Dancing in Prison

Rav Raphael Kohen, a Chabad chassid, heard this from his father, Rav Baruch Sholom Kohen.

While the two Shapira brothers of Slovita were in prison, they did their best to daven and say Tehillim. Among the prisoners was an apostate who knew enough halachah to turn it against them. In his hatred of everything Jewish, he fouled the cell with the contents of a chamber pot, so that they could not say any holy words.

The grandsons of Rav Pinchos of Koretz were dismayed for a moment. What could they do now? How could they daven? Then one of them was struck by an idea. It was true that they could not say Tehillim, he said, but was that a reason for their spirits to fail? They should rejoice that, as Jews, even this was avodah. The very fact that they held back also fulfilled the will of their Creator, and so they needed to serve Him with simchah. And they began to dance in the jail cell, in joy at their very Jewishness.