Chapter 229 - The First Rabbinical Conference in Petersburg.

00:01 In the story of the Tzemach Tzedek and his struggle against the Haskalah movement, we now come to one of its most dramatic stages. As we have already related, the maskilim, who were trying to impose heretical education on the Jewish people, initiated an assembly of rabbis, and the Russian government agreed to it. This gathering is known as the Assembly of Rabbis of 5603. The maskilim fought against the teachings of Chassidus through false accusations and informing, to the point that, at the Assembly of Rabbis in 5603, the interior minister demanded that the assembly agree to the government’s wish to make changes in the religion and to ban the study of Chassidus forever. There were only four elected members at that assembly, representing all the Jews in Russia, Ukraine, Volhynia, and Poland. The government divided all the Jews in those territories into four general groups: first, the chassidim; second, the misnagdim; third, the maskilim; and fourth, the merchants. Through the interior minister, the government selected four Jewish representatives, one from each group, to serve as members of the Assembly of Rabbis. The Russian government charged the assembly with resolving several religious questions and making changes in Jewish religious practice as the maskilim demanded—first and foremost, banning the study of Chassidus forever. The Tzemach Tzedek stood firm and risked his life in opposition to the government’s proposal. He demonstrated with clear proofs that changes in religious practice were forbidden by Torah law, and showed why the study of Chassidus was obligatory and how it fostered fear of Heaven and refinement of character. Besides his wicked desire to oppress those who feared Hashem, the interior minister had also been bribed by the members of the Danube[?] at the time—that is, by Lilienthal and his associates. He sided forcefully with the maskilim and demanded that the members of the Assembly of Rabbis sign the protocol he had drawn up in accordance with the government’s wishes. The Tzemach Tzedek objected and said that if they forced him to sign, he would ask to present his petition before the Tsar. During this assembly

03:02 they arrested the Tzemach Tzedek about twenty times, perhaps more. The interior minister wrote that he was rebelling against the government, and the Tzemach Tzedek’s life was in danger. But word reached the wider public, and a great uproar arose throughout Russia and its territories—Ukraine, Volhynia, and Poland. In every town that received the distressing news that the maskilim were demanding changes in religious practice, that the Rebbe of Lubavitch opposed them, and that he had been imprisoned for it, the community declared public fasts, with the reading of Vayechal, and stopped work. This widespread outcry, together with the Tzemach Tzedek’s firm resolve and self-sacrifice, alarmed even the interior minister. He withdrew all his proposals for changes in religious practice, and the study of Chassidus remained permitted. When the Tzemach Tzedek issued his ruling on communal matters in 5603, all the great Torah scholars and G-d-fearing Jews among the misnagdim received him with great honor. All the bitter memories of the past faded and disappeared. I’ll continue by describing a little of what was happening around this. The Tzemach Tzedek was brought to Petersburg. Although outwardly he had been invited to attend the Assembly of Rabbis, it was not merely an invitation: he was compelled to come and warned that if he did not come on his own, they would bring him against his will. Government circles wanted to make him a permanent resident of Petersburg. The Tzemach Tzedek was, of course, deeply distressed by this, and if not for the episode involving the Jewish soldiers, which we will tell later, he might very well have remained a resident of Petersburg. The government’s sole desire was to extinguish the light of the Jewish people. During the Tzemach Tzedek’s stay in Petersburg, the government provided him, at its expense, with a residence befitting his standing, with many rooms. He had a regular minyan there. During the first month, the chassidim were afraid to come, but from the second month onward they began traveling to Petersburg in large groups. Then the Assembly of Rabbis began. Let’s go into some detail about what happened. At the first session, the Tzemach Tzedek stated that, in his view, the entire purpose of the assembly was only

05:31 to strengthen observance of the Jewish religion among Jews and to establish, according to Torah law, that it was forbidden to tamper even with Jewish customs, since they, too, are Torah. The Tzemach Tzedek also protested that the government had not refuted the false rumor spread by those who disparaged Torah—that the printing of books of Kabbalah and Chassidus had supposedly been banned. He demanded that the government publicize the truth: that these books could be printed. The chairman of the session, the deputy minister of education, became very agitated. He fixed the Tzemach Tzedek with a piercing look and said, “The government has already prepared a detailed agenda for discussion at this assembly, and there is no doubt,” he continued sternly, “that the rabbis of Israel know the assembly’s purpose: with their mouths they will affirm, and with their hands they will sign, the Talmudic ruling that the law of the kingdom is law.” The Tzemach Tzedek replied, “The rulings of the Talmud do not need our approval. The meaning of the ruling ‘the law of the kingdom is law’ is that all taxes and levies, and the government’s legal provisions for the benefit of the country’s administration and economy, are binding. They have the force of Torah law. All this concerns economic matters and the administration of the country. The law of the kingdom has no bearing on matters of religion or Jewish custom, for even the lightest and seemingly smallest matters are Torah according to the rulings of the Talmud. If the intent in abolishing them is to interfere with religion, we are obligated to observe and uphold them with self-sacrifice, as the explicit law states: one must be killed rather than transgress.” The Tzemach Tzedek risked his life over every matter, even the smallest one proposed at this Assembly of Rabbis by the cruel minister of education, Count Uvarov. At the first session of that assembly, the session we are discussing now, the minister of education instructed the assembly’s secretary to present the curriculum and educational plan for Jewish children that he and his aides had devised. He ordered the four representatives—the Tzemach Tzedek, Rabbi Yitzchak of Volozhin, Rabbi Yisroel Halperin, and the scholar Bezalel Stern—to sign the plan. Seeing how dangerous the situation was, the Tzemach Tzedek stood up and said,

07:56 “The government called us here to hear our opinions, not to sign what others have planned. I,” said the Tzemach Tzedek, “refuse to sign and resign from the assembly.” Dr. Lilienthal, who was standing beside the minister, whispered in the minister of education’s ear. The minister immediately rose in anger and declared furiously, “The law of the kingdom is law.” The Tzemach Tzedek replied, “The law of the kingdom is law only in material matters, not in matters pertaining to the Kingdom of Heaven. It applies only to monetary laws, taxes, and levies. But Jewish customs are Torah, and no one has the authority to abolish them.” The minister asked whether the custom of women covering their faces with their hands when lighting Shabbos candles was also Torah. “Indeed,” the Tzemach Tzedek told him, “that too is Torah. We find in the Jerusalem Talmud that women’s customs are Torah.” The chairman of the assembly grew very angry. He rebuked the Tzemach Tzedek and threatened him with severe imprisonment for showing contempt for the laws of the kingdom. Only because it was his first offense, he said, would the punishment be lighter. He warned the Tzemach Tzedek to be careful from then on and to fulfill his duty to help put the government’s laws into effect for the benefit of the country’s Jewish citizens. The session was adjourned, and an hour later the Tzemach Tzedek was informed that he had been sentenced to three days of house arrest in one of the buildings belonging to the office of the minister of education. During those three days, no one other than his attendant, Yisroel Chaikin, would be allowed to visit him. They took the Tzemach Tzedek to one of the buildings belonging to the minister of education’s office, under police guard day and night. The deputy minister of education’s warning and the various threats made no impression on the Tzemach Tzedek. According to the account of the chossid Yisroel Chaikin, who attended to the Tzemach Tzedek throughout his stay in Petersburg, during that period the Tzemach Tzedek received twenty-two sentences of imprisonment lasting one, two, or three days

10:15 Days, and for that reason the assembly lasted longer than the time allotted to it. The sessions of this rabbinical assembly began on May 6, 1843, and ended on August 27—after Shavuos and before the beginning of Elul 5603, again, 1843. At one of these meetings, the minister—that is, the minister of education—asked the Tzemach Tzedek, “Surely everything you are doing is rebellion against the government.” The Tzemach Tzedek replied, “One who rebels against an earthly government is liable to physical death, but one who rebels against the Kingdom of Heaven is liable to spiritual death. Which is preferable?” The gaon Rabbi Yitzchak of Volozhin said to the Tzemach Tzedek, “You are forfeiting your share in the World to Come.” The Tzemach Tzedek replied, “If there is no life in this world for the Jewish people, what do I need the World to Come of Hakadosh Boruch Hu for?” At that time in Lubavitch, the Tzemach Tzedek’s sons instituted a fast and the communal recitation of Tehillim every day, and in many Jewish communities a public fast was decreed. During the conference, the gaon Rabbi Yitzchak of Volozhin asked the Tzemach Tzedek, “Surely everything must be done according to the Torah. Where do we find in the Torah that one must sacrifice one’s life over matters of education?” The Tzemach Tzedek replied, “Self-sacrifice in general we do not find in the Torah, but Kiddush Hashem we do. Kiddush Hashem has no bounds and no limit.” The chassidim were, of course, deeply distressed, because Nicholas I was a wicked ruler. They were very embittered. They did not dare ask the Tzemach Tzedek about it, but he sensed what they felt and told them, “If only they knew that when a Jewish child is brought into cheder, it brings light to the Hall of Merit.” When the chassidim heard this, they carried their own children, and other children too, with great joy, as one carries vessels of gold. Among the questions the Tzemach Tzedek was asked at this assembly

12:54 was one central question: What was new about the teachings of Chassidus? After all, even before the revelation of Chassidus there were tzaddikim who studied mussar and learned Torah with vitality. The Tzemach Tzedek told them, “The Torah says, ‘From His right hand, a fiery law for them.’ The Torah is called fire. Fire gives light and warmth, but it cannot give warmth without giving light, or give light without giving warmth. Hakadosh Boruch Hu imbued fire with a nature of rising up and prevailing: when a blaze breaks out and water is sprayed to extinguish it, the first water poured on the fire actually makes it grow. The Torah is compared to fire. It warms and illuminates, and the Torah prevails over all who oppose it. Among waters themselves, there are good waters and bad waters. Since water as a whole includes bad waters, even good waters can contain an admixture of something undesirable, though it is not the same as what is bad in the bad waters. To separate out the impurities that make water bad, and to find what may be undesirable even in good waters, Hakadosh Boruch Hu created fire. Fire boils the water, causing the impurities to separate and the water to become good. Fire also removes and separates the finer impurities that may be present in fine water, making it utterly clean and pure. The revealed dimension of Torah is water. When Torah is studied for its own sake, these are fine waters. But when it is studied to provoke others and to show off, it becomes a deadly poison. Chassidus, by contrast, is fire. The work of the heart according to Chassidus is a process of boiling, which separates both the coarse impurities of bad waters and the finer impurities of fine waters. This,” the Tzemach Tzedek said, “is the innovation of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezritch in the teachings of Chassidus generally, and of the Alter Rebbe in the teachings of Chochmah, Binah and Daas specifically.” Rabbi Yisrael

15:21 Chaikin translated this into Russian. Count Uvarov remained seated, lost in thought. The Tzemach Tzedek’s words had made a powerful impression on him. The young interpreter conveyed them in plain, clear Russian and with great warmth. It was evident that not only did the young man understand the words, but they were also close to his heart. The minister of the interior broke the silence, saying, “Why, this is profound religious philosophy.”