24 Tishrei 5561 (October 13, 1800) – The Alter Rebbe Was Arrested for the Second Time

00:00 Today, you make Chabad for the twenty-fourth day of Tishrei, uh, which is the day after Sukkot. It's called Isru Chag. And today we're gonna talk about the year Taf Kuf Samech Alef, which takes us back two hundred and three years ago. Okay? Now, uh, it's right, it was by Sukkot, and it was the day after Sukkot. It's like unfortunate day, it looks like that the Rebbe was arrested the second time. We discussed before, uh, the first time that he was imprisoned. Now, the first time he was imprisoned was two years earlier. He was also... They came during Sukkot to arrest him, but then eventually they waited till after Sukkot to Isru Chag, the day after Sukkot, before they actually took him to, uh, to, to jail. Now, at that time- Where is this? This is in Russia, yes. Deep in Russia. So before they actually took him, before they actually took him, they, uh, they, they waited. They didn't disrupt the holidays. Now, the first time around, the main complaint was against the Alter Rebbe that he was sending big funds to Israel. Now, Israel was under the Turkish government at the time, and it was a, uh, a rival, was a, a... They had a conflict with the Tsar, with the Russian government. And because of that, they slandered the Alter Rebbe that he's sending money to a foreign government, and they arrested him. And luckily, Baruch Hashem, he was freed. Uh, on Yud Tes Kislev, you know, Chabad makes a very big celebration.

01:46 That's the first time. But the second time, uh, the, uh, Mitnagdim, these opponents of the Hasidim, they did not relent. They continued to try to, uh, cause the Alter Rebbe and Hasidis, uh, trouble, and they couldn't stop them by, uh, stopping the masses because the Jewish community were following, began to follow the Hasidim and the Alter Rebbe. So they couldn't stop him that way, so they figured they're gonna stop them by, uh, going to the government. Now- These are Jews? They continued... What? Jews. Religious Jews, not Jews. Right, Mitnagdim. Mitnagdim. They were opponents to the- The Chabad ... to the Hasidim. Right. Yeah. And they, you know- Terrible ... in the beginning-- You say terrible. In the beginning, there perhaps was some legitimacy because they didn't know what it was, because they thought that maybe the Hasidim is some sort of a group, like the Jewish people has been plagued in history many times, there were different groups. There were, uh, Chas v'Shalom, there were messianic groups, there was groups that, that took away the Jews from their religion- Yeah ... to convert them. So, but this was already after- Hundred- ... the Hasidim were proven- Fifty years, yeah. Yes, the Hasidim were proven, uh, to sort of be more pious and following the Torah as much and more than the opponents, than the Mitnagdim. But yet, there were some that never stopped, and they continued to fight against the Hasidim. And the way they did it is they went, and they went to the

03:32 government, and they slandered the Alter Rebbe. But in this particular time, the second time, which was two years later, uh, in Taf Kuf Samech Alef, uh, they didn't personally slander the Alter Rebbe that he was a counter-revo- revolutionary, that he is rebelling against the government, but rather their argument was against the whole entire teaching of Hasidis. And they said that the Hasidic, Hasidis philosophy opposes the government. They took some passages from Hasidis which it talks about in the Kabbalah, about the level of the Sphirei HaMalchut, and they sort of twisted it that it should look like Hasidis is against the, uh, the government. Now, it was accepted, unfortunately, the slander. And on the second day of Chol Hamoed Sukkot, and it's interesting, the same as the first time, it was during Chol Hamoed Sukkot, and this was on the eighteenth day of Tishrei, which would correspond to, uh- Yesterday ... yeah. So there was an order received from the government that on the twenty-fourth day of Tishrei, which is the day after Yom Tov on Isru Chag, they should bring the Alter Rebbe to Petersburg. Now, this was different. It wasn't as harsh as the first time when he was arrested, in which the Rebbe, Alter Rebbe was taken in a black carriage, and they had, uh, soldiers that had their, uh, uh, swords, uh, out, uh, in order to, uh, escort the Rebbe. But they took the Rebbe that time as a top criminal or somebody who's very dangerous in the way they treated

05:35 him. But in the second time, they actually allowed him to go in a comfortable wagon, and they actually sent along two people to escort, to go along with him. Does that mean they were accepting or respecting him a little bit more? Uh, somewhat, a lot better than it was the first time. The-- also, the actual imprisonment was in a easier and a less, uh- A serious place. It was in the building known as the Tayni- Tyanis Soviet, which is unlike... He was held in the first time in the fortress of Petropavlovsky, which was a much more, uh, serious and much more difficult place, uh, to be in. For two months, starting from the 28th day of Tishrei, when I guess when he came to Petersburg, until the 27th day of Kislev. Last time he was freed on the 19th day of Kislev. This time it went till the 27th day of Kislev, which is already the third, the, uh, third day of Hanukkah. Hanukkah begins on the 25th. Until the 27th day of Kislev, there were more than 20, uh, groups of, uh, intellectuals, of various different, uh, people from the various different sciences and, uh, they were interested, and they investigated the religious, uh, teachings and the Torah, the Kabbalah, the history, the Jewish history, and the Alter Rebbe would respond and lecture, uh, explain to them the entire, uh, uh, teachings of, uh, of all of our Jewish tradition. Sometimes the Rebbe would speak in Russian, and sometimes he would speak in Hebrew,

07:31 in Lashon Hakodesh. And his son, Rab Moshe- Who were interested, these 20 groups? Were they all Jews? No, no, no. These were all from the government, the Russian government. Oh. This was in prison. In prison, while he was in prison. In prison. Yes. Oh. They were investigating him. His son, Rab Moshe, would translate when he would speak in Hebrew, he would translate for the Rebbe into Russian. After two months of investigation and checking out, the, uh, people of the government were convinced that the teaching of Hasidus is no contradiction to the government of the Russian government, and that the Alter Rebbe is a tremendous leader and, uh- So it was like a house arrest ... uh, and most of the Jewish people are actually following the groups of the Hasidim and their leaders, and the influence of the Alter Rebbe grew over all of, of, of the Hasidim, yeah. It was almost like a house arrest type of thing where he was. Yeah. Because he could lecture all these people and move around. He wasn't confined to a cell. There's a lot of stories told... Yes, you're right, that they, they used to keep him, and they used to bring him back and forth. There's a lot, a lot of beautiful stories. This is not the place now- Yeah ... to go through. Yeah. But there's a lot of beautiful stories that took place during those investigations in which they, everybody was convinced and saw that the Rebbe was a very holy, and the Rebbe

08:51 that was a very special person, so that even the Goyim, even the non-Jews, began to respect the Alter Rebbe. In one of the letters that the Rebbe sent when he went out of prison, he actually emphasized the fact that even the people of the government, they too were convinced, so it wasn't just like the Jewish people, but even the non-Jews realized, and they came to the recognition that, you know, that Hasidus teaching and Torah, all these things are okay. On the 27th day of Kislev, the Alter Rebbe was freed from imprisonment, and like I said, there is many stories. One of the stories that is told about the Alter Rebbe being imprisoned, amongst many others, is that the, uh, one of the investigators asked the Rebbe if he can ask him a question on the Bible. Uh, and the Rebbe asked him, uh, "Are you a believer in God? Do you believe in God?" He said, yes, he believes in God. And he asked the Rebbe, because it's written in the beginning of the Bible, it's written that when after, uh, Cain killed his brother Abel, it says that God says to Cain, he says, "Where is your, where is- Oh, you were right. Oh, God ... your brother Abel?" he says. And, um, he asked him the question: Why did God have to ask him where Abel was? Doesn't God know everything? What does he have to ask him? Abel had died. Yeah, but why is that God asking Cain- Oh ... "Where is

10:24 Abel?" Doesn't God know where everything is? Why would he have to ask him? So he said, well, you know, Rashi comments over there that this was just an opening of God starting the conversation, it's not to sort of, uh, scare him and catch him off guard and say, "Where's your... Why'd you kill your brother?" Yeah. So this was just sort of an opening statement from Hashem, that the, uh, uh, the one who, uh, was asking the Rebbe the question says, "I know Rashi's commentary, but I wanna hear what the Rebbe has to say. I wanna hear your interpretation." And Rebbe says, look, that a person has years that God has gifted him to live in this world, and the person is supposed to live his life in such a way that he's supposed to accomplish, and he's supposed to utilize this gift, the gift of time, the gift of his life, to be a positive influence, to go ahead and do good things during his lifetime. And every so often, God turns to the person and says to him, "Ayeka," where are you? When God is saying, "Where are you?" means Ra- say, "Where are you standing? Are you doing?" So it's not a physical question, where are you in physical space- Mm ... but God is asking, "Where are you? Are you doing what you were supposed to?" And so on and so forth, there were many stories in which the Alter Rebbe was able miraculously to have the boat stop on its own

12:00 because it was actually on an island over there, the, uh, the imprisonment, and then they would Ferry him back to the mainland, and they would, uh, uh... The Rebbe wanted to, uh, make the blessing for the moon, and he didn't wanna do it while the boat was moving, and it refused to stop, and the Rebbe sort of spiritually made the boat stop until they saw that they're dealing here not with an ordinary person, but with a holy tzadik, and they circumed. Another thing that happened on the 24th day of Tishrei was in Taf Resh Peh Ches, on the day after Sukkot. Another thing, this goes back in 1927, in the end of 1927, in the Sukkos in Taf Resh Peh Ches after Sukkot, is that day the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe left Russia, and he settled in the city of Riga, which was in Latvia. The previous rabbi to the rabbi we were just talking about? Yeah. No. Previous rabbi before the Rebbe, our Rebbe, uh, his father-in-law, the Rebbe, Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak. Yeah. As we know, the Alter Rebbe was freed from his imprisonment also on the 27th day of Tammuz, uh, in 1927, and he went home. He came back to his home to Leningrad. Uh, at that time, uh, at that time it was a very, very difficult time for the Rebbe. The Rebbe miraculously, miraculously, his life was saved, and then eventually they were able, under a tremendous amount of pressure, with God's help, of course, with a tremendous, tremendous amount of

13:43 influence and pressure, and we know that the Russians don't usually bow much to pressure. But it was miraculous that they did agree to free the Rebbe. But it was quite clear that the Yevsekctiya, that was the Jewish group of the, uh, communists, they called the Yevsekctiya, uh, they will not rest, and it was a danger that in every instance they're going to... Every minute they're gonna arrest him a second time. It's not... They're not going to just sit by. There was only one path, and that is to leave Russia. There's no other choice. The only way to leave Russia. After tremendous ti- of varied, uh, detailed efforts on all levels, uh, in which the great Hasid, his name was Reb Mordechai Dubin, he was a member of the Latvian parliament, and he used his tremendous... He was a Hasid. He used his tremendous influence, uh, into the Russian government. They decided to allow just the Rebbe himself to leave and leave to, uh, go to Riga. But the family members, they would not give them any exit visas. They did not allow them to leave. They wanted to keep them as hostages so that the Rebbe shall not there conduct anti-Soviet propaganda while he's outside of Russia. But that alone, for them to allow the Rebbe to leave was a tremendous victory. But the Rebbe refused to go out without his family. And the Reb Mordechai Dubin continued his effort by the government, uh, the Russian government, until he got permission for the entire family

15:37 of the Rebbe. However, the Rebbe's library they did not allow to take along. But here too, the Rebbe said that without his library he is not leaving. And once again, the Reb Mordechai Dubin from the, uh, Hasid from the Latvian parliament, after many efforts and lots of, uh, people, uh, maneuvering, they allowed the Rebbe to go out with his family and with his library. Matter of fact, the Rebbe himself, who wasn't yet a member of the previous Rebbe's family, he was only engaged to be engaged to the Rebbe's daughter, to Rebbe's middle daughter, to Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka. When they gave a list of the Rebbe, so they asked the Rebbe, "Who is he?" So he said, "Well, he's going to be the son-in-law." So they said to him, "A son-in-law? You'll find a son-in-law over there. You don't have to bring a son-in-law from Russia." And the previous Rebbe said, "A son-in-law like this I won't find anywhere." Like the Rebbe. So it... The Rebbe went out with him also. On Simchas Torah in Taf Resh Peh Ches, that was in nine- end of 1927, during the gathering the Rebbe had this official goodbye with hundreds and hundreds of Hasidim who all came to say goodbye to the Rebbe. And the Rebbe spoke at that gathering, and the Rebbe says, "I want to tell you, please, don't believe what people will tell you why I'm leaving the country." Because people were saying that you're not allowed to study, the Rebbe did something wrong, Rebbe is

17:29 afraid, he's leaving the country. "Their," uh, "reasons that everybody thinks are saying they are not logical and they are not true," the Rebbe says. "I am not leaving here because I'm forced to leave." In other words, nobody is forcing me to leave. "But there is a order destined by Hashem. I want you to know that this that the people say that the Russian, uh, laws prohibit study, it's a totally falsehood. There is no such a law that prohibits the study of Torah." Every person has a right to give and educate, to have their children study in a cheder, to study Torah, and to get a teacher for their child. But do you- "I will always be," Rebbe says, "with you. You need to know that me," and Rebbe's referring to himself, this image... He says, Rebbe says to him, "This is like," he says, "I'm like a soul, and heaven just happened to be in a body here. I do not see the physicality." Rebbe said, "All what I see is, is the good." And on the day after Sukkot in 19... The end of '27, the, uh, previous Rebbe left Russia, and his entire family, together with six Hasidim, all the furnishings of the home, all of the, uh, uh, library, they filled four wagons. A large gathering gathered at the train station to say goodbye from the Rebbe. When he was in the train, the Rebbe wrote a very emotional letter to the Hasidim that are in Russia. Amongst the other things, the

19:35 Rebbe writes, "It is my great hope that gives me the strength and gives me the comfort that the distance of space will not separate, God forbid, God forbid, amongst us. And in the light and the merit of the beautiful candelabra, which are the fathers, the patriarchs of the world, the foundation of the land, um, uh, I will merit to see that every one and one from our Hasidim and their family members to place their hearts, their minds and their hearts to strengthen themselves in our connection." That's so powerful. And the Rebbe, when he came to Riga, they asked him how is he feeling about everything that has just passed over, what transpired. Rebbe answered, "If anyone will offer me to sell for a mil- m- uh, a milliard, uh, one second of pain, uh, that I should... No, one would offer to give me a milliard to be in pain even for one second what I've gone through, I wouldn't buy it. I wouldn't take it for a mill- million dollars, it's not worth it. However, if one is going to, uh, offer to purchase from me for a milliard one of my past pain," he says, "I'm not gonna sell . I'm not, I'm not gonna sell it." The Rebbe actually, um, was all of his, uh, time when he was out of Russia, was fighting vehemently and strongly to try to help the people, the Hasidim back in Russia. He tried to help them get out of Russia. It was a, uh, a,

21:34 a, a phenomenal task that he undertook. And, you know, in, uh, in the natural course of events, it was the fact that the Rebbe led the way and he came out of Russia that allowed eventually for all the other Hasidim to go also and exit Russia. More than- 1979 was one of the first big exit- I'm talking about before that. Mm. Even before. This is what I'm talking about in 1946 actually, in 1947, in which many, many Hasidim of Chabad Hasidim, which was the basis, like my own parents went out at that time. Uh, that formed the basis of the Chabad movement. That's... And then later on, there was, uh, when the Glasnost started and they let, started letting... That was much later. But I'm talking about in the beginning, that helped create the first group of, uh, Hasidim and the people outside of Russia. Uh, but it was the Rebbe leading the way and coming out that later on allowed for the people to go ahead and, and, and leave Russia. But the Rebbe never ever... The Rebbe would always do whatever he can. Never for one second forgot or, uh, didn't do his utmost to try to help the, uh, people left back in Russia. But there was just simply nothing that the Rebbe can do in Russia any further to help them or avoid, uh, being arrested or doing things that would cause harm, uh, further harm to the Hasidism Yiddishkeit. And the Rebbe chose that, that, that path. Right. One more

23:09 thing. Yeah? You know, you're talking about, uh, the group of, I think they were communist Jews in Russia that would do anything to try to get the- Yevsektsiya, right ... children again. So that was an impetus why he was leaving. They forced him. Yeah. The, the Goyim, the non-Jews, didn't really understand the Jewish religion, and they couldn't... So they weren't so intimately knowledgeable so that they could not cause that much trouble as the Jewish group, which had, uh, were familiar, and they knew exactly what was going on, and they were able to cause unfortunately trouble. Yeah. One more thing that happened on the 24th day of Tishrei, it looks like that, uh, it, that the, uh, Rebbetzin, uh, Rochel Yanovsky, uh, the wife of Rabbi Shlomo Yanovsky, that was the grandfather of the Rebbe. And unfortunately, uh, she was also killed, uh, Al Kiddush Hashem. She was killed, and that's why they're not even sure 100%, uh, during what her, um, date is, but it looks like- In the Holocaust ... In the Holocaust. It looks like on the 24th day of Tishrei, and the year... Actually, it's known the date, uh, basically. They don't know the exact year when it took place. They don't know the year, uh, the record of the year apparently. Um, wait, it brings down over here, uh, the Rebbetzin Rochel, she was the mother of the Rebbetzin Chana, the mother of the Rebbe. Mm. And, uh, she was a daughter of the great Hasid now known as Reb Yitzchok

24:49 Pushnitz, who was the, uh, rabbi of the city of Dubrinka. Uh, when she came of age, she got married to the great genius, the rabbi, the Meir Sholom Yanovsky, who eventually became the rabbi of the city of Nikolayev. Was Rebbi Yanovsky in Cheren? During, uh, the, uh, connection to her older age, uh,uh, of the rebbetzin, the rebbe writes, um, uh, in, in that towards the end of the summer months, uh, the rebbe would spend... His mother would take him to her mother in the city of Nikolaev. Her father was the rabbi. Her husband, Rebbetzin Chana's husband, was the rabbi in Yekatirinoslav. So her gra- her, but her mother would take the rebbe, her son, and she says, uh, she would take care of him. And the rebbe would say kaddish on this day, on the twenty-fourth day, on of, uh, of, uh, uh, Sukkot, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of Tishrei, one of the days the rebbe would say kaddish, that was for his grandmother. So we'll do Yemei Chabad for Cheh Daled Tishrei, the twenty-fourth day of Tishrei, which is . That's the day after the holiday of Sukkot, and this is in the year Tet Kuf Nun Tes. Uh, this goes back two hundred and, uh, fifteen years ago, okay? Um, and that day is the day that the Alter Rebbe, the first rebbe, was taken to his imprisonment. He was imprisoned in Petersburg. He was taken on the day after Sukkot. And, um, so this marks the, uh, the

26:50 day that he was taken to imprison- into, into his imprisonment. Um, one of the things that the Alter Rebbe was much involved, and he instructed, and he trained his Hasidim, that each one needs to participate to support the families of the Hasidim that went up to Israel earlier, and they occupied themselves over there with the study of Torah, the service of Hashem. And the Alter Rebbe founded he- a special fund which is called the Kollel Chabad, the Kollel for Chabad, which was the agency through which contributions were taken in from all the Hasidim, and then they were distributed to the people, to the, uh, Hasidim that lived in Israel. But there were some terrible people from the opponents, from those who opposed the, uh, Hasidis and the Hasidim. They're known as the Mitnagdim. But from them, there were some people that were interested to renew and once again flare up the old, uh, uh, disagreement that took place, and they took this fund that the Alter Rebbe has established, and they went and they slandered to the central government, to the federal government in Petersburg, that the Alter Rebbe is a counter-revolutionary, he's going against the government, and that he's sending lots of money, a tremendous amount of money, uh, to a strange country, which was to Israel, that he's sending the money there. Unfortunately, that slander was successful. And during Chol Hamoed Sukkot, and the intermediate day of Sukkot, to the city of Lyozno, where was the place where the Alter Rebbe lived, the,

29:20 uh, officer of the army, the chief of staff, came accompanied by a group of armed police officers, and they wanted to arrest and to take the Alter Rebbe to Petersburg. And the Alter Rebbe didn't want to immediately go. He wanted to delay it just a drop, a little bit. So sometimes there is a verse that states, You have to sometimes delay a little bit, wait a little bit, until the anger passes, which means even if Hashem is sort of upset with you, wants to do something negative, so you, uh... if you delay it a little bit, the anger will pass. So the Alter Rebbe didn't wanna submit himself immediately to these officers that came to arrest him. And, um, he also wanted to sort of think it through, what should be his, uh, his next move. Should he go or not? Should he hide? What should he do? So he had exited a back door from his home, and the army officer, seeing the, uh, mood of... It was a festival, it was Chol Hamoed, did not wish to disrupt the holiday. He left behind- Some of his people, and he left the city. And the Alter Rebbe had made the decision that if they're going to come again to arrest him, he's going to accept it, that it's going to be for the good. And during Shemini Atzeres, those are the second days after Sukkot, the holiday of Shemini Atzeres, the Hasidim were very, very bitter. They were very worried. But on the day

31:39 after Yom Tov, in the morning, Yisro Chag, which was the 24th day of Tishrei, the Alter Rebbe came out with a public letter to all the Chabad Hasidim, to all the followers of Chabad. And the Alter Rebbe warns all of his Hasidim, all of his followers, and all that are connected with him, that they should strengthen themselves with a complete faith and trust and hope in God, in Hashem. That in the merit of our holy rabbis, if we have to suffer, the Alter Rebbe says he's accepted it upon himself. At a later hour, on the night of Yisro Chag, so this was actually on the 23rd day was Yisro Chag. Yisro Chag is on the 23rd day, but this was already Yisro Chag is on the 24th day, but I guess even though that this actual taking him seems was done at nighttime later on, it was already the 25th, but it's all called already that he was taken because they started and they were there on Yisro Chag. So he says at a late hour, at the night of Yisro Chag, I'm assuming that the night of Yisro Chag here means not the night right between Yom Tov and Yisro Chag, but the night of Yisro Chag after Yisro Chag, but yet the date is Yisro Chag. I'm not sure about that. But anyways, the agents of the government came to take the Alter Rebbe as a prisoner. And the officer instructed that the Alter Rebbe should be put into this black carriage. It

33:51 was a special carriage, totally black, which was designated to take those who are rebelling against the government. And they placed armed guards to guard the Alter Rebbe. And eventually, after the incarceration, they found a note with the Alter Rebbe's handwriting in which he used a phrase from the Tehillim, a verse from the Tehillim. It says, That the officers have chased me for no reason, but it is from your words that my heart is in awe, is afraid of. So basically saying that notwithstanding all the fear that the officers tried to instill on the Alter Rebbe, he wasn't really afraid. He says it was God's words that he was afraid of and not from all these officers that were chasing and causing him for no reason all this distress. Now we know eventually the Alter Rebbe was freed. And that's why we have the celebration of Yutah's Kislev, the 19th of Kislev. He was freed. And not only was he freed and the government and the officers, they were all impressed and they were all sorry basically even for what they did to the Alter Rebbe. But there was a whole renewed energy and there was a new beginning sort of to teach and spread out Hasidus amongst the masses. And as much as people tried to crush, tried to slow and put obstacles in the way, the more the success of the Hasidim were. The more they caused pain, the more they burst out, the more they multiplied and the Hasidim expanded in a much,

36:33 much larger way than ever before. But that will be left for another time. But this commemorates the day on Yisro Chag, on the 24th day of Tishrei in which the Alter Rebbe was taken a prisoner for the first time. We will read, there was a second arrest in which they took him again. We will read about that in another time.