THE WILD BOYS AND THE THIRD ARREST OF THE REBBE RAYATZ

PART I

It was a Friday, the first of Teves 5666/1905, the seventh day of Chanuka. It was market day in Lubavitch. Farmers and cattlemen from all the surrounding villages gathered in the main market to buy and sell calves and cows, horses and chickens, along with produce and general merchandise.

Beyond the noise of the market the sound of loud singing could be heard. The singing grew louder as the first of the marchers could be seen, marching in a Poalei Zion parade. They had a red flag and they sang songs of freedom and revelry.

This singing of independence and freedom angered the Christian farmers as well as the elderly and old-timers. Furthermore, the singing annoyed government officials. This, in fact, is what the singing was for; their aim was to anger the government.

The regular police captain, Mr. Yarmalov, was not in town at the time. Instead of him was the official from the Rudnia station, along with two deputies. They were on duty in addition to the lower ranking regular policemen in Lubavitch.

The policemen in charge of order at the market rushed over to the youth carrying the red flag and ordered them to disperse immediately. They threatened that if the youth did not go home, they would shoot at them.

The impertinence of the youthful hooligans was great. Not only did they not disperse, they raised their voices even louder and the boisterous singing could be heard from one end of the market to the other. The proud police officer, who was quick to anger, ordered shooting in the air to scare them. A commotion ensued with merchants vanishing quickly from the market. Within a minute, the place was empty. Only the sounds of mooing and neighing could be heard, along with the cackling of frightened chickens.

Even the wild youth had nearly scattered, except for one who stood on a nearby wagon and yelled after his peers, “Comrades, don’t run for your lives. Come over here right now! Whoever doesn’t come back is a coward and does not belong with us!”

Before very long, the odd parade reassembled with the red flag in the lead and the impudent singing. The police officer was furious. He ordered shooting into the air once again. This time they were not impressed with the shots and not only didn’t they disperse, but in their chutzpa, they fell upon the policemen and beat them. They took his revolver away from him, ripped his uniform, and broke his sword to smithereens. And once again, their singing echoed in Lubavitch.

The police officer gathered his shattered pride and his broken sword and swore to take revenge on them.

PART II

The Jews in Lubavitch spent a fearful Shabbos. They knew that this rebellion against the government would not pass unanswered. They found out that Yarmalov, the chief of police, was returning hurriedly to town along with cruel Cossacks. They were coming to restore the pride of the police and the government.

“On Motzaei Shabbos we were terrified,” wrote the Rebbe Rayatz in one of his letters. “The members of the defense league, about a hundred men, and the students of Tomchei T’mimim from the zal, sat all night armed and waiting for G-d’s salvation.”

Negotiations went on all week between the government officials and the Jews of Lubavitch. The brazen youth themselves had run away from the area hours after the incident. Some of them were caught and were beaten and tortured, but they refused to give up the names of their fellow insurrectionists.

Monday morning, the district minister himself came to Lubavitch, accompanied by lead detectives. They met with distinguished men of Lubavitch. The discussion was tough and uncompromising. The district minister demanded that the rebels be turned in within 24 hours; otherwise there would be consequences.

Obviously, the Jews could not hand over the youth for they themselves kept a distance from them and did not know their names. Furthermore, the youth had fled.

The following day, Tuesday, they were called for another talk. The police chief extended the deadline for the ultimatum another 24 hours. “If you do not bring the rebels at that time, Wednesday afternoon, there will be a fine imposed on the Jews of Lubavitch, 500 rubles for every rebel. This money will be held as ransom until the youth are brought to justice!”

PART III

On Wednesday morning, a special emissary arrived at the Rebbe Rayatz’s home with a court order to present himself at ten o’clock to the investigative committee at the police station. The reason was not written on the order form; it just said, “for a vital and weighty matter.” It also contained a warning, “Failure to appear on the part of the one called to appear will lead to punitive action of imprisonment for seven days or a 1000 ruble fine.”

The court order and the accompanying threats made no impression on the one who would later be the Rebbe Rayatz. However, his father, the Rebbe Rashab, was anguished and preoccupied by this.

At the appointed time, the Rebbe Rayatz presented himself before the investigative committee. Leading the team of investigators was the district minister, Mr. Kubatchkov. He knew the Rebbe Rayatz and held out his hand in a warm greeting. He even introduced the Rebbe Rayatz to the head detective.

“I know that you and the yeshiva students had nothing to do with what happened last Friday,” he began. “Despite this, the investigative committee decided to take you as a surety until the Jewish community hands over the rebel youth for justice.”

The Rebbe Rayatz responded confidently, “I will not deny, honored sirs, that I have nothing in which to take pride in this ‘honor’ you give me. I am concerned only for my parents and family. Also, I am concerned about the stain on my honor which will be besmirched due to false rumors that will be spread about me. I hope that you have carefully weighed the consequences of this unwarranted arrest.”

The officer’s face turned red. “We take responsibility for the outcome. We are familiar with law and order.”

He turned to the district minister and instructed him to lead Master Schneerson to one of the rooms and keep him under guard.

The district minister responded with feigned politeness. “Master Schneerson is a ‘hereditary honored citizen,’ and a ‘merchant second class’ in our town. I myself will show him to the room that he needs to be in.”

The Rebbe Rayatz together with the district minister went to the cell. When they were out of sight of the officer, the district minister apologized to him and said that the officer hoped to gain a promotion through this episode. He showed the Rebbe Rayatz to the room, locked it from the outside and left.

PART IV

“A few hours passed and I had no way of knowing how far this would go. Even though I did not eat the lunch meal I had no interest in food, because I was anguished for my parents and family,” writes the Rebbe Rayatz. “Knowing that the youth had fled, who knew how long I would remain in jail. I davened Mincha. I was given paper, ink and a pen and I sat and wrote and when the day was over, they gave me an oil lamp.”

At five in the evening he heard the turning of the lock and a moment later the door was opened. A policeman ordered the Rebbe to follow him to the interrogation room.

The investigators sat as before. The district minister looked very pale, while the faces of the undercover agents were aflame. They all looked at the papers in front of them as though not seeing and hearing what was going on around them.

“Sit,” one of them finally said. The Rebbe Rayatz sat on a nearby chair. “We will read to you the decision of the investigative committee:

“For the good of the investigation into the rebellion of the youth against the government, the investigative committee found it necessary to threaten and frighten the leaders of the Jewish community so that they would hand over the rebel youth and remove them from their hiding places. Alternatively, ransom fines would be imposed upon them of 500 silver rubles for each of the rebel youth.

“The second resolution, to arrest – for the sake of appearances – Master Schneerson as hostage for the rebel Jews. Therefore, we called Master Schneerson and told him our decision and he agreed with us. We therefore thank Master Schneerson for his help in the investigation and now he is free to go home.”

When the official finished reading the resolutions, he handed the page to the Rebbe Rayatz, gave him a pen, dipped it in ink and told him to sign it.

The Rebbe Rayatz’s eyes narrowed with visible disagreement and without casting a glance at the document he said, “I am not a member of your investigative committee and therefore, I have no right to sign on your documents. As for what pertains to me, it is not true that I agreed to be arrested.”

“The official looked at me piercingly,” recounted the Rebbe Rayatz. “If you don’t want to sign, that is your prerogative. But you should know that others treat our suggestions differently than you.”

“I got up, said goodnight, and left,” concluded the Rebbe Rayatz the story of his third arrest.