28 Tishrei 5587 (October 29, 1826) – The Mitteler Rebbe Traveled to His Prison in Vitebsk

00:00 We'll do Yemei Chabad, uh, the days of Chabad for the twenty-eighth day of Tishrei, and this is in the year Taf Kuf Pe Zayin, um, which puts this, you know, in a, um, uh, almost two hundred years ago, a hundred and eighty-three years ago. Um, that's the day in which the Mitteler Rebbe, that's the, uh, Rebbe Dov Ber, he traveled, um, to his imprisonment to the city of Vitebsk. Now, he was, um, imprisoned a little bit differently than it took place with his father, the Alter Rebbe. But something is very interesting to see that the imprisonment of the Alter Rebbe in both, uh, times, the first and the second time were both right the day after, uh, Sukkot. That was on Isru Chag. And the Mitteler Rebbe was just a couple of days later after Sukkot because the, uh, twenty-eighth day of Tishrei is, um, just five days after, uh, Yom Tov, because Yom Tov finishes on the twenty-third, and Simchat Torah is Chof Gimel. And, um, and this is on the twenty-eighth day of Tishrei. So it's just interesting that it's both the Alter Rebbe's incarceration and the Mitteler Rebbe's incarceration all took place shortly after Sukkot. And it's, um, um... Also they, they were-- they spent some time in, in, in, in, in, you know, being incarcerated. Uh, the Alter Rebbe the first time was there till Yud Tes Kislev, and he came out on Yud Tes Kislev. The, um, second time he was there till the third, uh, light of Hanukkah, which

02:00 is on the twenty, uh, seventh day of, uh, Kislev. And the, uh, Mitteler Rebbe was a little shorter, uh, was till Yud Kislev. Um, it's, uh, in all cases, the month of Cheshvan, they were all incarcerated during their time. That was the, uh, the, the month. But it's just interesting. Now, this is what's related as far as the, um, arrest and that time of the Mitteler Rebbe. Um, notwithstanding the fact that the Mitteler Rebbe's mother, the wife of the Alter Rebbe, she came from the city of Vitebsk, and her family members were very, um, respectable people in the city of Vitebsk. And it was known as the city in which there was many, uh, scholars. They would study Torah. They were doing acts of kindness. But s-those people were very, um, very arrogant, and they were actually envious of the honor of the Mitteler Rebbe, and they were terrible Misnagdim. They were terrible opponents. And in addition to that, they had a, um, uh, an anger against the Mitteler Rebbe, for he didn't wanna do a, uh, a Shidduch. He didn't wanna marry into that-- to the family over there. And they therefore figured that they're going to get back on the Mitteler Rebbe. And they joined this, uh, person who was a, uh, a bad, terrible person, uh, who wanted to, um, sort of extort money from the Mitteler Rebbe. They want to, um, extort money from Mitteler Rebbe. So they made a plot that they were going to, uh, slander the Mitteler Rebbe,

04:11 that he is collecting money so that he can, uh, rebel against the government. And in order to prove their point, they forged a letter which the Mitteler Rebbe wrote in relationship to his collection of monies. Um, now that collection was done for the poor people in Israel. And the Mitteler Rebbe wrote in that letter amount of three thousand. That was the amount of, I'm not sure, probably three thousand rubles, the, uh, going currency. But he used... The number was three thousand. And they forged that letter, and they added the le-- word Kuf, which is the letter hundred. So instead of three thousand, it's hundred and three thousand. So now it turned out to be a huge sum of money, like an enormous amount of money in those days. And they used this to argue that the Mitteler Rebbe is sending the money to the Turkish sultan, who was at that time, uh, the one administrating-- Eretz Yisrael was under his, uh, rulership. And they also slandered. They said that the Mitteler Rebbe's shul, his synagogue, had the exact same measurements as the Beit HaMikdash, as the sec-- as the temple. Meaning to say that he's planning to, uh, build the Beit HaMikdash and become an independent, uh, uh, s- leader, uh, against the, uh, Russian government. So people found out that the governor is about to arrest the, uh, Mitteler Rebbe, the Rebbe. So some of the Hasidim, uh, requested, and they turned to the, uh, governor, and they asked him not to take the

06:18 Rebbe as an ordinary prisoner, but rather they should send to ask the Mitler Rebbe to come himself to the capital of Vitebsk. And, uh, the officer agreed to the request. And in the evening, uh, some-- many officers came to the house of the Mitler Rebbe, and they, uh, stayed there for a little bit, for about an hour, and they spoke to the Mitler Rebbe through a translator. And they spoke very honorably with, uh, respect, and they gave the Rebbe a written request, uh, that he should come to Vitebsk to the general governor. And they also made a search in the home of the Mitler Rebbe, and they wanted to find some documentation in which he writes against the government. But it's self-understood they didn't find anything because he didn't write anything against the government. Um, they also went and they measured the, uh, synagogue, th-the study hall of the Mitler Rebbe, uh, whether it actually is the same measurements as the Beis Hamikdash. And self-understood, this was just a bogus. It was-- It wasn't true at all. So this was at eleven o'clock in the morning, the Mitler Rebbe himself left Lubavitch, and he was traveling to Vitebsk. It's unimaginable to describe what took place that night in the Rebbe's courtyard, uh, the cryings and the yellings and people fainting. The only-- The Mitler Rebbe himself was totally calm. He did accept people for private visits, and he wrote a Hasidic discourse. When the Rebbe came to Vitebsk, they placed him in the central, uh,

08:35 booking station, I guess. And after several days, they, uh, were able to convince the, um, the officer, the sergeant, the, the one in charge, to allow the Hasidim to enter the Rebbe's room for all the davening. And the, uh, the officer approved for twenty Hasidim to be present during all the davening, and he also gave the Rebbe permission to say Hasidis to Hasidic discourses twice a week. And, um, the Rebbe was there and, um, like I mentioned before, till the tenth day of Kislev, and there was many, uh, questions that they asked, and then the whole story as the Rebbe was freed, we will, uh, read later on in the further part.