Alter Rebbe and Napoleon War of 1812
The Curse of Dualism
R. Schneur Zalman and the war
Chapter V of the book.
I don’t know about that artist Faber DeFor, he has the boy wearing shtreimel and the man a cowboy hat in Liozna! And that Jew on the horse in Lubavitch looks like a middle eastern sultan. Anyway, this is no Nazi invasion, a cordial chit-chat.
In general, the author Ginsburg knows his stuff, there are quotes from Beis Rabbi and letters of the Mitteler Rebbe.
Letter of R. Schneur Zalman Borochovich to the Jews of Belarus
Translated from Alter Rebbe ksav to Russian and now from old Russian to English. First published in this book, 1912 (page 59). From the Atchive of Russian Army Headquarters. Collected in the 1830s by the work М. И. Михайловскаго-Данилевскаго.
“After the destruction of the Jewish kingdom in the past, the lands to which our ancestors came and settled. We, being under the blessed power of the Russian Sovereign Emperor, did not feel such oppression, as we have in other kingdoms, even France itself. There is no need to explain them many times: the earth is full of hearing, naturally and naturally. But in our dear fatherland, Russia, what were we missing? The hard work and industrious crafts of the people provided fair means to our families. We were not only guarded by law on a par with natural Russians, but also admitted to the rights and ranks [what?], enjoyed honors and were free to observe our customs and rituals; even in the reigning Petersburg there are Jews and our school is there. In what other kingdom do the Jewish people have such privileges? [really]
Our ancestors, to defend their kingdom, took up arms, shed their blood; the history of the Jewish people reads like this, and remembering the twofold destruction of Jerusalem, they established fasts, until today, we have sacredly observed. Now the French Emperor Napoleon, with the forces of the allied powers, has come to ruin Russia, our dear fatherland. He wants to come with weapons in hands and flattering in mouth, and he is opposed by all people in Russia.
They are not demanding our personal participation. The Russian troops were never filled with Jewish people [note from author of the book, until 1927]. Further, in the present cruel war, the Russian Sovereign does not demand from us that we become soldiers in the ranks. Because not only could we not celebrate sabbath and eat our food, but all our Jewish rites, strictly observed by us, will be violated. The wives will lose husbands and children will lose their fathers, they would fall from the sword of Napoleon. [a definition of tone-deaf]
Napoleon tries to seduce the peoples with false disclosures about various benefits. I am afraid that you, my dear brethren, will not slip on the path of truth, and I exhort you to God himself, as your teacher, be faithful to the Russian Sovereign, serve to his military chiefs by all means. Notifying them of secrets and in a special way, a friend through a friend, about the troops of the enemy. Where how many of them are there, in a word, about everything that to avert harm to our dear Sovereign Alexander the First and his glorious kingdom, and our fatherland. Use the Jewish language, whose writings are known to us only, if only you remain faithful to each other, which I have no doubt will not reveal us to our enemy. Enemy who has ruined the whole of Europe with his greed and finally invaded to enter the bowels of Russia, our dear fatherland.
May the Lord help the Russia and our monarch to overcome His and our enemies, since this just war was started not by Russia, but by Napoleon. The proof is his invasion here with his army.
And I am your teacher to declare allegiance to Sovereign Alexander himself and his justice, before the invasion of the enemy's army, withdrew into the depths of Russia. As much for my own, as for the opportunity to reinforce you with advice in your spirit. Take courage, be strong and work hard with everyone with the strength to serve the Russian military commanders, who will not miss informing me. Such services will serve to purify the sins committed by us, as men, against the command of God.
Impose fasts on yourself, offer your prayers to God for the service of the Russian army over the common enemy, in order to help save your fatherland in such a way and restore the former calm. Then we will be happy again and more appreciative to our Sovereign and the Russians. Hurry, copy, to pass one to another so that it would spread everywhere as soon as possible and prevent the destruction of the Jewish people. May God Almighty strengthen you in all your qualities to virtue, and by His power may He help to contribute to the protection of the Fatherland. The Ten Commandments of the Lord thus demand of you, this is my desire and request.”
By the way, Moshe, the infamous son of Alert Rebbe who converted to Catholicism, during the war was in our beloved Druya, working as translator for the French. (Ratyaz mentioned that (not Catholicism part of course)).
Good and Evil
If he was afraid of assimilation. If Alter Rebbe could really see, he would see that between 1812 and 1912 (when the book was published) all his descendants will assimilate. You would need only one hand, may be even half hand, to count frum Schneersons. As we discussed here at length.
Alter Rebbe was a perceived Jewish Leader, it lasted until about Tzemach Tzedeck. When Rashab LARPed Alter Rebbe with his escape during WWI, it was just that, a LARP. And nobody was listening to Rashab, he was a fringe kanoy unable to stop the tragic march of history. Fast-forward to Ramash, who reneged on his most important policies goals because Krinsky told him it is going to hurt fundraising - The Watershed Moment that Changed Chabad Forever. Is this how a leader behaves?
It is not possible to have a leader who is also a mystic. Instead of being pragmatic, they get wrapped up in theories. From the time of Gnostics or even Cathars there was this struggle to interpret the world. Everyone can see the world is a bad place. So how can a good God created an evil world? This is the beginning and the end of all mysticism. The answer is in a different shades of dualism. From taking Satan completely out of God to some convoluted accommodation between the two.
You don’t need to be a scholar to see that in his discussions about Rashoim and Tzadikim Alter Rebbe was obsessed with the idea. Especially with what Calvinists called Predestination. So, when Napoleon and Alexander I came along, they already had their roles assigned to them. Alter Rebbe wasn’t going to let a reality spoil his theory.
We didn’t have a pragmatic leader. And we paid a terrible price in the coming century.
Prophecy
But if you think that prophesy didn’t exist? You might be looking in the wrong places.
In 1830, 16-year-old Mikhail Lermontov, wrote this:
Предсказание Настанет год, России черный год, Когда царей корона упадет; Забудет чернь к ним прежнюю любовь, И пища многих будет смерть и кровь; Когда детей, когда невинных жен Низвергнутый не защитит закон; Когда чума от смрадных, мертвых тел Начнет бродить среди печальных сел, Чтобы платком из хижин вызывать, И станет глад сей бедный край терзать; И зарево окрасит волны рек: В тот день явится мощный человек, И ты его узнаешь — и поймешь, Зачем в руке его булатный нож; И горе для тебя! — твой плач, твой стон Ему тогда покажется смешон; И будет все ужасно, мрачно в нем, Как плащ его с возвышенным челом.
A year will come — of Russia’s blackest dread;
then will the crown fall from the royal head,
the throne of tsars will perish in the mud,
the food of many will be death and blood;
both wife and babe will vainly seek the law:
it will not shield the victims anymore;
the putrid, rotting plague will mow and cut
and boldly walk the road from hut to hut;
in people’s sight its pallid face will float,
and hunger’s hand will clutch them by the throat;
a scarlet sea will send its bloody surge;
a mighty man will suddenly emerge:
you’ll recognize the man, you’ll feel
that he has come to use a knife of steel;
oh, dreadful day! Your call, your groan, your prayer
will only make him laugh at your despair;
and everything in his forbidding sight —
his brow, his cloak — will fill the land with fright.
Translated by Anatoly LibermanContrast the pathos of young poet, a 16-year-old.
Among the illustrations in the book:
This is the best reproduction of this portrait I have seen. The reproduction seems to be a photo lithograph from the original color oil painting. I like to believe that the original oil painting is somewhere in Russia, hidden, like Alter Rebbe’s family history. In Chabad, there is no concept of authorship. Since everything in that culture is a quote and since the official history of Chabad is mostly Rayatz fabrication, authorship is not relevant. They only know how to butcher historic pictures with their ugly across the face logos. But in fact there is clear reference to the artist, it was important to other people: “R. Shneyer Zalman (From (copy) portrait by Golovachesky painted in 1798 in SPB (St. Petersburg))”.
The artist is Головачевский, Кирилл Иванович, Golovachevsky Kirill Ivanovich.
But somehow there is confusion between the lithograph, painting and a pained copy by Boris Shatz, the founder of Bezalel in Jerusalem.
Note:
“The original lithograph does show the name of Golovochevsky in small type under the pic. But of course, this attribution itself is under the same doubt as is the portrait itself. (btw, it is not a photo, but a lithograph = a drawing on stone at that time).
The counterclaim is that Boris simply drew a portrait of a Schneerson (forgot the name now) who the family and the elders said looked like the AR. I am not saying that this is necessarily THE correct version, but it does put a damper on that pic… Somehow, the attribution to Golovochevsky (which obviously helps establish the 1798 provenance printed on the lithograph) was not taken as dispositive. Back then, the person who should have been asked about this was of course Boris Shatz himself, who only died in 1932.
Bottom line: there is only one image, the above-mentioned lithograph. Its provenance (meaning, what was it drawn from?) is in some doubt. All other pics are recent POS made based on that lithograph.”
I started writing this, I thought I discovered a new reproduction of the Alter Rebbe famous picture. Turns out there are better copies. It’s a lithograph and not a photo of the painting. In fact, there might never been an original panting. Reference to the artist is in doubt. It seems there is one authorship of the lithograph, Boris Shatz. But the rest is in doubt. In other words, a typical fake of Chabad mythology.