Arrest, Release and the French Pursuit

With the rapid expansion of the Chassidic movement under Rabbi Shneur Zalman’s leadership, its opponents resorted to the most extreme measures to undermine his work. He was denounced to the Russian government as a traitor and heretic, an accusation leveled also against certain other chassidic rabbis.

In the year 5558 (1798), Rabbi Shneur Zalman was arrested and taken to the capital, St Petersburg, where he was thrown into prison to face trial for high treason and subversive political activities.

Numerous tales of his sagacity, presence of mind and majestic poise attest to the impression he made on the Czarist commission selected to try his case. Czar Paul I incognito and other men of the highest social and military standing visited him to test his sincerity and to fathom his wisdom. On Kislev 19 in the year 5559 (1798), he was freed on the express orders of the Czar. This date has since been a festival amongst Chassidim.

Hardly two years after the first attempt, the extreme opposition again denounced Rabbi Shneur Zalman on false charges. Again he was brought to the Russian capital and imprisoned, but as before, he was cleared of all guilt and released with the approval of Czar Alexander I, who shared the admiration of his predecessor for the venerable leader of the Lithuanian Chassidic movement.

During the war between France and Russia, Rabbi Shneur Zalman espoused the Russian cause, and through the cooperation of his followers proved of great service to the Russian High Command.

Other Chassidic leaders, such as the famous Maggid of Kosnice, were loud in their acclaim of Napoleon who promised freedom an d equality to all the oppressed, including the Jews. But Rabbi Shneur Zalman realized that the spread of French influence might bring greater moral harm than all the hostility of the Czarist regime.

Accompanied by his family and a number of close disciples he took to the road, barely keeping ahead of the onrushing French armies. Though he escaped capture several times, Rabbi Shneur Zalman’s weakened body was not equal to the harrowing strains of the flight. He became seriously ill and died in Piena, a small village near Kursk, on Teves 24, 5573 (1813) He was laid to rest in the Jewish cemetery at Haditz, a small place near Poltava.

It used to be said: “In Vilna they knew how to study; in Meseritch they knew how to pray.” Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the saintly Sage of Liadi, knew how to do both. He bridged the gap between the mind and heart by his masterly synthesis of intellect and emotion within the framework of Chabad ideology.