By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives
In the spring of 1939, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson was arrested for promoting Jewish observance in the Soviet Union.
After over a month of interrogation, solitary confinement, and torture, the rabbi was sentenced to five years of exile in Chili, a small village in Kazakhstan, two thousand miles from his home in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.
It was a very difficult time for the rabbi and his wife, Rebbetzin Chana, who followed him into exile. There were times when they had nothing to eat, even on Shabbos. Rebbetzin Chana recalled how her husband once said that on Shabbos, their hunger was satisfied by the day itself, “There is a spice we have, and its name is Shabbos” (Shabbos 119a).
Even in such circumstances, the couple made every effort to maintain the high level of observance they had in the comfort of home.
Once, Rebbetzin Chana walked a long way to bring a bucket of water for them to use. When she arrived home, she thought to herself, “Finally, we will have something to drink.”
The rabbi, however, had another reason to be happy. “Ah, finally,” he said, “we have water to wash our hands in the morning for netilas yadayim.”
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