"I Was Blessed with a Child with a Unique Soul. He Completed His Mission in Half an Hour and Returned to the World of Truth"

We should aspire to be "wholehearted with Hashem," to genuinely accept and believe that everything is from Hashem and for the best. Additionally, we should not "investigate the future" – not to worry about what will happen tomorrow but rather do what is required of us and trust that the Creator of the world will arrange everything in the best way possible.

Everyone has stories about times they were worried about the future, and ultimately Hashem arranged things beautifully. When a Jew investigates the future, whether by being overly involved in politics or excessively worried about world matters, or by striving too hard in business and being overly concerned about tomorrow, they deviate from the required level of innocence.

Moreover, in our times, with so many trials, those who worry about tomorrow might indeed go mad. Everyone has their own life challenges – health issues, financial struggles, educational challenges, and family peace issues. Additionally, there is the fear of wars and the unstable security situation worldwide. A Jew who lives with trust uses every challenge to deepen their connection with Hashem through prayer and faith.

The only concern that should bother us is how not to worry. Calming ourselves constantly with faith and trust in the Creator of the world and cultivating the work of "being wholehearted." To be like that baby resting in his mother's embrace. This is the only thing that can provide us with true tranquility. Everything else is but falsehood and vanity. Living wholeheartedly invites us divine assistance, miracles, and salvations!

Rabbi Tauber shares about his parents who went through the horrific Holocaust but never abandoned their simple faith for a moment, living a life of strong faith in Hashem, without any doubt at all.

Before World War II, Rabbi Tauber and his family lived in Pressburg. Rabbi Tauber is the eldest in the family, born before the war. The Germans occupied their state in 1940 and started sending trains to Auschwitz. They continued living in Czechoslovakia under extremely harsh conditions until 1942. That year, they fled to Hungary, hoping to escape the terrible decrees that had befallen the Jews. However, to their disappointment, in 1944, the Germans also occupied Hungary. During those years, three more brothers were born to Rabbi Tauber, all of whom are alive today by Hashem's grace, and who are distinguished Torah scholars.

One Shabbat night, they were caught, and the Germans transferred most of them to Auschwitz. His mother was then in the advanced stages of expecting his sister.

Many couldn't understand – how can they still bring children into the world now?!

When people wondered and asked her, "How can you strive for and bring more children in these difficult days?"

She would always answer with one sentence, "We are Jews, and we must do what is required and commanded of us, and Hashem will do whatever He chooses to do."

Thus, she lived her faith simply, the feeling of "being wholehearted with Hashem your God," even in times of trouble. She did not ask questions and did not worry about what might be. She continued to expand the borders of the family and brought more children into the world. Indeed, Rabbi Tauber’s mother, by Hashem's mercy, saw salvation and was saved from the jaws of evil at the camps in Auschwitz, and miraculously, it was her special condition that saved her (though the baby perished). When she arrived at the work camp in Auschwitz, Dr. Mengele assigned her to an experiment to speed up childbirth. After birth, they took the baby away, but the mother used the moment to escape the barracks. Her sister-in-law, who met her, brought her into her barrack and hid her between the bunks, saving her life...

Rabbi Tauber's parents rarely spoke about what they had been through after the war. However, he asked them several times out of his own initiative what their feelings had been during those dreadful days. He wanted to know this so he could teach future generations about their firm outlook that helped them survive and gave them the strength to deal with their most difficult situations. Once, he asked his mother: "Mother, did you truly believe we would survive after the war, and during the war, you expanded the family with the birth of four more children? Where did you find the strength to bring children into the world and care for them, while every Jew was preoccupied with obtaining food and saving their life from the Nazis' claws?"

His righteous mother answered with her wisdom: "We are Jews, we believe in the resurrection of the dead, a child is not just a child in this world, your child is yours forever! I fulfilled my part of the partnership, as there are three partners in man: his father, his mother, and Hashem. I trusted Hashem to fulfill His part in the best way, and whatever He does will be the best."

Thus, Rabbi Tauber grew up in the home of his parents. He instilled this worldview in his children. He recounts that he delightedly observes that they have also deeply internalized it. One of his sons was expecting the birth of his third son. Everyone was awaiting the good news of his birth. That morning, his son called him and said, "Father, I have good news!" To his question about what was born, his son replied, "Father, a child with a high and unique soul was born to me. He accomplished in half an hour in this world what others achieve in ninety years. He completed his mission and returned to the world of truth..."

This is the Torah's perspective! This is the true outlook, as the holy Rashi says: "Accept whatever comes upon you with simplicity." This is the Jewish mission on earth.

Rabbi Tauber's father, of blessed memory, was also a unique Jewish figure. He was a Jew whose faith never wavered as long as there was a breath of life in him. Throughout the hardships he faced, he never deviated from his simple faith even by a hair's breadth. When caught by the Nazis, it seemed as though all was lost. Yet his father, who never lost his trust in Hashem, escaped in mid-journey, miraculously finding them later. He gathered them, his four children, as well as two young aunts, and thus they escaped. They hid in Budapest, disguised as non-Jews. The younger siblings knew nothing of their Jewish heritage.

Only his firstborn son, Rabbi Tauber, was entrusted by the father with the secret: "We are Jews!" He stayed with his father in their third-floor apartment and lived through the calamities of the underground with him. His father could not bear staying in crowded shelters, as it posed a trap for observing mitzvot due to his extreme caution from the fear of transgression. They only left the small children in the shelter, since they were unaware of being Jewish and there was no fear of them giving themselves away.

During Chanukah of 1944, a bomb fell on their building, and they were miraculously saved, but their apartment was destroyed, forcing them to go down to the shelter. There was terrible overcrowding; many non-Jews lived there, laying very close to one another, but they had no choice. When the first morning in the shelter dawned, his father came up with an idea. He covered himself with a blanket, and under the cover, he put on tefillin and prayed, this was truly an act of remarkable self-sacrifice, occurring each morning.

Every day, his father would call him under the blanket to pray with him. It was extremely risky. The non-Jews thought they were sleeping, but they were very close, making this act very dangerous. His father was undeterred. They prayed every day. On the holy Shabbat, he would teach him about Shabbat and its holiness, constantly reminding him that he was Jewish and must wholeheartedly uphold the mitzvot of Shabbat. His father always feared that he might die and there would be no one to teach his children Torah.

One day, there were very heavy shellings. His father was then on the shelter stairs. From the force of the shelling, he fell to the ground from the height of the stairway, losing consciousness, may Hashem have mercy. They laid him on his bed, and slowly his consciousness returned. After a few moments, he called Rabbi Tauber to come into bed, as he did every day intending to pray together. His father said to him: I called you because I want to give you my last will and testament... He was then a six-year-old child, and this scene was deeply engraved in his heart. This vision stands before him as if it happened today, and he shivers at it, just as he did in those moments of terror under the blanket.

And thus, were the father's moving words: "My dear son, I am going to die; my strength is leaving me. Your mother will probably no longer be with you (his father knew that those who went to the camps in a condition like his mother's did not return. He never imagined that the mother was alive), but do not worry. Hashem is the Father of orphans, and He will watch over you. Be strong. The war will soon end, and the Messiah will arrive. You must watch over your three younger brothers and tell them they are Jewish. Here are their Jewish names..." And his father told him the names of his brothers: Yitzchak Tzvi, Abba Chiya, Yechiel.

Rabbi Tauber shares: "To this day, I am amazed and thrilled by my father's pure faith, blessed be his memory. A young Jew, striving to observe mitzvot amid the terrifying conditions of war and underground life, and when the moment arrives when he thinks his end has come, he does not resent or ask questions. It is clear to him that this is Hashem's will. He does not lament the future orphanhood of his four small children but encourages them, reiterating the fact of their Jewish identity and ensuring them that Hashem will protect them from all harm. His heart is at peace, leaving them in the faithful hands of the Creator, blessed be He. This is faith! Acceptance and agreement to everything that happens without asking questions. This is living simply and completely according to the verse: 'Walk with Him in simplicity.'"

"Many plans are in a man's heart, but Hashem's counsel will prevail." Rabbi Tauber's father survived the war, and his mother also returned by Hashem's grace from Auschwitz. The family was reunited, which was a miracle in itself, one that happened once in several tens of thousands. His parents had an additional five children after the war, and today, all of them are blessed with families of learned scholars, grandparents, and grandmothers, thank God.

All of this came from the strength of the parents who lived powerfully "wholehearted with Hashem your God..." By such supernatural conduct, they were blessed with wondrous and supernatural divine assistance.

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