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Part One: The Foundations of the Volftsun Family 39 the tobacco, so it was easy for Iosif to trade the tobacco for uit and vegetables. "It was a good business," he says. He also profited om his unused rations. Once a month, the trainees received a set amount of tobacco. In the war years, tobacco was as good as money. Since Iosif didn't yet smoke (he would start at the ont in 1944), he bartered his tobacco ration for uit, sugar, or chocolate. Although this exchange was technically a violation, bartering was overlooked as long as trainees stayed on the base. Iosif always undertook his bartering carefully, as there was no room for error. There was a war going on, and the army always needed men. If a trainee did something wrong, he was dismissed om the unit and sent to Tashkent and then by foot to the ont. These unfortunate soldiers did their basic training on the road to the ont. Not many of them survived the war. What were some of the ways that trainees messed up? The most common inaction was leaving the base without permission. Right next Shavuot, sometimes spelled Shavuos (Hebrew: שבועות), occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan (corresponding to late May or early June). It marks the conclusion of the Counting of the Omer and the day the Torah was given at Mount Sinai. Shavuot is one of the three Biblical pilgrimage festivals mandated by the Torah. Unlike the other two pilgrimage festivals (Passover and Sukkot), the date on which Shavuot occurs is not explicitly mentioned in the Torah. Rather, its occurrence is directly linked to the occurrence of Passover. Beginning on the second day of Passover, the Torah mandates a 49-day (seven week) counting period (the Counting of the Omer), which culminates in the 50th day, Shavuot. This counting of days and weeks expresses anticipation and desire for the Giving of the Torah. At Passover, the Jewish people were eed om being slaves to Pharaoh; at Shavuot, they accepted the Torah and became a nation committed to serving God. Shavuot has many components, and as a consequence is called by several names. In the Torah, it is called Feast of Weeks, Festival of Reaping, and Day of the First Fruits. The Mishnah and Talmud refer to Shavuot as Atzeret (Hebrew: עצרת, a solemn assembly), as it provides closure for the festival activities during and following the holiday of Passover. Since Shavuot occurs 50 days aer Passover, Christians gave it the name Pentecost. In modern Israel, Shavuot is celebrated for one day. In the Jewish diaspora outside Israel, the holiday is celebrated for two days, on the sixth and seventh days of Sivan. Shavuot to the school was a teacher's institute for girls- —what a temptation! Some of the men tried to sneak out at night, and if they were caught they were shipped out the next day. "Every morning we looked at the duty roster and the names of some of my classmates were crossed off," Iosif recalls. "I said a small prayer for them." Navigating the system was even harder for Jewish trainees, who were always at risk of being denounced or accused of sabotage. Iosif almost became a victim of this toxic combination of anti-Semitism and political infighting, and only his quick thinking saved him. One day Iosif noticed that an airplane (not his own) was leaking water om the cooling system. He concluded that a tiny stone had been picked up by the propeller wash and damaged the cooling pipe. He knew that the plane's pilot would be endangered if the plane took off with a hole in the cooling system. Although he was just a trainee, Iosif pointed out the problem to the technician in charge. The technician immediately blamed Iosif for sabotaging the aircra and threatened to bring him up on charges. "You are a traitor," the technician

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