Episode 227 - The Espionage Against the Tzemach Tzedek and the Rabbinical Conference

00:01 Today we’ll tell the story of the spy the maskilim sent to spy on the Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek. Apparently, the Russian secret police of that time were involved as well. Shlomo Moshe was himself a chossid, and one of those who spied on the maskilim. Now he had come to a farbrengen in Lubavitch. During the farbrengen, one of the guests caught Reb Shlomo Moshe’s attention. The man stood on a bench and, from time to time, wrote something down on a scrap of paper. Shlomo Moshe felt that the man’s face was familiar. He had met him sometime before, but could not remember where or when. As time went on, he became increasingly convinced that, although the man was dressed like a chossid and clapped his hands and closed his eyes when they sang, he was not one of the guests who came to the Tzemach Tzedek. Shlomo Moshe kept his eyes on him for a long time. As he watched, he saw the man and Lipman, the candlemaker, wink at each other. Shlomo Moshe immediately understood that they had something in common. Then he remembered: this guest was Benjamin the apostate, one of the undercover spies working for the provincial governor’s office. Shlomo Moshe trembled all over, especially since this was proof that Lipman, too, was surely a spy, and that they were setting a trap for the Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, and the chassidim. Benjamin the apostate’s evil reputation was known throughout Vilna and the surrounding area. He struck fear into everyone, Jew and non-Jew alike, for he was bloodthirsty and took pleasure in the suffering of others. He had once taken revenge on Polish estate owners; on his testimony, hundreds of people were sentenced to death and their property confiscated for the government treasury. Any investigation involving even the slightest suspicion of an offense against the dignity of the crown was handed over to Benjamin the apostate. When the farbrengen ended, Shlomo

03:12 Moshe told Rabbis Yitzchak Isaac and Baruch Mordechai about his mission. He showed them a copy of the denunciation against the Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, and told them everything he had learned and how he had discovered it. He also told them that he had seen Benjamin the apostate, the undercover spy, here, disguised as a chossid, winking at the other chossid, Lipman the candlemaker. It was therefore clear that Lipman, too, was a spy. Shlomo Moshe passed this information on to them and hurried off to follow Lipman and Benjamin. Because of the deep mud, Lipman and Benjamin walked slowly along the sides of the street. Reb Shlomo Moshe followed them, watching their movements, until they reached Lipman’s home on Sarli, Saritsi Street [unclear]. It was a street where non-Jews lived. He heard Benjamin say to Lipman, “In the two days I’ve been here, I haven’t succeeded in my mission. They sent me to check on you for nothing. I’ll leave in two hours, and when I return I’ll report that your account was correct: the Tzemach Tzedek is occupied with his Torah study and Chassidus, and those who come to him ask about their private concerns. He has no time to involve himself in communal affairs. Granted, his influence over the Jews is considerable and great, but your continued stay here is only a waste of time. Surely, in a few weeks, you’ll be able to leave this swamp and return home.” Lipman asked Benjamin the apostate to come into his house and eat something, but Benjamin said he had had his fill of the kosher food he had eaten over the last two days. Now he would go to the police, wake the ispravnik—that was the title of the official—and show him his identification. Then he would have no shortage of a meal with fatty pork. Reb Shlomo Moshe returned to Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac and Rabbi Baruch Mordechai and told them everything he had heard. Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac and Rabbi Baruch Mordechai told Reb Shlomo Moshe that they had come here because, three weeks earlier, both had been questioned by the secret police, each in his own town, about who the

05:58 Tzemach Tzedek was, what kind of person he was, and what involvement he had in Jewish affairs—both in improving their economic circumstances and in improving their moral condition. They had now come to consult with the Tzemach Tzedek about it. At noon the next day, Avraham the tax collector came and told the gabbai, Reb Chaim Dov Ber, in strict confidence that the police ispravnik, Daniel, had visited him an hour earlier. Daniel had told Avraham the tax collector that the previous night someone had come, pounded hard on the police-station window, and called out in a commanding voice for them to open up. Daniel ordered the policemen to open the door. “How frightened I was,” Daniel related, “to see a Jewish man come in, looking like one of the guests visiting the Rebbe, with a sack on his shoulder, and command me, ‘Come with me into a room, or send your policemen away, because I have something confidential to tell you.’ As he spoke, he handed me his identification. I saw that he was an undercover spy, and I trembled all over. I gave him a private room. He changed his clothes, demanded something to eat, ate and drank, and questioned me about the Rebbe’s conduct. He ordered me not to let anyone know he had been here. At dawn, he ordered me to provide a good carriage to take him to the police in the town of Lozny. ‘And now, Avraham,’” Daniel said, “‘go and tell people about it—but in the strictest confidence. And be careful: he surely hasn’t forgotten Ispravnik Daniel.’” Here, in a footnote, the writer says that some time before this incident, Daniel had put this Reb Avraham in prison for two days. Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac and Rabbi Baruch Mordechai told the Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, everything about the undercover spies, as Reb Shlomo Moshe had related it. Reb Shlomo Moshe was then called in and reported on his mission. The Tzemach Tzedek decided that no one other than his son Reb Baruch Shalom, whom the Alter Rebbe had blessed with courage, should know about it,

08:24 and that they should continue to treat Lipman Feldman just as they had until now. About two weeks passed, and Lipman came to Reb Baruch Shalom and said he had received word from home that he had to travel there and did not know for how long. He therefore intended to sell his share of the candle business cheaply. One of the householders in Lubavitch, Reb Avraham Shilber, bought Lipman’s share. In May of that year, an official of the provincial secret police, a gendarmerie officer, was ordered to take up residence in Lubavitch with one or two assistants. He lived on Zarichye Street. The officer and one of his assistants spoke Yiddish, and he would often visit the small zal when guests were gathered there waiting to go in for yechidus. He would also enter the yeshivah when the Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, delivered Torah teachings. He was always dressed as a private citizen, except at set times, on Sundays, and on their holidays, when he wore his uniform. The Tzemach Tzedek’s communal work expanded over time, and the committee in Petersburg also became well organized. The young Yisroel Chaikin, a native of Novol [unclear], distinguished himself in his highly confidential work with the deputy minister of the interior, Adratov [unclear]. That year, 5601, 1841, the Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, sent fifteen thousand silver rubles to the Holy Land. Part of the money was intended to pay off old debts. At that time, the Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, also established Chabad shuls in Jerusalem, Tzfas, and Tiberias, and arranged the distribution of funds to all the Chabad families in the Holy Land. In the town of Borisov were two men who terrorized the entire region—wicked, sinful men, kidnappers, khappers—named Zundel Mazik and Isaac Khap. “Khap” comes from the word for kidnapping. These two scoundrels denounced the Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, claiming that in his large yeshivah in Lubavitch he was hiding thirty boys who had already been handed over to the army and had been stolen back on his orders. And indeed, the secret-police officer had already been stationed in Lubavitch for some time,

11:23 But additional secret police officials came from the district town of Binovitch[unclear] and from the provincial capital of Mogilev, together with district police officials. During the night they surrounded the Tzemach Tzedek’s courtyard, the yeshivah building, and the town’s two shuls. The officials questioned every yeshivah student and visitor they found in Lubavitch and demanded to see their papers. They also searched all the lodgings, the homes of the Tzemach Tzedek’s sons, and the homes of local householders. For three days, day and night, they found nothing. But the provincial secret police agent, whose name was Gavrilov, said he was certain that the denunciation written by the citizens Meitin[unclear] Zundel and Ginzburg Isaac—what were they called? Zundel Mazik and Isaac Chap—was true, and that if nothing had been found now, everything would be found in time. That is what he said. And time passed. In 5604, 1844, the Tzemach Tzedek received a certificate of honorary citizenship signed by Tsar Nicholas. The Tzemach Tzedek was engaged in extensive communal work in those years. The certificate of honorary citizenship he received from Tsar Nicholas made a great impression throughout Russia. Whenever a communal matter arose in Russia, Poland, or Volhynia, people turned to the Tzemach Tzedek for advice and asked him to intercede with government officials. For about ten years—we are going back a little in time—from 5588, that is, from 1828 to 1838, the maskilim of Poland, Volhynia, and Lithuania worked to spread the idea that secular studies were essential for the Jews of Russia. During the last three years of that period, up to 1838, they devoted themselves particularly to a campaign to compel Jewish children to study in general schools. The maskilim of Riga, headed by Dr. Lilienthal, took part. The Jews living in Courland and Latgale, being trusting by nature and in constant contact with the Jews of Riga, most of whom were secular, accepted the idea of spreading secular education. The group of young maskilim in Petersburg who rallied around Dr. Lilienthal

14:19 worked with all their might, and through numerous gifts, to gain Dr. Lilienthal access to the office of the Minister of Education. From time to time, they would arrange gatherings of young lovers of science—what they called “libhabers fun veltlikhe visnshaft,” lovers of secular knowledge. They held these meetings in the most prominent hotels and invited Lilienthal to lecture. His scientific knowledge helped put him at the forefront. Since many members of these gatherings were officials and senior staff in the Ministry of Education, those connections, together with the letter of recommendation Lilienthal held, opened the ministry’s doors to him. That, after all, was what he wanted: to influence the Minister of Education to compel Jews to pursue general studies. In those days, the efforts of the Chabad communal activists in Petersburg were focused on matters of livelihood affecting Jews wherever they lived throughout Russia. Their main influence was therefore in the Ministry of the Interior; they had no connections with officials in the Ministry of Education. When it became known that the young maskilim, guided by the maskilim of Poland, Volhynia, and Lithuania, were clearing a path into the Ministry of Education for Dr. Lilienthal, the leader of the Riga maskilim, the Tzemach Tzedek was informed in Lubavitch. At the Tzemach Tzedek’s instruction, the activists sought and found connections in the Ministry of Education to thwart the efforts of those young men and cool the ministry’s attitude toward Dr. Lilienthal. The members of the committee of Chabad communal activists in Petersburg explained to ministry officials the outlook of observant Jews who held fast to religion. They explained that secular studies, “veltlikhe visnshaft,” were not needed by the community as a whole, but only by individuals. Every Jew already learned what all residents of Russia needed to know to fulfill their civic duties and to engage in trade or a craft. During the years 5597–5598, the committee’s work succeeded in influencing officials in

16:51 the Ministry of Education to cool their attitude toward the demands of the maskilim in general, and toward Lilienthal’s proposal in particular: to compel Jewish children to attend public schools and study the language of the country, arithmetic, geography, and the like. At that time, however, something happened that the secular maskilim used for their purposes. For reasons connected with Russia’s economic situation, the government closed the Jewish printing houses and permitted only two to remain open, one in Vilna and the other in Volhynia, in Kiev. The maskilim publicized the claim that the government wanted what was best for the Jews, was opening the doors of the public schools to Jewish children as well, and had forbidden the printing of books of Kabbalah and Chassidus. The maskilim mounted a major campaign in favor of secular studies. Since Tsar Nicholas’s outlook and his opposition to the Torah, and to Kabbalah and Chassidus in particular, were known throughout the country, many Jews believed the maskilim and signed the petitions they had prepared to allow their sons to study secular subjects. For a certain reason, the Minister of Education summoned Lilienthal and charged him with preparing a detailed proposal for arranging secular studies for Jewish children in Russia. Lilienthal accepted the assignment. He said that, for his proposal to be thorough and suited to the cultural situation of Russia’s Jews, he would have to travel throughout Volhynia, Reysin, and White Russia and visit the leading Torah scholars and sages whose influence over the Jews was considerable. On his visits, Lilienthal saw that Jews in most parts of the country opposed secular education. Despite the maskilim’s extensive campaigning and efforts, the Jews had not severed themselves from their religion and Jewish customs, and the leading Torah scholars had great influence over them. Lilienthal therefore proposed to the Minister of Education that a three-part assembly be convened, representing three groups among the Jewish people—a maskil, a merchant, and a rabbi—to decide on a new system for educating Jewish children in Russia. The Minister of Education approved the proposal and wrote to the Minister of the Interior to arrange an assembly of the Jewish leaders. It was called

19:37 the Assembly of Rabbis. About a year passed in preparations for the assembly, and four people were chosen: the Tzemach Tzedek to represent the chassidim; the gaon Rabbi Yitzchak, son of the gaon Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, to represent the misnagdim; the well-known wealthy merchant Yisroel Alperin of Berdichev to represent the merchants; and the scholar Betzalel Stern of Odessa to represent the educated. Mendelstam was appointed translator. Then the preparations began.