The Alter Rebbe and the Vilna Gaon

Welcome to our weekly Thursday night program, the History of Chabad in America, through the Mindel Archives. This program is a continuation of last week's program, the story of the Alter Rebbe, and I would suggest that before we listen to this program, whoever didn't listen to last week's episode, it would be a good idea to listen to it first, because this is a continuation.

In the year 1772, the Mezritcher Maggid was niftar — he passed away. The Chassidim were without leadership, and because of this, the opposition, the misnagdus, became even stronger. The son of the Maggid did not want to take over the leadership. He was totally disconnected from the material world; his name was Rabbi Avraham HaMalach. Reb Mendel Horodoker, the senior talmid of the Maggid, also did not want to take over, out of respect for the Malach. So the chevraya kadisha — these were the senior talmidim of the Maggid — decided to move to different cities to become leaders, each active in his own territory. Reb Shneur Zalman's mission was to tone down the opposition in Lita, where the Vilna Gaon was the leader of the misnagdim.

Between the years 1772 and 1775, Reb Shneur Zalman visited Shklov, Minsk, and Vilna to try to tone down the misnagdus against the Chassidim. In 1775, the heads of the Chassidim decided to find a way to meet with the Vilna Gaon, to try to stop the controversy between the Chassidim and the misnagdim. So they asked Reb Mendel Horodoker and the Alter Rebbe to send meshulachim to the Vilna Gaon. They went to the Vilna Gaon, and the Vilna Gaon refused to see them. They went back again, and again the Vilna Gaon refused to see them. Until the Rosh HaKahal asked the Vilna Gaon if he would see them, and the Vilna Gaon said no, and he left the city. So the Alter Rebbe never saw the Vilna Gaon.

Shortly after that, Reb Mendel Horodoker, together with many Chassidim, moved to Eretz Yisroel, and Reb Shneur Zalman became the Chassidic leader in Lita.

In the year 1781, one of the talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov wrote a sefer that was printed. The misnagdim were against it — against the Kabbalah in it — they were very critical, and they burned his sefer. At the end of that summer, they declared a cherem, an excommunication, against the Chassidim, signed by the Vilna Gaon.

Between the years 1781 and 1788, Reb Shneur Zalman began to widen the position of the Chassidim, so that in many cities the Chassidim had their own minyanim. Reb Shneur Zalman always looked for ways to make peace between the Chassidim and the misnagdim. So between the years 1788 and 1795 there was relative peace, and during those years Reb Shneur Zalman had time to work on the writing of the Tanya and the Shulchan Aruch. The number of Chassidim grew to over a hundred thousand, and many Chassidim would come to Liozna to ask the Alter Rebbe their questions and bring him the problems that they had.

There was a time that Reb Shneur Zalman wanted to go to Eretz Yisroel, to be free of the difficult tasks of leading the Chassidim, but thanks to his strong character, he stayed. Even that temporary peace was not much more than a cold war, and the controversy broke out again in the year 1796, for two reasons. Number one, there was a rumor that the Vilna Gaon had regretted his previous behavior toward the Chassidim. When this news spread in Vilna, the Gaon sent two shluchim to the Chassidim with a letter that the rumors were false, and he called the Chassidim apikorsim. The second reason was that the Tanya was printed at that time, and even though the Vilna Gaon was himself a baal mekubal, he held very different views than the Alter Rebbe.

In the year 1797, on Chol HaMoed Sukkos, the Vilna Gaon was niftar — he passed away. Even though it was Yom Tov, the talmidim of the Vilna Gaon were very, very sad; they were depressed the whole time, they didn't dance, there was no simon of Yom Tov. But the Chassidim danced, and they were very happy, and they danced. So the misnagdim made a claim on Sukkos that the reason the Chassidim were dancing was not because of simchas beis hashoeivah, but because they were happy that the Vilna Gaon had passed away.

And they started a new approach: they went to the government in Petersburg and accused the Alter Rebbe of being a moreid b'malchus, a rebel against the government. Shortly after, the day after Simchas Torah, in the year 1798, Reb Shneur Zalman was arrested and sent to Petersburg, where the worst criminals were held. He was imprisoned for 53 days — corresponding to the 53 chapters of Tanya. The result of the investigation showed that Reb Shneur Zalman was not guilty, that the Chassidim had nothing to do with politics, and that the entire mesirah was a libel, a bilbul. Reb Shneur Zalman was freed on Yud Tes Kislev.

When he came out of prison, the Alter Rebbe began spreading Chassidus, and he wrote to the Chassidim the words that Yaakov Avinu said, "Katonti mikol hachassadim" — and he asked the Chassidim please not to take revenge against the misnagdim for the suffering that the Chassidim had endured because of this. This is the letter that my father-in-law gave to Zalman Shazar.

I want to mention here that there is a Rishon who wrote, long before the Alter Rebbe, that there would come a time when Yud Tes Kislev would be a Yom Tov for all of Klal Yisroel. And we see that indeed, among Yidden all over the world — b'frat among Chassidim, of course — Yud Tes Kislev is celebrated. And as I once mentioned, there was a Chossid in the bitter days of the 1930s and early 1940s who, the day after Simchas Torah, being very poor, asked his wife to try to save up a few pennies, a few kopeks, until Yud Tes Kislev, so that they could make a big, big Yom Tov on Yud Tes Kislev — a big seudah, and buy a lot of things, and invite a lot of people.

So she saved up, and the husband invited people. The husband came home and saw the table full with everything, a complete festive seudah — and nobody came. He sat down, and there was mashke on the table, and he began, and he said, "L'chaim." His wife was sitting next to him, and he said, "L'chaim, l'chaim, l'chaim, l'chaim," and then he started to speak. The wife said to him, "Who are you talking to? There's nobody here." He said, "First of all, I'm talking to you, and second, even if nobody's here, you still have to farbreng today, so we farbreng. Eh, nobody's here — what can I do?"

Among Chassidim, b'chlal, there were a few special Yomim Tovim that Chassidim used to speak about. I heard this once from Rabbi Jacobson, and I think I mentioned it in one of my programs. First there was the Yom Tov of Purim. On Purim, the goyim wanted to kill the Jewish bodies — l'hashmid, v'laharog, u'l'abeid es kol haYehudim — and baruch Hashem, we have the Yom Tov of Purim, and we got rid of that decree.

The goyim saw that they couldn't get rid of the Jewish body, so they decided, let's go after the neshamah — let's get rid of the soul of a Yid. And it says, a spiritual death is harder than a physical death — kasheh misah ruchanis mimisah gashmis. This is the Yom Tov of Chanukah. On Chanukah, it says that the goyim said: learn Torah, no problem — just don't say it's Hashem's Torah. Learn Torah — but al pi seichel, on your own intellectual terms. And baruch Hashem, we got rid of that too, and we have the nes of Chanukah. And by the way, the Reform, the Conservative — they make a big Yom Tov out of Chanukah. This was exactly their problem — they wanted to keep the Yom Tov, or learn Torah, al pi seichel, not because it's Hashem's Torah. So baruch Hashem, we got rid of that as well.

Then they saw that the goyim hadn't succeeded, so they said, let's go to the pnimiyus haneshamah, to the essence of the soul. And that is the Yom Tov of Yud Tes Kislev. If not for Yud Tes Kislev, chas v'shalom, I wouldn't be here — many of us wouldn't be here. Yud Tes Kislev, chas v'shalom, put a warmth — a varemkeit — not only to know that this is Hashem's Torah, but to put warmth into every single mitzvah that we do. And that's why Yud Tes Kislev is called the Chag HaChagim — the festival of all festivals — because it gives warmth to every single Yom Tov of the year.

And as the Rebbe used to wish everybody before Yud Tes Kislev: [unclear Hebrew blessing].