We are in the seventeenth lesson of the chain of lineage, in the section dealing with the life story of Rabbi the Tzemach Tzedek, the third part. We now begin in the year 5600. Let us read the text: In the year 5600, regarding the informing by the community of "Kuf" — a certain community located in a city whose first letter is Kuf — that he, meaning the Tzemach Tzedek, was opposed to the conduct of the communities in handing over Jewish children to the army.
As we recounted earlier, the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek did a great deal to save the Jews so that they should not fall, God forbid, into apostasy, when there was a governmental decree to take the youths of Israel for conscription, and the Maskilim were among those who fought against the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek. The Maskilim wanted to implant in the people an open enlightenment that was opposed to the Torah, and the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek implanted faith in the Jewish people. So the Maskilim were the ones who sought every way to interfere with the leadership of the Tzemach Tzedek.
All the details connected to these lines and to the following passages are recounted in a booklet called "The Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek and the Haskalah Movement." There the entire course of events surrounding this matter is described in great detail, and we will bring only a few brief points from it. It is recounted that they hired the services of a Jew who was a professional informer, a corrupt man, who for the sake of monetary gain would agree to do anything, to write any letter and any matter. His nickname was "Hershele Choshech" — that is what they called him. And when that Hershele was in a city called Krupki — that is the letter kuf here — he sent a denunciation against the Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, claiming that he opposed the service of Jews in the army. And it is recounted that he sent this to the district governor, to the general in Vitebsk, and so on. Afterward they sent a spy to Lubavitch to track what was happening from within. That is the first part.
The continuation, in that same year: "The denunciation by Mordechai Aharon G. in the name of the maskilim of Vilna and Volhynia." This is still in the same year, and it is also written in that same booklet about the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek and the Haskalah movement. This informer was Mordechai Aharon Ginzburg, who was a spy. He visited Lubavitch, to the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, in order to investigate up close. And it is told that he was there twice in private audience (yechidus) with the Tzemach Tzedek for quite some time, and he heard two profound maamarim from the Tzemach Tzedek. In parentheses, he himself later told the maskilim who had sent him, that the profound enlightenment of the righteous Rebbe is on such a high level, that all their enlightenment is considered utter foolishness compared to it. But in any case, he continued to seek a way to inform, and he visited all the cities of the chassidim to see up close their customs. There is a description there of the names of the great chassidim, at each of whose homes he was and whom he saw.
Ultimately, after he returned, the maskilim prepared denunciations against the Rebbe and accused him of three main charges: that he was collecting money for a foreign country because he wanted to rebel against the monarchy, that he opposed military service, and that he opposed the dissemination of Haskalah studies. This was the informer Mordechai Aharon G., which is Ginzburg.
It is very interesting that when he summarized his visit, he described everything he saw in all the towns of the chassidim. He describes that he sees the chassidim have tremendous faith in the Holy One, blessed be He, and great faith in the Rebbe. And he says that there was not a single Jewish settlement in all the places he was in where he did not see Jews rising in the morning and reciting Tehillim, and on Shabbos reciting the entire Tehillim. And he relates there that there was not one place where the mistress of the house, the woman, would not tell at least two or three stories of wonders about the Rebbe. And it never happened, he says, that when the woman wished to mention the name of the Rebbe, she did not first wash her hands, wipe her hands with a towel, and only then bring forth from her mouth the name of the Rebbe. And every matter they observe with mesirus nefesh. All this is in his descriptions, those of Mordechai Aharon Ginzburg, of what he saw among the chassidim. And nevertheless, he issued a document of denunciation against the Rebbe.
Let us continue. The year 5601 [1841]. A brief note: "The informing of two seizers from Borisov." There were two Jews from Borisov who also made a strange denunciation—that the Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, was hiding in his house thirty youths who were supposed to be conscripted into the Russian army, and that he had concealed them. This denunciation caused the secret police detectives to be brought in to investigate what was going on, and they roamed around Lubavitch for three consecutive days, searching everywhere. Of course, they found neither thirty youths nor even half a youth—nothing at all. But the maskilim harassed the Rebbe the entire time.
The year 5602 continues and says: "the recipient," referring to the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, "received a certificate of honored citizen and the Kaiser's signature." The Kaiser signed a special certificate that the righteous Rebbe received the status of an honored citizen. Here it is not described, and also not in the sources, what exactly happened in 5602 that caused the Kaiser to give him such a certificate. It is quite possible, I surmise—it is not written explicitly—that perhaps this came following what we read earlier, that the righteous Rebbe established the settlement in the forest of Chedrin, that he took a large portion and settled it, and perhaps as a result of this came great appreciation toward him. And it is interesting that there are other places where it is recounted that this was not in 5602 but in 5604, and they connect this to the reason for the success that occurred in 5603, which we will read shortly. In any case, there are various opinions about this year. Here it is written that it was in 5602, that he received honored citizenship.
5603 [tof-reish-gimmel], one thousand eight hundred forty-three. Interestingly, this is the only place where a secular year is noted here. "He was requested to participate in the rabbinical assembly in Petersburg." The government then called an assembly of all the leaders of Israel, and they deliberated on matters of religion. The government said that every group of Jews should each send a representative from among their most important people, who would come to be at this conference. It is told that the misnagdim chose Rabbi Itzel of Volozhin, the chassidim chose the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, the chassidim in Poland chose a Jew called Rabbi Yisrael Alperin, and the maskilim chose one called Bezalel Stern. They were at the conference, and the chief spokesman was the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek. "And every single thing that the government investigated and asked and examined, he answered on every matter with convincing words, accepted words." About most of the topics discussed there we have no information, but there is one topic that is documented at length in the sefer Beis Rebbi,
When the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek participated, as we said earlier, there is a place where it is written that in the wake of the impression he made then, the Czar wrote him the special certificate of an honored citizen. Another excerpt continues, from that same convention in 5603 (1843): "And for his protest against the maskilim of Riga and Vilna, and his demand to permit the printing of holy books, and his protest against the ban on printing books of Kabbalah and Chassidus." That is, at that time the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek also fought against the maskilim, and he had protests against the government's decision that forbade the printing of books. This did not pass easily for him. "Now, during the gathering," during the time he was there, "he was arrested many times, but his demands were fulfilled." There is on this a saying from the 23rd of Cheshvan in the Hayom Yom, that twenty-two times they arrested the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek during the course of the convention; they placed him under house arrest, because from their perspective he exaggerated a bit in his speech.
And the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek said about himself, this appears in another saying, that he said to himself: how did I succeed so greatly then? "In the merit of thirty-two thousand hours," that he labored over the maamarim of the Alter Rebbe. For thirty years he labored to write them down and to gather them, and afterward he printed them. In the merit of those thirty-two thousand hours, he succeeded at the famous assembly of 5603 (תר"ג).
Let us look at one more final point. In 5604: he received a certificate of "Honored Citizen for his generations." In 5604 he was upgraded; he received a different and more advanced certificate compared to the previous one, for in the previous certificate he was an "Honored Citizen," and here it was "Honored Citizen for his generations." What is the difference whether it is "Honored Citizen" or "Honored Citizen for his generations"? It is written that when the government, on later occasions, came to conduct all sorts of searches in Lubavitch, after he received the certificate of "Honored Citizen," they searched the household members of the Rebbe, everyone, but the Rebbe himself they did not touch. Why? Because he had an "Honored Citizen" status, and whoever has such a certificate of "Honored Citizen" requires a special order from the minister to be permitted to search him. But the household members, yes. After he received a certificate that stated "Honored Citizen for his generations," this means that the honor and the status were not only his, but also for his generations. From then on there was also never any harassment or searches or such things, even among the household members of the Rebbe, because they had a special certificate of "Honored Citizen for his generations."