Episode 228 - The Establishment of a Rabbinical Conference on the Initiative of the Maskilim

00:01 In the course of the struggle with the maskilim, there were various developments. One of the most significant was that famous gathering of rabbis, which the maskilim had actually initiated in order to attack religious Judaism. This was around 1842, the year 5602. We continue the story here. In 5602, people began speaking about a gathering of rabbis in Petersburg. The gathering itself took place in the summer of 5603, 1843. Throughout the winter of 5603, chassidim came to take leave of the Tzemach Tzedek before his journey to Petersburg. There was great fear. The Rebbe Maharash described 5603 as a Baal Shem Tov year, a special year in which the Tzemach Tzedek conducted himself differently than in other years. Usually, the Tzemach Tzedek’s routine was orderly. Those close to him knew his daily schedule well: when he woke up, when he davened, and the rest of his day. The door to the Tzemach Tzedek’s room was generally open, but no one would enter unless first summoned by the gabbaim who sat in the outer room. Even the Tzemach Tzedek’s sons, when they needed to see him, would wait until he called one of the gabbaim, and then ask through him whether they should enter. But in 5603, the routine changed completely. It began already in Elul 5602. Chai Elul, the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov and the birthday of the Alter Rebbe, fell on a Wednesday that year. On that day, a change in the Tzemach Tzedek’s conduct was felt. For the first time, the Tzemach Tzedek instructed them to daven Minchah an hour and a half after midday and to wait for him for Maariv. He remained shut in his room all day. At eleven o’clock that night, he opened the door to his room

02:48 and instructed them to daven Maariv. Among the early chassidim, it was accepted that the Rebbeim’s avodah in a leap year differed from their avodah in an ordinary year. So they thought the changes in the Tzemach Tzedek’s conduct were because 5603 was a leap year. But they immediately recalled that in previous leap years, there had been no such drastic change, no such withdrawal and solitude. The real reason for the change was that the Alter Rebbe had informed his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek, that the coming year, 5603, would be a difficult one for him. And so it was. That year, the Tzemach Tzedek traveled to Petersburg for the gathering of rabbis, where he suffered greatly at the hands of the maskil and heretic Menachem Lilienthal, grandson of the heretic and maskil Shimon Mizmoth[?]. On Erev Rosh Hashanah 5603, too, a change in the Tzemach Tzedek’s conduct was felt. Every year on Erev Rosh Hashanah, after the annulment of vows, a beis din of ten men would bless the Tzemach Tzedek with long life in honor of his birthday, which fell on Erev Rosh Hashanah. The Tzemach Tzedek would answer, “Amen, may Hashem so decree,” or “Amen, may it be His will.” On Erev Rosh Hashanah 5603, he said, “Amen, may it be His will,” and added, “The fifty-fourth year of a person’s life is especially difficult, and one needs a double and triple blessing.” On both Erev Rosh Hashanah 5603 and the Fast of Gedaliah, the yahrzeit of his mother, Rebbetzin Devorah Leah, the Tzemach Tzedek sent a pidyon nefesh through the gabbai, the chossid Rabbi Chaim Dov Ber, to his mother’s gravesite in Liozna. The wording of the two pidyonos, on Erev Rosh Hashanah and on the Fast of Gedaliah, was identical. This is what was written in the pidyon nefesh: “The people of Berlin are gaining strength. The decree is ready to be announced. Their plan is to invite rabbis who will agree to their proposals. Either way, whether I live or fall ill, please go to your father’s chamber and convey my request to him: that he arouse mercy so the decrees will be annulled. And if I am not worthy, may it be His will that they be annulled through me.” The gabbai, Rabbi Chaim Dov

05:48 Ber, was completely discreet. Not only did no one know that the Rebbe had sent him on a mission; no one even noticed his absence. Both times, on Erev Rosh Hashanah and on the Fast of Gedaliah, he traveled at night. At daybreak, he visited the gravesite of the Rebbe’s mother, Rebbetzin Devorah Leah, delivered his message, and traveled back, arriving without anyone noticing what had happened... at the evening meal. Later that year, on the Seventh Day of Pesach 5603, the Tzemach Tzedek said: “The Seventh Day of Pesach is the Rosh Hashanah for mesirus nefesh. When Moshe Rabbeinu conveyed Hashem’s words, ‘Speak to the Children of Israel, and let them journey,’ Nachshon ben Aminadav immediately leaped into the sea with mesirus nefesh. The revelations of the Seventh Day of Pesach are revelations of the Essence, coming through an awakening from Above. In general, every seventh is cherished, and the seventh is particularly associated with the revelation of the Essence: ‘The King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, revealed Himself to them,’ as He did on the night of Pesach. Nevertheless, before the revelations of the Essence on the Seventh Day of Pesach and the splitting of the sea... when the sea, the concealed world, became dry land, a revealed world, there had to be an act of mesirus nefesh. Nachshon ben Aminadav gave himself over because Hakadosh Boruch Hu had said, ‘Let them journey.’ It was mesirus nefesh for the idea of continually journeying onward, which Avraham Avinu had already begun. The Seventh Day of Pesach is the Rosh Hashanah for mesirus nefesh. On this day, every person must, and can, resolve to stand firm with mesirus nefesh for Torah and mitzvos and for serving the Creator throughout the year.” Then, the next day, at the daytime meal of the Seventh Day of Pesach, the Rebbe said: “It is an established halachah that when a frequent occurrence and an infrequent occurrence coincide, the frequent one comes first... The frequent aspect of today,” the Tzemach Tzedek said, “is that it is Wednesday; the infrequent aspect is that it is the Seventh Day of Pesach. The Torah passage for Wednesday is, ‘Let there be luminaries.’ But ‘luminaries’ is written without a vav.

08:28 “‘Luminaries’ with a vav refers to a luminary that is a source of abundance and blessing. But ‘luminaries’ without a vav suggests a curse. On Wednesday, the luminaries were set in place to shine upon the earth. In a spiritual sense, ‘luminaries’ refers to young children learning Torah—their breath, untainted by sin, upon which the world depends. But ‘luminaries’ is written without a vav. Rashi writes that the vav is missing because this was a day of calamity, when children could be stricken with croup. The Gemara says that croup is a punishment for the sin of lashon hara. This is associated with Wednesday because on Wednesday the moon spoke lashon hara about the sun. The passage associated with the infrequent aspect is the passage of Az Yashir, ‘Then Moshe sang,’ concerning the revelation of the Essence at the splitting of the sea.” The Tzemach Tzedek concluded with a blessing. Listen carefully: “May Hashem have mercy, so that the Az Yashir of Moshe Rabbeinu and the Jewish people will annul the decree of spiritual croup that the people of Berlin wish to impose upon the Jewish people through the power of the government.” Then, before his journey to Petersburg, the Tzemach Tzedek instructed his sons and his wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka—Chaya Mussya—the daughter of the Mitteler Rebbe and granddaughter of the Alter Rebbe, to recite three chapters of Tehillim in his room every day, including Shabbos. He sent his attendant, Reb Hirsch, to Liozna with a pidyon nefesh to be placed at his mother’s gravesite. The Tzemach Tzedek then said: “They took my grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, to Petersburg. I am traveling there myself. My grandfather had mesirus nefesh for the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and for the chassidim. For us, though, it should already be a well-trodden path, an ordinary road.” The Tzemach Tzedek himself visited his mother’s gravesite before traveling to Petersburg. As he later told his son, the Rebbe Maharash: “In 5603, when I was summoned to the gathering of rabbis in Petersburg, I visited the gravesite of my righteous mother in Liozna. She told me that, because of her mesirus nefesh for chassidim and Chassidus, she had merited to enter the chamber of the Baal Shem Tov to arouse mercy on my behalf. She asked the Baal Shem Tov to give her something that would help me, with Hashem’s help, stand against the opponents of the teachings of Chassidus.

11:14 “The Baal Shem Tov told her: ‘Your son knows the Five Books of the Torah, Tehillim, and Tanya by heart, letter for letter. The verse in Bereishis 35:5 says, “And the dread of G-d was upon them.” The Hebrew word for “dread,” Chitas, is an acronym for Chumash, Tehillim, Tanya. One who knows their letters by heart breaks through every concealment and obstruction.’”