Rav Pinchos Shapira of Slovita

The Brothers' Kiddush Hashem

The brothers met their sentence with calm trust in Hashem. On the night before the flogging, two chassidim came to see them, Rav Dovid of Vaslikov and Rav Nota of Chaslivitch. The brothers spoke with them in Torah with great fervor, as though nothing out of the ordinary lay ahead. Then Rav Shmuel Abba quietly asked them to make sure that a doctor, a minyan, lemon juice (to clean the wounds) and ice would be ready the next day, and that any blood or pieces of flesh would be gathered up.

The visitors later wrote that they stood speechless, seized by holy fear, and that the impression never left them. It seemed to them that they were watching Avraham Avinu before the Akeidah, wholly given over to his Creator's will, or Rabbi Akiva before his flesh was torn with combs, without a word of complaint and without the slightest loss of calm.

Floggings in the army of that time were carried out with spiessruten, a punishment Prussian officers had brought to Russia. In its harshest form the prisoner was led slowly between two lines of 250 soldiers, each holding a knout. It was not unusual for the punished man to die of heart failure or blood poisoning. Their sentence of 1,500 blows meant passing through the lines three times.

As they walked to the place of punishment, the brothers sang a special niggun, which is still sung today. In the middle of the beating Rav Pinchos's yarmulke fell off. Because the long ropes bound to his hands were pulling him along, he could not go back for it, so he simply stood still, letting the blows rain down on his back, until someone put it back on his head.

The brothers came to on Shabbos, and their first words were that they had to make Kiddush. Rav Shmuel Abba then washed for bread and made Hamotzi, yet he was too weak to eat even a crumb of bread. For the rest of his life he regretted that beracha levatalah (blessing said in vain).

It was months before they were strong enough to begin the march in chains toward Siberia. They got as far as Moscow by the end of 5600 (1840), and there they were too sick to continue. After more months of recovery, officials asked that the brothers be allowed to go home to Slovita. Czar Nicholas I refused: if they were ill, they could be kept in a bogadelnia (old-age home) in Moscow, but they were not to go home.

Fifteen years later they were still barred from living in a normal Jewish community. Bibikov, by then Minister of Internal Affairs, argued that they might have a harmful influence on the Jews around them and might give other convicts hope of similar leniency.

Their only consolation came in 5607 (1847), when their sons were granted the license to open the second authorized Jewish printing house in the Russian Empire, in Zhitomir. The first was the Romm press in Vilna; every other Jewish press had been closed.

Only in June 5616 (1856) were the brothers set free, by Czar Alexander II, the more liberal son of Nicholas I, who is remembered for freeing the Russian serfs. To everyone's surprise, Rav Shmuel Abba was not happy at the news. Now, he said, he feared he was about to lose his freedom. At home they would be greeted as martyrs; would he be strong enough to withstand that test? He dreaded being pressed to become a Rebbe, and begged Hashem to protect him from that path.

His fear came true once Rav Aharon the Second of Karlin gave him a kvittel. His admirers pressed him to lead as Rebbe in Shepetovka, and from then on both brothers were honored as Rebbes until their last days.

Their memory lives on not only through their suffering but through their holy seforim. Rav Aharon Roth, the Shomrei Emunim Rebbe, wrote in his sefer Taharas HaKodesh that every G-d-fearing Jew should try to obtain seforim of old printings, above all those printed in Slovita and Zhitomir, the work of the holy grandsons of the Rav of Koretz.

The Testimony of Rav Raphael of Bershad

It is told that when the grandsons of Rav Pinchos Koretzer who ran the Slovita press were libeled and falsely accused, many tried to prove their innocence, to no avail. At last the authorities agreed that if three prominent Jewish leaders and rabbis would testify to the innocence of the Shapira brothers of Slovita, they would be cleared.

One of those chosen was none other than Rav Pinchos Koretzer's prominent talmid, Rav Raphael of Bershad, who had inherited his rebbe's devotion to emes (truth) at any cost. People even nicknamed him “der Emesser.” It was said that he took such care never to say anything doubtful or possibly untrue that if it was raining and you asked him, once he came indoors, whether it was raining outside, he would answer, “When I was outside it was raining.” Perhaps it had stopped in the meantime, and he could not speak in the present tense about something he could not see.

This was the same elder chassid who had received the holy Baal Shem Tov's blessing for arichus yamim (long life). When he was asked to testify on behalf of Rav Pinchos Shapira, he did not know what to do. On the one hand, it was a matter of life and death and so fell under the heter of pikuach nefesh. On the other hand, although he was sure that Rav Pinchos was innocent and the libel a fabrication, he could not bring himself to declare with certainty that he had personally witnessed that innocence, when he had not.

At first he agreed to testify, but as the date drew near he began to daven: “Master of the World, I have never let a false word cross my lips, and I have never uttered a lie my entire life. I have never testified to a certainty that I cannot verify, nor have I ever resolved a doubt whose truth I did not know. Ribono Shel Olam, I plead with You, please take away the blessing of long life, so that I will not be forced to say something I did not witness.”

His prayers were answered. The very next day he passed away, and when his testimony was needed he was no longer among the living. Since his was one of the three testimonies, the whole arrangement fell through, and the Shapira brothers of Slovita were sentenced to torture and exile.

Rejoicing in Being a Jew

The Chabad chassid Rav Raphael Kohen heard this from his father, Rav Boruch 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 and heretic who knew enough halacha to use it against them. Driven by his hatred of everything Jewish, he filled the chamber pot and fouled the cell so that they could not say any holy words.

For a moment the grandsons of Rav Pinchos Koretzer were downcast. What would they do now? How could they daven? Suddenly one of them was struck by a thought: true, we cannot say Tehillim, but is that a reason for our spirits to fail? We must rejoice, for as Jews, this too is an avodah (service of Hashem). By holding back we are fulfilling the will of our Creator, so we must be b'simcha (joyful). And they began to dance in the prison, rejoicing in being Jews.

Not One Step Bareheaded

Rav Raphael Kohen related, as he heard from Rav Shmuel Gronem, that when the Shapira brothers of the Slovita press were about to run the gauntlet, the authorities feared that the first troop of soldiers had been bribed to give only soft, token blows. At the last minute they switched the troops and stripped the brothers bare, so that the blows fell with deadly cruelty.

In the midst of it, the yarmulke fell from one brother's head. He went back for it while the blows kept raining down on him, though anyone who ran quickly fared better. He chose to suffer rather than take even one step with his head uncovered.

Another tradition says that it was the younger brother whose head covering fell off. Bound by the ropes that led him through the lines, he could not pick it up, so he stood still. He accepted the Heavenly decree with love and paid no heed to the pain as the soldiers struck his motionless body. Only when someone put his head covering back did he agree to move on, and by the grace of Heaven he survived the ordeal.

When They Stopped Printing the Ohr HaChaim

The author of Migdal Oz heard from a Bershader chassid that Rav Pinchos Koretzer used to say that learning the sefer Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh is a segulah for the neshamah, like learning the holy Zohar. For Rashbi had the neshamah of the Moshiach of his generation, and Rav Chaim ben Attar, author of the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh, also had the neshamah of the Moshiach of his generation.

Rav Pinchos Koretzer instructed his descendants, the Shapira grandchildren of the Slovita press, to print the Ohr HaChaim, and said that this would save them from evil and harm. They did so until so many editions had been printed that copies far outnumbered buyers. So they stopped printing it, and in that very year the infamous libel came, and they were falsely accused.

The Niggun, the Havdalah Cup and the Evil Spirit

While the two Shapira brothers of Slovita were in prison, they were thrown into a cell with many other prisoners. The cell was so filthy that halacha forbade them to daven there. One brother said to the other, “Let us sing a niggun.” Their niggun lifted the spirits of all the prisoners, and before long everyone broke out in a dance.

When the warden and the guards saw this, they ordered the brothers separated from the other prisoners. As soon as they were in a cell of their own, they breathed a sigh of relief: here they could serve Hashem properly. One brother said to the other, “Now I understand the meaning of an amulet that the Baal Shem Tov once gave to a wealthy man who hosted him.”

He told the story. The Baal Shem Tov stayed with the wealthy man and did not say a word all Shabbos. On Motzaei Shabbos the man's wife asked the Baal Shem Tov to daven that they be blessed with children. The Baal Shem Tov made Havdalah and called the wealthy man to look into the cup. In its reflection he saw an evil spirit seeking to harm him, and on the spirit were written the letters yud-shin-beis, shin-beis.

“Until now I had no idea what this meant,” the brother said. “But now I think that perhaps it stands for Yehi shalom becheileich, shalvah be'armenosayich, ‘May there be peace within your walls, serenity within your palaces’ (Tehillim 122:7).”

Who Put the Yetzer Hara in Jail?

When the two Shapira brothers of Slovita, Rav Shmuel Avraham Abba and Rav Pinchos, were in prison, the warden came and told them that the terrible crime for which they were held called for a harsh sentence: their cell was to have no window. They were not allowed any light at all.

Hearing that they would be kept in a damp, dark, gloomy cell with no light or air, Rav Shmuel Abba was utterly downcast. Seeing this, his brother Rav Pinchos turned to him and said: “Why is the yetzer hara called an old and foolish king (Koheles 4:13, with Rashi)? Is he not wise? Does he not make fools of others? The truth is that he really is a fool. Look at us: we are in prison by decree of the Czar. But the yetzer hara, what is he doing here in prison with us? Who put him in jail?”

Rav Shmuel Abba understood: his sadness was the work of the yetzer hara, not of the warden's words. The moment he realized this, his calm and good spirits returned.

Angels Took the Blows

It is told that the holy tzaddik Rav Pinchos Koretzer brought it about that when his grandsons, the Shapira brothers of Slovita, were flogged, angels stood at their backs and received the blows.