Weekly Dvar Torah: Standing Up to the Mighty Communist Regime
Ninety-six years ago, on Yud Beis Tammuz 5787 (1927), the Frierdiker Rebbe was released from his imprisonment by the communist regime in Russia. At first, he was sentenced to death. Then they commuted his sentence to ten years of hard labor, further downgrading it to three years in exile. Finally, after spending eighteen and a half days in the infamous dreadful Shpalerke prison, followed by less than ten days in exile in faraway Kostrama, he was released and freed.
Why were the communists after him? What were they afraid of? The Rebbe didn’t have an army. He didn’t have any artillery. He had no campaign to overthrow the government. All he did was to try to keep Yiddishkeit alive. Why did they have to arrest him and threaten to kill him? What threat did the Rebbe pose to the communists?
Stalin and his cohorts pursued the Rebbe and anybody who was suspected to have even the remotest connection to “Schneerson.” To arrest them or even shoot them, or at least send them to the gulag.
On the other hand, the question is posed; why did the Rebbe and his Chassidim stand up in such a strong way against the communists. Why did they put their lives on the line for Yiddishkeit, which the communist government tried to eradicate? According to Torah you shouldn’t endanger your life for Shabbos, Mikveh or Jewish education.
We can understand this when one reads the files of the interrogations of Chassidim in the dark chambers of the Shpalerke prison (which have recently been released by Russia). One finds an obsession by the soviets with anybody or anything that has even the remotest connection with the Rebbe. It’s absolutely amazing, what were they so afraid of?
Sometimes one must listen to the enemy and learn about oneself.
The communists and the fascists, although they were on two extremes of the spectrum, somehow when it came to Jews and Judaism their thinking aligned and were in sync.
Marx described religion as the ‘opium of the masses’ and Hitler said; “Conscience is a Jewish invention; it is a blemish like circumcision.” This is a window into their psyche, they felt threatened by a simple Jew who stood up for religion. Such people had to be wiped off the face of the earth, because Klipa understood the power of a Jew, and this worried them.
It was the Rebbe who kept the Jew alive. The Rebbe brought to the surface that which they were afraid of. He taught that the soul of a Jew is a spark of G-d, a representative of G-d in this world. Therefore, if you stop fighting for G-d, there is no justification for the existence of the world. That is how he was able to inspire hundreds of Chassidim, that no matter what, if we don’t fight, life is not a life worth living.
Stalin understood this. He knew that as long as the Rebbe is effective, and he has followers, communism is compromised and stands no chance.
While for many years the communists ruled, in the end the Rebbe prevailed. For 70 years the Rebbe’s underground kept Yiddishkeit alive in communist Russia. And once the regime collapsed, all that work came out blossoming like dormant seeds that were finally watered and start blooming.
Where are they, and where are we?
After 70 years of oppression, Yiddishkeit is alive and well in Russia, with tens of thousands of Jews coming back and filling the Shuls and Jewish schools. Thousands getting their Bris, and thousands of others having a Jewish Chupa. The most beautiful Jewish centers built in the world over the last thirty years, are in Russia. All this done by Shluchim who live the teachings of the Frierdiker Rebbe who stood up to Stalin, followed by the call to action by his successor, our Rebbe.
The Rebbe explains that the Frierdiker Rebbe was not acting as an individual. He represented G-d and His Torah, in this way he represented the entire Jewish people. His work was about saving Judaism. That’s why the communists feared him, and that’s why he prevailed.
Have a full experience of Shabbos and Yiddishkeit,
Gut Shabbos, Gut Yomtov
Rabbi Yosef Katzman
