THE ARREST AND RELEASE

Presented for 10 Kislev, the Chag Ha’Geula of the Mitteler Rebbe

In Vitebsk lived a rich man, a relative of the Mitteler Rebbe, who was a big Misnaged. He did not like Chassidim and certainly not the Rebbe. His hatred was so great that he decided to tell the government nasty things about the Rebbe!

This Misnaged suggested to a low person like himself, someone who was a nephew of the Chassid R’ Pinchas of Shklov, “Let’s tattle on the Rebbe and get him arrested so his activities will cease!”

The friend liked the suggestion. He even had an idea of how to do it. What was his idea?

When the Alter Rebbe passed away, the Mitteler Rebbe was in Kremenchug. The Chassidim who lived in Lubavitch asked the Rebbe to come and live with them.

At that time, the Rebbe’s financial state was very bad. During the war, his father, the Alter Rebbe, had fled his home and all his property in Liadi was lost. The buildings went up in flames, the land was robbed, and all the cash they had was used on expenses for the journey. That is why the Mitteler Rebbe and his family were left with nothing.

The Chassidim, who knew of his situation, donated generously. Throughout the trip, until the Rebbe arrived in Lubavitch, a large amount accumulated of several thousand rubles.

When the Rebbe arrived in Lubavitch, he decided to distribute the money to the poor members of his family. He wrote a letter to R’ Pinchas of Shklov and asked him to help distribute the money.

When R’ Pinchas passed away he had no children. His inheritor was that nephew the Misnaged. The nephew found a letter that the Rebbe had written to his uncle and wanted the money. In his great chutzpa, he sent a letter to the Rebbe in which he wrote, “I want the sum of money. Otherwise, I will report you to the government with the help of this letter.”

The Rebbe responded, “There is no legal problem with this letter and you can do as you please.”

The Misnaged was furious and joined forces with the rich man from Vitebsk in order to tattle on the Rebbe. What did they do? They altered the letter slightly. Instead of it saying that the Rebbe received three or four thousand rubles, they added the numeral one so it read that the Rebbe received 103,000 or 104,000 rubles, a huge sum!

Then they took the forged letter and went to a senior government person by the name of Chavansky and said to him, “The Rebbe is rebelling against the kingdom. Jews are gathering around him from various locations in order to plan a rebellion. See this letter? The Rebbe collected a sum of more than 100,000 rubles! What did he collect this huge sum for if not to rebel? In addition, the Rebbe sends bribes to the enemy, to the Turkish sultan who lives in Palestine. They even built his synagogue to look like their temple!” This is what they said and they added more lies.

Chavansky heard this and sent for the Rebbe to come to Vitebsk. When the Rebbe’s family saw the officials who arrived, they were very nervous about the Rebbe’s health which was shaky. In order for him not to be frightened, they told him that a minister from Vitebsk was there to see him.

The Rebbe immediately understood what was going on and said, “My father was arrested for the first time when he was 52. I am also 52 now and what happens to the fathers is a sign for the children.”

The officers entered the house and took the Rebbe and his son, R’ Nachum. They searched the house for anti-government material but found nothing aside from the information about how much tz’daka the Rebbe had sent to the poor of Eretz Yisroel. The informers, who were there, said to the officers, “Here, this is the material we were talking about.” (And yet, there was nothing illegal about it at all). The officers took the calculations to Vitebsk in order to get them copied from Yiddish to the language of the land. They also measured the shul to see if it was the size of the Beis HaMikdash but saw right away that this was an outright lie.

The rich informer from Vitebsk said, “If you don’t want the Chassidim to fool you, bring the Rebbe to my house where I will guard him properly.”

With the help of Dr. Haventhal, who knew how dangerous this was, they ordered the Rebbe to another house and set up soldiers to guard the house so nobody could enter.

In the meantime, the informers wanted to make copies of the tz’daka amounts that they found by the Rebbe so the Chassidim wouldn’t fool anyone, G-d forbid … The calculations were given to them and, thank G-d, they copied them correctly.

When the interrogators went to question the Rebbe, the Rebbe showed them how the whole story was a fabrication and the calculations were amounts of charity that were given to the poor. As for the letter that the Misnaged brought, the Rebbe told the truth, that during the war they had lost their property and this was money that the Chassidim had donated, but it wasn’t such a large amount. The informers had added the number one to make the sum larger than it was.

The truth was recognized for what it was and when it was presented to Chavansky, he accepted it and ordered that the Rebbe and the informers be brought to him so he could question them himself.

Before setting out, the Rebbe had dressed in white, distinguished looking clothes. He appeared like an angel and he traveled in a dignified carriage. The Chassidim were afraid lest the officers be angry at the Rebbe for appearing in that way but nothing happened. Chavansky saw the Rebbe’s majesty and was very impressed. He even ordered that a chair be brought for him. Then the informer from Vitebsk came in and the Rebbe attacked him, “You wicked person, what do you want from me?” And he spoke harshly to him for a long time.

When the informer began to respond, he said, “Rebbe …”

“See, he himself who said I am a fraud and a rebel calls me Rebbe! Now the truth comes to light!” said the Rebbe firmly.

The informer stammered and began speaking nonsense until the interrogator stopped him and said, “Enough barking.”

The informer left in shame and the Rebbe left with great honor.

On 10 Kislev the order was given to remove the guards from the house where the Rebbe had been under arrest. The house immediately filled with Chassidim and the Rebbe said Chassidus. Since that day, 10 Kislev has been a day of rejoicing for Chassidim.

As to the informers, Hashem paid them back. The rich man from Vitebsk lost his money and became a drunk on the street. Every year, on 10 Kislev, when the Chassidim farbrenged, he would come and say, “I provided the simcha for you, give me my reward …” And they would give him to drink until he fell down drunk, as usual.