Parshas Shoftim: Rav Chaim Soloveitchik - Purim War In Volozhin
In Parshas Shoftim the torah tells us the speech that is given to Bnei Yisroel as they are about to enter war. In Volozhin one year they performed a Purim skit theatrically depicting the scene.
One hundred thousand soldiers gathered together to hear their last minute instructions on the battlefield. It is announced that anyone who built a new house and not settled in should go back from the front. Immediately 10,000 soldiers do an about face and leave the battlefield. Again they call out whoever planted a vineyard and has not reaped the benefits should return. Another 10,000 soldiers pick up and leave. And whoever is engaged to be married is dismissed as well and just like that thy are now short 30,000 soldiers.
Then comes the big announcement. Whoever is afraid because they have sinned even a small aveira should also return home. All the remaining soldiers throw down their weapons and leave, except for four remaining soldiers, the Sha'agas Aryeh, the Noda B'Yehuda, the Vilna Gaon and the Pnei Yehoshua.
Rav Lazer Silver of Cincinnati, a talmid of Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky, relates that when they told this humorous story over to Rav Chaim Soloveitchik he said they forgot to tell over the punch line of this play. The four tzaddikim won the war! (Iturei Torah)
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