48. Saved By The Alter Rebbe

00:15 Hello, kinderlach. Last week I told you an amazing story with the Alter Rebbe and how the Alter Rebbe did not like the famous king of France, Napoleon. Napoleon Bonaparte, who, uh, wanted to conquer the whole world and made a big war against the Russian government and tried to go into Russia and conquer the whole land. And Alter Rebbe fled and ran away from him. I just wanna add one other part to the story that I didn't tell last week. The Alter Rebbe had a s- a Hasid, a Talmud of the Alter Rebbe. His name was Rabbi Moshe Maisels. Rabbi Moshe Maisels was a first, before he came to the Alter Rebbe, a Talmud of the Vilna Gaon, one of the great Talmidim of the Vilna Gaon. And of course, Rabbi Moshe Maisels was a big Talmud toch and a big Gaon. And at one point, the Vilna Gaon told him to go and study in Berlin. Berlin was a big university. Of course, he didn't send everybody there, but he sent him there. He said, "You can learn things there that you could use for Torah." And Rabbi Moshe Maisels learned a lot of languages. He knew, uh... Of course, he knew Yiddish and Hebrew, like every Jewish person knows where you grow up in cheder. In school, you learn Hebrew and you learn Yiddish. And y- and of course, he knew Russian, but he also knew French. He also knew other la- German. He had other languages that he knew very well. So when

01:57 Rabbi Moshe Maisels came to Alter Rebbe, he became one of the great Talmidim of the Alter Rebbe. And when the war of Napoleon started, Alter Rebbe used Rabbi Moshe Maisels to help the Russians, 'cause Alter Rebbe didn't want that, uh, Napoleon should win the war. Remember I explained this last time. Alter Rebbe was afraid that if Napoleon wins... Napoleon really offered the Jews a lot of freedom, that the Jews will never have to suffer from all the terrible things that the Russian tsar and the Polish kings and the Hungarian kings and all the other kings were, were being very mean to the Jews, but he wanted to be nice to the Jews. But Alter Rebbe says, "Nevertheless, he's much worse for the Jews." Why? Because even though he'll be nice to the Jews physically, he'll give them everything they want, but he's gonna want them to stop being so Frum, so religious. He doesn't want them to follow Torah mitzvahs. He wants them to be like the French. Do what the French do, you know? Drink wine all day and have a good time and not do Torah mitzvahs. So the Alter Rebbe was very against him. So the Alter Rebbe, he wrote to Rabbi Moshe Maisels a famous letter, which I mentioned last time. I don't know if you remember that, but there was a letter where the Alter Rebbe wrote to him that the Alter Rebbe himself said that he, the Alter Rebbe, went up to Shamayim, and he saw in Shamayim, in

03:34 Himmel, in the heavens, that it was decided like this, that if the tsar wins the war, things will be, uh, not so good for the Jews physically. You know, the tsar is, uh, wasn't very nice to the Jews, but the Jews will be a lot more committed to Torah mitzvahs and serve Hashem with great love. There will be a lot more spiritually. The Jews will be on a higher level. They'll be much more connected to Hashem. But if Bonaparte, Napoleon wins, then the Jews will have everything comfortable physically. Begashmius, they'll have everything they need and have freedom. They'll ma- be able to work anywhere they want and live anywhere they want, and they would have no problems from the goyim, but the Jews will be in danger of losing their connection to Torah mitzvahs. So Alter Rebbe said, "I'd rather live under the tsar and suffer physically, but at least the Jews will serve Hashem." They'll serve Hashem. So this Rabbi Moshe Maisels, the Alter Rebbe said to him like this, "You know so many languages. You're so smart. You know Russian, you know French. I'd like you to help the tsar. And how are you gonna help the tsar? You're gonna become a spy. You know? Become a spy, and you're going to, uh, spy for the Russians." That means you're going to spy by the French. You're gonna pretend... You know, what does a spy do? You pretend that you go to the enemy, and you pretend you're their friend, and they tell

05:19 you all their secrets. Then you go back to your own country and tell them, "Ha, I found out all the secrets, where they... how they're planning to move, how they're planning to attack our, our country." And therefore, when, you know, when you find out what the enemy is about to do, it's much easier to protect yourself and to attack them and conquer them instead, right? When you don't know what they're gonna do, they can surprise you. And then when they surprise you, they can, chas v'Shalom, really, uh, conquer you. So knowing their secrets is very important to win a war. You always wanna know the secrets of the enemy, of the other side. So the Alter Rebbe said to him, "You, you know French. You know French very well, so I want you to go become friendly with the French generals. You'll find a way of becoming very close with them and their friends, and you tell them that you come from Russia, but you wanna help the French win the war because the French are gonna be nice to the Jews." And therefore, he wants to help the French. "And when you become very close friends with the generals, uh, you'll become very friendly, and then they'll let you into their meetings. You know, when they have meetings, the general have meetings before they make a big attack. All the army attacks the country, like Russia, they'll attack the country. And how are we going to trick the Russians into, like, a place where

06:52 we're gonna be able to surround them? When you surround your enemy, then the enemy is lost because if- you're being shot at from every direction. So you go to the French generals and tell them that you will tell them all the secrets of the Russians, and you wanna help the French, but really, what you wanna do is that they should tell you their secrets, and that you tell the Russian government, the czar and his generals, what the French wanna do, and so that the czar will be able to, um, attack the French much better." So Reb Moshe Maisels agreed to do it, and he became very close friends with some of the J- French generals, the most important generals of the Napoleon's army, and they even let him into their meetings where they would meet and make plans. You know, when they make plans in a, in a war, the generals, what they do is they take huge pieces of paper and they draw up a map, and on the map they show, okay, we're gonna go this direction, then that direction. We're gonna attack the enemy from this side and from that side, and the enemy is gonna be surprised. They're not gonna expect us to come, so it'll be easy to capture them and to kill them and to conquer their land. So they made all kinds of plans how to attack the Russians. And Reb Moshe Maisels, because they believed that he's their friend, they let him in to be into the

08:25 meetings. But of course, Reb Moshe Maisels, after the meeting, would go straight to Russia and say, "Listen, they're going to attack you in, in a few days, in this, in this direction, in that direction." And there, the Russians were able to surprise the French and show them that they knew everything they're about to do. So Reb Moshe Maisels had his cane, a cane made out of wood. So how would he remember all the maps that the French generals were drawing up and how they were planning? So with his nail on this cane, he would, like, draw secretly while he was standing there with the Russian-- with the French generals, with the French generals, pretending to be their friend. He would, like, make engravings with his nail on the cane, so he would remember the movements that they were planning to make against the Russians. And so he would do this often, and this helped the Russians a lot. And the Russians were able to smash the French and defend themselves and protect themselves against the French. Now, one day, this is a scary story, but one day, Reb Moshe Maisels is standing amongst the French generals, and he's friends with them, and they, they're planning a major, major attack against the Russians. They're going to attack the Russians and conquer the whole Russia, and they're gonna... They were planning a very tricky attack. And Reb Moshe Maisels is, like, trying to memorize everything and put some with his nail, like, quietly, secretly, like, engraving the

10:09 pattern that they are making on their plans. And then suddenly the door opens up, and everybody's like stand still, like paralyzed. You know what paralyzed means? People can't move. They're, like, scared. Who just walked in? Napoleon himself. When Napoleon walked into a room, everybody was afraid because he was the king. He could do whatever he wanted. And so when Napoleon walked in, he looked around the room and immediately spotted Reb Moshe Maisels, a Jew with a beard. A beard and payos and everything. He looks like a real Hasid. And he became a little suspicious. "Uh-oh, this is a stranger amongst us. This is not one of my generals. What is he doing here?" And Napoleon, when he wanted to tell whether somebody's a spy, you know what he would do? He would try to tell them openly, "You're a spy." And when he tells somebody a spy, first of all, you get very nervous, right? Because they caught you. I mean, but you're afraid. You're very afraid maybe he's gonna find out the truth, that you are a spy, and then they're gonna kill you. So then he would put his hand on his heart and then feel whether his heart is racing very fast. When a person is very nervous, your heart beats, goes very, very, very fast. So what he did with Reb Moshe Maisels, he walked over in a second, like boom, ran over to him, and he says in French, "Vous êtes un espion. You are a spy." And boom, he

11:51 put his hand against his heart right away, in a second. Put his, right away, his hand against his heart to see if his heart is gonna race fast. If his heart races fast, it's a sign- That he is a spy. That's why he's nervous. 'Cause if he's not a spy, why would he be nervous? It's just a false accusation. It's just not true. He's not a spy. He just made a mistake. So Napoleon would make this as a test. He said, "Vous êtes un espion." You can say it in French. Vous êtes un espion. Say it with me. Vous êtes un espion. You are a spy. And he said it quickly and, "Vous êtes un espion." You're a spy. Boom. And he put his hand against his heart, and he wanted to feel whether his heart is racing. Now normally, Reb Moshe, oy yoy, would've been very, very nervous because if Napoleon feels his heart, he would get very nerv- He, his heart would be racing because Napoleon is, is, is trying to find out whether he's a spy. That's very dangerous. You know, when you're in danger, you get very scared, and your heart begins to race. The heartbeats go very fast. But what happened was Reb Moshe Meisels controlled his heart, and he stayed very calm, and his heart was beating very normally, which is very, very hard to do. Imagine you see a big dog barking at you, and you get very scared. You go, "Okay. I'm gonna try to be very

13:22 calm and not be scared at all." It's very hard to do that. But Reb Moshe Meisels managed to do that, and when Napoleon saw that his heart rate did not change, he was just a slow, normal heartbeat, he said, "Okay. He's not a spy." He let him go, and he saved his life. Later on, Reb Moshe Meisels explained, "The reason I was able to do this is because the Alter Rebbe, my rebbe, taught me and taught many others as well how to control our hearts." But not just the racing of the heart, how fast the heart will beat and race. It, it, it meant something else. Uh, controlling your heart against the yetzer hara. The yetzer hara comes into your heart and makes the heart feel excited. "Ah, I want this, and I want that." And these are not good things. So how do you control your heart? You tell the heart, "Shh, quiet. I'm in control. I'm in charge. My sechel is in charge, and my sechel tells me that listening to Hashem is, is much better. Not only much better, it's the only good thing to do. And therefore, your heart should listen to me." So a person has to be able to do it. The Alter Rebbe said everybody can do it. Everybody can do it. Everybody has the ability. You just have to have the courage. You have to have the, you know, the strength and do it, and do it, and say, "I'm gonna do it." Says, "My heart should

14:58 be under the control of my mind. If my mind knows the truth, that Hashem is the only one we wanna serve, and we don't wanna do anything which is against Hashem's will," then you won't, the yetzer hara will not be able to get your heart all excited about an aveira because you're gonna tell the heart to be quiet and listen to what the sechel tells it. Reb Moshe Meisels said that, "At that moment when Napoleon put his hand on my heart, I remembered what Alter Rebbe taught me. He taught me that you can control your heart." He said, "I gotta use this technique. I gotta use this thing the Alter Rebbe taught me." And immediately I said, "Okay. Heart, you have to be calm. Don't race fast because that's the right thing to be now because Napoleon is gonna kill you otherwise. He's gonna kill me. So therefore, calm down. Relax." And my heart listened because I already trained my heart to listen to my sechel. If my sechel says this is the right thing to do, I don't let my heart go wild and do what it wants. And this is a lesson for all of us. The Alter Rebbe said, "Moach shalit al halev." Say it with me. Moach shalit al halev. The mind can control the heart. And everyone, no matter who you are, if your heart is racing, not physically only, but it's racing with tavah, with, with, with yetzer hara, desires of the yetzer hara, you can say, "No, be

16:46 quiet and calm down. Listen to what the sechel has to tell you. Listen what's good for you, what's really good for you, who should really be in charge of you," and the heart will calm down. Kinderlach, have a good night.