27 Menachem Av - The Tzemach Tzedek leaves Petersburg - כ"ו מנחם אב יום שבו עזב אדמו"ר הצ"צ את פעטערבורג, לאחרי שנאסר שם 22 פעמים

00:00 Uh, Yemei Chabad for the twenty-sixth day of, uh, Menachem Av. And, um, this day is the day that the Tzemach Tzedek, that's the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, uh, he left the city of Petersburg. Uh, he came there. They had a big meeting, and he had been arrested, uh, for many, many times during that meeting over there. Uh, arrested like twenty-two times. Um, we're talking about, uh, this is in 1846. Um, uh, that is when this was taking place. What happened was, there was a movement known as the Haskalah movement. Um, this was actually a Jewish, uh, group who had made it their goal sort of to educate, uh, the Jewish people. Uh, they essentially wanted to uproot the foundations of Torah and the belief. Uh, they're trying to substitute it with the Enlightenment movement, that what they would call them, with Enlightenment. They considered the rabbis and the religious people primitive, uh, believing in old-fashioned stuff and the Torah and the mitzvot. And they believe that people have progressed to the point that they don't no longer believe in, in, in these things, in the Torah and the miracles and Hashem and all these, uh, foundations of the Torah. This movement, this Enlightenment movement, they were very strongly trying to influence the Russian Jewry. They come from-- mainly from Germany. That's where the Enlightenment movement started, where the Jew-- sort of the progressive kinds of Jews. Um, they mainly waged war was against the teaching of Hasidis. Uh, they found that, uh, to

02:31 be particularly disturbing to them, the Hasidic philosophy. Um, they sent out various different agents from their group which found, uh, their way into the government officials, and they tried to influence them to pass a law that all Jewish children are obligated to learn, uh, the general studies. Uh, they need to learn the language of the country, and they used to-- need to learn math, geography, et cetera. Uh, they said that, uh, they need to, uh, be part of the society. They cannot speak Yiddish or, uh, study Torah all day, uh, Chumash and things like that. They need to get involved and be part of all the general studies, the, the general curriculum. It was the, uh, person in the government who was in charge of the Interior Ministry. Um, he called-- he invited a gathering of the rabbis, and the purpose of that was that he wanted to make established rules that the Jewish people and the religion that they must follow based on the demands of this Enlightenment movement, of the Maskilim. And the first and foremost was to prohibit the study of Hasidis. And the people saw that the Tzemach Tzedek during that time, he was-- it was his whole mood was changed because this was a really looming ja-- danger. And he had sent a note to the gravesite of his mother. His mother was the daughter of the Alter Rebbe, Reb Schneur Zalman, to the, uh, city of Lyozno. Apparently, the Alter Rebbe himself was in a far further way. He

04:47 was buried in Piena, in a village of Piena, which was probably not accessible as easily like the city of Lyozno. The Tzemach Tzedek lived in Lu- Lubavitch, and he had to send this note to, uh, the gravesite in, um, in Lyozno. But apparently, he sent it to his mother, who was the daughter of the Alter Rebbe, not being able to send it directly to the Alter Rebbe. That's just my own interpretation. And in his note, he wrote sort of that the people of Berlin, that's Germany, of the city of Berlin in Germany, um, they are sort of gaining strength, and their decree is about to be publicized. Um, and, um, their advice is to invite the rabbis so that the rabbis should agree to their suggestions. So they're looking for the approval of the rabbis. They're trying to get the entire Jewish people. Uh, and he's asking his mother to go and to the, uh, her father's resting place and to the room of her fathers and give over my request to arouse great mercy that these decrees should be nullified. And, uh, if I will merit, I will be the agent to nullify this decree. Uh, the Tzemach Tzedek stood very, very strongly against the... Again, this was in Taf Resh Gimel, the Hebrew date Taf Resh Gimel. Like I said, it's 1846. Um, he was standing very strongly against any suggestions of the government, and he proved with very clear evidence that it is prohibited from the religion to make any changes in

06:35 the way of the Torah, and he proved that it's oblig-- mandatory that one should learn Hasidus. This is definitely okay. The interior min-minister, in addition to being a evil person, he was also... And he, he was just a evil person, wanted to do bad to all religious people, but he was Jewish people, but he was also bribed by these enlightenment movement, and he was very strongly on their side against, you know, against the, uh, the Tzemach Tzedek. And he demanded that all of the rabbi should sign on the, on the, uh, decision, on the report, and, uh, the Tzemach Tzedek opposed it full forcely, and as mentioned, he was arrested 22 times. At one point, the interior minister asked the Tzemach Tzedek, "The way you are conducting yourself, this is considered to be rebelling against the government." And the Tzemach Tzedek answered him, this is Rabbi Menachem Mendel, again, the, the Rebbe. He said that, "One who rebels against the government is liable to be punished with death physically. But on the other hand, if you rebel against the heavenly kingdom, one is liable for death for his soul. So which rebellion is, is, is, is, is greater?" So against Hashem is greater, basically, and therefore, I'm gonna rebel against Hashem. The Tzemach Tzedek was in great danger at that time. It was known all over Russia, and the Jewish people were very, uh, afraid from the situation. And in all Jewish communities, they gathered to make public fast days, and they would read Vayikra

08:28 like you do on a fast day when you beseech Hashem. They didn't go to work. This big storm, and this strength, and this certainty with the, uh, dedication, selfless sacrifice of the Tzemach Tzedek actually had its effect, and the interior minister retracted from all of his suggestions in fixing the Jewish religion, and the study of Hasidus has been permitted as it was in the beginning. The Rebbe relates in a, uh, gathering, the Rebbe related in, uh, Taf Shin Yud Zayin, in a gathering in Shaar HaBerachos that... He says like this, an interesting story, that in the year Taf Resh Gimel, they called the Tzemach Tzedek to Petersburg. Uh, it appeared like he was called to come to a gathering of the rabbis. That was the pretext. Uh, it seemed like that. However, this wasn't just they called him, they actually forced him to come. They had in mind, uh, they prepared the decree to have the Tzemach Tzedek remain in Petersburg for the rest of his days so that they can guard him, so that he should not be able to occupy himself with spreading out the Kabbalah and Hasidus. They wanted to occupy himself. But what happened is, when they brought that ruling to the, to the Kaiser, to the Tsar, that he should sign it, um, he was drunk at the time. He was drunk. So he was writing some sort of a letter over there, and the letter, he wasn't happy with what he wrote. So he took a match that he

10:16 had, and he wanted to put it on fire to destroy that letter that he wrote. But being drunk, instead of burning that letter, he ended up, uh, burning the piece of paper in which the decree against the Rebbe was said, and that decree was nullified, and therefore the Tzemach Tzedek was saved. So the day that the Tzemach Tzedek, uh, left Petersburg after that meeting was, as we said, the 26th day of Menachem Av.