... when Reb Shlomo went to Russia it was Simchat Torah (Holiday of the Joy of the Torah).
Dictators rule by taking the JOY out of LIFE! These communists were not going to allow someone to stir up resistance – or JOY! They were no fools.
Everywhere someone was watching to see what the Jews of Moscow were going to do that holiday. And yet here a chubby Rabbi had gotten away from them! How could they have missed him? So they went after him – just like in my dream.
Every few blocks, though, as they walked quietly, a couple more students and Jewish Refuseniks snuck into the purposeful group. The word was out: the Dancing Rabbi (Rebbe Hameraked, as he was called in Israel) was here to be with them! These young Jews were afraid to enter a synagogue. So why were they not afraid to "grab" the Rabbi away from the Communists, and accompany Reb Shlomo on his walk to Shul?
Everyone wanted a word with the Rabbi who braved the Cold War to visit them! Each one tried to get his attention with a few words of broken English – or Hebrew! In the West we heard that the young people would sometimes congregate outside the main Moscow synagogue. They might even dance a little – but they would never go in.
...
Some of the young people with Rabbi C. that night looked around and also looked up from the street - every couple of minutes. Uh Oh!
Who were those people watching from the rooftops? Were they checking to see who might dare enter the Moscow synagogue where the group was headed? Were they taking pictures of "dissidents"? Or was it worse? Who knows what goes on in Russia or China or North Korea. Even in Argentina I am told "people sometimes disappear".
At one point Reb Shlomo looked up too. He saw soldiers on the rooftops. There were weapons pointing at the little group. The soldiers were watching THEM.
"Everyone knows, Everyone Knows" Reb Shlomo used to say sometimes. "Everyone knows, Everyone Knows:" that crowds were not allowed under communism unless "approved"- that is - approved "by the (Communist) party".
This little walk to shul was an unauthorized procession and a dangerous gathering – and a provocation! There were all sorts of reasons for the Soviet authorities to detain people. That's the main reason most Russian Jews would never dare to set foot in a synagogue or even talk about being Jewish in public. Why get accused, arrested, abused or - sent away? That night was different, Rabbi Carlebach told us. Maybe it was the spirit of Simchat Torah? Maybe it was Love of Israel?
Young Jews were already outside the synagogue. They believed their fate was with the Land and People of Israel. Some times they’d gather outside local synagogues, to meet and to support one another, and maybe to learn a little Hebrew?
This small group walking with Rabbi C. down below the spying roofs risked the soldiers' scrutiny or maybe worse, just to hear a few words from a great man like Reb Shlomo. No one knew what might happen if they stayed with him after spotting the soldiers. Still, nobody left the group. And then something happened.
Reb Shlomo stopped in his tracks – and everyone stopped with him. He looked up at the angry faces of the soldiers. "Why are they angry?" he thought to himself.
Everyone with him looked up too, but in trepidation. Then, still looking up, Reb Shlomo broke into a big smile! He turned his head from side to side – smiling up! He smiled at them from one side of the street to the other side's rooftops. AND WHAT A SMILE HE ALWAYS HAD. His smile was ALWAYS a beam of LIGHT!
The soldiers looked back down from the rooftops in amazement. Then Reb Shlomo waved to the soldiers! Smiling and waving were not in their script, or their orders.
The soldiers' frowns melted in a minute! They smiled back to him, and waved back!
Still unsure of themselves, the students with Reb Shlomo also started to wave and smile to the young Russian soldiers up on the rooftops.
Then the soldiers smiled and waved back to them too! And after a minute the soldiers put their guns down and they just kept waving and smiling! After all – they were the same age as the group on the street. They all had the same backgrounds in Mother Russia, so why point guns?
Weren't they all ONE?
Aren't we all "One" – the unity of all with G-d? Isn't that the reason we are all here – and the greatest challenge to us and all mankind – to be together with each other?
After some moments the group went on walking to meet others who were already outside the Great Moscow Synagogue. And they danced and sang outside that synagogue for hours.
