Chossid Offered to Donate His Life

By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives

Rabbi Berel Junik was dedicated to assisting the Rebbe Rayatz and his family with anything that they needed. His children followed in their father’s footsteps, and with the great merit of helping the Rebbe‘s family came the opportunity to hear many stories.

One day, the Rebbe Rayatz’s daughter, Mrs. Chana Gurary, told Rabbi Shamshon Junik that after the passing of the Rebbe Rashab, the Rebbe Rayatz was very ill, and it was thought that his life was in danger.

During the war, with few chassidim around, the chassidim there pledged each a year of their own lives to the Rebbe, with a total of 30 years being given. In fact, she told Shamshon, the Rebbe Rayatz had lived approximately 30 years after his father’s death.

Upon hearing the story, Shamshon was inspired to give the Rebbe a year of his own life. Over the next few months, he contemplated this desire, and at one point, he wrote to the Rebbe about it.

To keep the details private, even from his aides, the Rebbe ripped his name off the page before responding. He wrote that while he appreciated the good intention, Shamshon should not involve himself in matters so totally unconnected with him.

“Every year, even every day, is precious,” to study Torah with vigor and rigor, the Rebbe wrote. If Shamshon used his time to the fullest, that “would be the true way of giving himself over to me.”

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