The Chofetz Chaim and the Accused Student

Rav Yechezkel Sarna was very close to the Chofetz Chaim, rabban shel Yisroel, and for a year and a half lived beside him when the Chofetz Chaim moved from Radin to Smilowitz while the cannons of World War I roared. One of the students was Ephraim Leibowitz, who had come from Memel, on the German border. The Russians suspected him of spying for Germany. Under the emergency regulations all German citizens had to appear before the authorities, who would send them to eastern Russia or Siberia. Three students in the Chofetz Chaim's yeshiva held German citizenship, and out of pity the yeshiva's administration ignored the requirement, though they feared the consequences of their presence.

After the fast of 17 Tammuz 5675 (1915) calamity struck. In the middle of the night secret police, accompanied by police from Lida and Vilna, raided the home of Reb Leib Matlis, the brother-in-law of the Chofetz Chaim, where the suspect lived. In the search they “found” among Leibowitz's belongings a precise sketch of the plan of the fortress in Kovno, on a paper that one of the very agents had maliciously slipped into the student's pocket. The student's life was in danger and he was expected to be executed within a day or two. With great effort and money his trial was postponed, and many efforts, finally successful, were made to free Reb Leib Matlis from the prison where he had been held for several weeks as an accessory. The boy's family came to plead with the Chofetz Chaim not to be angry at him and not to curse him. The Chofetz Chaim replied that he never curses anyone.

Two years later the Chofetz Chaim learned that Leibowitz was in prison in Panze and that his trial was about to take place. A letter with this news arrived on Shemini Atzeres 5677 (1916). The next day, Simchas Torah, when the Saba Kadisha was called up to the Torah, he banged on the table and burst into tears. “Ribono shel olom,” he cried, “why do You let Your sons suffer so? The Torah that Ephraim studied with great hasmodoh is before You, and now he is suffering terribly, though he has committed no crime.” Those present wept, and the Chofetz Chaim asked his son-in-law to calm them, saying, “It's Simchas Torah today.”

After davening the Chofetz Chaim sent a special messenger to the well-known lawyer Oscar Gruzenberg of St. Petersburg, one of the greatest jurists in Russia, who had won fame in some of the largest criminal trials of his day and, in the Jewish world, for his defense of Beilis. Gruzenberg, a Jew who hardly knew Yiddishkeit and leaned toward the radical left, was a humanist and always among the first to side with the downtrodden, who in those times were often Jews suffering from pogroms, expulsions and blood libels. This time he refused the case, afraid of a trial held in a wartime atmosphere of hostility to Jews and Judaism.

On hearing the answer, the Chofetz Chaim decided to go and see Gruzenberg himself. He took with him his student Reb Yechezkel Sarna, whom he regarded as a confidant he could trust, and also Reb Hillel Ginsburg. The trip was shrouded in mystery, and some of its chapters are unknown to this day. There were many efforts about which Reb Yechezkel never said a word. Still, many details became known. It was related that Gruzenberg asked the Chofetz Chaim whether he could personally testify that the accused was completely innocent of espionage. The Chofetz Chaim answered that he was certain of it, and that the very fact that a man as old as he had come all the way from Shumiatz to St. Petersburg for the purpose should be proof enough of his conviction.

“Rabbi,” said Gruzenberg with emotion, “I am fairly young, but if you have the energy and vigor to make such a dangerous trip, then we, who lack such a sense of responsibility, should be considered old.” Then he said to his wife in Russian, “In our times, when life has so little value, would a Russian notable be willing to take such a dangerous journey just to save one young boy who is not even his relative?” Gruzenberg excused himself and left the room. “He is a good person,” the Chofetz Chaim told his companions. “It is a pity he is not oriented toward avodas haBorei. If only he had been educated in a yeshiva.”

Gruzenberg returned and announced that he could not accept the defense. “I don't feel brave enough to stand before a military court at this point,” he said. He had called a non-Jewish lawyer friend who agreed to take the case, and he also thought it best that the defense lawyer be a Christian and not a Jew.

The trial was held in Vitebsk in Teves 5677 (1917), before a military tribunal of three Russian generals. On the day it opened, the Chofetz Chaim sent telegrams to all the yeshivos in Russia asking them to daven and recite Tehillim, and in his own yeshiva everyone fasted. The witnesses included Rav Elchonon Wassermann, Reb Tzvi Hirsch Levinson, the son-in-law of the Chofetz Chaim, and the Chofetz Chaim himself. Throughout the trial the defense recounted stories of the Chofetz Chaim's sterling character to show how high his ethical level was. When the judges or the prosecution questioned the reliability of the stories, the defense insisted that not only the story itself proves the point but even the fact that such a story is told about him, even if it is not precise. The prosecution replied that although the honesty and sincerity of the Zidovski Rabinn were not in doubt, this still did not prove Leibowitz's innocence, since in his wily way he had deceived his mentor.

The accused was sentenced to death, but out of consideration for his age the sentence was commuted to twelve years of hard labor. He fainted in fear, and wails were heard from the observers' benches. The students who left the courtroom were shocked and did not know how to tell the Chofetz Chaim. Some advised telling him that Leibowitz had been sentenced to only two years. Reb Yechezkel was the one who broke the news. He told the Chofetz Chaim that Leibowitz had not been sentenced to death but to six years in prison.

It is related that the Chofetz Chaim told Reb Yechezkel to lock the door of the room. Agitated, he looked around, and when he saw that no one else was there, he whispered, “What makes them certain that they will continue to rule for even six more months?”

Two months passed, and Kerensky and his revolutionary government took power, while Czar Nikolai was deposed and, a short while later, assassinated. This was on the 22nd of Adar 5677. Ephraim Leibowitz, the “Jewish spy,” was freed with other political prisoners, thanks to the efforts of Gruzenberg and of the yeshiva community. In Brisk it was said that Rav Chaim Soloveitchik commented on the story, “The Chofetz Chaim deposed Nikolai.” Reb Yechezkel took the remaining secrets with him to his eternal rest.