Tefillin After 72 Years

Last week at the Western Wall, I asked an elderly man to put on tefillin. He strongly refused.

I asked him, "When was the last time you put on tefillin?"

He smiled and proudly said, "72 years ago!" He held out his arm to show me the fading tattooed numbers. "1938," he said. "It was the day of Kristallnacht. Do you know what Kristallnacht is?"

"Of course I do," I told him.

"267 synagogues were burned down in one night. They burned down our synagogue, too. My tefillin were burnt up, and I have never put them on again," he said.

"I have a friend who was in the camps, too," I quickly said, "and he not only puts on tefillin today, but he even put them on others inside the camp! Do you want to hear how he got tefillin into the camp?"

"Yes," he said strongly. "How did he get them in there?"

Laibel stuffed his tefillin into one boot and his prayer book in the other "His name is Laibel. Whenever he comes to Israel, he prays with our minyan at sunrise. He also has numbers tattooed on his arm. When we first met, he asked me, 'What do you do around here?' and I responded, 'I put tefillin on people here at the Western Wall.'

"'Oh yeah?' he said, 'Well, I put tefillin on people in the death camp.'

"I stared at him. There was nothing I could say. I was dumbfounded. I asked him, 'How did you get the tefillin in there?'

"He began his story. The Nazis had come to the ghetto and grabbed 137 young boys. He told me that only five of them survived. Only five.

"He was thirteen-and-a half years old. He was wearing the high boots that his father had bought him, and when he saw them coming, he stuffed his tefillin into one boot and his prayer book in the other.

"They pushed the boys into a cattle car and drove them to the death camp, not far from the ghetto. When the train stopped, they slid open the side of the cattle car and immediately began pushing them toward the open door of the gas chamber. The boys were frightened and cried out. They asked Laibel, 'What should we do?' He told them, 'We're going to stand in rows five across and we're going to march right into that gas chamber singing a song of faith, the Ani Ma'amin. And they did just that. They stood in rows five across and started singing and marching right into the chamber.

"The guards became so confused that they did not know what to do. They screamed, 'You can't do that! No one has ever done such a thing before. Stop it! Stop it at once! Here! Go over there to the showers instead!'

"They pushed them over to the showers and forced them to undress and throw their clothing into a pile in the middle of the floor. They made them empty their shoes, and the tefillin and prayer book fell out onto the pile.

"After the shower, when they were dressed in camp clothes and were being pushed out, past the pile of their clothes, Laibel saw his tefillin and prayer book lying there. He wanted so badly to run and pick them up, but terrifying guards were watching. He said to the boys, 'I did something for you, so now you do something for me.'

"'Whatever you want,' they said. 'You saved our lives.'

A guard came by and screamed, "Who said you could open that window?""He said, 'When I give the signal, start a fight and scream out loud. Okay… Now!' The boys started to fight and scream. The guards ran over and tried to pull them apart, but they wouldn't stop fighting. In the confusion, he ran over and grabbed his tefillin and prayer book and hid them under his arms.

"Later, he was in the barracks and wanted to put on the tefillin. He was able to put the arm piece on without anyone seeing by pulling his sleeve over it, but how could he put on the head piece? There were guards all over. He opened the window and stuck his head outside so he could put on the head piece. A guard came by and screamed, 'Who said you could open that window?' He told him that he was sick and throwing up, and if he made him close the window he would throw up inside, too. The guard left him. And he looked me in the eye and said, 'And I put tefillin on other men, too.' I started to cry and I kissed him on his yarmulke.

"The day after Laibel told me his story, there was a soldier at the Western Wall who wouldn't put on tefillin. No matter what I said, he simply refused. Then I told him Laibel's story, and he quickly said, 'Okay, I'll do it.'

"And you can do it, too," I said to the elderly gentleman who hadn't donned tefillin in 72 years, and I gently slid the tefillin I was holding onto his arm. He said the blessing and started to cry. We said the Shema, and he prayed for his family. He began to smile even while the tears were streaming down his face. A crowd gathered around and congratulated him on overcoming all those years of rejection.

You do not always succeed, but you always have to try.