Chapter 178 - The Blessed Activities of the Alter Rebbe in Russia

00:01 We’re continuing the story of how the Alter Rebbe worked to prepare the Jewish people throughout the region to embrace Chassidus and, more broadly, to build flourishing Jewish lives. As we said, in the cities of inner Russia, far from Jewish centers, Jews gradually adopted the customs of their non-Jewish neighbors. The Alter Rebbe sent shluchim to them, revitalized their communities, and accomplished wonderful things there. So we continue the story. Russia opened its borders, and many Jews from Poland, Lithuania, and elsewhere began moving into Russia. They expected to find a place where there was no Jewish life, but to their great surprise, that was not the case. Among those who moved to the cities of inner Russia were Torah scholars from Lithuania whose sons and sons-in-law were major merchants. The merchants foresaw a bright future in trade in the new country. In letters to their elderly parents, who had stayed in Lithuania and continued their lives in the tents of Torah, the sons praised both the moral and Torah standards of the communities in Russia. Everyone knew that this was thanks to the Alter Rebbe’s holy work over some twenty years, from 5523 to 5543. Now, I’ll mention 5523 as a point of reference: it was three years after the Baal Shem Tov passed away, while the Maggid of Mezritch was still the leader. And the Alter Rebbe, as we’ve said, had already begun, around the time of his wedding, to encourage Jews to establish themselves in farming and so on. He sent teachers to various places to teach their children, and so forth, through special shluchim and representatives. And in the following ten years, from 5543 to 5553—that is, until 1793 by their reckoning—many chassidic families moved to inner Russia. Through them, the scope of the Alter Rebbe’s work expanded, with Torah study and the founding of places of learning for young people and boys. The Lithuanian immigrants

02:46 from Vilna—yes, let’s recall the city of Vilna, where the Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu lived. Given his standing, he was the foremost opponent of Chassidus. So these Lithuanian immigrants from Vilna had been close to the highest circles of the opponents. They knew about the persecution of the chassidim and their leaders from earlier times, and particularly about the ban of 5542. They wrote to their relatives and acquaintances praising the chassidim, and especially their leader, the Alter Rebbe. Their fruitful work spreading Torah and fear of Heaven among tradespeople, they wrote, testified to their good character: they truly feared G-d and had complete faith. They wrote that their teacher, the Gaon—meaning Rabbi Eliyahu—and the rabbi who headed the beis din, together with all the distinguished Torah scholars, had erred in their judgment. Without taking testimony or clarifying the facts as the Torah would require, they had improperly placed the chassidim under a ban. They went on to write to their parents and relatives: “From what we see of the conduct of the people called chassidim, disciples of their teacher and Rebbe, the Gaon and Maggid of Liozna, they fear Heaven, cherish the Torah, and devote themselves to tzedakah, with great love and affection for every poor and broken-spirited person. They do this eagerly and warmly, because that is what their teacher and Rebbe instructed them in his letters and through special shluchim whom he frequently sends to them.” Then one of the immigrants, named Zundel Wolf, went even further. He had a moderate knowledge of Torah, but he had been deeply committed to carrying out every assignment connected with the persecution of the chassidim. Several times he had risked his life to carry out those assignments. He was among those who traveled in 5532 to publicize the ban against the chassidim, and he was also one of the group of zealots who went to the town of Shvintzian to carry out the well-known ruling in 5541. And there’s a note here—yes, I’m reading the note now. By 5535 there was already a group of chassidim in Shvintzian, including energetic people engaged in outreach, not only

05:32 in the town itself but also throughout the surrounding area. The Shvintzian district had many estates, inns, mills, and small settlements, and everyone made a comfortable living. So in almost every settlement and community, the chassidim had people allied with them. After about two years, word reached the opponents’ stronghold, Vilna, that all the settlements in the Shvintzian district had become chassidic, thanks to the efforts of the chassidim in Shvintzian. The opponents began discussing the matter in an exchange of letters between their committees in Vilna, Minsk, and Shklov. At that time, in 5541–5542, there were already entire communities of Chabad chassidim in both Minsk and Shklov. The opponents there had already recognized that they had been mistaken about the chassidim, and the moderates among them had stopped opposing the chassidic community, let alone persecuting it. So when the Vilna committee proposed that the chassidim of Shvintzian be put on trial, the moderate opponents in Shklov and Minsk did not agree. But the committees in Brisk and Slutsk accepted Vilna’s proposal and went further, demanding a general ban against the chassidim and their leader wherever they were, and particularly against the Chabad chassidim in the regions of Lithuania and Ukraine and their leader, the Maggid of Liozna—that is, the Alter Rebbe. Notice what’s happening here. The opponents’ committee in Vilna convened, selected a beis din, and tried the chassidim of Shvintzian, sentencing about fifteen of them to lashes. They also presented the matter to the Gra, Rabbi Eliyahu, who agreed. As was customary, announcements were made for three Shabbosos during the Torah reading, and also on Mondays and Thursdays, that on a certain day a ban would be placed on the chassidic community and its leader. On the authority of the Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu and the rabbi who headed the beis din, whom we’ve already heard about, it was announced that all the students of the yeshivos, Talmud Torahs, and cheder schools should come to the designated place. Even those who studied in seclusion were to interrupt their learning for the mitzvah of sanctifying Hashem’s name and defending the honor of Torah scholars, which this group was desecrating. But the chassidim of Vilna—there were already Chabad chassidim in Vilna at that time,

08:31 with four shuls, a large yeshiva, and about fifteen cheders for boys, from the youngest children up to those studying Gemara in depth—received the announcement calmly and hardly paid it any attention. When the announcement was heard in Shvintzian, the chassidim held a meeting and decided to send messengers throughout the district, asking each settlement to send a representative to Vilna so they could gather together on the day the ban was to be declared. They also announced that some fifty people from the Shvintzian community would go to Vilna that day. The chassidim of Shvintzian drew up a plan for the day: the Vilna chassidim would gather with those from Shvintzian and the other places. They sent messengers to the Chabad chassidic centers in Polotsk, Minsk, and Shklov, asking them to come on the appointed day, and together they would hold a great procession through the city with musical instruments and dancing. So about three hundred chassidim arrived for that day and joined the Vilna chassidim, forming a large group of several thousand people. The crowd assembled at the designated place for the declaration of the ban—an estimated ten thousand or more people. Black candles were set on the platform, and the members of the beis din wrapped themselves in talleisim. At that moment, the chassidim set out in a public procession, group after group, all dressed in Shabbos clothes. At their head were the distinguished Rabbis Boruch Mordechai, son-in-law of the rabbi who headed the beis din, and Moshe Meisels, who had been a longtime student of the Gra and was the community’s scribe and trusted representative, along with the wealthy man and the brothers, sons of Raphael, and other respected members of the community. They carried musical instruments—drums, trumpets, and cymbals—and sang joyous niggunim so loudly that the earth seemed to split at the sound. There was tremendous commotion among those who had gathered to hear the ban declared. Many, many people wanted to see the procession, until only a handful remained. This made a powerful impression even on the beis din declaring the ban. From then on, the opponents waged open war against the chassidim, and the dispute intensified on both sides. When the opponents learned that the idea for the procession, which had blunted the force of the ban, had come from the chassidim of Shvintzian, they sentenced them to death.

11:14 To four of the chassidim of Sventzian, and that same Zundel Wolf we are speaking about now. Yes, he came to the Russian interior and saw the chassidim, saw how good they were. Well, that Zundel Wolf had been one of the emissaries of the beis din sent to carry out the execution. Consider this terrible thing: to execute four Jews. In any case, in the circles of the misnagdim, Zundel Wolf was regarded with affection because of his extensive work persecuting the chassidim. After Zundel Wolf had lived for about two years in the town of Yelnya, in the Smolensk province, among chassidim, and had seen their conduct—their fear of Heaven, good character, Ahavas Yisroel, and love of Torah—his conscience began to torment him over having persecuted the chassidim for so many years. The scene of the killings in Sventzian, where he too had been among those who killed the four chassidim, stood before his eyes. He wrote to the Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu, the Vilna Gaon, describing the chassidim’s conduct and asking him to prescribe a way for him to make amends for persecuting the chassidim in general, and for taking part in the murder of the four chassidim of Sventzian in particular. Zundel Wolf ended his letter as follows: “No one knows when his last day will come. When I stand in judgment before the Heavenly Court, I will place the innocent blood of those righteous men who cherished the mitzvah upon the heads of the leaders of the committee and the beis din of Vilna.” The letters from the informers, and Zundel Wolf’s letter in particular, made a great impression in the circles of the Vilna misnagdim. The chassidim circulated the letters throughout Lithuania in hundreds of copies. This aroused the anger of the misnagdim in Vilna, Brisk, and Slutsk. By then, Chassidus had spread throughout Greater and Lesser Poland and much of Samogitia, Volhynia, Podolia, and Galicia. Chabad Chassidus had spread through the Vitebsk and Mogilev provinces, as well as Vilna and its surrounding region, much of the Kovno province, the Chernigov, Poltava, Yekaterinoslav, and Kherson provinces, and much of Bessarabia. The misnagdim saw that a large part

13:57 of the Jewish people had joined the chassidic movement. They were especially angered by the success of the founder of Chabad Chassidus, the Alter Rebbe, and by the acceptance of the reforms he had made in the sharpening of shechitah knives, the heating of mikvaos, the compilation of the Shulchan Aruch, and the preparation of the siddur. The Alter Rebbe was an outstanding leader and organizer. Everything he said and everything he decided to do was orderly and deliberate, following deep reflection. The breadth of his understanding, the firmness of his judgment, and the strength of his will were astonishing. From childhood to old age, he never retreated from a decision or resolution, whether in spiritual matters or in worldly matters concerning the welfare of the community. It was a fundamental principle for the Alter Rebbe that anything he decided, in his holy judgment, to do for the community should be carried out in an orderly way and in great secrecy. Only those who needed to know would know about it, and he warned even them to conduct all their affairs discreetly and quietly. When Empress Catherine II conquered White Russia in 5532, and the Jews living in the conquered towns received civil rights—that is, became citizens with equal rights—the Alter Rebbe worked to relocate several Jewish families: people engaged in various kinds of trade, craftsmen, and estate managers whose employers knew their honesty and the quality of their conduct firsthand. The Alter Rebbe chose twelve men, most of them young married chassidim of sound judgment and great energy. He settled them there with their families and helped them establish livelihoods, particularly in work that would bring them into contact with nobles, princes, counts, and officials of government institutions. In this way, he laid a cornerstone for work on behalf of the community. The Alter Rebbe arranged a plan of action for the twelve men in the imperial capital and chose one of them, Rabbi Avraham Yaakov the goldsmith, to head the group. For many years they worked for the benefit of the Jewish people through their acquaintance with princes and government officials. When the chossid Rabbi Avraham Yaakov passed away, the Alter Rebbe chose his son, the chossid Rabbi Shmuel Moshe, to take his place. Shmuel Moshe was very wise, firm

16:44 in his judgment, and full of energy. Then, in 5554, 1794, about a year after the conquest of Poland, numerous complaints about the Jewish people concerning trade and property came from towns in Lithuania, Lesser Poland, and Ukraine. All this was the result of the harmful influence of the French tutors who educated the children of nobles and estate owners to hate Jews and make false accusations against them. When the secret committee of chassidim engaged in communal affairs learned of the complaints, its head, Shmuel Moshe, arranged for each member to approach a count or nobleman he knew and speak favorably of the Jewish people. They were also to speak with officials in the office of the Minister of the Interior, asking them to hold back the documents arriving from provincial governors with complaints against the Jewish people, rather than rush to submit them to the minister. Shmuel—Shmuel Moshe knew Prince Lubomirski well. The prince had considerable influence at the court of Empress Catherine II, and Shmuel Moshe spoke to him about this at length. To his sorrow, though, he saw that his words were not being accepted. One of the committee members, the chossid Zundel Yitzchak of Shklov, knew Minister Potemkin, who had considerable influence with the empress. Zundel Yitzchak persuaded Potemkin to speak favorably of the Jews, and this did help. The empress ordered the complaints against the Jews to be investigated on the ground. She instructed the Minister of the Interior to send a responsible, discerning man whom the Jews would not be able to influence. He was to travel to Lithuania, Lesser Poland, and Ukraine to investigate and examine the Jews’ business practices and way of life, as well as their relations with the non-Jewish citizens among whom they lived. In each place, this emissary was to speak with the imperial officials and the noble estate owners and record everything in a book. He was to complete his journey in no more than two years.