Not One Step Bareheaded

Rav Raphael Kohen related, as he heard from Rav Shmuel Gronem, that when the Shapira brothers of the Slovita press were about to run the gauntlet, the authorities feared that the first troop of soldiers had been bribed to give only soft, token blows. At the last minute they switched the troops and stripped the brothers bare, so that the blows fell with deadly cruelty.

In the midst of it, the yarmulke fell from one brother's head. He went back for it while the blows kept raining down on him, though anyone who ran quickly fared better. He chose to suffer rather than take even one step with his head uncovered.

Another tradition says that it was the younger brother whose head covering fell off. Bound by the ropes that led him through the lines, he could not pick it up, so he stood still. He accepted the Heavenly decree with love and paid no heed to the pain as the soldiers struck his motionless body. Only when someone put his head covering back did he agree to move on, and by the grace of Heaven he survived the ordeal.