For our family, we need look no further than our grandparents, Zaidy Elchonon Hy’d and Bubby Maryashe*, z’l. Our grandparents grew up in Russia in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s when pogroms and anti-Semitism were rampant. Then came communism and Russia became an unbearable place for Jewish people committed to their heritage.
This did not stop our grandparents from leading a Torah-true Jewish life and raising their six children in this path. With tremendous self-sacrifice, they weathered whatever storms came their way, and lovingly taught their children to believe in G-d and know right from wrong. They taught them respect, love and awe of G-d, respect for parents, and total commitment to the Torah and mitzvot.
The Torah, G-d’s wisdom, is eternal, a gift to the Jewish people. Understanding the risks involved did not deter them from the urgency of their responsibilities as Jewish parents.
When Zaidy Elchonon was arrested, Bubby Maryashe continued to encourage her children.“They can take all our physical possessions,” she told her children, “But they cannot take our spirit!” With this motto, she continued to perform all the mitzvot for which her husband had been taken from them.When the children would cry at night, she would tell them, “They (the communists) will be gone and one day you will be free and have so much food to eat!”
One Friday, as she prepared to light the Shabbat candles, she noticed that her children were sad and forlorn. They missed their loving father terribly as there had been no word about his whereabouts. Bubby Maryashe was determined to raise her children’s spirits. After lighting the candles, she took their small hands, and lifted them up swirling around in a circle. She sang Shabbat songs with them.“On Shabbos we need to be happy,” she told them. “Let’s continue to sing and dance and feel the Shabbos spirit in our souls.”
Her family and others thought that Maryashe had lost her mind, G-d forbid. How could someone be happy and singing, living in poverty, and raising her children on her own, not even knowing her husband’s whereabouts. Years later, some of her family who left Russian remarked, “Now we see that Maryashe was the smart one!”
Maryashe and her children miraculously all left Russia. The children married (some in Russia, like my mother z’l), and settled down in their respective countries. Maryashe resettled in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York, where she continued to sing and look for ways to help others. She was known as the ‘Tzedakah lady’ because of her acts of kindness and collecting charity for Jewish children to learn Torah. At the time of her passing, at the ripe old age of 106 (in 2007), Bubby Maryashe had over 600 descendants, thank G-d, all following in the footsteps of their dear father Hy’d continuing to be links in the long chain of Judaism!
Today, once again, there are those who wish to destroy our bodies and our spirit, G-d forbid. The darkness and evil they have perpetrated will soon be gone, G-d willing and we will, once again, be victorious. Because LIGHT REPELS DARKNESS! Today, we are called upon to Light Up the World with Mitzvot. We can take a lesson from Bubby Maryashe. When life seems unbearable and there is darkness in the world, turn on a light by committing to a mitzvah and do it with joy. For every mitzvah is a LIGHT!
Please help Light Up the World by increasing in Torah, Prayer, and Charity. (The 3 – T T T – Torah, Tefillah, and Tzedakah, the three pillars upon which the world stands) – our Jewish spiritual ammunition will surely transform the darkness in the world to LIGHT!
Please be an ambassador and encourage others to do more mitzvot as each mitzvah is a source of LIGHT! Men and boys over the age of 13 put on Tefillin daily; Women and girls, from approximately age 3, LIGHT the candles 18 minutes before sunset on Friday in honor of Shabbat. Pass this on to someone else and help light another person’s candle. Together, we will win this war, and the light of the Shabbat candles will reach every corner of the world.
Melava Malka Stories 