It was close to midnight on a hot summer night in 1927 in Leningrad.
The previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson was having dinner with his family after a long session of private meetings with individuals seeking spiritual counseling, life guidance and a listening ear, known in Chabad as “Yechidus.” A squad of soviet police led by two agents of the Yevsektzia (the notorious ‘Jewish section’ of the GPU (forerunner of the KGB)) barged into the apartment.
As the leader of the Chabad movement since 1920 he developed and coordinated a massive network of underground Jewish education and infrastructure in direct defiance of the communists’ wishes to destroy all organized religious life in the Soviet Union.
The ruthless Yevsektzia was desperate to bring Jewish life to an end, and one week after Shavuot of 1927 they conducted a thorough midnight search of his apartment to uncover incriminating evidence of “anti-revolutionary activities” and placed him under arrest. He was supposed to face a firing squad that night, but miraculously the worst was averted and due to immense international pressure and many miracles, within a month, on the 12th of Tammuz, he was a free man.
The saga of the previous Rebbe’s arrest and liberation is fascinating and I urge you to read more about it here, but I would like to focus on a short episode that occurred on that evening 92 years ago as described in his diary.
They began their search in the room of my daughters, Chaya Mussia and Sheine, and asked them: “What party do you belong to?” “We belong to our father’s party,” they replied; “we are nonpartisan daughters of Israel. We are fond of the old ways of our Patriarch Israel, and detest the new aspirations.”
They displayed the type of pride every Jew ought to have. New trends and ideas do not intimidate us, no matter how much brute force or influence their adherents may wield. Torah is eternally true and does not bend to external forces.
The name of this week’s parsha “Naso” can be translated to mean “Lift up their heads.” The mandate for Moshe to inspire the Jewish people to be forever proud of the divine gift they received at Sinai and to march through history with heads held high.
This fierce pride is our badge of honor and the secret ingredient to our ability to survive under all circumstances, and it can only be nurtured through continuous Torah study and ever increasing Mitzvah observance.
While we are still under the influence of Shavuot and the commemoration of Sinai, find ways to nurture your Jewish pride and share it with family and friends so that we can all hold our heads higher and prouder until we fulfill our collective mission to make our world a divine dwelling, ushering in the era of redemption when peace and prosperity will reign for all.