Al Kiddush Hashem : A Purim Story
Velvel Chusid2011[First Person]
Raba and Reb Zeira ate the Purim feast together. Inebriated, Raba rose up and slaughtered Reb Zeira. (Megillah, 7b)
Reb Shloimele isn’t a rabbi, but he sits in the rabbi’s place at the shtibel I attend. Reb Shloimele is different, everyone knows, a character of a bygone era. Reb Shloimele loves God with all his heart and soul, and is always thanking God for all the good he’s done for him – even though, as they say, Reb Shlomele never had a good day in his life. As much as he loves God, he hates the modern world and its impurities. He longs for a world in which Godliness fills every corner. Sometimes, when I look at him, I think he should have been born during the Iron Age, when the world was pure, every stone and tree a God or Goddess – not in New York City c. 2011, with the Internet and Blackberries and movies and its many other sources of profanity.
Reb Shloimele wants to die “al Kiddush Hasham”, for the Holy One’s sake, as he always says. Dying al Kiddush Hashem is the highest level a Jew can reach, and one must always prepare and be ready for that moment. One who dies al Kiddush Hashem is seated closest to the shechina in heaven to bask in her sweet glory.
On Purim, late in the afternoon, Reb Shloimele sat at one of the tables in the shtibel, surrounded by drunken Chasidim, Reb Shloimele the drunkest of all.
“I declare to you all,” Reb Shloimele cried, “that I would rather spend my entire life deaf, mute, and paralyzed, rather than entertain a single thought against the will of the Almighty.”
He stood up, and raised one fist in the air while keeping a tight grip on his beard with the other.
“Are you all ready to die al Kiddush Hashem?!” he thundered.
“Yes!” The men cried in unison.
Reb Shloimele reached beneath the challah cover resting on the table, grabbed the large silver-handled knife and waved it in the air, his face red as a beet.
“ARE YOU READY?” he screamed.
The Chasidim around him now smiled warily, a little uncomfortable, but also a little excited.
I grabbed my cell phone and readied the built-in camera to capture the moment, although I knew having my fingers on the 9-1-1 buttons would be wiser. With my other hand I reached under the prayer leader’s lectern. I knew the shtibel had another knife there, used to slice bread at shalosh seudes. A line from a movie – one of the few I’ve managed to watch in my life – passed through my head: If I go down, I take that son of a bitch with me.
“If one doesn’t guard his eyes and his thoughts,” R’ Shloimele now chanted in a drunken sing-song, “he is not ready to die al Kidush Hashem. I am ready to die al Kidush Hashem!”
The men gasped as Reb Shloimele turned the knife towards his chest, and pressed the tip into the lapel of his bekishe. Mesmerized, we stood motionless around him.
All of a sudden, from behind him and to his right, a large Chasid lunged for the knife and grabbed it from Reb Shloimele’s hand. R’ Shloimele fell back into his chair, and sighed wearily. This was not the day he would die, glorifying God’s name with a jaded challah knife through his broad chest. It was just another drunken Purim at my local shtibel.
8 Responses
What a happy ending. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bWlzQLLVlA
Cute story. We know the concept of religious/cultic suicide, we hear such stories every now and then but I think there aren’t any recorded suicides in Jewish history. We know thousand died over the centuries al kidush hashem, they gave up thier lives rather then accepting Christianity, I don’t think we can call it suicide but hey maybe it was indeed suicide?
So you never heard of Massada?
Yossel I heard of Masada, I read Josephus’ Jewish war quite a lot. I would say the Masada suicide was more of a political nature and less religious. In the speech Ben Yair gave he spoke of the nobility of dying for freedom and the homeland rather then living as slaves for the Romans true he also motioned the sweetness of the souls after death, perhaps it was a combo of politics and cultism religion. The dynamics of Judaism was very different as that we know nowdays I think.
Velvel — I think Yossel was responding to Nachman.
But I think Nachman raises a good point was the death of thousands of men women and children over the centuries by Christians encouraged by the Rabbis was it a form of religious suicide? I’d say it was equivalent to soldiers going to die at wars they died defending values the fanatics were the Christan murderers not the dying Jews.
I think Yossel was responding to Nachman.
Yes I jumped in to keep the conversation going I’m Chasidic after all
Not one single thought against G-d? What a waste of the brain G-d gave him!!!