Monday, day 1: After spending pretty much the whole day travelling, we stopped briefly at the kever of the Ropshitzer, then arrived in Lizhensk at a little after 11 PM. We davened Maariv together in the shul before heading off up the hill to the tziyun of Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk.
If I had to describe what the scene looked like in as few words as possible, I would use just one: Meron. The scene was strongly reminiscent of Meron on Lag Ba'omer, albeit on a much smaller scale. At the top of the hill is the ohel, with the path leading up to it lined with people collecting tzedaka for various causes, distributing candles, selling souvenir coins blessed by several venerable Rebbes, etc. The Ohel itself is so packed with people that I could not honestly testify in a court of law that my feet were touching the ground the entire time as I made (read: squeezed) my way to the kever itself. It's a sight to behold: people from all walks of life, all gathering at the tziyun of the holy Rebbe on the day of his yahrtzeit to pour out their hearts to our Father in Heaven, ad beg for a yeshuah in the merit of this great tzaddik.
At the bottom of the hill, once again similar to Meron, lots of evidence is visible that the Lizhensk Hachnassas Orchim organization is hard at work. From providing for the community the simple service of marking off the area until which kohanim are allowed to go, to providing buffet-style meals to thousands of people free of charge 24 hours a day, these people are amazing. The also distribute candles, have a crew of goyim keeping the place clean at all times - they even have a cellphone charging gemach.
Really, I kid you not. Near the "buffet", they have a bank of like two dozen different cellphone chargers plugged into two power strips taped back-to-back, with plug tips for almost every cellphone around. You just find the one that matches your phone and plug in, and you're ready to juice up.
Anyway, after Maariv, we were presented with a bit of a problem. The original plan was to leave Lizhensk at 3 AM for Lublin and sleep on the bus. However, these Eastern Europeans have some kind of irritating law (like most of their laws) that every bus must lay over for 9 hours at night. Even if you have a brand new driver, it doesn't help - to put things in lomdishe terms, "the issur is chal on the cheftza", meaning that the bus itself must "rest". If you can imagine.
So as a result, we would have no transportation until 8 AM the next morning, leaving us with a whole lot of hours to fill, with not much to do besides davening. And daven we did. We davened, we danced, some of us fell asleep in various hallways and corners of various rooms throughout the complex - eventually, morning came, and we all davened Shachris together at vasikin.
After Shachris, the Rosh Yeshiva went with a bunch of boys to go daven at the tziyun again one last time, this time as a minyan. We then ate breakfast at the Hachnassas Orchim's dining room, and packed up lunches using the supplies they provided us with. We then did one last rekidah, and headed back to the bus, shortly after 8 AM.
Tuesday, day 2: We left for Lublin with a new guide on board: a local Polish chap named Malek. Akiva stayed behind to conduct some kind of tour or something for another group in Lizhensk; he would be meeting us later that night.
We arrived in Lublin later in the morning, and went straight to the legendary Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin. The yeshiva is housed in a glorious yellow building that until recently was being used by some kind of nursing school or something, before some generous person or persons purchased it back for the Jewish people. It is now slowly being restored to its former glory.
At the yeshiva, we met up with the legendary Rabbi Hanoch Teller, who would be joining us as a tour guide for the next few days. Rabbi Teller began by first telling us a bit about the history of the yeshiva and of Rabbi Meir Shapiro, and the extraordinary caliber of the talmidim who learned there (an average farher covered between three and five HUNDRED blatt of Gemara by heart). We then went into the yeshiva itself, where we sat in the beis medrash and learned for a few minutes as a reminder of the great yeshiva that was once there, after which we sang and danced a little.
We then looked around at the rest of the building (there were some pictures and other exhibits in some of the rooms adjoining the beis medrash). After that, we went outside to pose for a group picture on the stairs, and then loaded the bus to head out for the Majdanek extermination camp. We were supposed to go to the cemetery in Lublin first, but the person whom we needed to unlock the gate could not be reached. So we went to Majdanek first, with Rabbi Teller as our guide.
It was a somber, emotional experience - especially when, crowded together like sardines in a tiny room near the gas chambers, the Rosh Yeshiva gave an emotional speech ending with him leading us in crying out "SHEMA YISROEL, HASHEM ELOKEINU HASHEM ECHAD!" and then singing the famous Ani Ma'amin sung in the gas chambers. It was one of the most emotional moments in my life.
We then went to the Lublin Jewish cemetery, where we davened at the kevarim of the Chozeh of Lublin, the Maharshal, the Ba'al Yerakos, and others.
Afterward, we left for Krakow. Upon arriving in Krakow at 11:30 PM, we ate supper and then checked into Hotel Galicia for the night.
Wednesday, day 3: We davened Shachris at the Rama's shul, ate breakfast, and then went to the cemetery. We davened at the kevarim of the Rama, the Tosfos Yom Tov, the Megaleh Amukos, Reb Hershele, the Bach, the Ma'or Veshamesh and others.
We left Krakow at noon, and arrived at Auschwitz at around 2:30 PM. We were at Auschwitz itself (the smaller camp, with the famous "Arbeit Macht Frei" gates) until about 4:15 PM; we then went a short distance away to Birkenau (also known as Auschwitz II), the much larger camp with the track leading directly into it, which was where most of the Jewish prisoners actually were.
I won't dwell much on the subject of Auschwitz, because like Majdanek, it is a very difficult and emotional topic for me to write about. I am sure you will understand. Besides, there is enough literature on the subject out there already as it is.
We finally left Auschwitz-Birkenau at around 6:15, and had supper at the nearby "Center for Dialogue" before leaving Poland for good. We arrive in Bratislava (also known as Pressburg), Slovakia, at around 2:00 AM, and check into Hotel Turist (yes, that's how they spell it) for the night.
Thursday, day 4: After a brief shiur from the Rosh Yeshiva in the hotel dining room, we leave for the Pressburg Jewish cemetery. The cemetery was actually once a large one, but only a small part of it remains, in an underground sort of manmade "cave". We davened at the kevarim of the of the Chasam Sofer and the other tzadikim buried there, including R' Meshulam Igra. We left just before noon, and headed for Vienna, Austria.
Once we arrived in Vienna, we pretty much abandoned the bus and went on a "walking tour" of Vienna. Our destinations included: davening Mincha at the Ohel Moshe shul, shopping at the Kosherland supermarket, eating lunch at the "Milk & Honey" restaurant, a statue depicting Aharon Hakohein making peace between people, a memorial to the Austrian Jews killed in the Holocaust, the Judenplatz Museum (a small museum about Vienna's oldest shul), the Schonbrunn Palace (we didn't actually get in due to the late hour, but we did see the entrance, for what it's worth), the place where Hitler yemach shemo held his first rally, and the only shul in Vienna that survived Kristallnacht. We then boarded the bus and headed toward the Czech Republic.
Friday, day 5: Ah, Praha. Or as we call it, Prague. Home of the Maharal, the Kli Yakar, the Nodeh B'yehudah, and many others. This is where we will be spending Shabbos. Not in a hotel, but in a bunch of small rental apartments, so that we could be closer to the Jewish part of town.
We woke up at a little after eight, and went to daven at the "Hoich Shul" (however you spell that), so named because it is, well, hoich (meaning "high" or "tall"). We then had breakfast downstairs in some kind of dining room/auditorium/whatever. During breakfast, Yaakov Schwab (our contact here in Prague) announced that the table full of rolls and other eatables (is that a real word?) was for us to pack up our own lunches for the day.
After breakfast, we went with another guide to the nearby Meisels Shul, which has been converted into a museum. During our tour, when we got to the area of the aron kodesh, Akiva suddenly called for quiet. He announced to the museum at large (whoever cared to listen) that this was once our synagogue, that we are sad that it has been turned into a museum, and that we would now say a small prayer to "rekindle the spirit and holiness" of the synagogue. He then led us in saying Shir L'maalos, after which someone said kaddish, and we then sang "Uvney Yerushalayim".
After leaving the shul/museum, we came to one of the bridges that span the Danube to wait for our bus to pick us up. Our bus finally came... an hour-and-a-half late. You know what took so long? I'll tell you... trust me, you can't make up something this good.
You see, when we were trying to find our first stop in Vienna on Thursday, Akiva borrowed the bus driver's portable GPS unit, and we set out to find the Ohel Moshe shul on foot. To make things a little easier, Akiva set the GPS on "bicycle mode" so that it shouldn't drive us crazy with one-way streets and the like.
Now, when he returned the GPS to the driver later, no one remembered to change the GPS from "teeny weeny bicycle mode" back to "jumbo humongo beluga-whale-sized bus mode". And as a direct result, the bus (trying to find us) turned into a street that was roughly the width of a standard sized no. 8 rubber band. Needless to say, he could not go forward, and needed the help of several cops to get back out. Adding insult to injury (or in this case, stupidity), the cops fined the driver 200 Czech crowns, which is astonishing, considering that in Amercian dollars that's only ten bucks. That's right. Just ten bucks for going up the wrong street! Let's see you try to get away with that with the NYPD.
Anyway, we finally reclaimed our precious bus and set about the important task of defrosting our frozen fingers and toes. This did not prove to difficult, though, since to pass the time while waiting for the bus, we had started an impromptu leibedige kumzitz, complete with dancing and all. But while doing whatever defrosting was needed, we drove to the cemetery where the Nodah B'yehudah is buried. Unfortunately, we did not merit to get to the actual kever, because the cemetery gates were already locked. We were told not to scale the fence because that would jeopardize our tour guide's job, so instead we just said some tehillim outside the gates as close as we could get.
When we finished, we got back on the bus and headed for the Pinkus shul, which borders on the cemetery where many of the gedolim of Prague are buried (I'll get to that in a minute). We walked through the Pinkus shul, whose walls are inscribed with thousands of small words. Our guide explained to us that these were the names and other particulars of every Jew that they (the people designing the memorial) knew about that was deported by the Germans. The aron kodesh itself had the names of all the concentration camps inscribed on either side of it.
We then went out into the cemetery adjoining the shul, where many great people are buried: the Maharal, the Kli Yakar, R' Baruch (I think that's his first name) Meisels - the mayor of Prague who built the aforementioned Meisels Shul - and quite a few others.
After leaving the cemetery, we went to one more quick indoor exhibit of artifacts related to Prague's ancient chevra kadisha, and then it was time to head back to our apartments.
Now, here's the fun part: at some point the night before, Akiva decided that we couldn't have a Shabbos without a decent heimishe cholent. So he asked those of us staying in the same apartment as him if we'd be willing to chip in as much as would be necessary to make it happen. We said fine, although most of us figured it was just a pipe dream.
But Akiva, as it turns out, is a man of action. He is not to be underestimated. Friday afternoon, after we finished our tour, he and one or two boys hit the local stores and bought everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. They bought pots (yes, plural - Akiva decided to make TWO cholents), knives, peelers, potatoes, beans, kosher meat and chicken, barley, soy sauce, spices - you name it. Someone took the kitchenware to the local mikva to be toiveled, and then the action began. Potatoes were peeled, beans were checked, and before you knew it, we had two full pots of cholent cooking merrily away.
So now, Shabbos is coming, and we have our cholent, no less. I can't wait to see how this Shabbos turns out...
Shabbos, day 6: Shabbos in Prague. Ah... How can I describe it? Well, for starters, I'll begin by saying it was one of the most uplifting Shabbosim in my life. Let me tell you a bit about it.
We started out Shabbos davening in the shul of the Maharal, the Altneu (literally, "old-new") Shul. The Altneu shul's usual crowd is quite small, and probably not too loud or lively on an average Shabbos - probably like 20 people or less. But we were apparently going to change that...
My first clue that this was going to be no ordinary Shabbos came even before Lecha Dodi (which is usually when the singing starts, if any). They were mechabed the rosh yeshiva to daven for the amud, and before going up, he passed on the message that we should liven things up a bit, that it was time to bring a little simchas Shabbos to this community. And so, when we reached "Mizmor L'dovid", all of us burst thunderously into song, much to the surprise of the locals, singing Carlebach's version of the psalm. The locals seemed stunned for a moment, then joined our singing and dancing in circle all around the shul. This scene repeated itself several times throughout davening, and the locals seemed overjoyed to have this exciting change from their ordinarily dull routine. One of them even went so far as to tell one of us that seeing us gave him the chizuk to live the whole next year!
After davening we headed over to the nearby Dinitz restaurant for a delicious seudah, but not before snagging ourselves some guests - a couple of not-entirely-religious guys named Yuri and Roman. Yuri is studying in some kind of university in Prague, and Roman was visiting him. They came along with us to the restaurant, never suspecting the awesome experience they were about to have.
We made kiddush and washed, and then the singing began. The singing seems to be the heart and soul of any major meal in our yeshiva, and this one topped the charts. Throughout the meal we sang song after song, frequently getting up to dance or just to shake back and forth to the beat. The achdus was tangible as we all swayed back and forth together, singing songs of Shabbos. At one point, Roman said to Yuri: "I wish every Shabbos would be as great as this one!", to which Yuri answered "yeah, we need to go to America, or Israel, TOMORROW!". I'm not kidding. This kiddush Hashem really happened.
But what really took the cake was when random passerby started popping on to check what was going on. I kid you not. Random Jews, religious or not, started coming into the restaurant to find out where all the lively singing was coming from! Of course, each time we invited them to take off their coats and join us for a lechayim and some singing.
All in all, it was a meal to remember, enjoyed immensely by all. Gabi, the Israeli guy who runs the place, said that since they opened the restaurant they had never had such a wonderful and exciting group for Shabbos.
After the meal, we headed back to our apartments. Many boys went to sleep, but in our apartment we had an oneg Shabbos consisting of nosh and Akiva's cholent. Is was actually quite good, especially considering how short a time it had been cooking for.
Shabbos morning was pretty much the same as the night before: we davened at the Altneu shul, and then had another lively seudah at Dinitz. Having enjoyed the night before so much, Yuri and Roman joined us once again.
After the seudah, we went for a walk with Akiva through Prague. We walked halfway across the Charles bridge, and saw the "Kadosh Kadosh Cross" - I'm a little hazy on the details, but apparently a Jew was forced to build a cross with Hashem's name on it as punishment for not wanting to pay the bridge toll collected by the church. Or something like that.
We then backtracked across the bridge, and went to find a statue of the Maharal. We wandered around in circles looking for it, although we did come across a street musician playing some kind of weird instrument that looked like a cross between an accordion and a crank-operated pencil sharpener (yeah, don't ask). We eventually found the statue, which depicted the Maharal flanked by a woman and a dog. This was done because allegedly the Satan came to the Maharal on two occasions, once disguised as a woman and the other time as a dog. (If you can verify, clarify, or dispute this, please email me at theshadowblogger@gmail.com, or post a comment below. Thank you.)
We finally headed back to our part of town, where I managed to catch a quick nap before mincha. Mincha was once again at the Altneu Shul, after which we joined the kehilla for seudah shlishis in the JCC auditorium. The kehilla members sat on one side of the room, and we sat on the other. We ate, and sang some songs. The rabbi then gave an emotional speech about how much our visit meant to them, after which the rosh yeshiva told us to sing one more song before benching, this time dancing together with the locals in middle of the auditorium.
We then went to daven Maariv and hear havdalah at the Altneu shul, and then went back to our apartments to pack up our stuff, and shower for the last time before we would return to Israel. We then rendezvoused (is that a real word?) with the bus, dumped our stuff onto it, and then headed back to the Danube for a boat ride. We were joined by... You guessed it: Yuri and Roman! I think they really like us.
We got onto our boat, and we each got one drink of our choice. We sat around on the enclosed lower deck and chilled out for a while, then went upstairs to the open-air upper deck for a beautiful kumzitz, accompanied by guitar.
When the boat returned to the dock, we parted ways with Yuri and Roman, trading contact information and promising to keep in touch. Roman, in particular, said he would be visiting Israel in a few months, and he would definitely look us up.
We then boarded the bus, and headed out on our final long ride: from Prague, Czech Republic, through Slovakia, all the way to Budapest, Hungary, which will be our last stop on this trip.
Sunday, day 7: We spent the day in and around Budapest. We toured the various sites of the city, including lots of famous buildings and the Heroes Square. We also went for a boat ride on the Danube river (no Yuri and Roman this time, unfortunately).
We had a delicious three-course supper at the Carmel restaurant, and then went to the Budapest Intercontinental (yes, there really is an Intercontinental Hotel in Budapest, believe it or not) to hear Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis speak, which turned out to be arguably the highlight of our day.
After that, we boarded the bus for the final time: to head back to the airport. Akiva would not be accompanying us back to Israel; he was flying to Uman to direct a tour group there.
Goodbye, Eastern Europe!
This article has been an edited composite of several posts from Moishe Paskesz's blog at http://palmmp3.blogspot.com
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