We are in the seventh lesson in the chain of lineage of the Rebbes of Chabad and the princes of the House of our Rebbe. In the life story of the Alter Rebbe, in the sixth part of the Alter Rebbe. We have reached [the year] 5561. It is related as follows: On Isru Chag of Sukkot in 5561, he was summoned to Petersburg. What is related here? We have already seen before, that in 5559, also on Isru Chag of Sukkot, occurred the famous arrest of the Alter Rebbe, from which the redemption was on the 19th of Kislev. This was the first arrest of the Alter Rebbe.
Afterward, after he had already been freed in 5559, two years later, there was a new denunciation, and this time the denunciation was primarily against the teachings of Chassidus. And as it appears in the Hayom Yom itself, in the saying for the 27th of Kislev, it is related there that the second denunciation was much heavier, much harder than the first, and it was not personal against the Alter Rebbe as a rebel against the monarchy; it was against the teachings, against the teachings of Chassidus, that they brought there ideas which they claimed were ideas that incited against the monarchy. And in the interrogations in which they interrogated the Alter Rebbe, he had to explain to them, to the gentiles, all sorts of very very subtle and lofty concepts from the teachings of Chassidus, which they wanted to understand, how they do not contradict living under a monarchy with the laws of the monarchy. For example, what is written in Chassidus, a concept called bittul hayesh or mesirus nefesh, and he says how this reconciles with acceptance of the yoke of the monarchy. He simply had to explain to them such concepts. This was a denunciation against the teachings of Chassidus.
They took him to this imprisonment on Isru Chag of Sukkot, also in 5561. When was the release from imprisonment? It does not appear here, but it appears in the saying of the 27th of Kislev in Hayom Yom, that the release was on the third candle of Chanukah, which is the 27th of Kislev, the third candle of Chanukah, although in the book Beit Rebbi it is written that there are differing opinions that the release was on the fifth candle of Chanukah. In any case, on Chanukah itself it is also a festival of redemption of the Alter Rebbe, of the second imprisonment.
The following passage appears here on the 11th of Menachem Av. In that year, in 5561, he traveled from Petersburg straight to Liadi, by way of Mohilev. We know that the Alter Rebbe had been in Liozna before this. After the imprisonment he moved his residence, moving to Liadi. First of all, he remained in Petersburg for several months—if in Kislev, on the third light of Chanukah, he was already released, then until Menachem Av he was still in Petersburg. Why did he remain in Petersburg? There was a decision of the government that they would allow him to live only under their eyes, in the capital city of Petersburg, and the Alter Rebbe had distress from remaining in Petersburg, but this was a compulsion imposed by the government. And afterwards, on the 11th of Menachem Av, he managed to leave Petersburg, but he did not return to live where he had lived before this in Liozna; rather, he moved his residence to a new place, to Liadi.
What is the reason for the fact that he moved to Liadi, and did not return back to the same place where he had been previously? When one looks in the sefer Beis Rebbi, there is no explanation. There it is written that on the contrary, the people of Liozna came to the Alter Rebbe and cried out and pleaded, "Why are you leaving us? Come back to us." And nothing helped. And it is written that there was no reason as to why he decided to leave Liozna. But in the sefer of the biography of the Alter Rebbe there is indeed an explanation as to why he moved specifically to Liadi, and why this is connected with his leaving the city of Petersburg.
It is told there that there was a prince, a gentile prince, who was called Lyubomirsky. He was very, very impressed by the Alter Rebbe when he was imprisoned in Petersburg—he was very impressed by him—and they explained to him that the chassidim had great distress that the Alter Rebbe remained here in Petersburg, that they could not come to him. So that prince visited the Alter Rebbe when he was in Petersburg, and he said to him: "If you decide to come live in Liadi"—which was a city under the rule of that prince—he says: "If you come to live near me, I will succeed in influencing the government to let you leave the capital city and come to me, and then chassidim too will be able to come to you." And this is essentially what caused the Alter Rebbe to agree to move and live in his city, and thus he moved his residence from Liozna to Liadi.
In Liadi he was for about eleven years. The last eleven years he was in Liadi. Now we come to the final section, which is already approaching the time of the passing of the Alter Rebbe. So it is told as follows: "On the eve of the Shabbos of blessing, Elul 5572," this is really a number of months, four-five months before the passing of the Alter Rebbe, "he left Liadi," so he left the place of Liadi, after he had lived there from 5561 until 5572. So he left Liadi, "and journeyed with the members of his household and many of the chassidim" he left, also with all the household members, with a great many chassidim. There it is described that there were, besides the household members and many chassidim who went by foot, sixty wagons of chassidim who joined the Alter Rebbe, and he traveled and traveled, "until his arrival on the 12th of Teves 5573 at the village of Piena, in the district of Kursk."
What was the reason for this journey? It was during the Napoleonic war. The Alter Rebbe fled from the war, fled from Napoleon. And the Russians, the Russian generals, greatly helped the Alter Rebbe. They also accompanied him the entire way as an aid, and they suggested to him a certain travel route, but the Alter Rebbe chose his own route, and he said: "Let us travel quickly." He wanted to cross the Dnieper River as quickly as possible.
There is a very interesting story there, a famous story about that journey, that after they had traveled some two kilometers away from the city, from Liadi, he told the whole group that traveled with him to ride quickly, quickly, and to move ahead. He asked the Russian soldiers who were with him to give him a wagon harnessed to two good horses, and then the Alter Rebbe himself went back with a few individual chassidim, back to the city where he had lived, back to Liadi, to his house, and he ordered them to search whether anything remained in the house. They emptied everything, and then they found there an old pair of house slippers and a few more items. He took this, and when he left the house he asked that the entire house be burned immediately, so that no trace would remain, and they kindled a fire, burned down the house, and he hurried to leave the city.
As he left the city, Napoleon entered the city, and the first thing he sought was the house of the Alter Rebbe, and he could not approach it because of the intensity of the fire that they could not extinguish. So he began to search throughout the entire area for who could give him some item, whether a vessel or a coin, something of the Alter Rebbe. Napoleon was a great sorcerer, and he understood the holiness of the Alter Rebbe, and he wanted to grasp onto something of his, but he could not find anything. Therefore, the Alter Rebbe returned specifically so that Napoleon would not find anything. And there are a few more details there about the journey in the writings of the Previous Rebbe in Likkutei Dibburim, but this is the essence of the matter.
And then, toward the final passage here, "there" — "there" refers to that same village, Piena — "on the departure of the holy Shabbat, as the first day, the 24th of Tevet, was dawning, he passed away." This is the yahrzeit of the Alter Rebbe. On motzei Shabbat, the night of the 24th of Tevet. "And his resting place is honor." Where was the Alter Rebbe buried? He passed away in a village called Piena. Where is he buried? In the city of Haditch, in the Poltava region.
Now, from the place where he passed away, from the village of Piena until Haditch, this was then a distance of about one hundred kilometers. I say "then," because today the roads are apparently different. Today it is a much, much greater distance, perhaps more than two hundred fifty kilometers. But then, so it is described in a certain letter of the Mitteler Rebbe, he describes that it was a journey of about one hundred, one hundred and something kilometers. Why did they travel more than one hundred kilometers after the passing of the Alter Rebbe to bring him to the cemetery? Because this was the closest Jewish city. The closest Jewish cemetery to the area was there. Therefore they transported him more than one hundred kilometers, and until today the honored resting place of the Alter Rebbe is located in Haditch, in the district of Poltava.
This is the conclusion of the life story of the Alter Rebbe. Later we will look at his family and his books.