Imprisonment and Liberation of the Alter Rebbe

The Peter and Paul Fortress, where the Alter Rebbe was held.

The Imprisonment and Liberation of the Alter Rebbe refers to the arrest of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of the Chabad branch of Chassidic Judaism, on charges fabricated by opponents of the Chassidic movement. His release from imprisonment on the 19th of Kislev became the occasion for an annual Chassidic holiday known as Yud Tes Kislev, celebrated as the "New Year of Chassidus."

Background

The spread of Chassidic teaching had brought a spiritual and material renaissance to Jewish life across Eastern Europe. But with success came opposition. A group of rabbinic opponents — known as Misnagdim (literally "those who stand against") — emerged, centered primarily in Lithuania and led by the Vilna Gaon. Their objections were not merely theological; as Chassidus spread even into their strongholds, their opposition hardened into active hostility.

Following the passing of the Vilna Gaon in 1797, the Misnagdim established a special committee dedicated to combating the Chassidic movement — including through denunciations to the Russian imperial authorities.

The Denunciation

On the 4th of Sivan, 1798 (תקנ"ח), a formal denunciation of the Alter Rebbe was submitted to the Russian government. The document portrayed him as a conspirator assembling a group of lawless youth, supporting the French Revolution, and heading a community that lived outside the bounds of law and order. The informer urged that the Alter Rebbe and his followers be exiled to a remote province.

Two days later, in the middle of Shavuos, a second denunciation was submitted — this one targeting the Jewish communal leadership of Vilna. (The fact that it was written during the festival itself, and that the Hebrew signature is malformed, has led scholars to conclude the informer was not Jewish.) On the 10th of Elul (September 1798), the file against the Alter Rebbe was formally opened and submitted to the Tsar by the Procurator-General.

By the 13th of Elul, the Tsar had ordered an investigation. The civil governor of Lithuania was informed of the imperial directive on the 15th of Elul, and by the 29th he recommended that the Alter Rebbe be brought in for questioning — together with the leading figures of his community in Lithuania.

The Arrest

A cell in the fortress prison adjacent to the one where the Alter Rebbe was held.

During Chol HaMoed Sukkos of 1798, a detachment of soldiers arrived to arrest the Alter Rebbe. He managed to conceal himself and escape to a nearby field. After consulting with several close associates — led by Rabbi Shmuel Munkis — the Alter Rebbe made the deliberate decision to return and be taken. The soldiers came back the day after the festival, and he was arrested.

On that same day, the Alter Rebbe composed a letter to his Chassidim, encouraging them to hold fast in hope and trust — and warning them explicitly not to retaliate against the Misnagdim.

A tradition records that the arrest had been decreed spiritually many years earlier, but when Rabbi Zusya of Anipoli learned of this, he declared: "Zusya does not want this." The decree was therefore suspended until 1798.

A Prayer on His Behalf

When the Alter Rebbe was arrested, he asked that the Chassid Rabbi Yaakov Smilianer travel to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev — famed for his passionate advocacy on behalf of his fellow Jews — and ask him to pray for his release. Rabbi Yaakov, however, forgot to find out the Alter Rebbe's mother's name, which is traditionally needed for such prayers.

When he arrived in Berditchev and conveyed the news and the request, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak took note of the missing detail. "What is a Chassid from Russia?" he quipped. "He can manage with a Rebbe even without a mother."

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak then opened the Torah to a random page. The verse that appeared read: Vayar Yaakov ki yesh shever b'Mitzrayim — "And Jacob saw that there was sustenance in Egypt" (Genesis 42:1). He read the word shever (שֶׁבֶר) as an acronym: Shneur Ben Rivkah — Shneur, son of Rivkah, imprisoned in Egypt (a reference to exile).

Rabbi Yaakov asked how one could be certain the name was Rivkah and not Rachel, since both begin with ר. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak pointed to the letters ר and ב within the word שֶׁבֶר — the same letters that begin the name Rivkah — as the more fitting match.

In Prison

The Alter Rebbe was transported by carriage over the course of several days. When Friday afternoon arrived, he asked that they halt for the Shabbos. The soldiers initially refused, but after a series of repeated mishaps along the road, they agreed to stop until after Shabbos.

The carriage arrived at the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, where the Alter Rebbe was placed in a cell reserved for those convicted of rebellion against the state. The conditions were extremely harsh. But when the investigators recognized the character of the man before them, they transferred him to a better cell.

A wax figure of the Alter Rebbe, displayed today at the Peter and Paul Fortress museum. A placard in Russian identifies him as "the greatest rabbi of the Jews."

The Interrogations

Over the course of fifty-three days, the Alter Rebbe was questioned extensively. The interrogations did not take place inside the fortress itself; he was transported by boat along the Neva River to the offices of the Secret Council each time. Senior imperial ministers conducted the questioning personally, and his answers were transcribed and forwarded to the Senate for review. All who witnessed his responses came away impressed by his wisdom and the purity of his motives.

A Conversation with a Minister

During his imprisonment, one of Russia's most senior ministers visited the Alter Rebbe's cell on several occasions. In one such visit, the minister posed a question about a passage in the Torah: when Adam hid from God in the Garden of Eden, God called out, "Ayekah?" — "Where are you?" (Genesis 3:9). Surely the Creator knew where Adam was. What was the meaning of the question?

The Alter Rebbe acknowledged that Rashi addresses this very point, explaining that God asked in order not to startle Adam. "But," said the minister, "I want to hear what you say."

The Alter Rebbe replied: the question God posed was not a geographical inquiry, and it was not addressed to Adam alone. Every single day, God asks each person: "Ayekah?" — Where are you? What are you doing? How are you living?

"My lord the minister," he continued, "every day since you were born — and you have now lived [here he named the minister's exact age] years — the Holy One asks you: 'Ayekah?' Where are you?"

The minister was deeply moved — and particularly struck by the fact that the Alter Rebbe knew his age, something he could not have known through natural means. The minister's admiration for him is said to have contributed to hastening his release.

A Heavenly Encounter

On the 19th of Kislev, the Alter Rebbe experienced a vision of his two great teachers — the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Chassidus, and the Maggid of Mezeritch, his own master — who revealed to him the spiritual reason behind his imprisonment. He had been disseminating Chassidic teachings publicly, including matters of Kabbalistic depth that are traditionally kept hidden.

When the Alter Rebbe asked whether he should cease spreading Chassidus, the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid gave the opposite answer: now that the matter had been settled in the heavenly court, he should continue — and intensify — his work of disseminating Chassidus.

The Liberation

Yud Tes Kislev

On Tuesday, the 19th of Kislev, 1798 (תקנ"ט) — a day described as doubly blessed, as Tuesdays in the Torah are marked ki tov, "that it was good," twice — the ruling was issued that the Alter Rebbe was innocent of all charges. He was released from the Peter and Paul Fortress a free man.

The 19th of Kislev is also the yahrzeit — the anniversary of passing — of the Maggid of Mezeritch, making the day doubly significant in the Chassidic calendar.

Upon his release, the Alter Rebbe was asked where he wished to be taken, and requested to be brought to the home of the Chassid Rabbi Mordechai of Liepli.

In a letter describing the moment of his liberation, the Alter Rebbe wrote:

A day which God made for us — Yud Tes Kislev, Tuesday, doubly marked with ki tov, the yahrzeit of our holy master the Maggid, whose soul rests in Eden — when I read in Psalms the verse "He redeemed my soul in peace" (Psalms 55:19), before I had even reached the next verse, I went forth in peace, from the four [walls of my cell], in peace.

Kaf Kislev: The Liberation of the 20th

When the Alter Rebbe arrived, he was brought by mistake to the lower floor of the building — which was occupied by Rabbi Nota Notkin, one of the prominent Misnagdim who had been among those responsible for the denunciation.

Upon seeing the Alter Rebbe enter his home, the man was startled. Nevertheless, he invited him to sit and personally prepared a warm drink. He then began to speak, and his words turned sharp: "You think you have been saved? Know that now that you have fallen into my hands, you will not leave until you sign a commitment to abolish your new prayer rite and the other innovations you have introduced — things our fathers, who were great men, never practiced. What was wrong with saying Ne'aritzecha? Why must it be Keser?"

(This refers to a difference in liturgical text between the traditional Ashkenazic rite and the Nusach HaAri — the version of the prayer service adopted by Chassidim, based on the Kabbalistic teachings of the Arizal.)

When the Alter Rebbe rose to leave, those assembled noted the contrast in his bearing. Rabbi Mordechai of Liepli moved to confront the man, but the Alter Rebbe gestured to him to let it be. Before departing, the Alter Rebbe said that one must show gratitude to a host who provided shelter — he drank a glass of warm water and left with Rabbi Mordechai.

"You have truly revived me," the Alter Rebbe said to Rabbi Mordechai when they arrived at his home. "Believe me — in all the days I spent in prison, nothing was as difficult as those three hours in that man's house."

Although the Alter Rebbe had instructed his Chassidim not to lay a hand on the man, one bystander who was not a Chassid declared that he was under no obligation to follow the Alter Rebbe's instruction, as the Alter Rebbe was not his Rebbe. He turned to the man and offered a parable:

Imagine two senior ministers of the king, debating how the royal crown should be set with diamonds — in one arrangement or another. Along comes a street sweeper and begins to shout that one of them is right. Both ministers turn to him and say: We understand the matter and we have our disagreement — though our goal is the same. But what business do you have voicing opinions between two ministers of the king?

He concluded: "The great ones of the world debate how best to glorify the crown of the King — whether through Keser or through Ne'aritzecha. But you, a coarse and simple man — what business do you have interfering in a debate between giants?" And he struck him.

In the end, Rabbi Nota Notkin's attitude toward the Alter Rebbe underwent a complete reversal. During the Alter Rebbe's second arrest, Notkin was among those who worked actively for his release — on the condition that the Alter Rebbe visit the homes of three leading Misnagdim, one of whom was Rabbi Yehoshua Zeitlin of Shklov.

The Megilas Yud Tes Kislev

Main article: Megilas Yud Tes Kislev

Some Chassidim wished to compose a Megillah — a formal written scroll — commemorating the story of the imprisonment and liberation, and had already drafted a text. The Alter Rebbe declined to accept it, saying that the story did not need to be fixed in a written Megillah, because it would live forever in the hearts of the Jewish people. He declared:

This day shall be established as an eternal appointed time in Israel, on which the great Name of God will be magnified and sanctified, and thousands of Jewish hearts will be stirred to teshuvah and heartfelt service of God. For the event is engraved upon the hearts of Israel above, and written upon the hearts of Israel below.

One hundred and thirty-eight years later, the publishing house Kehot printed the Megilas Yud Tes Kislev — a compilation drawn from the talks and accounts of the Frierdiker Rebbe (the Previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn), which he himself reviewed. Its introduction recommended that at every Yud Tes Kislev farbrengen — the celebratory Chassidic gathering held on the day — a distinguished reader be appointed to read the text aloud to all present.

The Megillah, first printed in 1936, was translated into Hebrew and published in the journal HaTamim that same year. An expanded edition with additions was printed in 1951.

See Also

• Yud Tes Kislev
• The Second Imprisonment of the Alter Rebbe
• Alter Rebbe
• Peter and Paul Fortress
• Megilas Yud Tes Kislev