Tehillim in the Shul

When the war intensified, another general order was given, this time for those who had stayed behind. Men with their wives, and mothers with their sons, gathered at the entrance to the Rebbe’s house and pleaded with him to save them.

He told them at once to go to shul, light candles and begin saying Tehillim, and the Rebbe himself joined them. Their tearful tefillos rose in loud cries that must surely have pierced the heavens. Then the Rebbe turned to the crowd and, in a calm voice, assured them that with the help of Hashem all would be well.

A short while later word spread through the country that the war was over. The soldiers came home and the rest were spared from having to leave. Yet the returning soldiers of the Russian army plundered and robbed their way home and left havoc behind them, and the sight of the crushed and wounded Jewish soldiers weighed heavily on the Rebbe.