The Rebbe's Foresight

It is told, in an eyewitness account by Yitzchok Lachman, that the Rebbe's departure from Virshov, like his earlier moves, came without explanation. In November 1918 the First World War officially ended, but fighting between Germans and Poles along the border only grew worse. This was especially so in Posen, near Virshov, where the Germans held back from returning territory to the Poles and gunfire was still common.

On the first day of Chol HaMoed Pesach 5679, the Rav of Piltz told his close chassidim that right after Pesach he wished to move to Czenstechov. He asked them to send someone ahead to prepare a place for him to live. It was a surprising request, but when the Rebbe asks, chassidim do not ask questions.

Several chassidim left at once to arrange lodgings, and on the day after Pesach the Rebbe's belongings were packed. Two days later he left Virshov for Czenstechov.

A week afterward the fighting at the border flared up, and the Germans answered with artillery. One shell struck the apartment the Rebbe of Piltz had left only days earlier. All its windows were blown out and its doors burned and fell to pieces. The empty apartment stood burned out for many days, a silent witness to the Rebbe's foresight.