Trials and Triumphs: The Jewish Historian Who Recorded Atrocities

We are still reeling from the horrific tragedy our community experienced this past Simchat Torah. In this moment, the importance of documentation becomes clear—recording the atrocities committed by those who harbor hatred for Jews, as well as the bravery of our brothers and sisters who sacrificed everything to save others and protect their families.

Rabbi Nathan Neta Hanover was born in Ostrorog, the city of the Maharsha, in the late 17th century. He was a rabbi, a kabbalist, and a linguist who engaged in many scholarly pursuits. Yet, the dreadful decree of the pogroms known as Tach and Tat forced upon him another tragic role: historian.

Rabbi Hanover stands as the sole historian to have meticulously chronicled these events from the Jewish perspective in his work "Yeven Mezulah."

The Tach and Tat pogroms were a coordinated attack by Cossacks on Jewish communities in Poland. The rebel leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, aimed to revolt against the Polish government, but his rage first targeted Jews, unleashing violence, plunder, and the Cossacks' basest instincts.

These horrific pogroms obliterated hundreds of communities and claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Jews. The Cossacks defiled all that was sacred, as Rabbi Nathan vividly depicts: "They tore the Torah scrolls into pieces, making sacks and shoes from them, wrapping their feet with tefillin straps. The houses of tefillin were thrown into the streets, and holy books were used to create bridges in their roads, or fed into their furnaces, causing listeners' ears to ring with horror" (pages 31-32).

When the marauders reached Nemyriv, many Jews leapt into the fortress's nearby water reservoir to avoid forced conversion, drowning there. Among the victims was the head of the yeshiva, "the brilliant Rabbi Michal son of the esteemed Rabbi Eliezer of blessed memory, who knew the entire Torah by heart and was well-versed in worldly knowledge."

In this dark time, tremendous bravery was shown by a Jewish maiden who sacrificed herself. A non-Jew captured her, intending to marry her. Boldly, she boasted that she was the daughter of renowned Jewish mystics and that no bullet could harm her—daring him to try. When the villain fired, her soul returned to her Creator in purity.

Another Jewish woman told her captor she would marry him if he took her to a church. The church stood across a river, requiring them to cross a bridge. As they reached the bridge, this righteous woman jumped, sacrificing her life to remain a faithful Jew.

The Jewish nation, holy as ever, didn't lose its humanity even when facing the cruelty and barbarity of these evil nations who now dare preach to us about morality.

The rebel leader Khmelnytsky continued his military campaigns. After a few years, when his army faced defeat, he collapsed and died. May all your enemies, Hashem, be destroyed.