Episode 198 - The Alter Rebbe During Napoleon's War

00:03 In 5572, around 1812, Napoleon’s war against Russia broke out. Napoleon wanted to conquer Russia, and he invaded with his enormous army. The Alter Rebbe and a group of fellow students of the Maggid of Mezritch opposed Napoleon. The Alter Rebbe said that if Napoleon won, the Jews’ material circumstances would improve greatly, but they would become estranged from their Father in Heaven. Napoleon, as we know, represented the spirit of emancipation, and that freedom included freedom from religion. By contrast, the Alter Rebbe said that if the Russian czar won, life would be very difficult for the Jews materially—as the Alter Rebbe put it, they would walk through rivers of blood—but they would remain connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. For this reason, the Alter Rebbe wanted Russia to defeat the French. Another group of the Maggid of Mezritch’s students wanted the French to win. What was their theory, or their working assumption? I don’t know. One could make various assumptions, including some rather remarkable ones, but I don’t want to offer my own ideas. I only want to say that a dispute developed between two groups of the Maggid of Mezritch’s students. We know that, ultimately, it is Hakadosh Boruch Hu Who determines what happens in the world, and He acts according to His plan. The rabbis are, of course, His representatives in this world, guiding its affairs. So this was not merely a theoretical dispute: whichever side prevailed in the dispute would determine the outcome. The students of the Maggid of Mezritch then decided, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah 5573, that whoever sounded the shofar first on Rosh Hashanah would be the one whose view prevailed. And indeed, those students of the Maggid of Mezritch who wanted the French to win rose early on Rosh Hashanah and davened quickly.

02:41 But when they reached the shofar blowing, which is usually held after the Torah reading, they wanted to sound the shofar, but with their ruach hakodesh they saw and said that the Alter Rebbe had already sounded it. In effect, his view had prevailed. How had that happened? We know that chassidim are resourceful. The Alter Rebbe had said that the shofar need not be sounded specifically after davening and the Torah reading; it can be sounded at any time. Since this was the most important matter in the world at that moment, the Alter Rebbe took the shofar first thing in the morning and sounded the Rosh Hashanah blasts. In this way, his view and that of his fellow students of the Maggid of Mezritch prevailed: the Russian czar would defeat the French, and Napoleon would suffer a defeat. Besides expressing his view that Russia should win, the Alter Rebbe also helped Russia in practice. He sent his chassidim, as well as his son Reb Moshe, to assist the Russians against the French. We will now read several passages written by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, the Frierdiker Rebbe, that tell this story. Since the passages are not arranged very well chronologically, I gave this introduction first so we would know how events unfolded. In 5572, Napoleon’s war with the Russian government broke out. The Alter Rebbe would pray for the welfare of the government, that Czar Alexander, the emperor of Russia, should win. A letter he wrote to the chossid Rabbi Moshe Meisels about this is of interest: “This is what our Sages taught: It is proper to leave the hide and the flask for the innkeeper.” In other words, one must show gratitude to the person in whose midst one lives. “My beloved friend Moshe, as Hashem lives and as my soul lives, this is what I was shown during Musaf on the first day of Rosh Hashanah: If Bonaparte wins, the standing of the Jewish people will rise, and there will be more

05:20 prosperity among the Jewish people. But the hearts of the Jewish people will separate and become detached from their Father in Heaven. If Alexander, king of Russia, wins, the standing of the Jewish people will decline and poverty among them will increase, but their hearts will delight in, bond with, and connect to their Father in Heaven. And this shall be your sign,” writes the Alter Rebbe, “that before long the delight of your eyes will be taken away, and they will begin to conscript men”—that is, soldiers—“from among our Jewish brethren. And remember what we discussed when we parted from one another in Petersburg, in explaining the verse, ‘Princes pursued me without cause, but my heart stood in awe of Your word.’” This is what the Alter Rebbe writes to Moshe Meisels. The Alter Rebbe’s grandson, Rabbi Menachem Nachum, son of the Mitteler Rebbe, tells the following story: “In 5572, during Napoleon’s war, the Alter Rebbe fled with his entire household and many chassidim. They traveled in sixty wagons, besides those who went on foot. Late in the day on Erev Shabbos Parshas Re’eh, 29 Menachem Av 5572, the eve of Rosh Chodesh Elul, they fled Liadi. The Russian generals had proposed that the Alter Rebbe flee from Napoleon by way of the town of Bayevo [unclear]. But the Alter Rebbe said they should travel to Krasna, and urged his entire household to hurry so they could cross the Dnieper River as quickly as possible. When the Alter Rebbe had traveled about two parsas from Liadi”—that is, near the beginning of the journey—“he asked the Russian military officials traveling with them as guards to provide a light wagon drawn by two good horses, with two armed soldiers as drivers. The Alter Rebbe took two people with him, and they sped back to Liadi. The Alter Rebbe hurried into his home and ordered a thorough search to make sure nothing belonging to his household had been left behind. In the attic they found two of his worn slippers, a rolling pin, and a sieve. The Alter Rebbe ordered them to take these and quickly set the house on fire. He blessed the townspeople and hurried away. But no sooner had the Alter Rebbe left the town on that

08:14 side than the first courier of Napoleon’s army approached the town from the other side. A short while later, Napoleon himself arrived, accompanied by his officers on powerful horses. Napoleon hurried to the site of the Alter Rebbe’s home and saw the house and everything around it engulfed in flames. He ordered the fire extinguished, but no one could get near it because of the intensity of the flames and the thick smoke. Napoleon then ordered an announcement to all the town’s residents and those of the nearby villages: any man or woman who brought him any object or utensil belonging to the Alter Rebbe, or even a coin they had received from his holy hand, would be paid in randles [unclear]—that is, gold coins. They searched the entire town and found nothing. By then the Alter Rebbe had crossed the Dnieper River. He hurried to catch up with the caravan, and they traveled together until they reached a village half an hour before Shabbos, where they spent Shabbos. After Shabbos they traveled all night, reaching Krasna on Sunday, the second day of Rosh Chodesh Elul, and rested there. On Erev Shabbos Parshas Shoftim, 6 Elul, they fled farther on. During this part of the journey, the wagon in which the Alter Rebbe sat was third in the caravan. In the first wagon sat Rabbi Menachem Nachum, the Alter Rebbe’s grandson, together with two officers of the Russian army. Whenever they reached a fork in the road, they would ask the Alter Rebbe which way to go. Usually, the Alter Rebbe would get down from the wagon, walk to the fork, lean on his cane in deep concentration, and then say which road to take. Sometimes, though, he would remain seated in the wagon and tell them which way to go. At one fork, Rabbi Menachem Nachum mistakenly took a different road from the one the Alter Rebbe had told him to take. After they had traveled about ten parsas, the Alter Rebbe asked when they would reach a certain village that was supposed to be on their route. He saw

10:49 Reb Menachem Nachum had taken the wrong road, contrary to the directions his grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, had given him. He came to the Alter Rebbe weeping and crying out. The Alter Rebbe sighed deeply and said, “How fortunate it is when a grandson follows his grandfather’s path, and how contrary it is when a grandfather is forced to follow the path his grandson leads him on.” The Alter Rebbe then instructed them to travel on. Everyone knew the blessing the Alter Rebbe had given when he fled Liadi: “May Hashem have mercy, and may we reach the borders of Poltava Province before Rosh Hashanah.” But the mistake at the crossroads brought many hardships and much wandering. Above all, it led to the passing of the Alter Rebbe in the village of Piena. From then on, Reb Menachem Nachum was deeply distressed for the rest of his life, blaming himself for everything that had happened because of his mistake at the crossroads. The story continues like this. We’ll jump ahead many years, past what is happening now, so we can understand it better. In later years, when Reb Menachem Nachum had grown old, he settled in the town of Haditch. Haditch is where the Alter Rebbe was buried after his passing. The chassidim thought Reb Menachem Nachum lived in Haditch because of that mistake at the crossroads. But once, when chassidim of the Alter Rebbe gathered for a farbrengen and sat together discussing Chassidus and recalling earlier days, they asked Reb Menachem Nachum, “Why do you always stay in Haditch, near the Alter Rebbe? Wouldn’t it be better to live at home in Niezhin, especially in your old age? Surely it would be better to be among your family.” Reb Menachem Nachum told them the story of the garment. This is what happened. Before Reb Menachem Nachum’s wedding, when he was very young, wedding clothes were made for him. Among them was a katinka, a very beautiful kind of outer garment.

13:48 Then the Alter Rebbe called him and said, “Nachum, would you agree to have a patch on your silk garment, your katinka?” “I answered my grandfather,” Reb Menachem Nachum said, “that not only did I not agree, I did not want it.” My grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, asked me, “What would it take for you to agree to a patch on your silk garment?” I told him, “Grandfather, I don’t want a garment with a patch. I want an intact garment.” My grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, promised that he would study Torah with me. I still did not want it. My grandfather said, “If you agree, I promise that you will be with me, in my company.” In other words, after 120 years, I would be together with him. That affected me deeply. I said to my grandfather, “Grandfather, that is a wonderful thing, but I want to ask: Must I truly want the patch, or is it enough for me to agree to it out of kabbolas ol, to comply with your request?” My grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, told me, “It certainly must be genuine—genuine from the yechidah of the soul.” When I heard my grandfather’s answer, I fell silent. I said nothing, but the garment remained intact. That katinka had a long collar made of fine pelts of various colors. When I went in to my grandfather before the chuppah to ask for a blessing, my grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, tore off part of the collar’s fur and, in return, promised me a long life. “That is why,” Reb Menachem Nachum said, “all my life I have been trying to make amends for the matter of that katinka, and that is why I live in Haditch, near my grandfather, the Alter Rebbe.” A year and a half or two years before his passing, however, Reb Menachem Nachum had to travel to Niezhin. He said his grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, had entrusted him with a mission for his father—that is, for the Mitteler Rebbe, who was buried in Niezhin. For various reasons, he was unable to return to Haditch. Another story about

16:43 Napoleon’s war is the story of Reb Moshe Meisels. We began telling it earlier. The well-known chossid Reb Moshe Meisels of Vilna was the youngest of the Alter Rebbe’s circle of disciples. He told the renowned gaon and chossid Reb Yitzchak Isaac Halevi of Homil, “You should know that the alef of Chassidus saved me from certain death.” “The Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe,” Reb Moshe told Reb Yitzchak Isaac, “taught us that the alef of Chassidus is to put the natural tendencies of our character traits to use in our avodah. The first step in avodah is to make use of the natural capacities we have—for example, the mind’s natural power to rule the heart. The Alter Rebbe told us,” Reb Moshe said, “that this avodah must begin by making it a habit, by training oneself. And when Hashem helps us learn the alef of Chassidus—putting the natural tendencies of our character traits to use in our avodah—we can advance further. That alef of Chassidus,” Reb Moshe Meisels related, “saved me from certain death.” This is what happened. During Napoleon’s war, the chossid Reb Moshe Meisels was among those at French headquarters. He was learned in languages—he knew German, Russian, Polish, and French—and was also very intelligent. The Alter Rebbe chose him to befriend the French officials until they gave him some kind of position. He would then secretly pass on everything he learned to officers in the Russian army. And indeed, after some time, he won the favor of the senior officials and learned all their secrets. Reb Moshe Meisels, for example, saved the military supply depot in Vilna from destruction, unlike the depot in the town of Sventsyan, which had been destroyed. He did so by warning the depot officials to post a proper guard, and those who wanted to set the depot on fire were caught in the act. But the French began to sense that someone was passing on information. “So one day,” Reb Moshe related, “the officers commanding the French army were sitting together, discussing the army’s advance and how to position its flanks

19:26 for battle. Maps were spread across the floor, and senior officers were studying the roads and routes. They had not yet decided where or by which route to attack. The battle near Vilna had to take place the next day, or no later than the day after, and time was running short. While the officers were still arguing among themselves, the door suddenly flew open so forcefully that even the guard inside was startled and reached for his pistol. From the force with which the door opened, everyone thought the enemy army had burst in to take the general’s headquarters captive. But they immediately saw that it was Emperor Napoleon, who rushed in with an angry expression and spoke in a thunderous, furious voice. ‘Have the orders for positioning the flanks and conducting the battle been issued yet? And who is this stranger?’” He pointed at me, Reb Moshe related, and in an instant came over and said to me in French, “You are a Russian spy.” He put his hand over my heart to feel whether it was racing like the heart of someone caught in the act. “At that moment,” Reb Moshe related, “the alef of Chassidus saved me from death. I answered Napoleon clearly that his Imperial Majesty’s officers had taken me on as an interpreter because I was proficient in the languages needed for their duties.” For several reasons, the Alter Rebbe did not want to leave Liadi during the war, first and foremost so that the Jews of White Russia would not lose heart. But when Napoleon crossed the Berezina River and advanced some thirty parasangs in a single day, the Alter Rebbe was forced to leave his home in Liadi and flee. The Alter Rebbe took with him all the members of his family who lived with him, apart from his youngest son, Reb Moshe, who was then at his father-in-law’s home in the town of Ula, and his brother, Reb Yehudah Leib, who was then at home in Yanovitch, Vitebsk Province. About ten of the leading chassidim traveled with the Alter Rebbe. He left his hometown in great haste on Erev Shabbos, and, as we related, before departing he instructed the townspeople to take the household furnishings for themselves—the beds, tables, and benches

22:07 And the like: nothing was to be left in his home. Even old, worn-out clothes and worn-out sandals were to be taken out of the house. And if there was concern that the enemy forces—that is, the French—would enter the city, they were to burn down the house and remove the Torah scrolls from the synagogue next to it. Not three hours had passed since the Alter Rebbe left the city when the French forces entered. One of their officers demanded to know where the Rebbe, Rabbi Boruchovitch—that is, the Alter Rebbe—lived. They showed him the street and pointed out the Alter Rebbe’s home. He rode toward it with ten horsemen, saw that the house was on fire, became very angry, and ordered the synagogue burned down. Let’s tell the story of Rabbi Moshe Meisels from a slightly different angle. While Napoleon was still at the Russian border, giving orders to his leading generals, the Alter Rebbe instructed one of his closest chassidim, the learned chossid Rabbi Moshe Meisels, to pay attention to the thinking of Napoleon’s generals. Since he spoke French, he was to try to obtain a position at French army headquarters. When the French crossed the Russian border and entered Kovno and Vilna, they sought people who knew both Russian and French. Rabbi Moshe therefore found a good position in one of the confidential departments of the army’s central administration under Napoleon, and fully carried out the task the Alter Rebbe had given him. Rabbi Moshe, the Alter Rebbe’s youngest son, who also knew French and spoke it fluently, moved from the town of Ula to the city where the French army’s scouts and map office were stationed. That office held maps of the regions of Russia, showing every road and route from city to city and village to village, as well as the forests and rivers. From there they sent small maps to each camp so the troops would know where to advance. Young Moshe became friendly with the officers in the office

24:42 and also helped them copy several letters brought by the scouts, written in Lithuanian, Polish, and Russian. By copying the letters, he learned their contents by heart and passed them on to trusted messengers, who conveyed them to the Russian army.