We are in the seventh lesson of the lineage of the Chabad Rebbes and the princes of the House of the Rebbe, in the sixth part of the biography of the Alter Rebbe. We have reached the year 5561.
"5561 - On Isru Chag of Sukkos he was summoned to Petersburg". As we have already seen, in 5559 - also on Isru Chag of Sukkos - the famous imprisonment of the Alter Rebbe took place, from which the geulah was on 19 Kislev; that was the first imprisonment. Two years later there was a new libel, and this time it was directed primarily against the teachings of chassidus.
As related in the Hayom Yom teaching of 27 Kislev, the second libel was much heavier and more difficult than the first. It was not personal against the Alter Rebbe as a rebel against the government, but against the Torah, against the teachings of chassidus, which the informers claimed contained ideas inciting against the monarchy. During the interrogations, the Alter Rebbe was required to explain to the gentiles delicate and lofty concepts from the teachings of chassidus, as they wanted to understand how they do not contradict living under a kingdom and its laws - such as the concepts of "bitul hayesh" or "mesiras nefesh", and how they are reconciled with accepting the yoke of the monarchy.
He was taken to this imprisonment on Isru Chag of Sukkos 5561. The date of release does not appear here, but in the teaching of 27 Kislev in Hayom Yom it is brought that the release was on the third candle of Chanukah, which is 27 Kislev - although the sefer "Beis Rebbe" cites different opinions, that the release was on the fifth candle of Chanukah. At any rate, Chanukah too is a festival of geulah for the Alter Rebbe, from the second imprisonment.
"On 11 Menachem Av of this year he traveled from Petersburg straight to Liadi, in the Mohilev province". It is known that the Alter Rebbe previously resided in Liozna, whereas after the imprisonment he moved to Liadi. Initially he remained in Petersburg for several months - from the third candle of Chanukah until Menachem Av - because there was a government resolution that he would only be permitted to live under their watch in the capital city of Petersburg, and the Alter Rebbe was distressed by this, but it was a constraint imposed by the authorities. On 11 Menachem Av he managed to leave Petersburg, but he did not return to live in Liozna as before; rather, he moved to a new place - to Liadi.
What was the reason he moved to Liadi and did not return to his previous location? In the sefer "Beis Rebbe" there is no explanation for the matter; on the contrary, it relates there that the people of Liozna came to the Alter Rebbe, cried out and pleaded: Why are you leaving us? Return to us! - and it did not help, and it is written there that there was no known reason for his decision to leave Liozna. However, in the Sefer Hatoldos of the Alter Rebbe an explanation is brought as to why he specifically moved to Liadi, and how this is connected to his departure from Petersburg.
It is told there of a gentile prince named Lyubomirsky, who was very impressed by the Alter Rebbe during his imprisonment in Petersburg. They explained to him that the chassidim were in great distress because the Alter Rebbe remained in Petersburg and they could not come to him. That prince visited the Alter Rebbe and said to him: If you decide to come live in Liadi - a city under his rule - I will manage to influence the government to allow you to leave the capital city and come to me, and then the chassidim will also be able to come to you. This is what caused the Alter Rebbe to agree to move to his city, and thus he relocated from Liozna to Liadi.
In Liadi the Alter Rebbe stayed for about eleven years - his final eleven years. Now we reach the final passage, approaching the time of the histalkus: "On Erev Shabbos Mevarchim Elul 5572 he left Liadi" - about four to five months before the histalkus - after living there from 5561 until 5572, "and wandered with his household and many of the chassidim", and it is described there that aside from the household and many chassidim who went on foot, sixty wagons of chassidim joined the Alter Rebbe; and the journey continued "until his arrival on 12 Teves 5573 to the village of Piena, in the Kursk province".
What was the reason for the journey? This was during the time of Napoleon's war, and the Alter Rebbe fled from the war, fleeing from Napoleon. The Russian generals assisted him greatly, and even escorted him along the entire way, and they suggested a specific travel route to him; but the Alter Rebbe chose his own route and said: We will travel fast - wishing to cross the Dnieper River as quickly as possible.
A famous story is told about that journey: After they had distanced themselves about two kilometers from Liadi, he told the entire group traveling with him to hurry and proceed forward, and requested from the Russian soldiers who were with him a wagon hitched to two good horses. The Alter Rebbe himself returned with a few individual chassidim to the city he had lived in, to his home in Liadi, and ordered to search if anything remained in the house. They emptied everything, and found there an old pair of slippers and a few other items. He took them, and upon leaving the house he requested that they immediately burn down the entire house so that no trace would remain; they set a fire, burned down the house, and he hurried to leave the city.
Immediately upon his departure from the city, Napoleon entered it, and the first thing he looked for was the home of the Alter Rebbe; but he could not approach it due to the intensity of the fire, which they were unable to extinguish. He then began searching the entire area for anyone who could give him any item - a utensil or a coin - from the possessions of the Alter Rebbe. Napoleon was a great sorcerer, and he understood the holiness of the Alter Rebbe, and wanted to grasp onto something of his - but he could not find a thing. This was the specific reason the Alter Rebbe returned, so that Napoleon would not find anything. Further details about the journey are brought in the records of the Previous Rebbe in Likkutei Dibburim, and this is the main point of the matter.
"There" - in that village, in Piena - "on Motzaei Shabbos Kodesh, the eve of Sunday, 24 Teves, he was nistalek". This is the day of the hilula of the Alter Rebbe, on Motzaei Shabbos, the night of 24 Teves, "and his resting place of honor" - where was his burial? He was nistalek in the village of Piena, and his resting place is "in the city of Haditch, Poltava province".
The distance from the village of Piena, the place of the histalkus, to Haditch was then about a hundred kilometers. "Then" - because today the roads are different, apparently, and the distance is much greater, perhaps over two hundred and fifty kilometers. But then, as the Mitteler Rebbe describes in one of his letters, it was a journey of about a hundred kilometers and a bit more. And why did they travel over a hundred kilometers after the histalkus to bring him to the cemetery? Because that was the closest Jewish city, and the closest Jewish cemetery to the area was there. Therefore they transported him over a hundred kilometers, and to this day the honored resting place of the Alter Rebbe is in Haditch in the Poltava province.
With this, the biography of the Alter Rebbe is completed. Next we will discuss his family and his seforim.