Weekly Story: Mishloach Monos with a Message

A boy was growing up in Crown Heights, and on Purim his father asked him to deliver his mishloach monos. As a dutiful son he replied, with pleasure, and his father gave him two packages to deliver. At one house the receiver invited him in and in addition to giving him a tip asked him to please take a package back to his father.

However, at the second house, something completely different happened. The receiver thanked him, gave him a sweet and closed the door. The young boy thought, perhaps this man sent his mishloach monos already and therefore didn’t give him any packages to bring home.

However, as the years passed and the same thing repeated itself again and again, the child started questioning it. One year after Purim, the young boy asked his father, “Father can you please explain me why you give these two people every year mishloach monos?

“Concerning one person, I understand it very well; both of you daven in the same shul. On any given Shabbos, either you are at his house or he comes to our house. Everyone knows the two of you are good friends from your childhood years in Communist Russia.

“However, the other person, doesn’t daven in our shul. And even on the occasions that he comes there for a simcha or some other reason, he never talks to you, he never sends a mishloach monos back, so father, why do you send him one every year?! I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I don’t see the two of you as friends.”

The father replied, “my dear son, there are certain things that a parent has to explain to a child and there are other things that a child has to obey, without questioning their parents. And this aspect, is one of them. I want to send the mishloach monos to him, knowing that he will not respond in kind, and I don’t expect anything back. If you don’t want to deliver it, I will get it delivered another way.”

“No No,” replied the boy. “I will definitely continue to deliver it. You are sending it and I am your son, so I will deliver it happily. I was just wondering about it. And if you don’t want to say, so be it.”

So the custom  of delivering to these two people continued for some more years. And then one year, the son who by now was a teenager, went to Russia, to work in one of the summer camps. How interesting this was, his father and so many other chassidim were harassed, and in fact arrested, for teaching others  about Judaism, and now he is doing it in the open. The light overcame the darkness.

When the camp season was over, he remained there for a while helping the local Shliach. One day, he went to the governmental offices, and after showing his documents, they gave him a copy of his father’s prison records. Being that he was fluent, not only in speaking Russian, but also in reading it, he read it with tremendous interest.

He was so proud of what his father accomplished as a young man. If only half of the accusations were true, that showed how much his father did to save other chassidim and spread yiddishkeit. However He was shocked and indeed horrified when he saw that one of the main informers against his father, was none other than this person that his father is sending mishloach monos to. No wonder that person never sent back and why they don’t speak together. But why did his father insist on giving him every Purim? Did his father know what this ‘friend’ did to him, causing him to be arrested and be imprisoned for some years?

Coming home, he waited for a relaxed moment and without saying that he read it, presented his father the complete file when his father was sitting by the kitchen table.

Looking at the front page, his father knew immediately what it was and requested his son to please bring his reading glasses from the dining room.

The son dutifully went to the dining room, and when he returned a mere fifteen seconds later, he noticed the entire file was in the sink on fire.

His father, then asked him to sit down and said. I told you years ago that it is not your concern. However, now that you read something that I asked you not to get involved in, I will explain it to you.

I knew who he was in Russia and it was for that specific reason that I decided to send him mishloach monos. you should know, he is not what you read. He was a wonderful person in Russia, a chossid in every aspect.

Then the KGB arrested him and tried to force him to become an informer. Notwithstanding their brutal and vicious beatings, he steadfastly refused. He will not inform on another Jew.

However, the government knew that he had a wealth of information, and one day when he came home, he noticed the house empty. On the table was a note, that his wife and children were arrested.

Rushing to the police station, to try to secure their freedom, the officers toyed with his emotions, sending him from desk to desk, from one office to another. Finally he was told the truth, his family is not in this building, they are being questioned in the infamous interrogation building.

Rushing over he was greeted by a smiling official, who said, we expected you would come, but you took too long, the interrogation has already begun. But come with me, maybe now that you are here we can interrupt it.

My dear son, can you imagine what pressure and thoughts enveloped him at that time. They then took him to a room where he saw his wife and oldest son tied to the wall, pain and suffering written all over their face. As soon as he entered a sign was made that the torture should stop momentarily.

The officer then turned to him and said cynically; your wife and son don’t have any valuable information for us to extract. However, you have and you have stubbornly refused to work with us. So now you have a choice, either you start singing and giving us the information we want, or we will resume punishing our enemies.

But instead of punishing you, we will make them suffer. So we will give you two minutes to decide, and then the fun begins. The first thing is tying those twenty pound weights to their hand for ten minutes, then we will tie their hands to the pole that is a foot over their heads for just a few minutes.

The man knew their tactics, he had endured them, but to witness his wife and son having to endure them was just too much. He knew of too many chassidim whose children were killed in front of their eyes because of this. After a few moments of agony and hearing their cries of pain, he broke and succumbed to the pressure. And signaled he would talk.

My dear son, I send him the mishloach monos every year to inform him that I forgive him with a complete heart. Yes I suffered and survived years of imprisonment in communist Russia, but that was before I married your mother and you were born, I was able to accept that torture, and he did too.

However, I don’t know if I would of been able to withstand seeing you or your mother being punished and beaten because of me. It is possible that I would have also succumbed to that pressure, so I forgive him fully.

Additionally, you should know, he also secretly warned us who the authorities were looking into, giving many individuals time to escape and save themselves. So now you know.