A talmid of the Unsdorfer Rav was once drafted to fight in the Royal Hungarian Army. He was devastated to have to leave both his beloved Rebbe and his yeshivah, recognizing the perils he would be forced to face in combat both spiritually and physically. When the two finally had to part, the Unsdorfer Rav hugged him tightly and gave him a blessing that Hashem should protect him wherever he went. They both wept as they took leave of each other, knowing that they wouldn’t be seeing each other for a very long time. A short time later the Unsdorfer Rav was surprised to receive a letter in the mail from the talmid. After all, only a few days had passed since he’d put on his uniform. When he opened the envelope he was even more surprised to find that it was filled with Torah thoughts. The letter proved to be the first of many; every few days the Rebbe received a similar missive directly from the battlefield. Each time the Unsdorfer Rav opened one he would cry as he read it. When his chasidim asked him the reason for his tears he would reply, “I am crying from deep emotion. Look at my talmid; he’s engaged in a fierce and bloody battle. Every moment he remains alive is another miracle. Yet look what he’s concerned with—Torah! He uses the few moments he has to engross himself in study. That’s why I am crying!” After the war, the talmid would say that the Unsdorfer Rebbe had saved his life in two ways.
If not for the correspondence he had with his Rebbe, he couldn’t be sure that he would have remained a frum, ehrliche Yid. The fighting was so fierce and the company of his fellow soldiers so degrading that the Rebbe’s letters had literally saved his soul and his sanity. But the Rebbe had also saved his life in the literal sense. One day the fighting was extremely intense. Fearing for their lives, he and his comrades had hidden in a trench to escape the barrage of bullets. They remained there for a while, unwilling to leave until they were certain that the enemy had retreated. The soldiers waited so long that eventually they dozed off, exhausted by the tension of the battle. The talmid was fast asleep when the Unsdorfer Rav suddenly appeared to him in a dream. The Rebbe warned him to wake up immediately and escape; if he didn’t flee this very minute his life would be in terrible danger. The talmid quickly woke up and climbed out of the trench, running wildly as fast as his feet could take him. A few minutes later he heard a tremendous explosion and looked back; a bomb had landed directly on the trench he had just occupied, killing everyone inside. The talmid’s kesher (connection) with his beloved Rebbe had saved his life.
