The Floor Wet With Tears

In the Rebbe’s later years war broke out between Russia and Japan, and this time no bribe or ransom helped. Everyone of age received a draft order to appear in the town square on a set date, and from there the men were sent straight to the front. Thousands of young men were torn from the beis medrash and from their homes, leaving frightened parents, wives and children behind.

All through the war the Sefas Emes never slept in his bed. When the hour grew late he lay on the floor with a thin garment spread beneath him. In the morning his attendants would find the garment soaked with the tears he had shed all night for the Jewish soldiers.

The chassidim at the front were pained to be cut off from the beis medrash and from their Rebbe, and letters full of longing reached him. One chassid wrote that on Rosh Hashonoh they had no shofar, and so they sat together and spoke about the shofar and its power to awaken. Another wrote that on Succos, while digging trenches, they found the strength to set up three boards inside a trench to form a succah, so that each could eat a kezayis inside. One talmid who excelled in learning sent a long letter with his own chiddushim on Rabbeinu Yonah.

The Rebbe was deeply moved and sent a reply that later became famous. He quoted the verse in Haazinu, “Ha’idosi bochem es hashomayim v’es ho’oretz,” and explained ha’idosi in the sense of adornment, as in “adi adoyim.” He wrote, “With heroic people like you, my dear chassidim, Hashem adorns the heaven and the earth.”