About 50 Israeli citizens and another 350 Jews are besieged in the town of Haditch in Ukraine in the area of the tomb of the Alter Rebbe. The town is halfway between Kharkiv and Kiev, an area where fierce fighting has been taking place in recent days between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
As of Monday morning, the town is in the midst of a fierce battle between Ukrainian forces and the Russian army. Dozens of tanks passed near the gravesite. In the area are numbers that the first Russian tank to arrive fell into the creek, after boarding a wooden bridge, and other tanks got stuck without fuel. The Ukrainians circulated shocking images of the bodies of Russian soldiers lying in the fields.
Haditch regularly has 8 Jewish families and also has a Chabad yeshiva, but now there are 2 families in the city – the Rosh Yeshiva’s family and the yeshiva Mashgiach’s family – along with 5 bochurim, who can no longer escape because all access roads to the city are blocked. There are now another 203 Jewish families in the 7 cities and small villages within 100 km of Haditch, who are being assisted by the Chabad Center.
Rabbi Shneur Zalman Deitch, Chabad Shliach in Haditch, has not slept for two days. He says that within a day or two all the food in the area will run out, and there is a fear that the locals will raid the synagogue, which receives thousands of tourists, Jews and non-Jews, each year.
Rabbi Deitch and his family traveled to Israel last week due to a Simcha, and were scheduled to return to Haditch Wednesday. All they can do now is assist remotely.
“The town has been closed for two days. The civilians are personally going out into the fields to fight the Russians,” Deitch said. “Unfortunately, the Jews in the compound did not have time to leave. I left them with locals, with weapons to guard. The fear on the roads is greater than staying in a relatively safe place, so they have not evacuated. I am very afraid that something terrible will happen here later.”
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From what you said about what happened to the invading russians and their tanks it is obvious you are under special protection. Nothing is by chance we learn in chassidus. Goyim can not go beyond the will of hashem. Their free will is 50 50. Read chapter 24 of tanya where it speaks of bilaam not being able to go beyond the will of hashem. This was the answer i received from the rebbe when i asked if goyim have free will. So trust in the merit of the baal ha tanya to protect you
You and everyone around you should see big nissim and Hashem should protect all who are going through this heart wrenching time.
Maybe it’s time that chabad makes peace within and stops the senseless fighting among ourselves! How can we ask the world to be at Peace when we still need to work on ourselves.
Let’s make Peace for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine and around the world !