9 of Nissan - תרצ"ט - Arrest of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson

00:00 Yemei Chabad. Now we're gonna do Yemei Chabad for the ninth day of Nisan in Taf Resh Tzadik Tes. That's in six thousand ninety-nine. This was, um, difficult time. This was the time-- This was the day that the father, Reb Levi Yitzchok Schneersohn, the father of The Rebbe, the great genius, the great Chossid, Reb Levi Yitzchok Schneersohn, the father of The Rebbe, who, um, who was a rabbi in the city of Yekatirinoslav or Dnepropetrovsk, known as today. He was arrested by the Bolsheviks. Uh, this was on the ninth, the night, at nighttime of the ninth of Nisan, Taf Resh Tzadik Tes, yeah, March twenty-nine, nineteen thirty-nine. And this was-- This took place in three after midnight. This was actually at three AM, after midnight. There were knocks at the door of the home of Reb Levi Yitzchok, who lived on the street Brigadna, number thirteen Brigadna, in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, Yekatirinoslav. When the Rebbetzin Chana opened the door... You know, imagine in the middle of the night, you're hearing banging, knocking at the door. She opened the door. Who- Barrikadnaya. Huh? I think it's Barrikadnaya. Barri- Here it says Brigadna. That's the, uh, Barrikadnaya, you think? KGB. All right. Well, it's, uh... Yeah. Afterward, the NKVD, they called them, the KGB. Uh, at that time, they were called NKVD. Uh, and, uh, four men of them were standing there. "Where is Rabbi Schneersohn?" they demanded as soon as they entered into the home. While the Rebbetzin was going to tell her husband about these unwanted

01:51 guests, these four men walked behind her, and they stood next to an-- every door from the doors of the home. One of the people of the NKVD showed Reb Levi Yitzchok an order, a search, and an arrest warrant. He showed it to the, uh, Rebbe's father, to Reb Levi Yitzchok. Without delay, they started their work. They inspected all the books that were organized in five bookcases. There were mystical books, the books of the Kabbalah. There were, uh, many, uh, correspondence of Shalas and Shuvus in handwriting. There were letters and, uh, telegrams that were from outside of the country and various communications. Everything passed through their very meticulous eyes. They all packed it all up in bundles, and they took it with them. They worked until three AM, and after they inspected the entire house, they turned to Reb Levi Yitzchok, and they said to him, "Rebbe, uh, put on your coat, get dressed, and come with us." I thought it was Yosef Yitzchok. This was the Rebbe's father. That was Rebbe's father-in-law. This was Reb Levi Yitzchok. That was the Rebbe's father. Oh. Since these days were very close to Pesach, it was the ninth day of Nisan, it was almost Pesach, and the, uh, Reb Levi Yitzchok understood that on Pesach, he will not be at home. So they allowed him to take a small package that had two, uh, kilos of matzahs, two kilograms of matzahs. When the Rebbetzin came the next day to the, uh, police, uh, to bring for him food,

03:51 she was told that in the prison, they provide food for all the prisoners, and that the food is kosher according to all the Jewish laws. "And in general, you should know that your husband is not even here." He-- Well, it just, it doesn't, doesn't even... He's not even here. So they have avoided of every time, avoided her to, uh, accept every time she would bring food. It was only after several days that she had received notification that her husband is in the local prison- Mm-hmm ... and that she can pass and bring him food and money. After several days, the, uh, authorities transferred him to the prison in the city of Kyiv, together with other criminals who were, uh, convicted of very serious crimes. The holy rebbe, the holy rabbi and genius and Chossid, Reb Levi Yitzchok, was imprisoned by the authorities because they s-saw in the Rebbe, in the Reb Levi Yitzchok, as one who is substituting for the, uh, previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, who has left some twelve years before in Taf Resh Peh Zai Peh Ches in the beginning. He left earlier. They saw him as the, uh, replacement of him, and that he is organizing all the Jewish activity in the Russian, uh, Empire. They tried with all their powers to prove that he is working against the government, and therefore, they placed him under very, very difficult conditions in the prison. And they would switch him from one prison to the other prison, and they actually always put him into consolatory,

06:02 uh, confinement. So you have for thirty-two days, it's called the tziner. I'm assuming that this means Uh, conservatory, uh, confinement. But he stood as a stone firmly. He never admitted any kind of guilt, anything that they tried to pin on him. Never said anything. It is related by one of the people who was a witness, who was together with the Rebbe's father, with Reb Levi Yitzchok in prison. He said... And this is his testimony. He says, "Who can withstand these tests?" He says, "Amongst the very few, one who was tortured in this, uh, kiln of torture was Reb Levi Yitzchok Schneersohn ztL. He never admitted, he never signed on his guilt. He was like a wonderful s- warrior. He accepted all of the pain that were his lot, but he never caved in. Never caved in. He accepted the judgment of heaven with love, and those who tortured him, he never admitted to them anything. Throughout this, uh, bloodthirsty, awesome period of time in which millions got caught up in that ‑ he says, "The Rebbe of Yekatirinoslav was the only one who this fire of the Gehenna could not break him. It did not... And the strong arm of the Russians could not, uh, cause him to cave in." This fact was sort of transferred within the prisons as some tale of wondrous tale about Reb Levi Yitzchok. Everybody spoke about Reb Levi Yitzchok as if as, uh, as about a very great and elevated person. After several months of his investigation, notwithstanding the

08:18 fact that the government had no clear proofs that he did anything wrong, he hadn't done anything. But, you know, Stalin didn't need any proofs about anybody that did anything wrong. He survived. What? He survived. He survived. So they decided to have Reb Levi Yitzchok moved away from any environment that has anything to do with Jews, so that he push him away somewhere. They sent him away for five years of exile in East Asia, and, uh, eventually, as we know, he passed away over there while he was there in, um- Like saying- In Almaty and, um, and, um, he, um, had a, a great deal of, uh, ‑‑ sort of pain over there as well in his, during his exile. And we also re-read about the heroic activities of his wife, the Rebbetzin Chana, who came there and tried the best she can to ease his, uh, difficulties, his predicament, and she provided for him some outlet with, by producing papers and inks and various different other, other items in ways she helped the, uh, Rebbe, uh, the Rebbe's father, Reb Levi, to survive. And matter of fact, she brought out with her when she came out of Russia, she saved many of his writings. Today, we have published several books, uh, very, uh, profound and very intense, uh, analysis of, especially of the Kabbalah and the, uh, fluency in every aspect of Torah. You know, sometimes when you read some of this history, it gives you a little bit of a understanding where the Rebbe

10:06 took that power, that energy to be able to become, uh, the leader of the world as the Rebbe did, and continues to lead, how he got this. And you see that this was part of the Rebbe's history. That was part of it in the DNA. That was his, uh, family with his father and his mother and all the people that came before him. Um- This was the Rebbe's father? The Rebbe's father. The Rebbe had any brothers or sisters? The Rebbe had, yes. The Rebbe had two brothers. The Rebbe had, uh, two brothers he had. Two brothers. He had two brothers and, um- They were older? Uh, no, they were-- The Rebbe was the oldest one. Oh. The Rebbe was the oldest one, and they had, he had two brothers. And we've read about, you know, the, about the, some of the history about the Rebbe's brothers, and that was the Rebbe's brother's daughter that we were talking about. Oh, the one from Israel. From Israel that they moved. Yeah. Right, right. Yeah. And, uh- Right ... uh, various different, uh... No, no, actually, that one was Reb Levi's, uh, brother's family. His cousin. Yes. That was a cousin. So that would be the- But whatever, yeah, that was that. That's what we read then. Yeah. But there's various different names. No, but we'll, we'll read, and we've read about, uh, about two of the Rebbe's, uh, Rebbe's brothers. But, uh, I guess, uh, the Rebbe together he had both sides, being a descendant from the

11:29 Tzemach Tzedek and from his father, and on top of that, then he became a son-in-law of the previous Rebbe. Yeah. So he combined, so to speak, the best, the best of the best on all sides and, uh, uh, then that's, that's why we have, uh, you know, we have ‑ ... what we have is a... But, you know, these people were real, and they really suffered. But, um, you know, I think the hardest thing is to stay strong when you have no support of anybody. You don't have your environment, you don't have your community, and you're facing just some of these cruel- Your community couldn't support you either. What? Your community couldn't support you- No but- Because everyone was on their back. Yeah. But there was no supporter of zero. No. And still to stay strong and not to give in, that is like- Well, they don't- Take... requires a endless amount of inner strength to be able to not break and, uh, not have them, you know, uh- It was 1939. Europe was at war