A Prince in Prison

A Prince in Prison

The Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Account of His Incarceration in Stalinist Russia in 1927

An Extract from Likkutei Dibburim by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn of Lubavitch

Published by Sichos In English

A Prince in Prison

Published by Sichos In English at Smashwords

Copyright 1997 Sichos In English

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by Uri Kaploun

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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788 Eastern Parkway - Brooklyn, New York 11213

Tel. (718) 778-5436

5757 - 1997

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ISBN 978-1-4658-9278-2

Chapter 1: Publisher’s Foreword

It was the author, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn of Lubavitch, who spearheaded the underground Jewish resistance to Stalin’s ideological Final Solution — and paid for it by brutal incarceration and a capital sentence. From this he was miraculously liberated on Yud-Beis Tammuz, 1927, exactly 70 years ago.

In this unparalleled historic first-person description the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe graphically documents the cold truth behind the cynical Stalinist facade of religious tolerance — midnight arrest, intimidation and interrogation, incarceration without trial, the humiliation of prison routine, the torture of dissidents, and so on.

This description, which he entitled Reshimas HaMaasar (An Account of the Imprisonment), appears as part of Volume IV of Likkutei Dibburim, both in the Hebrew original and in its English translation. Unfortunately, not all of the author’s manuscript has come to light.

An invaluable companion volume to the above document is Defiance and Devotion (Kehot, N.Y., 1996), selected discourses delivered by the same illustrious author during the period of his arrest and liberation. Fearlessly, he called on his chassidim to defy the mighty Soviet regime, even at the cost of literal self-sacrifice, in order to secure the survival of meaningful Jewish life.

* * *

Part III of the present work concludes by appending the colorful Chronicles of the First Three Generations of Chabad Chassidism. Part IV consists of the heartwarming and often whimsical Recollections of the Author’s Childhood Between the Ages of Six and Eleven, when he was being groomed by his father to succeed him as Lubavitcher Rebbe.

* * *

This volume was translated and annotated¹ by Uri Kaploun; its layout and typography were entrusted to Yosef Yitzchok Turner; its cover was produced by 20/20 Digital Design Group; while all along Rabbi Yonah Avtzon, Director of Sichos In English, kept a critical eye on the old wine as well as on its appealing vessel.

* * *

The Rebbe introduced the publication of each part of this document with a quotation from the letter which the Rebbe Rayatz wrote on 15 Sivan in 5688 (1928) in anticipation of the first anniversary of Yud-Beis Tammuz, the day of his liberation. In it the Rebbe Rayatz urges that this day be set aside as a day of farbrengen — "a day on which people arouse each other to buttress the Torah and Yiddishkeit in every place according to its needs."2

The Rebbe notes3 that in one’s eagerness to reach out and make Yiddishkeit accessible in every place according to its needs, one might be tempted to dilute or compromise it. For this reason, the Rebbe points out, the Rebbe Rayatz stipulates that one’s first task is to buttress the Torah — to make it clear to oneself and one’s listeners that the only content and defining determinant of Yiddishkeit is the unchangeable Torah given by G-d. Balanced outreach in Torah and mitzvos should be sensitive to the recipient, and gradual, but without compromise.

It is the publisher’s hope that A Prince in Prison, a story of self-sacrifice for unchanging principles, will remind its readers to strike this balance whenever they throw themselves energetically into the Rebbe’s outreach campaigns.

Sichos In English

Yud-Beis Tammuz, 5757 (1997)

70th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Rebbe Rayatz in Stalinist Russia on Yud-Beis Tammuz, 5687 (1927)

Chapter 2: The Imprisonment of 1927 Part I

[Riga]

Publisher’s Foreword by the Rebbe

Gimmel Tammuz 5712 (1952)

Brooklyn, N.Y.

B"H

In honor of the forthcoming Festival of Liberation, Yud-Beis-Yud-Gimmel Tammuz, celebrating twenty-five years since the deliverance of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe [Rayatz], whose soul is in the hidden realms on high, we are hereby publishing one of his maamarim of Chassidus, and a memorandum written by him, each in a separate booklet.

The maamar was written on Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, 5687 [1927], during his incarceration at Spalerno Prison. The memorandum, describing his imprisonment, was completed in Riga on 15 Sivan, 5688 [1928], the first anniversary of his arrest. It is introduced here by a letter4 (dated 17 Iyar, 5694 [1934]) in which the Rebbe [Rayatz] outlines his seven terms of imprisonment.

* * *

The significance of this celebration has already been explained in the letter5 which the Rebbe [Rayatz] wrote [also on 15 Sivan] in 5688 [1928] in anticipation of the first anniversary of Yud-Beis-Yud-Gimmel Tammuz. In it he urges that these days be set aside as a time of farbrengen — "a day on which people arouse each other to buttress the Torah and Yiddishkeit in every place according to its needs."

Moreover, he blesses "all our brethren who love the Torah and who study and teach it — that G-d open wide His goodly treasure-store and bestow upon them and upon all our fellow Jews life and blessings in endless abundance; that He fortify their hearts with growing resoluteness in the dissemination of Torah and in the upholding of Yiddishkeit." He concludes: "And may we all be found worthy of seeing children and grandchildren engaging in Torah and in mitzvos and being blessed with ample livelihoods."

May G-d fulfill the blessings of a tzaddik, the Nasi of our generation, in full.

Menachem Schneerson

- Notes -

[Riga]: The Rebbe Rayatz lived in the capital of Latvia from late 1927 until he moved to Warsaw in 1934.

Gimmel Tammuz: Anniversary of the day on which the Rebbe Rayatz was released in 1927 from imprisonment under capital sentence in Leningrad, and exiled to Kostrama. The Rebbe discusses the significance of this date in Sefer HaMinhagim: The Book of Chabad-Lubavitch Customs, pp. 88-89.

The maamar was written: It was not reprinted in Likkutei Dibburim.

The memorandum, describing his imprisonment: Known in the original as Reshimas HaMaasar.

Chapter 3: A Letter of the Rebbe Rayatz On His Seven Terms of Imprisonment

⁶17 Iyar 5694 (1934)

In reply to your question about my imprisonment and my subsequent exile in Kostrama: Though everything is recorded in my notes, for various reasons the only things that may be revealed are a number of excerpts and general impressions that will be offensive to no one.

The imprisonment in 5687 [1927] was the seventh, because I was imprisoned five times under the old [i.e., czarist] regime, and twice under the new [i.e., communist] regime.

The first imprisonment took place in Lubavitch when I was eleven years old. At that time, following the advice and directive of my teacher, R. Nissan, I began (in 5652 [1892]) to record my recollections in a book. This incident, too, was recorded there, in 5653 [1893].

The second imprisonment took place in Lubavitch in Iyar, 5662 [1902]. The informers to the authorities were the teachers of the school that had been founded in Lubavitch by the Society for the Dissemination of the Haskalah (the Enlightenment).

The third imprisonment, also in Lubavitch, in Teves, 5666 [1906], resulted from the participation of members of the [secular] Poalei Tzion Party in an uprising against the local police.

The fourth imprisonment took place in Petrograd in Teves, 5670 [1910]; the informer in this case was an educated Jew called K.

The fifth imprisonment, also in Petrograd, in Shvat, 5676 [1916], resulted from my efforts to obtain legal information concerning military exemptions for people serving in rabbinical positions.

The sixth imprisonment, in Rostov on the River Don, in Tammuz, 5680 [1920], followed my denunciation to the authorities by D., the head of the local Yevsektsia.

Each of the above arrests, however, resulted in imprisonment for a number of hours. The seventh was somewhat weightier.

* * *

Normally, an analogy is less earnest than its analog. Consider, then: If imprisoning a body in a jail of wood and stone is called suffering, then how intense must be the suffering of the Divine soul when it is imprisoned in the body and the animal soul. This is something worth thinking about deeply.

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I will not deny that from time to time the seventh imprisonment brings me particular pleasure. As witness: Even now, some seven years after the event, I occasionally set aside time to spend alone — to picture in my mind’s eye the sounds and words, the sights and the dreams, that I heard, saw and dreamed in those days.

A lifetime spans a certain number of changing stages — childhood, boyhood, youth, young adulthood, adulthood, advancing years, and old age. People also vary in their gifts — whether common and mediocre or wonderfully luminous; likewise in their natures — for example, whether bashful and morose, or jolly and exuberant. But apart from all these variables, in the course of a lifetime Divine Providence engineers particular periods which sometimes change a man’s very nature. They develop his gifts and set him up at a particular height, so that he can gaze upon the ultimate purpose for which a man lives his life on the face of the earth.

Above all, a man’s personality and gifts are most intensely escalated by a period rich in suffering which is inflicted on account of his vigorous endeavors for an ideal. This is particularly so if he struggles and battles with his pursuers and persecutors for the sake of preserving and advancing his religious faith.

Such a period, though fraught with affliction of the body and suffering of the spirit, is rich in powerful impressions. Such days are the luminous days in a man’s life.

Every single incident in such a period is significant. In particular, if imprisonment is involved, the resultant spiritual benefit is so great that it warrants the recording not only of days and nights but even of hours and minutes. For every hour and minute of torment gives rise to inestimable benefits: it makes a man so resolute that even a weakling is transformed into the most courageous of men.

* * *

My arrest began at 2:15 a.m. on Wednesday, 15 Sivan, 5687 [1927], and continued until 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, 3 Tammuz, 5687 [1927], in Leningrad (Petersburg).

After these eighteen days, eleven hours and fifteen minutes, I spent approximately six hours in my home, and at 7:30 p.m. took the train to Kostrama. I arrived there on Monday, 4 Tammuz, and remained in exile until 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 13 Tammuz, for a total of nine days and seventeen hours.

Finally, in response to your request, I am now sending you selections from my notes concerning the respective terms of imprisonment.

- Notes -

Seven Terms of Imprisonment: For a graphic description see Likkutei Dibburim, Vol. I, Chapter 4a, Sections 15-17.

A Letter of the Rebbe Rayatz: The Rebbe indexed this letter as being addressed by the Rebbe Rayatz to one of his sons-in-law.

The informers: See HaTamim, p. [shin nun daled].

Poalei Tzion Party: Participation in the above text is a euphemistic understatement; their initiatives in fact endangered the life of the Rebbe Rayatz. See HaTamim, p. [tof daled]. In English, see Likkutei Dibburim, Vol. III, p. 118 (and the extensive documentation listed in the footnote there), and p. 229.

Yevsektsia: Lit., Jewish section [of the Communist Party].

The train to Kostrama: I.e., after the capital charge had been quashed, the prison sentence was commuted to a three-year exile in Kostrama, on the Volga River. (See Appendix on p. 133 below.) The following week, however, on 12 (Yud-Beis) Tammuz, the Rebbe Rayatz was informed of his impending release, and on 13 (Yud-Gimmel) Tammuz he was in fact liberated.

Chapter 4: The Imprisonment of 1927 Part I

1.

This is the first day of the imprisonment in the year of fury.

After twelve during the night between Tuesday of the week of Parshas Shlach, 14 Sivan, and Wednesday, 15 Sivan, I received the last of that night’s callers. The time set aside for this was always Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., but it generally lasted for another hour or two, especially in the summer, when the earliest possible time for Maariv was 10:30.7 In the summer, Minchah would be held at 6:00 and Maariv at 11:00. (At other times, Minchah would be at 9:00 and Maariv would follow at nightfall.)

I had a regular minyan three times a day. After Shacharis people would read a daily allotment of Tehillim (as divided up in a monthly cycle). By reason of a directive that remained unexplained, I requested8 the members of the chassidic brotherhood everywhere to establish this custom — the daily reading being followed by the Mourner’s Kaddish — in all shuls. This proposal has been accepted by people in many places, thank G-d; happy is their lot, both materially and spiritually. This request still stands. Tehillim is to be followed by a regular session in the study of Mishnayos; between Minchah and Maariv is the time for Aggadah; and Maariv is followed by a shiur in Gemara.

On this day there were