In uncertain times when the rebbe called the community together it meant some impending terrible event was coming. Who knows what it might mean? A pogrom with its rushing hordes of Cossacks moving with such ferocity that the ground itself shook in fear as the malevolent ones drew near?
Perhaps it was an edict that would send woman and children, grandparents and strangers scurrying to gather their belongings before the village was cleansed of its Jewish population?
It may be a new tax placed upon the community to pay for the local lord’s gambling debt. Who could guess the reason for the gathering?
People shuttered their shops, yeshiva students left their books and homes were abandoned as they ran to the shul to hear the announcement. Silently they filled the pews of the ancient synagogue to hear the news.
The rebbe mounted the bima at the front of the sanctuary, the place where the holy Torah were taken from the ark. His face radiant, Levi Yitschak shouted, “I have news, urgent news for you - there is a God in the world!”
What else is there? If there is God, what else truly matters?
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