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Forward-looking and enlightened parents saw
to it that their sons learned secular subjects as
well. For this purpose, children would go weekly
for an hour or two to a private tutor or to the
Talmud Torah. They paid particular attention to
writing and nice-looking penmanship.
I remember the first Hebrew teacher in
town, Mr. Lisyuk of blessed memory, who was
quite handsome an d had a nice disposition. He
came from Rozhishch. One of the books he used
was Spoken Hebrew by Krinsky, and also the
Bikkurim of Pinchas Shifman, afterward known
as Ben Sira.
The Problem of Military Conscription
When the boys grew and were approaching the
age of 18, everyone began worrying about how to
get them out of army service. The period of
service, or military work, as it was called in those
days, lasted three full years, sometimes more,
and the conscript was often sent to the farthest
reaches of Russia; soldiers received few leaves,
and given the state of transportation at that time,
it was almost impossible for them to visit home.
The estrangement from family, in a foreign
and often hostile environment, was therefore
lengthy, and on top of that the Jewish soldier was
likely to have to violate the Sabbath and holidays
and eat non-kosher food. It is no wonder then that
parents looked for all sorts of ways and excuses to
get their sons out of conscription, or at least to
shorten their terms of service as much as possible.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there
was still a very vivid memory of the decree of
Nicolai I in 1827, following which 12-year-old
boys were snatched from their parent's homes
and were sent to special military institutionsusually
in Siberia and the easternmost regionsto
prepare and train them from a young age to
become faithful soldiers to the tsar and his empire.
These conscripts, called "cantonists," served
over 25 years, tortured with all sorts of punishments
that their "educators" invented for them
to convince them to convert. There were many
stories about how they courageously withstood,
with unusual devotion, all these terrible trials
THE EARLY DAYS 55
without giving in.
I remember a house on our street, across
from that of Yakov Meyer Osnat (Pietrushka) to
which people used to point and say that in this
house the cruel "snatcher" Moyshe Helis lived.
And I also remember the cantonist Avromche,
who was a guest in our synagogue (the shtibl of
the Rizhiner Chasidim) for many months. I, at
the request of my departed mother, would
bring him food. When he felt like it, Avromche
wo uld tell us young children stories of the life
of the cantonists, and he would finish with a
Russian song about their days of trial and
tribulation that they sang to keep up their
spirits. All these stories and reminiscen ces
created an atmosphere of revulsion at serving
in the army.
Mortifications of the Flesh and Fistfights
One way to get out of the army was to lose so
much weight as to be under the minimum requirement.
This was achieved by many fast days
and little sleep. For this purpose those who had
been called up were organized into squads and
together they would organize "night shifts." They
passed the time in various games in the bet
midrash chosen for the purposeusually the
Kotsker shtibl. They also wandered around town
and through the marketplace at night and pulled
all sorts of pranks. For nourishment they munched
on sunflower seeds, and their basic food was a
few buckwheat rusks.
Through these mortifications they managed
to lose a lot of weight, became very weak, pale,
and their eyes bulged out of their heads. There
were also some who had themselves mutilated by
persons especially given to that task. The most
common blemish was a hernia, and the second
was pulling teeth. Some cut off their right forefingers
or mutilated themselves in other waysa
very dangerous practice that often led to permanent
disability. In addition to these methods, they
sought other, more sure waysbribing members
of the draft board.
The time for appearing at the draft board was
usually SeptemberOctober, after the harvest.
The number from all the surrounding villages
reached the hundreds and the call-up lasted sev-