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On February 11, 1986, a conspicuously small man named Anatoly Shcharansky strode across the Glienicke Bridge from Communist-controlled East Germany to West Berlin and into the waiting car of the American ambassador. Shcharansky carried with him his most valued possession—a book of Hebrew Psalms.
Thirty-seven years old, Anatoly Shcharansky had spent the previous nine years in Soviet prisons and work camps. Thirteen years earlier, in 1973, the young Jewish mathematician and chess player had applied for an exit visa to leave the Soviet Union to move to Israel. His request repeatedly denied, Shcharansky became an outspoken leader of his fellow “refuseniks” as well as an active supporter of all Russians whose free speech had been curtailed. Arrested by the KGB on March 15, 1977, Shcharansky was imprisoned for 16 months before trial and then was sentenced to 20 more months in prison and 10 years in a strict-regime labor camp. At the time of his final transfer from the labor camp to Moscow, shortly before his release, Shcharansky’s guards took away his Book of Psalms. Shcharansky lay in the snow, refusing to move, until the Psalms were returned to him.
The Book of Psalms that Shcharansky carried with him when he walked across the Glienicke Bridge to freedom was a gift from his wife Avital. Sharing Anatoly’s yearning to live in Israel, Avital also applied for an exit visa; hers was granted in 1974. Expecting her husband to follow soon, Avital left for Israel one day after their wedding. During the following 12 years, Avital traveled around the world reminding people of conscience that her husband and others were persecuted and imprisoned in the Soviet Union because they dared to live as free men and women. Shortly before Shcharansky’s release, Avital accepted an honorary degree for her imprisoned husband. She told those present at the ceremony. “In a lonely cell in Chistopol prison, locked alone with the Psalms of David, Anatoly found expression for his innermost feelings in the outpourings of the King of Israel thousands of years ago.”
Shcharansky’s letters from prison to his mother and to his wife frequently spoke about the Psalms he had read and of their importance to him.
February 1980, to his mother, Ida Milgrom:
“The day after I received your telegram telling me of Papa’s death, I decided in his memory to read and study all 150 Psalms of David (in Hebrew). That is what I do from morning to evening… What does this give me?… Gradually, my feeling of great loss and sorrow changes to one of bright hopes. I am denied the right to visit Papa’s grave but when, in the future, I hear these wonderful verses…I shall remember Papa. It will be as if I had erected a memorial stone to him on my heart, and he will be with me all the days of my life.”
July 1983, to “My dear loved ones” after a short visit from his mother and brother, Shcharansky’s first in more than a year. He mused about whether he had used the precious time well and quoted Psalm 39:2–3:
“‘I resolved I would watch my step
lest I offend by my speech.
I would keep my mouth muzzled
while the wicked was in my presence.
I was dumb, silent;
I was very still
while my pain was intense.’”
May 6, 1984, to his mother, Shcharansky became extremely ill with heart weakness and pain during his imprisonment. In this letter he reflected on how and why he maintained his strength of will and his beliefs in the face of a system designed to break him. He turned here to the Psalms and to Proverbs:
“In Psalms and in the Book of Proverbs one frequently encounters the phrase ‘fear of the Lord.’ When I read the Book of Psalms for the first time I understood these words to mean fear of God’s retribution in payment for the transgressions we have committed.
“Yet, the more I continued to read, the more difficult it became to connect the literal meaning of these words and the message which called out to me from the text.
“What does King Solomon mean when he states, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge’ (Proverb 1:7), or King David by his saying, ‘The counsel of the Lord is for those that fear Him; to them he makes known his covenant’ (Psalm 25:14)?
“In the course of time, one begins to understand that fear of God is a result of an inner stirring brought about by the lofty Divine vision, by a feeling of submission and respect for God’s essence, and especially by the instinctive, subconscious fear of man to expose himself as being unsuited for this lofty role and as being unworthy of being chosen for this task with his meagre talents.
“It is possible that fear of God is the one factor capable of conquering human fear, and thus, all that remains for us is to repeat the words of King Solomon, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.’ ”
Avital did not know men that less than a year later, she and Anatoly would be rejoicing together in Jerusalem. That first night, carried on the shoulders of a jubilant throng in front of the ancient Western Wall of the Temple Mount, Shcharansky clasped the same Book of Psalms that had been with him in prison and gave thanks for his deliverance.
On February 11, 1986, a conspicuously small man named Anatoly Shcharansky strode across the Glienicke Bridge from Communist-controlled East Germany to West Berlin and into the waiting car of the American ambassador. Shcharansky carried with him his most valued possession—a book of Hebrew Psalms.
