6 of Teves - On this day In 5666 the previous Rebbe was imprisoned and freed.

00:00 Speaker 1 We're going to discuss about the sixth day of Teves in the year Taf Res Samech Vav. Now, the year Taf Res Samech Vav, that's, uh, five, um, five thousand six hundred and sixty-six, has become popular because the Rebbe, Rashab, gave a very, uh, special discourse, uh, with various continuations. So the, uh, uh, people that study Hasidus are very, uh, much, uh, excited when they learn this particular Hemsha, that continuous Maamarim in the year Taf Res Samech Vav. It's supposed to be, uh, very in-depth and very articulate and very clarifying, and it takes some of the most, uh, mystical concepts and ideas and articulates them, brings them out to a level that everybody can understand. So that was Taf Res Samech Vav. But the fifth day of Teves in Taf Res Samech Vav was the date that the, uh, previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, he was actually imprisoned and freed at that same day. The-- for a third time. You know, the lit-- the, the previous Rebbe went to prison several times. Even as a child, there's the story about the, uh, previous Rebbe sticking up, uh, for another Jew who was being tormented by a cop. He was a policeman that was trying to tease this Jewish guy, and the previous Rebbe, as a youngster, jumped that, that officer, and then he was, uh, put in, in prison, and he, uh, was able to, um... He, he was actually put into prison together with-- There was a calf put in there also because the calf was stolen

01:50 Speaker 1 by the Jewish man and, uh, and that was put into prison. And he was put in the same prison. He was petrified as a kid. And, um, eventually they, of course, they took him out. But the Rebbe later on told him, he says, "What'd you do while you were in prison?" So he says, "I was reviewing the study that I've learned, the Mishnayos." He knew Mishnayos by heart. He was reviewing it. So the Rebbe said to him, "Look, it's so important that you knew something, otherwise you and the calf would be in the same position. But you had at least something to study, and you..." But that was another story. But here, this was a serious thing. Um, this took place. They were in the city of Lubavitch. The previous Rebbe's job at the time, he was the ad- head administrator of the, uh, Lubavitch Yeshiva, okay? Uh, today they call it the, um, headmaster or whatever they call it, the headmaster or the, the man of the yeshiva. That was the previous Rebbe's job. Now, there was an incident in the, in the city of Lubavitch. There were some Jewish youngsters who are not religious and had nothing to do with the Rebbe, nothing to do with Chabad, nothing to do with the, with the Jew- with, with Yiddishkeit. And they went, they attacked some police officers over there. And they attacked the police officers. And, um, the previous Rebbe was invited to the police. He got a summons. He was summonsed to the

03:19 Speaker 1 police, uh, for investigation. And what the summons said, they want him for something very important, and if he does not show up, uh, then, uh, he would get either imprisonment for a week or have to pay thousand rubles. Uh, that's for not coming to the investigation. Uh, this was the summons. So the previous Rebbe is describing this. He had a diary in which he would write down a lot of the stories. So he says that this caused me, you know, distress, you know, and, uh, was upset, upset about what's going-- this whole thing going on. But, uh, on the other hand, he says that he had a visit, um, by this person, Ozdimov, who was, uh, an official, I guess, and he related various different things in his work of his... I guess he was part of the, uh, um, establishment of the guards over there. So he says, "It did not really impact me much. It did not impress me." Now, I don't see how these three lines fit one or the other. In the beginning, it says it caused him distress, it says. It caused him, uh, he became upset. And then it said it did not affect him, but maybe he was distressed that he was invited, but he was, um, um... He wasn't really scared or anything. He didn't really, he didn't get scared. He didn't face... Okay. So when he came to the police, so he, he came, he went. When he came to the police, so they called me

05:05 Speaker 1 into the, uh, room in where the investigation takes place. And there was the, um, the one in charge, the, uh, official who was in charge of the county, the county official over there. Uh, his name was Kubatskov, Kubatskov. And I knew him already, you know, the official, I knew him already from time ago, and he extended his hand, greeted me, uh, and he sort of introduced me to the, um, the detective over there, the, the head of detective and the, um, and his assistant. And he says to me, "I know without a doubt that it's not you and it's not the students of those that go to the, uh, yeshiva, uh, had anything to do with all this, uh, nonsense that was going on last week on Friday. However, the, uh, investigative unit decided- To take you as a collateral, take you as a collateral until the Jewish community will place those who are responsible to, uh, to, to stand, stand trial, to those who, those who rebelled. So the Rebbe says- Which Rebbe is this? The, the previous Rebbe. This was in , which year was that? Nineteen oh- Nineteen oh s- five. It was in nineteen oh five. January nineteen, it was the middle of the winter. Yeah. So now- January second, nineteen oh six. January. The Rebbe. Yeah, the previous Rebbe. And the previous Rebbe, the Rebbe Rashab was the Rebbe then, and the previous Rebbe was the head of the yeshiva. Yeah. Yeah. So this was his son. So he says-

06:56 Speaker 1 Yeah ... the Rebbe says, "I'm not going to deny my honorable masters, uh, I don't even," he says, "but, uh, I am in no way, uh, happy with this honor that you're honoring me as a representative of the community. I don't also know what rights you have, what by right you have to come the, the laws of here. But I am very worried about the pain this will cause. No, I'm not sure you have the rights, uh, looks like you have a right to do this, to take me as in as just because you're trying to get somebody else. But, uh, but I'm very, uh, worried about this is gonna cause a lot of pain to my parents and my family. And also my, uh, my, my honor will be, uh, degraded because people will-" Tarnished. Tarnished, because people will say that, you know, he's guilty of something. He's, he's been taken into, uh, into custody. And, um, what are the, uh, you know, who knows what the results- Mutations of the other- Implication will be terrible, so, so you can't do this to me." So the, uh, detective became very red, his face became red, and, um, he said with great anger, "The responsibility for the, uh, outcome, we, we are responsible. No, you know, don't worry. You know, we, we take full responsibility for all the results what will take place because we know our rights by the law." And he turned to the, uh, official of the county, and he said to

08:43 Speaker 1 him, "Instruct that they should lead the Adon Schneerson, Tavarish, or, uh, Master Schneerson, tell him to lead him to one of the rooms and put a good guard to guard him in there." The, um, official, the county official with a make-believe, uh, respect, uh, says, uh, Master Schneerson is a, um, he's a, a, a, they got a title, the Schneerson family way back from the Alter Rebbe, they got a title that they had a, uh, honorable, uh, residence or, um, people of the, uh, of the, of the, for generations to come. That family, they had this special title bestowed on them, which means that they had special privilege, that they are outstanding- Citizens ... uh, citizens of the- And they were probably around the country. And they ga- it gave them certain-- So he says it. So he's sort of saying to, to him, he says, "He's a, a merchant in the second level in our city." I'm not sure exactly what that meant, but that meant that he has certain merits, and therefore I'm not gonna-- I myself will show him to his room. I'm not going to send anybody. I'll show him myself to the room. Several hours passed by, and I have no idea, you know, just, uh, what's going on. And despite the fact that I didn't have lunch that day, I had no desire to eat, uh, because I was in pain for the distress of my parents and my family. And that I know that those youngsters who caused

10:32 Speaker 1 this whole ruckus, they must have ran away. So who knows how long they're gonna keep me here because they're keeping him. Won't find him. They're not gonna find him, so who knows when they'll keep him. So they did give me a pen and paper, and so I began to, to write. And, uh, when the sun set, they gave me also a lamp with, uh, uh, to, to light, with neft to, to, to burn. At five in the afternoon, in the evening, I was called to come to the, uh, investigating, uh, group, to the meeting over there. And I saw that the face of the, uh, official of the county is very white, and the faces of the other people, of the detectives over there, they were fiery. And, uh, the secretary of the, uh, detective over there and the secretary of the, um, uh, the county official, uh, they were looking in their papers and as if they don't see or hear, you know, I came in. They're just like busy looking at their work. "I, um, uh, sit down," says to me the, uh, secretary of the, uh, of the detectives and shows on the, um, on the chair. He says, "I'm going to tell you what the decision of the investigating group has made, the decision. So the decision is that in order to benefit this investigation of what took place-" And, uh, about this rebellious activity of the youngsters against the government. So the group of investigators have found it absolutely necessary

12:26 Speaker 1 to threaten and to put a fear in the heads of the Jewish community, of the, of the Jewish community, in order for them to force them to bring those young Jewish people that are hiding out of their hiding places Trump did the same thing Number one. Number one is to tell them that they are going to be punished as a collateral of five hundred ruble for each one of the youngsters that is hiding, that is rebellious. Number two, to incarcerate, just as a pretend, the Master Schneerson, I mean the Rebbe, as a collateral for those Jews that rebelled. And number three, we invited, we called Master Schneerson, and we told him about our, our intentions, and he agreed with us. And we thank, uh, Master Schneerson for helping us in the investigation, and he's free to go home. Oh. Uh, when he finished reading there, he handed me the sheet of paper. He took one of the pens. He dipped it into... It was a fountain pen. He dipped it into the ink, and he gives it to me. He says, "Please, sign." I said, "I am not a part," the Rebbe says, "of the investigating committee, uh, to sign the, uh, details of your investigation. As far as I'm concerned, as far as I'm concerned, it's not true that I agreed to go to be incarcerated. It was not true." Um, the officer, the detective looked at me with eyes, uh, penetrating. He says, "If you don't have-- If you don't wanna sign, you

14:37 Speaker 1 have the right not to sign. Uh, others have different attitudes to what we suggest, uh, to you." So I got up, I told him good night, and I left . So here, um, you see- He left without signing? He left without signing. They let him out? Yeah, the Rebbe- He was cast already Yeah, they then, you know, they, um- And they let him go And let him go. They didn't-- I mean, it's probably questionable whether it was legal even what they did. Right. Uh, I mean, I'm not sure in the Stalin's- No ... legal system, everything was legal. So there's- That was Stalin. That was the Tsar. What? That was the Tsar still. That was the Tsar. Oh, the Tsar. That was the Tsar. That was still the Tsar. Tsar, yeah, the Tsar. But he was a, he was a czar. Yeah. Yeah, okay. Sorry. He was a czar. Six of one, half a dozen of another, right? Yeah. But was the community fined each- I don't know. It doesn't say here the whole, the whole details. Just look at the- This is the time when the pogroms-

15:31 Speaker 2 So they let him go without, without-

15:32 Speaker 1 Without signing it. But the, the, the previous Rebbe was known for taking a stand, and that's why there are some famous, uh... We'll, we'll, we'll learn about it when it comes to that, uh, those dates. That, th- these were short imprisonments, and he was let out very quickly. But there was a time that it was his, his, his life was in danger. That was in nineteen twenty-seven, and that was very, very serious, uh-

15:56 Speaker 2 That was communism. That was Stalin.

15:57 Speaker 1 That was communi- That was Stalin.

15:57 Speaker 2 That wasn't Stalin yet.

15:59 Speaker 1 No? No, it was Lenin.

16:00 Speaker 2 No, Sta- Well, yeah, Stalin didn't come into-

16:02 Speaker 1 Lenin and Trotsky

16:03 Speaker 2 Trotsky was gone already.

16:05 Speaker 1 Yeah.

16:05 Speaker 2 Trotsky was in Mexico already.

16:07 Speaker 1 All right. Yeah.

16:08 Speaker 2 They threw him out.

16:09 Speaker 1 All right. So in any event- So it was Lenin? Lenin came after World War I. Hey, I gotta prepare better for this history class . Right. It was, it was- I, I don't know anything about the-

16:21 Speaker 2 Well, no, no. It was the Stalin-

16:22 Speaker 1 About the, um-

16:23 Speaker 2 It was, it was really, it was a lot of interesting to cover

16:25 Speaker 1 ... Okay. Well, hopefully after this class we'll, uh, become educated.

16:28 Speaker 2 But you see, this is the point in nineteen oh six, nineteen oh five is when the pogroms all started.

16:33 Speaker 1 Yeah, that's why my grandfather came to Russia. And, and, and you can, and you can, you can see, you can see, um, how much-- If you know the general history, you can see how this fits in into the general, uh, set, mindset of the times.

16:46 Speaker 2 Yeah.

16:46 Speaker 1 You know, how it was- My grandparents came- How it was, uh, was working then ... from nineteen oh five to ten . They all- They were on the road

16:51 Speaker 2 Well, they came, you know, well, the, the mass immigration was-

16:54 Speaker 1 From-

16:54 Speaker 2 ... nineteen oh six to nineteen twelve

16:58 Speaker 1 Twelve

16:58 Speaker 2 Just before World War II.

16:59 Speaker 1 Yeah.

16:59 Speaker 2 One.

16:59 Speaker 1 One. Yeah.

17:00 Speaker 2 The mass immigration.

17:01 Speaker 1 But in nineteen twenty-seven, when they arrested the Rebbe, they were-

17:04 Speaker 2 They came to America already

17:05 Speaker 1 They were go-- Well, they were, they were actually, uh, they actually condemned him to death. And that was-- And at that time, human life meant nothing to anybody. You know, millions of people were killed- And the Soviet Union- ... by, by, by, by Stalinist henchmen. You know, so it was, it meant nothing. And so it was, like, miraculous that the Rebbe made it out of their, of their hands. But notwithstanding the danger, and then the Rebbe was-- it was substituted for exile, then it was freed, and then it was eventually let out of the country. That happened pretty rapidly. But at the time that this was going on, it was really dangerous. The Rebbe says in his diary, we have diaries of the Rebbe writing up the history himself. He said, "I've made up my mind that I'm not going to have them affect me one iota. I'm not going to let them break me, and I'm going to be as proud and as upfront and not yielding in anything because I've done nothing wrong, and I will not admit to anything wrong." And the similar situation you're saying, we're gonna read that he was standing, he was sitting in front of the Uh, he writes in his own words, he was sitting in front of the secretary. She handed him a paper to sign, and he says, "I'm not going to sign." And on the table, there was a gun laying over there. And she said, "This toy," referring to a gun, "has made

18:34 Speaker 1 many people, many mute people speak."

18:38 Speaker 3 I've heard that.

18:38 Speaker 1 He said.

18:39 Speaker 3 Yes, I've heard that.

18:40 Speaker 1 Yeah, you know, it's just-

18:41 Speaker 3 Wow

18:41 Speaker 1 And Rebbe said to, to, to the person, he said, "That toy can scare someone who has one life and more than one God. But a person who has more than one life- ... and only one God, this toy isn't gonna scare, scare him." Meaning, you know, this life of here is only one. There's a world to come, and I'm-- you're not gonna scare me, and so on and so forth. So the Rebbe really showed a lot of, uh, courage in the face of a lot of these animals and, uh, what they would do. And you know, we talk about it today, but it's a whole different story. You have to sit and face these guys there and, you know, sometimes, you know, we have these heroes who we celebrate, you know, their courage, but you need that courage not when anybody's celebrating it. You need that courage when you're sitting in that cell facing just a nobody, and there's nobody to turn to, you know?

19:40 Speaker 3 Right.

19:40 Speaker 1 That's when you

19:41 Speaker 3 Well, especially when you have your... I mean, this is-- there's some press lately about the, um, Holocaust and did the Jews resist. Well, when you've got your family, you got your wife, you got your kids or, and extended family, it-- you're so vulnerable. What are you gonna do?

20:00 Speaker 1 It's, it's unfair, the studies that they're trying to make, and they're trying to point a fi- a finger that the Jews went like cattle to their-

20:07 Speaker 3 Wow

20:07 Speaker 1 ... to the slaughter. And you know, the circumstances were such, I mean, you know, again, it's, it's, it's, it's other history. But to just to imagine for people being... Imagine in America, uh, imagine one day waking up, the Jews are out. You know, no business, no nothing. I mean, we can't imagine that, but that's the way the Jews in, in Germany felt. I mean, they were, they were part of the society. They were part of everything. And the next door, they, they, they-- their blood, there's nobody to turn to. There's no protection, nobody to turn to.

20:40 Speaker 3 The difference is that since it's happened once, it's not as unimaginable as it happened sixty years ago.

20:47 Speaker 1 Well, first of all, Hashem isn't gonna let this happen-

20:49 Speaker 3 Oh, I hope not

20:49 Speaker 1 ... God forbid, again. Uh, but number-

20:52 Speaker 3 And, and-

20:52 Speaker 1 And also number two, Hashem has given us- A lot That was one of the-

20:57 Speaker 3 Right

20:57 Speaker 1 ... uh, one of the gifts that Hashem has given us, and I, I mean, I hope they're gonna hold on to because they're giving it away now. I mean, they're, they're trying to, they're trying to, uh-

21:07 Speaker 3 I know, Netanyahu-

21:07 Speaker 1 They're trying to what? What?

21:08 Speaker 3 Iran, they tried to make a deal today, Netanyahu-

21:11 Speaker 1 But on whose-

21:12 Speaker 3 Netanyahu come back and said it's unacceptable.

21:14 Speaker 1 Unacceptable. On whose back are they making deals?

21:16 Speaker 3 Oh, nobody's back. The fact-

21:18 Speaker 1 No, on Israel's back.

21:19 Speaker 3 Well, on their back.

21:19 Speaker 1 No, they're making it because-

21:20 Speaker 3 Well-

21:21 Speaker 1 They, they... Israel is vulnerable because they have-- they've not changed their, uh, ideology.

21:26 Speaker 3 No.

21:26 Speaker 1 Was one person changed their ideology? They're out for the destruction of Israel.

21:30 Speaker 3 Not a point. Not-

21:31 Speaker 1 So at that time, at nineteen twenty-seven, it was-

21:33 Speaker 3 Molotov

21:33 Speaker 1 ... it was Molotov. It was, it was-

21:35 Speaker 3 They were a group of different people

21:36 Speaker 1 ... and Stalin didn't come until nineteen forty, but he was part of that.

21:39 Speaker 3 He was part of the ruling party.

21:40 Speaker 1 Yeah.