We are in the sixteenth lesson in the chain of lineage, on the order of the life of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, in part two. Since the period of army service for Jews began, the snatchers and the Cantonists, in the years 5587 until 5615, he was engaged in self-sacrifice, and he saved thousands and myriads from apostasy and from death.
What is the background of the matter? There was a law that the Russian czar enacted, that all Jews had to be conscripted into the army. The hidden purpose, and even the overt one, was that the Jews would convert from their religion. They would take boys from age twelve until age eighteen, and send them to preparation camps that were called cantons, therefore they called them Cantonists. There, in these camps, over the years from age twelve to eighteen, they all underwent a Christian education. At age eighteen they would send them to the Russian army for twenty-five years. That is to say, in the natural way, for anyone who went there, all his connection to Judaism was erased and eradicated.
The Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek fought greatly against this matter. He arranged that in all the gathering places in these cantons, there would be special people, chassidic Jews, who would take interest in the situation of those serving in the army, in order to encourage them and strengthen them in observing mitzvos, so that they would not, God forbid, fall into the trap of conversion that had been prepared for them. This continued until 5615. In 5615 the Czar Alexander II rose to power, and he eased the pressure on the Jews, some of the laws were abolished, and then this problem ceased.
Throughout all the years, ever since this problem began, the Rebbe was very involved with it, and there are many stories. Once, a group of soldiers was permitted to come to the Rebbe, and he delivered an entire sichah to them. There is a great deal of involvement and many stories surrounding this matter, but this is the abbreviated account of the affair.
Now we are speaking about the years between 5587 (1827) and 5615 (1855), a general description of this entire period. But there were particular events during this interim period. The next detail is 5597 (1837), when he prints the Torah Or, the Torah Or book that we are familiar with. There is a letter that the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek wrote, printed at the end of "Torah Or," dated the 3rd of Shvat 5597. There he briefly describes the book Torah Or.
He writes that the book contains ma'amarim of the Alter Rebbe between the years 5556 until the end of 5572, right before the passing of the Alter Rebbe. He says that the Alter Rebbe went over very many of the ma'amarim, edited them and reviewed them and gave approval to print them. The Mitteler Rebbe also agreed to print them, only that the Mitteler Rebbe wanted that they should not print them in bits and pieces each time, but rather he wanted to gather them in an organized manner and print it as one unit.
The Tzemach Tzedek writes there that for several years he gathered and collected everything that existed, edited it as much as possible, arranged the material according to the parshiyot of the Torah, and divided them into two parts: the first part, which is Torah Ohr, of which we speak here, includes Bereishit, Shemot, Chanukah, Purim, and interspersed within it are also a few maamarim on Chag HaShavuot and a few maamarim on Chag HaPesach, but in general these are the topics.
The one who greatly helped and involved himself in the printing of this book was the brother-in-law of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, the young son-in-law of the Mitteler Rebbe, Rav Aharon of Shklov, whom we mentioned earlier, who involved himself very much in the printing of "Torah Or." The book was printed in Kapost. The second part is no longer called by this name, but rather "Likutei Torah," and there is a story about this involving the decree on printing (a decree of the authorities), which is why the name changed, even though it is a continuation of the same idea.
The next detail is 5598, ten years after the passing of the Mitteler Rebbe, that is, ten years that the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek was already in the leadership. "He made his journey through the districts of Mohilev and Minsk until Vilna and returned through the district of Vitebsk."
What was this journey? After the passing of the Mitteler Rebbe, the first time that the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek set out on a very organized journey, he traveled to Minsk and to Vilna. The purpose of this journey was to connect and establish a relationship with all the great leaders of the Misnagdim. The Rebbe notes in the sichos, mainly on Sukkos, on the nights of the Ushpizin, regarding the Tzemach Tzedek, that in his days peace came about between the Chassidim and the great leaders of the Misnagdim.
On this journey, the Tzemach Tzedek traveled to Minsk. To Minsk came, all gathered together, all the great scholars of the Misnagdim from throughout the region, including a large delegation that came from Vilna. Truly everyone came to receive the Tzemach Tzedek. At this reception, they made a sort of test, to examine his knowledge in Torah. How was the test conducted? Not by asking him questions in halacha and the like, but rather they set out a table full of fruits and choice foods, and they wanted to see and examine, according to halacha, whether he would know over which to bless first. They placed there many foods—there are laws of precedence and of whole and of beloved and of the seven species—they set out all the options, and they wanted to see what he would do.
And then the Tzemach Tzedek innovated a halachic ruling for them: that if there are foods on the table that a person is not at all interested in eating, then even though from the standpoint of their importance they might have a rule of precedence, if you are not at all interested in eating them, they lose the rule of precedence. It is told there that the geonim of the Misnagdim were in very, very great amazement at his genius on the one hand, and at his simple conduct on the other hand, and they were impressed by his expertise, particularly in the laws of blessings, and by his genius. This meeting greatly brought about closeness. This was the purpose of that journey.
Let us look at one more passage, 5599 (1839). "He purchased from the nobleman Chadrinov the estate of Chadrin in the Minsk province, with an area of forest and arable land. He establishes the Jewish colony of Chadrin, and gives plots of land and work tools to Jews who work the land."
It is known that the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek was very, very concerned about the economic situation of the Jews. We told this also about the Mitteler Rebbe, who advised the chassidim to establish themselves in agriculture, and also helped them with funding. The Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek purchased a huge tract of land with a very large forest, and upon it he founded an entire town called Chedrin. More than three hundred families settled on this land, and they had abundant livelihood.
Three hundred families on an area whose size he will immediately describe, such that each one had a truly enormous plot. Every family received a parcel of land sufficient to build a large residential house, structures for running an agricultural farm, a vegetable garden, land areas for sowing, areas for grazing, and they received financial assistance to purchase work tools.
What was the size of the area that the Rebbe purchased? The size of the area is approximately thirty-five thousand dunam. If one wants an estimate of what we are talking about, whoever is familiar with the cities in the Land of Israel, it is roughly like half the size of the city of Haifa. Truly an enormous area. He bought it from the prince Chedrinov, and the place was named Chedrin after him. This is what the Tzemach Tzedek did to help the chassidim with their livelihood and settling in Russia.