[Avodah] Vesamachta beChagecha

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

The following was posted in the Facebook group "Chareidim Yisraelim"
by a R' Tal Or. Translation from the Hebrew, mine.

-Micha

    Something I learned from the Admor of Seret-Vizhnitz [R' Eliezer
    Hager, Chaifa]:

    How can you be happy when the situation is difficult, and everything
    around us is black?

    As a young woman I was priviledged to have received an audience with
    him, an he sat and talked with me for about an hour. He saw that I
    was very upset about some matter, and although I did not say it in
    those words, he understood on his own that the matter overshadowed
    my joy of life.

    He therefore toldme something personal:

    On Simchas Torah, Nazis came to his town [Seret] in Romania, gathered
    the Jews, and put them on trins. It was already at an advanced stage
    of the war. In a cattle car, which had room for maybe 30 people,
    the Nazis crammed in 80 Jews. The suffocation was difficult, it was
    impossible to move, and ...

    "We knew exactly where they were taking us" said the Rebbe zt"l.
    "We already knew, it was not like the beginning of the war, when
    the Jews did not know. The train began to travel to Auschwitz,
    when we were packed inside without food or water, we decided that,
    since it is a day of Simchat Torah - we'll be happy! We knew where
    we were going and what awaits us, and we decided to rejoice.

    "One of the Jews found in his pocket a small siddur, raised it high,
    and we acted as though this siddur was a sefer Torah.

    "We sang and we did hakafos, danced in the train (!!!) and we were
    happy. We were truly happy."

    The Rebbe did not tell me what the take-away lesson was. I understood
    myself.

    In any state, a Jew can be happy!!! It's a matter of ... decision.