The Secret of Jewish Resilience

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi YY Jacobson’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

And you know my dearest friends, I'm going to begin with a a story. This is a story about a Jew who I was privileged to know many years ago. He was already an elderly Jew and he was in the gulag in the Russian gulag for more than 10 years. I already knew him in his older years in the 80s and in the 90s. He passed away I think 95. It was 1995. His name was Rebendel. Rib Mendel helped many Jewish Soviet Jews living in the Soviet Union get out of Russia after the Second World War. Stalin Yak Shamoy, the dictator of the Soviet Union, allowed Polish refugees who escaped into the Soviet Union, escaping Hitler's armies to go back to their native countries after the war. So many people seized opportunity and they forged passports and documents showing that they were Polish citizens and that's how they got out. It was an extremely dangerous task as you can imagine. And this Judah Mendel helped hundreds and hundreds of Jewish families flee the horrific lifestyle and the horrific persecution and oppression that existed in the Soviet Union. He was caught. His wife made it out. His son made it out. At the end, he was caught. And he was sent to the Gulag for more than a decade. slave labor in Siberia. Most people didn't survive Siberia. Between the cold, the illnesses, the malnutrition, the slave labor, the torture, most people didn't survive. Millions and millions died in the gulags of Joseph Stalin. But this Reb Mendel made it out. And he would share over the years stories, experiences, you know, when you're in Siberia for more than 10

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1. 0:00And you know my dearest friends, I'm going to begin with a a story. This is…
2. 5:44said because my primary career and vocation was not taken from me. They said what do…
3. 11:29later the doors opened up. They were in the Awitz Burkanal death camp. They were thrown…
4. 17:14was so frail. I simply could not take another step. And I gave up." And at…
5. 22:59understand. The lion sometimes crouches. The lion sometimes seems very docel, but it's not been conquered.…
6. 28:46I am not vertical. I'm horizontal. I'm lying low. I'm crouching. I'm laying flat on my…
7. 34:27looked like Purim wasra and the prison warden hears the commotion and he runs in and…
8. 40:05under all circumstances, I am never alone. I am never defeated. I am never destroyed. When…
9. 45:46Today in epigenetics we know that we inherit trauma of previous generations. Besides that, some of…
10. 51:23Observe them. And then you can choose to introduce other thoughts, other perspectives. And when you…

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