FEET
about this exodus, and one of
the more moving tales was
told to me by a Karlin-Stoli-
ner Chasid who, when he'd
been asked to officiate as rab-
bi in the city of Lvov during
the High Holy Days, had no
idea how many people would
show up in this Ukraine city
where public prayer had been
forbidden for dozens of years.
Wildly optimistic, he brought
with him 200 prayer books
with Russian translations.
But to his complete amaze-
ment, he found the syna-
gogue packed, at least 2,500
people clinging to every
available space.
Determined not to lose this
opportunity, the visiting rab-
bi decided to tell the story of
Reb Levi Yitzhak Berdit-
chiver, how one Rosh
Hashanah in his synagogue
the shofar's blasts wouldn't
ascend to heaven. In the
meantime, a Polish-looking
peasant entered the shul. Ac-
tually he was Jewish, and
this New Year he had felt a
yearning to pray, but orphan-
ed at an early age, he was em-
barrassed because all he
knew was the aleph-bais. The
rabbi suggested that he recite
the letters he knew and at the
same time ask God to weave
them into the right words.
The peasant began to chant
and cry and pray with all his
strength, and before long Reb
Levi Yitzchak could sense a
shaking in the synagogue, the
earth-bound shofar blasts
were being lifted on the wings
of the man's aleph-bais.
A woman screamed out to
the Perestroika rabbi. "But
we don't even know the aleph-
bais." And so the rabbi said he
would teach it to them. Plac-
ing the tallit over his head, he
yelled out the letter aleph
and a chorus of voices
responded with a loud aleph.
With each letter, more and
more people joined in, and by
the time he got to tof, the
final letter, 2,500 roaring
voices had turned the repeti-
tion of the aleph-bais into one
of the most moving prayers
he'd ever been part of. His
own spirit had soared to such
heights he was convinced that
the aleph-bais of these simple
worshippers was as profound
as any service he'd ever
attended.
The Holocaust was a de-
structive invention. And then
the destruction ended. Our
fear is that although the
machine may have been brok-
en, somewhere the patent
still exists. Tragically, it is not
a baseless fear. But no matter
what happens, our covenant
with God is eternal. Doesn't
Exodus always follow Gene-
sis? ❑
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
49