Episode 193 - The Alter Rebbe's Second Imprisonment

00:01 We are continuing with the history of the Alter Rebbe. We are now talking about his second arrest. The second arrest was very different from the first, although the cause of the arrest—the accusation against the teachings of Chassidus—may have been more serious than it had been during the first arrest. The government order arrived on the second day of Chol Hamoed Sukkos, 8 Tishrei 5561—that is, 1801—stating that on the 24th of Tishrei the Alter Rebbe was to travel to the capital, Petersburg, by mail coach at government expense. He could take two people of his choosing, who would travel with him free of charge, and three officials in civilian clothes would accompany them. Reb Moshe, the Alter Rebbe’s youngest son, then tried hard to persuade the Alter Rebbe to take him along. The Alter Rebbe was very fond of his youngest son, Moshe, and would often say that, by Hashem’s kindness, Moshe was ten times more gifted than the man for whom he was named. We remember that Moshe was named after the Alter Rebbe’s grandfather, Reb Moshe of Pozna, about whom we have told many remarkable stories. And here the Alter Rebbe says that his youngest son Moshe was ten times more gifted than his grandfather Moshe. The Alter Rebbe goes on to say that his son Moshe’s memory was extraordinarily good: not a single detail would ever escape him. Everyone recognized how different this journey was from the previous one, in 5559. The first had been an extremely harsh and severe arrest from the very first moment. The Alter Rebbe was placed in a black carriage covered with iron plates, known as the death wagon, intended for those sentenced to death. Soldiers with drawn swords surrounded it, while other soldiers with drawn swords rode on horseback, with officers at their head. They drove away the crowds of men, women and children who ran after the procession, shouting and wailing. That was the journey—the journey then. This journey, during the second arrest, was one of dignity and

02:57 honor. He traveled in a spacious mail coach, and at every inn the Alter Rebbe was given a separate room in which to rest. Wherever the coach passed, hundreds of men and women came out to greet the Alter Rebbe, and even the non-Jews in the villages came out with bread and salt and offered him their blessings. On Friday, the 28th of Tishrei, after a journey of four days, the Alter Rebbe arrived in Petersburg. An official from the office of the Minister of the Interior greeted him and brought him and those traveling with him to one of the houses in the courtyard of the Tayny Sovet [?]. They assigned them a Jewish servant and had a non-Jewish servant brought in to serve them as well. The holy Rabbi Moshe, the Alter Rebbe’s son, told the minister that his father, the Alter Rebbe, was accustomed to praying with a congregation three times each day—Shacharis, Minchah and Maariv. The minister said he regretted that he could not grant this request, because all of them—the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Moshe and the second companion—had to be kept apart from their brethren. Rabbi Moshe then suggested that people pray in the adjoining residence, separated from theirs by just one wall, and that small openings be made high up in the wall so they could hear the prayers and the Torah reading. A few hours later, this was indeed done. Over two months, from 28 Kislev to 27 Shvat, more than twenty meetings were held. Various educated people from different fields took part, many of whom were interested in the study of religion, Kabbalah, Jewish history and the era of the Sanhedrin. The meetings took place in one of the apartments in the courtyard of the Tayny Sovet [?]. At each meeting, a designated scribe recorded the questions and answers in full detail. The Alter Rebbe sometimes answered in the spoken language and sometimes in the Holy Tongue. Rabbi Moshe translated into Russian and, with the Alter Rebbe’s permission, clarified the Alter Rebbe’s holy words with explanations. Rabbi Moshe made a favorable impression on the ministers with his handsome appearance, his measured manners, his orderly speech and his clear command of the country’s language. They were especially impressed by

05:38 the fine way he spoke French, in an elegant style. When the questioning and investigation ended, on Sunday, 27 Kislev, the third day of Chanukah, the Alter Rebbe was released and allowed to take temporary lodgings in a private residence in the city. The government ministers had come to recognize that the Alter Rebbe was an outstanding leader, that Jews throughout the country were flocking to the chassidim and their leaders, and that the Alter Rebbe’s influence extended even to the leaders of the other chassidic groups. Tsar Paul agreed to the ministers’ proposal to give the Alter Rebbe complete freedom to lead the chassidim firmly and confidently in their established way. They decided only that, for the time being, until a final decision was made, he would reside in the capital, Petersburg, at his own expense. The Alter Rebbe then settled in a private residence at 21 Voznesensky Street. The chassidim rejoiced, and the months of Shvat, Adar and Nissan passed in joy, until Tsar Paul’s death. How did Tsar Paul die? The Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach, writes the following in a note: On Shabbos HaGadol, the eve of Pesach, Tsar Paul rode in his carriage down the Alter Rebbe’s street, Voznesensky Street. The Alter Rebbe was standing at his window. When he saw Tsar Paul riding by, he looked at him and said that his royal majesty had departed from him and he was now merely an ordinary man. And indeed, on the first night of Pesach, he was strangled. The story is as follows. During the Alter Rebbe’s second stay in Petersburg, as we are recounting now, he went into his room on the second day of Pesach. The chassidim thought he had lain down to rest. An hour passed, then two. The day grew dark, and the Alter Rebbe was still in his room. This was strange and caused them distress. Several hours into the night, they heard a sigh from the Alter Rebbe’s room, and the chassidim felt somewhat reassured. At the same time, they understood that something important lay behind this. At midnight, the Alter Rebbe opened the door to his room and said, “Go out into the street and see whether there is

08:42 any commotion.” It then became known that the ministers had killed Tsar Paul and that his son Alexander I had succeeded him to the throne. The second document Alexander signed was the Alter Rebbe’s release. When Tsar Alexander ascended the throne, he knew that most of the government ministers, the grand princes and the nobles were influenced by the scholars at the academies, who were Frenchmen whom he hated. Tsar Alexander therefore sought to win the goodwill of all the peoples living in Russia, including the Jews. Since Alexander knew that there were three groups among the Jews—chassidim, misnagdim and maskilim—he resolved to draw them all close. First, he granted the Alter Rebbe complete freedom and gave him a letter of recommendation allowing him to lead his community of chassidim as he saw fit. He also suggested that the Alter Rebbe make his home in Petersburg. Second, he sent three thousand rubles to the Jewish community of Vilna—that is, to the misnagdim—to distribute as they saw fit. Third, and this was difficult, he granted the maskilim’s request to permit Jewish children to study in non-Jewish schools. The Alter Rebbe spent nine months and ten days in Petersburg, from 28 Tishrei to 10 Menachem Av. For two months he was in the courtyard of the Tayny Sovet, and for seven months in a private residence. Throughout his stay in Petersburg, the Alter Rebbe attended to and organized communal affairs. Then the Alter Rebbe, his son Rabbi Moshe and their attendant Reb Yosef traveled from Petersburg to Liadi over four days in an honorable carriage that Prince Lubomirski [?] had the honor of providing for the Alter Rebbe. Two mounted horsemen escorted him, while chassidim close to him traveled with them in another four carriages. On Friday, the eve of Shabbos Nachamu, 14 Menachem Av 5561, the Alter Rebbe arrived in the city of Liadi, in the Mogilev province. When the Alter Rebbe arrived in Liadi from Petersburg—the city where he settled after his release from the second arrest in 5561—a new order was established for the delivery of maamarim of Chassidus. Until

11:51 So, for the most part, the maamarim were short, and the explanations were as brief as could be. When the Alter Rebbe settled in Liadi, he began delivering long maamarim with explanations and further explanations. Often he would deliver one maamar with three or four explanations, each with its own particular depth. After his second release, following his second arrest in 5561, Chassidus and its ways prevailed with even greater strength than the first time. The difference was that the first time there had been an actual arrest and release from prison. The second time, he was not held in the same severe confinement. In 5559, the denunciation was directed mainly against the Alter Rebbe himself: it claimed that he wished to become king over the Jews, was gathering people and money, and intended to rebel against the government. But the denunciation in 5561, two years later, was directed mainly against Chassidus itself. That also explains the other differences. When the Alter Rebbe was taken into custody in 5559, he instructed that no one come to Petersburg except those he had named. But when he went to Petersburg the second time, he permitted the chassidim to come. They came from many towns to inquire after the Alter Rebbe and find out how matters stood. It is known that three weeks before the Alter Rebbe left the Tayni Soviet, word came that the merits of Chassidus had become clear to everyone and that he would be released. But the documents still had to be presented to the king for his signature and then to the Senate, so his release was not hurried—especially since he was being treated with respect at the Tayni Soviet. He had spacious rooms, unlike the first time, when he had been held in the Peter and Paul Fortress, as we have already related. His stay at the Tayni Soviet was generally much more comfortable, particularly because the Alter Rebbe was already known in government circles as an outstanding man. While he was there, they treated him exceptionally well. They allowed the Alter Rebbe to bring in books,

14:34 and to have whatever food and drink he requested, and so on. One day, a senior official of the Tayni Soviet came and informed the Alter Rebbe that the case had been decided in favor of Chassidus. He had been cleared and would be released to continue his work and teach Chassidus to anyone who wished to learn it, without interference under government law. He would only have to wait at the Tayni Soviet until everything was written up, signed and approved by the king and the Senate. Legally, he was already free of special custody and could meet with people. He would therefore be given a residence with four spacious rooms in the building in the second courtyard, where his relatives and students could stay and attend to him, and everyone could visit him without hindrance. “When the approved documents arrive,” the official told him, “you will leave the Tayni Soviet and travel home.” Indeed, that very day the Alter Rebbe left the rooms of the Tayni Soviet where he had stayed while awaiting judgment and moved into the private residence provided for him in the building in the second courtyard. Within a few hours, the chassidim had heard the news, and messengers were sent to announce it in Liozna and in all the places where chassidim lived. One room of the residence was set aside as a shul. They brought in a Torah scroll and davened with a minyan. Throughout the Alter Rebbe’s stay in that residence at the Tayni Soviet, he conducted himself as he did at home in Liozna. There are long, detailed and richly informative accounts of that period of the Alter Rebbe’s stay in Petersburg. Here we will relate only that the Alter Rebbe’s joy and the delight of his pure soul were beyond measure. Every day, the Alter Rebbe would sit in one of the rooms—a large hall that could hold three hundred people—and speak to the chassidim. This practice itself astonished and puzzled them. Among the visitors were people who had known the Alter Rebbe for more than twenty years, including some who had been traveling to Liozna for twenty-five years. They had never seen him set aside time every day to meet with

17:12 Anash—that is, our fellow chassidim—in this way. The things he said and the stories he told also amazed them greatly. Everything about the Alter Rebbe’s conduct, words and stories during his stay in the residence at the Tayni Soviet was suffused with a special kind of joy and delight, one that cannot be explained, only felt. There are things that the cold intellect cannot grasp; they can be understood only by someone whose heart is warmed by a particular sensitivity. The Tzemach Tzedek, the Alter Rebbe’s grandson, was present then. When he later told his son, the Rebbe Maharash, about that time, he said that the Alter Rebbe’s conduct in his residence at the Tayni Soviet was like that of the person who blows the shofar after the blasts. According to the customs of Kabbalah, after the blasts the shofar blower should go to his place, sit facing the congregation and look at their faces, while they look at him. This is a gaze of inner love and unity, which silences those who accuse and seek to obstruct the shofar blasts from arousing abundant mercy. In other words, this affectionate gaze, expressing unity and love, repels the accusers, as explained in Kabbalah and Chassidus. And so, at the Tayni Soviet, the Alter Rebbe was an advocate who aroused mercy for the entire community of chassidim and for all of Chassidus. He, the Alter Rebbe, was the only one who knew the extent of the danger that had hung over the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and of Chabad. The Tzemach Tzedek continued telling his son: “I remember well both times that the Alter Rebbe, my grandfather, was taken to Petersburg. The first time, in 5559, they took him in a black carriage surrounded by armed soldiers. The second time, they treated him with respect. Two senior officials came, accompanied by two policemen to serve them. When they arrived in Liozna, they sent one of the policemen to ask when they might visit the Alter Rebbe, because they wished

20:07 to speak with him. If he had no suitable time that day, they could come the next day instead. Before the officials came, the Alter Rebbe summoned Chaim Zalman[?], one of Liozna’s prominent residents, who spoke Russian well, and sent him to receive the officials and show them the way. When the officials arrived, they stayed for about three hours and then went on their way. In the second week, the Alter Rebbe traveled to Petersburg, as he had promised the government officials.”