Long before Glasnost or Perestroika, when the former Soviet Union was in its full Communist glory, Rabbi Dr. Alter Bentzion Metzger visited there along with an American Rabbinic delegation. (It’s been many years since I heard this from him, but I believe this story occurred with Rabbi Metzger himself, or perhaps he was sharing what he heard from another? I don’t remember clearly enough, but I believe it was about himself.)
On Shabbos morning they went to pray in a large Synagogue. Twenty, thirty elderly men were gathered there, and they prayed in the same fashion the Rabbis were used to at home.
The prayers went on uneventful until the Ark was opened, and it was time to take out the Torah scroll to be read. There’s an Aramaic prayer said then, called “Brich Shmay”. Towards the end of this prayer the word “Kshot” (Aramaic for “truth”) is repeated several times.
The Chazzan, who had praying in a very pleasant tune up until this point, turned to the congregation, and shouted “Kshot!” each time it appeared in the prayer. He shouted it as if he was being strangled, is a contorted kind of way. Rabbi Metzger thought this was extremely strange behavior, and thought about it all throughout the Torah reading.
Then it dawned on him. There was a hidden message in the elderly Chazzan’s strange shouts. Listen American Rabbis, he seemed to be saying, don’t be fooled by this facade! True, the Soviets allow a few old men to pray for appearances sake, but that is all. They threaten the young people away from here, and carefully observe our proceedings. Even some of our own have been forced to become informants for this evil regime.
After the prayers, Rabbi Metzger went over to the Chazzan, (or there was a line of greeting), he extended his hand in greeting, but instead of the customary “Good Shabbos”, Rabbi Metzger simply said: “Kshot”. The Chazzan smiled with relief and quickly said. “At least someone understood me,” he said.
We say the Shema, we say the Al-Cheit, we’re taking out the Torah… we have to continually ask ourselves, Kshot? is it really truly fully Kshot me for me? How can I make it more Kshot, more aligned, more true, more lived in my own life?