Episode 287 - The Frierdiker Rebbe's Struggle Against the Destructive Yevsektsiya.

00:00 We continue with the background to the story of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, the son of the Rebbe Rashab who carried on his work. We are in one of the hardest periods in Jewish history, the period after the Communist Revolution. The Yevsektsiya, the Jewish section of the GPU, was destroying Jewish life in Russia. This is the story. It was the darkest period for religious Jewry across Russia—a turbulent, deeply unsettling time, a time of destruction for religious Jewry and everything connected with religion. The terrible monster known as the Yevsektsiya fought with all its strength and energy to tear down the structure, uproot its foundations, and bring destruction [unclear], G-d forbid, upon the holy Torah and the Jewish religion. It was a time of blood and tears, of dreadful decrees, of synagogues and houses of study being closed, of yeshivos and Jewish schools being shut down. Any Jew could be arrested and sent to Siberia for anything, though he had done nothing wrong—simply because he was a religious Jew who kept the Torah and wore peyos and a beard. The Jews of Russia were persecuted for their Judaism by Jews who had betrayed the covenant, and by a regime that gave its support and power to sons who had betrayed their people and their Torah. In that dreadful, dark and bitter period, the noble soul of the Frierdiker Rebbe was revealed to us in all its splendor. The leaders of Russian Jewry at the time disappeared from view. Jewish communal activists were afraid to come out and speak openly. Anyone who had the opportunity left the Soviet Union, wherever the winds might carry him. But Abraham was one. The Rebbe stood alone: precisely in that terrible period, he worked and set others to work with all his strength and energy, kindling in the hearts and minds of his students and chassidim the flame of mesirus nefesh, self-sacrifice. He himself carried that flame high, and together they accomplished great things in every area of religious life across Russia. At first glance, it is hard to understand how they managed to operate in a country where the watchful eye of a terrible, tyrannical secret police watched every detail.

02:56 It was a country that had given every power to a band of people who had thrown off all restraint, to murderers—the Yevsektsiya—to destroy, demolish, trample and uproot every religious feeling. When the Yevsektsiya caught someone doing anything that went against its views, it arrested him, sent him into exile or, G-d forbid, sent him to the gallows. So how could the Rebbe’s chassidim, his soldiers, carry out their work? The answer is mesirus nefesh. The strength of self-sacrifice drove and spurred them to do what they did. That was what the Rebbe had taught them. That was how they had been educated in the great training ground for mesirus nefesh: the yeshiva known as Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch. The founders of the yeshiva planted the great flame of mesirus nefesh in the hearts of their students. They educated and guided them along this holy path, giving them the backbone to stand firmly and courageously for what their people held sacred—the few against the many. For the program of the holy yeshiva Tomchei Temimim was to educate and shape Jews who were whole and steadfast in Chassidus, who aspired to a complete, firm and uncompromising Jewish life. From 5657, the year the yeshiva was founded, until 5687, the institution produced class after class of chassidim for whom Chabad Chassidus—with its philosophical depth, tremendous conviction and truth—had become part of their very being. They entered every branch of economic life, commerce, industry and the trades, and remained faithful to their path. They were devoted to the great Rebbe like obedient soldiers. The Rebbe’s words and sichos to his chassidim—his soldiers—at various times, words that pierced heart and soul, kindled in them the flame of mesirus nefesh. They put his instructions into practice in this immense campaign to strengthen Torah and Judaism throughout Russia. No obstacle or hindrance frightened them. And when many of them were arrested and sent into exile, and terrible fear fell upon those who remained, the Rebbe gathered them and made them swear that they would fulfill their mission and the purpose for which their souls had descended to earth.

06:03 Let’s go back a little. This was in 5681–5682, that is, 1921–1922, some years after the October Revolution—the Communist Revolution in Russia. Hard and bitter days had begun for religious Jews in the Soviet Union because of the dreadful persecution by the Yevsektsiya, which we have already spoken about. Although the Soviet constitution permitted religious activity, including Jewish religious life, within certain limits, the Yevsektsiya—that Jewish section within the GPU—set itself the goal of uprooting every Torah and religious institution and extinguishing every Jewish spark among the Jews of Russia. Through various methods and means, they tried to do away once and for all with everything connected to religion, and at the same time to get rid of its leaders and spiritual guides. This persecution, which posed a real danger to the lives of Jewish leaders, caused a mass departure from the Soviet Union of rabbis and Jewish communal activists who could no longer bear the Yevsektsiya’s terrible torment. The Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, could also have left Russia, as many others did, and escaped the danger hanging over him from the Yevsektsiya, for he was known as the great leader of Russian Jewry. But the Rebbe, of course, did not do so. Not only did he decline the opportunity to leave Russia; with all the fervor of his holy soul, he threw himself into the difficult struggle against the Yevsektsiya’s formidable forces. And being a remarkable leader and commander, the Rebbe organized this struggle systematically. First, he mobilized all his Temimim, all the students of the Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch yeshivos, who took it upon themselves to be the first to undertake this holy work with mesirus nefesh. The initial plan was to organize and establish a network of underground chadarim and yeshivos throughout Russia, hidden from the eyes of the Yevsektsiya, through the Rebbe’s special emissaries. Thanks to the dedication of these Temimim, who feared no danger, over the course of

08:43 several years the Rebbe succeeded in establishing hundreds of hidden chadarim and Talmud Torah schools, as well as several large yeshivos. At one point, when the Yevsektsiya’s persecution grew especially intense and frightened some of those assisting in this holy struggle, the Rebbe summoned his most devoted students to a secret meeting in Moscow and made them swear to continue the work of spreading Torah study and strengthening Judaism, despite everything. If a teacher was caught, he was deported to Siberia for five or ten years. But that did not deter the next teacher the Rebbe sent to take his place. Thanks to the Rebbe’s work, shluchim—excellent speakers and Torah scholars—were sent to the remotest parts of Russia. They delivered impassioned speeches to strengthen Jewish religious life. When speaking about the Soviet regime, which granted its citizens general freedom even in religious matters, they quoted the Soviet constitution’s provision that every citizen could conduct his religious life according to his own wishes and conscience. They called on their listeners to strengthen or reestablish the Torah and religious institutions that the Yevsektsiya had destroyed: synagogues, mikvahs, yeshivos, chadarim and Talmud Torah schools. These shluchim of the Rebbe reported in detail on their visits to each place, and the Rebbe’s central office immediately sent whatever help was needed—a rabbi, a shochet or a teacher, along with the necessary funds. The Yevsektsiya, then working hand in hand with the GPU, began to notice that a warm, deep religious feeling was awakening among Jews in many places, and that Torah and religious institutions were opening from time to time in various locations. The Yevsektsiya concluded that a well-organized hand lay behind these activities, but it did not know who the organizers were or who headed the organizations. So it began searching vigorously for those it called “counterrevolutionaries”—that is, opponents of the revolution. But thanks to the Rebbe’s carefully planned work, organized along underground lines, its searches were fruitless for a long time. The Yevsektsiya first began to suspect the Frierdiker Rebbe after

11:52 Their searches and inquiries among various people. They did not, however, have clear proof that he headed the Jewish religious organization. The GPU then imposed strict censorship, on the Yevsektsiya’s instructions, on the mail arriving daily for the Rebbe from within the country and abroad. Although all the letters were written with great care, the GPU managed to intercept a few that were written less carefully. Those letters strengthened their suspicion that the hand organizing and directing activity throughout the country was that of the Rebbe of Lubavitch. With the Yevsektsiya’s help, the GPU stepped up its surveillance of the Rebbe himself and of everyone who came into contact with him. In this way, they gathered a great deal of material that gave them a clear picture of the Rebbe’s work.