A Rebbe in prison?

 People are faced with challenges every day, and the way we deal with them can have very small consequences or sometimes can be life-altering.  A community leader’s decisions in the face of adversity can often have a major impact on the community, and a world leader’s actions can impact the entire world.   Our history is rich with great leaders whose strength and tenacity, and unwillingness to allow anything to stop them from leading the Jewish people forward, brought Jewish life back to its full strength after very difficult times.

 

Such a leader was Rabbi Dovber of Lubavitch.  His birthday and his Yahrzeit are both on the ninth of Kislev, which we will celebrate this Shabbat.  On the tenth of Kislev, he was released from prison.  He was arrested, as was his father Rabbi Schneur Zalman and just about every major Chabad leader, due to false accusations made against him by people trying to stop him from his work of building the Jewish community and more specifically the Chassidic community.  He took over the leadership of Chabad at an extremely difficult time.  His father, the founder of Chabad known as the Alter Rebbe, had to escape from Napoleon’s army.  The Rebbe had recognized that with all his talk of “equality” and “freedom,” Napoleon actually wanted to ensure that the Jews would be “equal” religiously to his beliefs.  His plan included the complete assimilation of the Jewish people.  The Alter Rebbe therefore opposed Napoleon and even directly assisted the Russian government in its war against him.  As Napoleon approached his home, the Alter Rebbe was forced to escape, with Napoleon literally on his heels a few blocks away, and he passed away while in exile.

 

Rabbi Dovber, also known as the Mitteler Rebbe, was faced with a movement in disarray, without funds, and also some major opposition within the Jewish community.  His father, the Alter Rebbe, had successfully overcome a horribly misguided campaign from some Jewish leaders who tried to stop his work of bringing the transformative light of Chassid us to the Jewish world.  The world had recognized his great saintliness and scholarship and he had been miraculously saved from a false treason accusation, and the opposition had quieted down.  After his passing, with the movement in some disarray, the opposition flared up again and false accusations were leveled against his son and successor.  What was at stake here was not a particular position, a particular person or even a particular movement.  What was at stake was the future of Judaism.  The Chabad movement had begun a revolution in the Jewish world, giving access to knowledge of Hashem, deep understanding of Torah and a positive approach to Torah observance to every Jew.  This brought about a reawakening of Jewish life across the spectrum of the community, and began preparing the way for redemption.

 

The Mitteler Rebbe refused to be deterred by the opposition, the lack of resources and the displacement of the movement.  He was the one who moved to the city of Lubavitch, a place that became synonymous with Chabad.  He spread the teachings of Chassidus even more than his father, and inspired and empowered his Chassidim to disseminate his teachings far and wide.  You can read more about Rabbi Dovber’s life and work here.  May we use these auspicious days of the ninth and the tenth of Kislev to gain strength and inspiration to transform our own lives to positivity and light, and to complete the work of transforming the entire world to a place of goodness and light, with the coming of Moshiach.