Chapter 188 - During the Alter Rebbe's Imprisonment - The Minister Asks Questions

00:01 So the Alter Rebbe was arrested and taken to Petersburg. When they brought him there, they placed him in the secret chambers of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The Alter Rebbe remained there for more than seven weeks—fifty-three days, to be exact. For the first three weeks, he was held under very harsh conditions, in the chambers reserved for rebels against the government, meaning people who were going to be executed. One of the main accusations was that the Alter Rebbe was collecting large sums of money and sending them to the Turkish sultan, an enemy of Russia. Of course, the Alter Rebbe was sending the money to the fund of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness. After those first three weeks, when they began to realize that they were not dealing with a rebel, they moved the Alter Rebbe to a more comfortable place within the same Peter and Paul Fortress. Now, when the Alter Rebbe arrived there, he wanted to know whether anyone had ever come out alive. So he asked one of the soldiers, one of the guards, “What is your annual salary?” The guard told him the amount. The Alter Rebbe then asked, “Are there people who leave here and return to freedom?” The guard replied, “There are. Sometimes it goes one way, sometimes another.” The Alter Rebbe then knew that he, too, might leave there a free man, and his mind was put at ease. Around that time, a minister came to obtain various details from him, and the Alter Rebbe found favor in the minister’s eyes. This minister was very wise and well versed in Torah. He said to the Alter Rebbe, “I have a question for you. Will you answer what I ask?” The Alter Rebbe replied, “Ask whatever you wish.” “What does the verse mean,” the minister asked, “‘Hashem G-d called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”’ Did Hakadosh Boruch Hu not know where Adam was, that He had to ask him, ‘Where are you?’” The Alter Rebbe answered the minister as Rashi explains it: Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted to open a conversation with him. The minister said,

02:51 “I know Rashi’s explanation myself. I want to know how you explain it.” “Do you believe,” the Alter Rebbe asked him, “that the Torah is eternal and applies at every time, in every generation, and to every person?” “Yes,” the minister replied, “I believe that.” The Alter Rebbe was glad to hear that he believed in G-d, for this was the approach of the Baal Shem Tov for which the Alter Rebbe himself was being tried. He therefore hoped the trial would be easier. “Well,” the Alter Rebbe told him, “the meaning of the verse is that at every moment Hakadosh Boruch Hu calls to every person and says, ‘Where are you?’ Where are you in the world? Every person has been allotted days and years in which to do good toward Hashem and toward others, each day and each year. So consider: Where are you in your world? How many years have passed for you, and what have you done during those days and years? For example,” the Alter Rebbe said, turning to the minister, “you have lived so many years.” Here the Alter Rebbe told the minister his exact age. “What have you done with them? Have you done good for anyone?” The minister was deeply impressed that the Alter Rebbe had stated his exact age. He placed his hands on the Alter Rebbe’s shoulders and exclaimed, “Bravo!” Afterward, he questioned the Alter Rebbe about various matters, and the Alter Rebbe answered every question with great wisdom. Questions concerning Torah he answered with wonderful explanations from the Gemara. In his great amazement, the minister said, “This is truly G-dliness.” The Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach, says concerning the minister’s question and the Alter Rebbe’s answer that the Alter Rebbe’s answer saved him from a state in which his soul longed to leave his body. The Alter Rebbe was filled with joy that he had merited to be imprisoned and to risk his life for the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid. That delight in his imprisonment had brought him to a state where his soul

05:33 longed to leave his body. But when the minister asked him the question, and the Alter Rebbe himself reflected on the fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu indeed asks each person, “Where are you? Have you already accomplished what you are meant to accomplish?”—that itself moved the Alter Rebbe to want specifically to remain in this world, a soul in a body, so that he could carry out the tasks entrusted to his soul. The Rebbe then says that every Jew must know that this question, “Where are you?” is asked of each and every person, from the greatest of the great to the least of the least. Of course, the question is directed to each person according to his circumstances. One person is called upon to keep his soul from longing to leave the body, as in the verse about Aharon’s sons, “when they drew near before Hashem and died.” A Jew is told: No. You need to live in this world and carry out your mission and your work down here, in order to fulfill the purpose of making a dwelling for Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the lower realms. Another Jew is asked, “Where are you?” as a call not to immerse himself in desires and the like, but to strengthen himself in Torah study and the observance of mitzvos. And the very fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu makes this demand of a Jew also gives him the strength and courage to carry out his work and fulfill the purpose for which he was created in the world, with joy and a glad heart. As for the connection between the question “Where are you?” and the Alter Rebbe’s imprisonment, the Rebbe says that we can perhaps explain it as follows. The reason for the Alter Rebbe’s imprisonment was a heavenly accusation against him for revealing the Torah’s secrets through Chassidus. The Alter Rebbe revealed and publicized the Torah’s deepest inner secrets to all Jews by clothing them in the chochmah, binah, and daas of every Jew’s G-dly soul, and thereby also in the chochmah, binah, and daas of the intellectual soul, and even of the animal soul. This went so far that an understanding of G-dliness penetrated the physical body as well. All this caused a great accusation Above, and that

08:09 led to the imprisonment below. Likewise, the Alter Rebbe’s victory and release came because permission, strength, and a directive were given from Above to continue revealing the Torah’s secrets. Of course, a practical question arises: How can these profound secrets be understood by the human mind, to the point that a person can use them in his daily service of Hashem? But when a person studies the Torah’s secrets, it makes his soul want to return to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When the Alter Rebbe felt that his soul wanted to depart, he asked the question, “Where are you?” And because of that, he decided that he had to remain in the world. This gave strength to all Jews, so that even while living in this world, in the tangible world of desires and so on, they could reveal the Torah’s deepest secrets there too and bring them to bear on the reality of the world. Well, let us continue with the imprisonment. Beyond the matters connected to the trial, the investigators who questioned the Alter Rebbe saw the extent of his wisdom in many fields. For example, they once locked him in a dark room where the sun’s rays and daylight could not guide him. This was during the first three weeks, and they left him there for a long time. The investigators wanted to see whether the Alter Rebbe could tell if it was day or night. A candle burned in that room at all times. One day, at two in the afternoon, the investigators asked him why he was not going to sleep, since it was already late, past midnight. The Alter Rebbe told them that it was exactly five minutes past two in the afternoon. The investigators asked him, “How do you know the time so precisely?” The Alter Rebbe answered them: During the day, twelve permutations of the Name Havayah shine in the world, and during the hours of the night, twelve permutations of the Name Adnai shine. By means of

10:48 Through his knowledge of these combinations, he could immediately distinguish daylight from the darkness of night and determine the exact hour. The investigators then came to the czar, and the chief of police expressed his favorable opinion of the Alter Rebbe. He said that the Alter Rebbe was a great sage and a G-dly man and that, in his view, he deserved to be acquitted; the informers had merely fabricated false accusations against him out of jealousy. This opinion stirred the czar to meet the Alter Rebbe himself. The czar disguised himself in civilian clothes and came to the Alter Rebbe, supposedly to question him. But as soon as the czar entered his cell, the Alter Rebbe stood up and accorded him the honor due a king. “Why do you accord me royal honors when I am not the king?” he asked. “You certainly are the king,” the Alter Rebbe replied, “for earthly kingship resembles the kingship of Heaven. When you entered, I felt an awe and fear I had never felt when any of the ministers came.” The czar, too, came to recognize that the Alter Rebbe was a G-dly man. Meanwhile, the chassidim did not know where the Alter Rebbe was. He had been taken to Petersburg, but no one knew his whereabouts, or even whether he was still alive. Hakadosh Boruch Hu arranged a series of events through which the chassidim in the capital, Petersburg, learned where the Alter Rebbe was. One day, that minister said to the Alter Rebbe, “I would like to do you some favor, however small. Tell me what I can do for you.” The Alter Rebbe said, “I want to let my family know that I am alive, boruch Hashem, and that I hope Hashem will bring about my acquittal.” The minister said, “How can I do that? The informers are Jews, and if I meet a Jew, I won’t know whether he is one of the chassidim or one of the misnagdim.” The Alter Rebbe told him, “If you meet, in the streets of

13:22 Petersburg, a man walking around in unusual clothes, know that he is my brother-in-law, and his name is Yisroel Kazik. Before I was taken into custody, I told him to leave for Petersburg immediately, just as he was, and he surely did as I said.” The minister was deeply impressed and promised to fulfill his request, and he did. When the minister came to the Alter Rebbe the next day, he told him that he had indeed met such a man, but the man had given a different name. The Alter Rebbe understood that he was carrying someone else’s passport. He explained this to the minister and asked him to drive through the city streets again that day, in case he encountered the man once more. The minister did as he asked and drove through the city until he met him again. He asked the man his name, and this time the man gave his real name, but the minister did not respond. He made no commotion; he simply continued driving slowly. Reb Yisroel Kazik followed him until he reached his residence, and Yisroel remained standing outside. Suddenly he saw a watermelon fall from the minister’s window. Reb Yisroel Kazik understood that it was meant for him. He picked up the watermelon and went to the inn. There they opened it and found a small note in the Alter Rebbe’s holy handwriting. It read, “Hear, O Israel: Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.” They then knew that the Alter Rebbe was alive, boruch Hashem, and that there was hope. They still did not know where he was, but a few days later they learned that too. How? While the Alter Rebbe was imprisoned, several days passed in which he ate nothing, because there was no kosher food there. The prison warden thought that fear of the trial was keeping him from eating and that he meant to die. After telling him several times to eat, to no avail, he ordered the guards to feed the Alter Rebbe by force. But the Alter Rebbe pressed his holy lips tightly shut, and they could not open his mouth by any means. A great uproar broke out, and the Alter Rebbe was in great distress. But Hashem

15:42 saw his suffering and rescued him from his plight. Just then, the minister arrived, heard the shouting, and asked what was happening. They told him. The minister said, “It is not fitting to feed a man like this by force. Rather, you should speak to him until he agrees.” The minister went in to see him himself and asked the Alter Rebbe why he was not eating. After all, the trial might well end in his acquittal; but if he did not eat, he would certainly die, taking his own life and losing his share in the World to Come. The Alter Rebbe told him, “There is no kosher food here, and I will not touch non-kosher food under any circumstances, even if it means losing my share in the World to Come.” The minister said, “If I obtain kosher food for you, will you trust me?” The Alter Rebbe replied, “For now, I need no food, because my stomach has become very weak. I only need something to strengthen it. If a Jewish man could prepare a good preserve for me, I would eat it.” “And if I obtain that for you,” the minister asked, “will you trust me?” The Alter Rebbe said, “If you yourself take it from the Jew’s hands, and no one else touches it before it reaches me, I will eat it.” At that time, one of the well-known chassidim, the wealthy Reb Mordechai of Lepel, lived in the capital city of Petersburg. He was held in great affection and esteem by the ministers for his trustworthiness and upright heart. The minister immediately sent word to him to prepare a good kosher preserve especially for a Jewish man. Reb Mordechai had a feeling it was for the Alter Rebbe. Why else would the minister need kosher food specifically from a Jew? Reb Mordechai immediately prepared the preserve and placed a note at the bottom of the bowl, writing that he wished to know who would be eating it and where he was. He signed his name. The minister brought the bowl of preserves and handed it to the Alter

17:42 Rebbe. When the Alter Rebbe opened the bowl, he found the note. After he had eaten, the Alter Rebbe asked the minister to bring him more preserves. He left a little of the preserve in the bowl and placed a note beneath it, writing, “I am the one eating it, and I am at such-and-such a place. Send someone to Vilna immediately.” The minister handed the bowl to Reb Mordechai, who found the Alter Rebbe’s note, and his spirits, and the spirits of all the chassidim, were revived. Reb Mordechai immediately prepared a second batch of preserves and sent it to the minister, and someone was sent at once to Vilna. The man did not even know what he had been sent for or why. But they trusted in the Alter Rebbe’s power: surely, once in Vilna, the man would learn the purpose of his journey. Meanwhile, the Alter Rebbe was undergoing many interrogations. Throughout his imprisonment in the Peter and Paul Fortress, special commissions gathered and processed the denunciations against him and then questioned him about them. The interrogations did not take place in the Peter and Paul Fortress itself, but in a place called Tayna Soviet, the Secret Council. Each time, the Alter Rebbe was brought from the fortress to the Secret Council for questioning. The Neva River lay between them, and a special official took the Alter Rebbe across it by boat. Once, at night, the Alter Rebbe wanted to recite Kiddush Levanah while in the boat and asked the official to stop it, but the official refused. The Alter Rebbe told him, “If I wish, I can stop the boat myself.” The official still refused, and suddenly the boat stopped on its own. The Alter Rebbe then recited the psalm “Praise Hashem from the heavens,” which is said before the blessing of Kiddush Levanah. But the Alter Rebbe did not recite the blessing itself. The boat then began moving again, and the Alter Rebbe once more asked the official to stop it.

20:14 The official asked him, “What will you give me for doing so?” The Alter Rebbe gave him a blessing written in his own holy handwriting on a note. The official then stopped the boat, and the Alter Rebbe recited Kiddush Levanah. That official later rose to prominence and lived a long life in happiness and honor. He set the Alter Rebbe’s note in a thick glass frame adorned with gold and treasured it greatly. The well-known chossid Reb Dov Zev of Yekaterinoslav saw the note in the possession of that official’s son and read what was written on it. When the Frierdiker Rebbe, who received this account, tells the story, he says that as a child he wondered: the Alter Rebbe had already shown that he could stop the boat himself. Why did he need to ask the official again? And why did he not recite the blessing of Kiddush Levanah then, so that he would not have to rely on a favor from that non-Jew? The Frierdiker Rebbe writes, however, that when he grew older and delved more deeply into Chassidus, he understood that this is an important principle in serving Hashem, and that this was what the Alter Rebbe had to do: a mitzvah must be performed specifically through the natural order, not through miracles that transcend it. But the Frierdiker Rebbe writes that the presence of the Alter Rebbe’s holy handwriting in the possession of a non-Jew is one of the wonders of the Perfect One, blessed and exalted be He.