Yitzchok Bloch wrote a letter to Yerushalayim reporting that the couple had left Telshe, along with a description of their wedding.
“The dear children left Kovno on Wednesday and we received a telegram today… that they arrived in peace…We decided that they should travel through the east, when they were notified that they received a visa to enter the United States…Regarding the simchah of our children, you must know that it was happy and good…” He writes with emotion that the chassan gave a drashah at the wedding with “lofty chiddushei Torah… drashos that were full of content and encouraging words.”
Another letter from Telshe was sent by the mashgiach Rav Zalman Bloch, Rav Avraham Yitzchak’s brother, administrator of the Telshe yeshivah. He added a few lines to a letter sent to Rav Zalman asking for help for a number of yeshivah talmidim. He wrote, “I am taking the opportunity to give you another brachah (in addition to the general letter) to Kvod Toraso and our dear Aunt Rebbetzin Miriam tichyeh on the wedding of their dear son, our beloved Baruch.
“I returned from Vilna today, where I accompanied them. I’m sure they wrote to you. My brother and sister-in-law were also in Kovno, and may Hashem give them hatzlachah everywhere they go, and may we see nachas from them. You friend and loving …Zalman.”
At the same time, at the end of Shevat, when he moved to Eretz Yisrael, the Rosh Yeshivah of Mir, Rav Eliezer Yehudah Finkel, was interviewed for an Eretz Yisrael paper. His interview was printed under the headlines: “Lithuanian Yeshivahs appeal for help”.
Rav Eliezer Yehudah related that, “The Jews of Lithuania are thrilled that they haven’t fallen into the territory of the evil Nazis.” Some of his words were directed at certain ears that scrutinized every piece of journalistic information. He added, “The Soviet government in Lithuania tends to issue exit vias to those who have entrance visas to other countries.” He then disclosed for the first time that attempts were being made to procure entry permits to Eretz Yisrael, or at least to the United States or Japan. “The idea is to travel to Japan and, from there, to procure aliya certificates to Eretz Yisrael.”
Later on, there is a news report about 227 Mir talmidim who had already set off on their journey to Japan, along with some talmidim from Chachmei Lublin and Telshe. In the meantime, hundreds and thousands more, “Are begging for aliya certificates or visa to enter Eretz Yisrael so that they can leave Lithuania.”
After explaining that despite the good news about the Russian exit visas, the Japanese government stopped giving transit visas, there are details about additional yeshivas such as Radin, Lomza and Slobodka.
Rav Eliezer Yehudah continued, “The yeshivos are in terrible financial straits, but, despite everything going on around them, the Yeshivah talmidim continue learning b’yeser si’eis and yeser oz. They learn with passion and hasmadah in all the Lithuanian yeshivahs… In Vilna, Telshe, Ponevezh, Slobodka and Kelm, learning goes on as usual.”
The Rosh Yeshivah of Mir sends regards from Gedolei Yisrael who had managed to escape and from those who hope to make aliya soon. Amongst the names he mentions are HaGaon HaRav Elchonon Wasserman and HaGaon HaRav Avraham Yitzchak Bloch, Rosh Yeshivah of Telshe. Sadly, the Satan foiled attempts to rescue these Gedolim and they were killed al kiddush Hashem along with their talmidim Hy”d.
Hashem’s Japanese emissary
The Japanese diplomat, the chassid umos ha’alom, Chiune-Sempo Sugihara, earned his reputation due to his ability to grasp the bigger picture. When he was young, he deliberately failed the examinations for medical school that his parents forced him to take. Instead, he majored in English, which eventually led him to the Japanese foreign ministry. Information he received from Chinese sources enabled him to help negotiate the purchase of the Northern Manchurian Railway, for half the Soviet’s asking price. Even back then, his strong conscience refused to accept the Japanese atrocities in China before the second Sino-Japanese War and he resigned in protest. On the eve of the Holocaust, he was drafted again to a diplomatic post and served as vice-consul in Kovno. At the end of 1940, when the Soviets conquered Lithuania and the treaty divided the territory between the Russian and Nazis, Sugihara bravely decided to try to save as many Jews as he could.
At first, even the Jews questioned this rescue plan, especially because of the exorbitant travel expenses involved. But as time passed, and the situation deteriorated, they grasped at every opportunity, no matter how slight, to escape. Zerach Warhaftig, later a minister for the State of Israel, was very involved in procuring these visas. His father, Rav Yeruchem, was a Telsher talmid.
Sugihara repeatedly asked his supervisors in the foreign ministry to allow him to facilitate these visas. But they refused, stating that every visa request must include proof that the asker intends on continuing his/her travels and that they have enough money for the journey—which of course most people didn’t have. In the summer of 1940, despite the opposition from Tokyo, Sugihara issued more than two thousand visas, some of which were handwritten, since there weren’t enough printed forms. His wife and staff helped him, along with Mir Yeshivah bachurim who applied themselves to the task. Sugihara issued visas until Soviet pressure forced him to leave the consulate. At the same time, the Dutch consul also left Kovno, but not before burning all the documents in his office to protect the rescue operation. It was only dozens of years later that his heroic actions were brought to the attention of the Jewish nation.
Sugihara continued writing visas, even as he set off towards Berlin. He wrote visas at the train station, and continued writing them as long as he was on Lithuanian territory. At the train station, he gave his stamp to a Jew, who used it to forge additional visas. Each visa included the visa-holder and their children, so they saved thousands of people from death.
Interestingly, Sugihara started using the nickname Sempo, because the Jews had a hard time pronouncing his real name, Chiune.
It has been estimated that Sugihara’s visas saved about 10,000 Jews from death.
Learning on the way
The group was delayed at their first stop after Kovno. Though it was late at night, the yeshivah talmidim left the train, hurried to find postcards, wrote messages to their loved ones, and waited until morning to send them to Eretz Yisrael with Soviet postmarks.
“Wednesday night, Parshas Beshalach, eleven o’clock at night,” topped the first postcard sent on that long journey. “The journey, baruch Hashem, went well. We are now waiting for the train leaving from Bialystock to Moscow, and today, as usual, we will be delayed for three hours. I am using this opportunity to write a few words and let you know how we’re doing.” Rav Eliezer, another traveler on the train that rescued the Torah world, relates that if this delay would have occurred in the morning, perhaps there would have been enough time for Rav Baruch to procure his original birth certificate in Minsk. They apparently thought that the document could be of help to him in the future. Rav Eliezer relates that they are scheduled to leave the next afternoon to Moscow, where they would stay for about four days until they could continue their journey to Vladivostok, the other end of the Trans-Siberian railway. Reb Eliezer kept his letter short in order to “leave room for Baruch and Rochel to write.”
The next line was written by Rav Baruch, “My Dear Beloved Family…!” Rav Baruch gives thanks to the Creator for the success of their trip thus far and promises to send additional updates from their journey.
Taking advantage of every empty space on the postcard, Rav Baruch’s wife continues writing right where he concluded his words. This was the first letter she wrote to her in-laws. “Shalom aleichem my dear ones, I will also add a few words to this postcard…But since there is very little space, I will suffice with warm, wholehearted regards. Baruch Hashem, we’re already in this position, and we hope that Hashem will continue leading us on a successful path….Rochel.”
Behind them, Poland and Lithuania were starting to fall under German boots. In front of them, Japan and China weren’t peaceful either. The United States was very far way and it seemed impossible to reach Eretz Yisrael.
But they, a group of Telshe yeshivah students on the Trans-Siberian Railway, together with Mir Yeshivah students, completely immersed themselves in the sugya. Thoughts and concerns about the future could wait for bein hasedarim.
Shteigen on the tracks
A few days earlier, at the Kovno train station.
HaGaon HaRav Avaham Yitzchak looked at his daughter and new son-in-law Rav Baruch Sorotzkin, kissed Rav Baruch on the forehead and asked to say a few words, just a few minutes before the couple would leave on their two-week journey, covering thousands of kilometers, and country after country, in their way out of the inferno.
It was a sad, touching moment, even back then, when they didn’t yet realize that this would be the last time they would see their father, the Rosh Yeshivah, who would go back to his flock and continue toiling in Torah until his neshamah was taken al kiddush Hashem.
At the train station, Rav Avraham Yitzchak gave over his bequest to the person who would stand at the helm of the vestiges of the Telshe Yeshivah, a firebrand saved from the fire so that he could take a piece of the glory of the yeshivah and reignite the torch of Telshe.
“I want to tell you one thing,” he said passionately. “Even when one wanders and travels, a person needs to live with seder. Many losses are born because travelers and seagoers don’t live with seder. My custom is that even during a trip for the night or two days, I make a seder, a schedule. This helps me achieve Torah and tefillah appropriately, so they’re not flawed. You’re traveling with a group of yeshivah students. During the trip, make yourself sedarim. Parshas Ma’asei describes the journeys in the desert. There are some places like Har Chorev where they stayed for almost a year, but they were in some places for just one night. But even so, it says Vayisu va’yachanu by each location. Even one night of encampment shouldn’t be hasty. Encampment should be thought-out, organized. You are going on a long journey with yeshivah students, learn together, make chavrusas, make sedarim for yourselves.
Later on, the Rebbetzin related that on the very first day of their trip, Rav Baruch davened Shacharis together with the yeshiva students and then came back to eat a little of the food they had taken along with them. When they finished, he said, “Now I’m going to first seder.” He went to the end of the car, where a few bachurim were sitting, and they immersed themselves in Torah. Neither the batei medrash of Mir and Telshe were nearby. But the talmidim, wherever they were, were in the beis medrash. At the end of seder, after Minchah, he returned to his wife to rest a little bit and talk to her, but then he went to second seder, and then to mussar seder, during which they learned Mesilas Yesarim.
The world was on fire, everyone was terrified. They had started out on a journey that they didn’t know where or how it would end. They couldn’t even imagine the troubles that awaited them in the east. But it didn’t make a difference. The shteigen continued. The beis medrash crossed over countries and the sugya continued to inflame them with bren.
The foundations of the world shook, dark clouds enveloped the world, but they never stopped learning.
Next chapter: Shiurei Da’as Shanghai edition – China and Japan.
Thanks to Bein Hadeah Vehaddibur and Rav Michoel Sorotzkin shlita for allowing us to use the letters and their history.
