The Martyrs of Human

The Shach recorded in his Megillas Afah what befell the Jews of the city of Human, in Russia, in 1648. On a single Shabbos fifteen hundred Jews were killed in the city. The Cossacks, joined once more by the mob, drove every Jew out of the city into the fields and vineyards. There they formed a ring around them, stripped them of their clothes and commanded them to lie on the ground.

The attackers then spoke gently, almost kindly. Why, they asked, did the Jews wish to be slaughtered like an offering to a God who had poured out His wrath on them without mercy? Better to take up the attackers' gods, their images and crosses, and become one people together.

The faithful Jews, who had given their lives for Hashem so many times before, lifted their voices to Heaven together and called out Shema Yisroel. They prayed that they might remain loyal to Hashem, then recited vidui and accepted the Divine judgment. At that the attackers fell upon them, and not one survived.