Chapter 187 - The Writing of the Tanya and the Alter Rebbe's Subsequent Arrest

00:01 In light of everything we have told so far, it is no wonder that the misnagdim were constantly working against the Alter Rebbe. We now continue with the dramatic events that unfolded. Another reason the opposition focused chiefly on the Alter Rebbe was the publication of the Tanya. The Alter Rebbe wrote and published many books. The best known include the Shulchan Aruch; Torah Or on Bereishis and Shemos; Likkutei Torah on Vayikra, Bamidbar, Devarim and Shir Hashirim; Biurei HaZohar; and others. The crowning work among his books is Likkutei Amarim, known as Tanya and also called the Book of the Beinonim. The Tanya contains the fundamental teachings of Chassidus. It has a uniquely architectural structure and a clear, polished style: every word is carefully weighed and every letter placed deliberately, with nothing missing or extra. It is divided into five parts. Likkutei Amarim has fifty-three chapters, corresponding, according to a saying familiar among Chabad chassidim, to the fifty-three sections of the Torah—the parshiyos of the Torah. The second part of Likkutei Amarim, also known as Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, has twelve chapters. Igeres Hateshuvah has twelve chapters. Igeres Hakodesh is a collection of many letters the Alter Rebbe wrote on various occasions to guide the community of chassidim in Torah, prayer and chassidic conduct. The fifth part is called Kuntres Acharon. The book is called Tanya after its opening words: “It was taught: They administer an oath to him, ‘Be righteous.’” It was first printed, as we related in the previous account, in 5557, and, at the Alter Rebbe’s instruction, without the author’s name. Since then, close to four thousand editions have appeared—and by our time, already seven thousand editions. The book has been published in hundreds of thousands of copies and in many translations. The Tanya is the foundation and source of the vast, wide-ranging body of Chabad literature. It penetrated the stronghold of the opposition and had a tremendous influence, drawing thousands of renowned Torah scholars into the movement of

03:08 Chassidus. The Tanya is a torch of fire going before the camp, bringing the ideas of Chassidus to every stratum and every segment of the people. Now, the passing of the Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna in 5558—he was famous throughout the world—brought great mourning and sorrow to all circles of Torah scholars, whether chassidim or misnagdim. But wicked, unscrupulous people used the prevailing mood to renew the campaign against the chassidim and Chassidus. They formed a special committee to direct that campaign. This committee of misnagdim knew that gossip and slander about the chassidim would no longer work among Jews, because it had become known that the chassidim were G-d-fearing, meticulous in their observance of mitzvos, charitable and of good character. The committee therefore understood that a campaign against the supposed wrongdoing of the chassidim would not succeed. What did it do? It decided to denounce the Alter Rebbe to the authorities—not to a local government in the cities of Lithuania, but to the central government in Petersburg, the capital of Tsarist Russia. Here is what happened. One of the practices the Alter Rebbe instituted was for every chossid to contribute to the support of the families who had traveled to the Holy Land and were engaged there in Torah study and the service of Hashem. For this purpose, the Alter Rebbe founded the institution called Colel Chabad. It distributed among Torah scholars in the Holy Land the funds that Chabad chassidim abroad had collected and sent to Eretz Yisroel. The misnagdim who informed on him used this as material for their denunciation to the central government in Petersburg. They claimed that the Alter Rebbe was rebelling against the crown. Why? Because he was sending large sums of money to a foreign country—supposedly to Turkey, which then ruled the Holy Land. To bolster their denunciation, they added that in his many discourses the Alter Rebbe said that the sefirah of malchus, or kingship, has nothing of its own, that malchus is the last sefirah, and similar things. In short, they claimed he taught that kingship was something very lowly. This was the main substance of their denunciation, in addition

05:53 to many other, lesser accusations. In their letter, the misnagdim who informed on him stressed that the local government could not be relied upon. The central government itself had to take matters in hand, arrest the Alter Rebbe and bring him to Petersburg for trial. In this way, they hoped to be rid of both the Alter Rebbe and the entire Chassidus movement at once. We said that the Tanya was first printed in 5558. On Rosh Hashanah 5559, the chassidim sensed a deep bitterness in the Alter Rebbe’s avodah. On Simchas Torah, they sensed that bitterness again, both during the hakafos and during the Torah reading. The Alter Rebbe himself read from the Torah. They also heard a bitter note in the Chassidus the Alter Rebbe taught on Simchas Torah. At that time, he interpreted the verse “You have been shown to know” as follows: “You have shown”—meaning the Essence of the Infinite—“how one must come to know,” how a person must break himself. “To know” is related to the expression “he disciplined the men of Sukkos with them,” in the account of Gideon. This is so that Hashem is Elokim, so that the whole world will see that there is nothing besides Him. The Tzemach Tzedek relates about that year: “When I was young,” the Tzemach Tzedek said, “I grew up in the Alter Rebbe’s home,” since, as we already know, he had lost his mother. Remember that? “Each year, my grandfather would take me under his tallis for the shofar blasts until I was nine, and for Birkas Kohanim until my wedding. On Rosh Hashanah of 5559, during the shofar blasts, I saw that a great calamity would befall the Alter Rebbe that year, but I did not see the deliverance.” Apparently, the redemption was not complete. And indeed, to our sorrow, the denunciation succeeded. During Chol Hamoed Sukkos of 5559, a military officer suddenly arrived in Liozna with a group of armed policemen to arrest the Alter Rebbe and take him to Petersburg. The Alter Rebbe, however, wanted to follow the verse in Yeshayahu, “Hide for a brief moment until the wrath passes.”

08:46 He also wanted time to think the matter over, so the Alter Rebbe left his house by a back door, and they did not find him there. The officer understood the situation, and he also did not... He understood that the Alter Rebbe was an exceptional person and did not want to disturb the festival. So the officer left some of his men there and departed the town himself. In the meantime, the Alter Rebbe decided what he would do if they came again to arrest him, and said that he had resolved to accept everything as for the good. It is told that he consulted the chossid Reb Shmuel Munkes. The Alter Rebbe asked Reb Shmuel Munkes what he should do: after all, being arrested would put him in danger. Reb Shmuel Munkes told him a story and ended it with these words: “If you are a Rebbe, nothing can happen to you. And if you are not a Rebbe, by what right have you taken the pleasures of this world away from tens of thousands of Jews?” Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah then passed. The chassidim were deeply distressed. After Simchas Torah, on the morning of Isru Chag, which was a Thursday, the chassidim in the neighboring towns learned what had happened. The Alter Rebbe, being a remarkable leader and organizer, issued a general letter that morning to the community of Chabad chassidim. In it he urged his chassidim, and those connected to him, to strengthen their hope and complete trust in Hakadosh Boruch Hu and in the merit of our holy Rebbes. If suffering was unavoidable, he, the Alter Rebbe, would take it upon himself. In the letter, the Alter Rebbe writes: “Now I understand the hint my teacher and Rebbe, the Maggid of Mezritch, gave me many years ago: that I would have to suffer and go through difficult times.” The Alter Rebbe sternly warns the chassidim in the letter that, whatever happens, they must behave calmly and peacefully toward the misnagdim. The Alter Rebbe continues in the letter and says to the elders of

11:36 He warned the chassidim to keep an eye on the younger ones, and warned the younger ones to listen to the elder chassidim. Many copies of this letter were immediately made and sent by special messengers to all the Chabad chassidim in towns near and far. We can see how these dramatic developments kept intensifying. Then, late on the night after Yom Tov, word came that they had arrived once again to arrest the Alter Rebbe and take him to Petersburg. The military commander ordered the Alter Rebbe into a black carriage. This kind of carriage was used to transport rebels against the government and was heavily guarded by armed policemen. It set off along the road to Petersburg through Vitebsk and Nevel. Let’s remember: this was Thursday night. In the Alter Rebbe’s characteristic calm and composure, one could see his bold, self-sacrificing resolve as a leader and guide to follow the holy path in serving the Creator and make it a well-trodden path for many. After the Alter Rebbe was arrested and taken away in the black carriage, a note was found in his room bearing a verse in his handwriting: “Princes pursued me without cause, but my heart stood in awe of Your word.” The Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach, explains that a Jew is not subject to the laws of nature. So a Jew is not shaken by “princes pursued me without cause”; only “my heart stood in awe of Your word.” They traveled all night. The next morning, Friday, with six hours still remaining until Shabbos candle-lighting, the Alter Rebbe did not want to continue traveling. He asked the military commander who had come to arrest him to stop the journey until after Shabbos. The commander, of course, did not listen to his prisoner—and then the carriage axles broke. The Alter Rebbe said jokingly, “Tzvachin af aksin, batlin u’shvisin.” Aksin means “axles” in Yiddish: the axles were crying out that they had stopped and were resting. But the commander ordered his men to bring craftsmen from a nearby village to repair them. The axles were repaired. Suddenly one of the horses fell and died. They brought another horse from the village, but

14:51 the horses pulled and could not move the carriage. Finally the commander understood what was happening and asked the Alter Rebbe to travel at least as far as the nearby village. The Alter Rebbe did not agree, but he allowed the commander to turn the carriage into a field beside the road so it would not block the main route. There he spent Shabbos. The place where he stopped was two or three kilometers from the settlement of Sliva Rodnya [?], near the city of Nevel in Vitebsk Province. The chassidim of Nevel would point out the place where the Alter Rebbe spent that Shabbos. There was a chossid named Reb Michel the Elder of Nevel, who said he had known chassidim who knew the spot and could point to the exact place. Reb Michel himself went there to see it with his own eyes. Along both sides of the road, he saw old, broken trees. But where the Alter Rebbe’s carriage had stood and where he had spent Shabbos, there was a large, beautiful tree with many branches. When Reb Michel told the story, he would describe the place in great detail, with tremendous feeling and an awakened sense of fear of Heaven. Now, on the night the Alter Rebbe was arrested in Liozna, a group of chassidim from the students of Cheder Alef, Beis, and Gimmel gathered to discuss what to do. The gathering resolved that all of them, together with several others whom they named, would, as one man, set aside all their business and private household affairs and devote themselves—their bodies, their souls, and all their possessions—to rescuing the Alter Rebbe and saving Chassidus. The gathering chose a special committee to oversee everything connected with rescuing the Alter Rebbe, defending Chassidus, and strengthening the spirits of chassidim everywhere. All Anash—an acronym for anshei shlomeinu, meaning the chassidim—from the youngest to the oldest, were required to carry out the committee’s instructions

17:24 without argument or objection. Whoever refused would, G-d forbid, have his name erased from the community of chassidim. What did the committee decide? First, for as long as the Alter Rebbe remained in prison, all Anash would fast together on Mondays and Thursdays, except, of course, those who could not. Second, on weekdays Anash would eat only bread and hot boiled water. On Shabbos, at each meal, by night and by day, they would have only one cooked dish. During this period, they would hold no engagements or weddings. Those already arranged would take place on schedule, but without musical instruments and with only one meal for no more than ten people. The meal would be meatless. Fourth, every teacher would gather his students to say Tehillim each day. Beforehand, he would explain what had happened: that the tzaddik of the generation had been seized because of the generation’s sins, and that the charges against him were fabricated. Fifth, everyone would tell his wife, his young sons and daughters, and everyone in his household about the terrible situation. He would tell them of the great suffering of the prisoner, the grave sin of the informers, and the great reward of those who share in the suffering of a Torah scholar and tzaddik. Sixth, every member of Anash would make sure to pay his maamados contributions for the support of the Rebbe’s household and to the fund for our brethren in the Holy Land. Seventh, every member of Anash would make a list of the silver and gold articles and jewelry he owned. Eighth, in every community of Anash, a trustee would be chosen to oversee fulfillment of all the conditions we have discussed. The maamados funds and the lists would be brought to him, as stated. Ninth, if, G-d forbid, a member of Anash died during this period, the entire local community of Anash would gather and go to the mikveh. After preparing and dressing the deceased for burial, they would administer an oath to him, as a fellow emissary, that his soul should ascend to the holy chambers of the Maggid and the Baal Shem Tov and inform them that the Alter Rebbe had been imprisoned and the teachings of Chassidus were in danger. They would administer this oath three times

19:56 after dressing him, at the cemetery, before closing the grave, and the entire local community would fast that day. The committee then established three groups of workers: first, those who would work to rescue the Alter Rebbe; second, those who would collect funds for his release, for the support of the Rebbe’s household, and for the fund for our brethren in the Holy Land; and third, those who would defend Chassidus and lift the spirits of the chassidim. The committee decided that those working to rescue the Alter Rebbe would be divided into three sections. One would stay in Petersburg to learn everything that was happening and act as needed. The second would stay in Vilna among the misnagdim to learn what they were planning. The third would stay in Shklov. These three sections would communicate only through special messengers, not by post, and everything they did would remain completely secret. Another group would travel throughout the country collecting money for the expenses of securing his release. The third group would work to defend and strengthen the chassidim. They would travel from city to city, village to village, and settlement to settlement, revealing the teachings of Chassidus and spreading them publicly. They would repeat the teachings to Jews and explain them so that everyone would know the Alter Rebbe’s approach and more chassidim would join the community. At this meeting of the Alter Rebbe’s students, they divided up the regions. Everywhere they traveled, they would go in pairs or groups of three; where possible, it would be better for one of them to remain longer. Their travels would also take them to places known as strongholds of the misnagdim. Before the Alter Rebbe was taken from his home on Thursday night, his brother-in-law, Reb Yisroel Kozik, came in and asked him, “What should I do?” “You,” the Alter Rebbe told him, “go at once—immediately—to Petersburg. And someone else should go straight to Berdichev to deliver a pidyon nefesh to Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev.” The Alter Rebbe’s instruction was carried out immediately. His brother-in-law, Reb Yisroel Kozik, set out at once for Petersburg, taking with him the clothes that he

22:54 He was wearing them. At the time, he was dressed in unusual, distinctive clothing, and he also took a passport that belonged not to him but to a friend. Since the Alter Rebbe had told him to leave immediately, there was no time to travel to his hometown of Babinovitch to get his own passport. Another man traveled to Berditchev. In his haste, however, he forgot to ask the Alter Rebbe’s mother’s name. When he arrived in Berditchev, he went straight in to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak. But when Rabbi Levi Yitzchak heard what had happened to the Alter Rebbe, he fell to the floor, rolled about, and cried out bitterly. “Was the Alter Rebbe distressed when he was arrested?” Rabbi Levi Yitzchak asked. “Yes,” the man answered. “Was he distressed only outwardly, or inwardly as well?” Rabbi Levi Yitzchak asked. “Only outwardly, not inwardly,” the man replied. “I saw that he forgot to take his slippers, but he did take his tallis and tefillin.” Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was impressed and said, “So the Lithuanian sees well.” Rabbi Levi Yitzchak asked the man for the Alter Rebbe’s mother’s name. The man said he had forgotten to ask before leaving. A Chumash was lying on Rabbi Levi Yitzchak’s table at the time. He opened it to Parshas Mikeitz and saw the verse, “And Yaakov saw that there was grain in Egypt.” Rabbi Levi Yitzchak said that the Hebrew word for “grain,” shever, was an acronym for Schneur ben Rivkah. And indeed, he had arrived at the truth: the Alter Rebbe would sometimes sign his name “Schneur ben Rivkah.”