The Ties that Bind

When Russia was still an empire ruled by the Czar, the jews of that land suffered from a harsh decree: From the age of 12, every boy had to enlist in the army. The boys were taken out of their homes and sent to training camps where they were taught to be obedient Russian soldiers. At the age of 18, they began their active service, and they had to serve for 25 years. In that environment, most of them forgot whatever they knew about Judaism, so Jewish families did everything they could to keep their sons out of the army.

When the Czar learned that the jews were resisting the draft, he sent soldiers to go to jewish towns and take the boys by force. The chappers, as they were known in Yiddish, would brutally grab the boys and take them away.

The Jews did their best to hide their 12-year-old sons. SOme sent their sons stay with relatives who lived far away others dug hidden cellars in heir homes. When the warning went out that the chappers were coming everyone would rush home and hustle the boys into their hiding places.

But for many different reasons there were some Jews who gave information to the chappers and helped them find the boys who were hiding. The Hews who did this terrible act were called moisrim.

The boys who were forced to leave their families and go to the military camps were called cantonists.

This book tells a story of Jewish heroism from those days. It will take you back in time to the world of Mottel a brave woodcutter and his two sons Avrum Dov and little Chaim’l. The Czarist regime breaks up thier happy home and forces them to go their separate ways. But a series of amazing events guided by Hashem’s Hashgachah brings them back together in the end.

In This story you will also meet great rabbis like Rav Yisrael Salanter and the Tzemach Tzedek real figures of Jewish history who lived in Czarist Russian and did there holy work of strengthening the Jewish spirit in those difficult times.