The Hasidic Rebbe Who Helped Defeat Napoleon

Tablet Magazine ^ | Aug 26, 2021 | Dovid Margolin

[Phinneous]

he old, sloping Jewish cemetery in Haditch, Ukraine, is one of those rare windows into the past. Look out from the hilltop, as I did recently, and a vista nearly unchanged in two centuries opens up below. During the winter you’ll see a frozen, grassy clearing dotted with barren birch trees descending to the banks of the placid Psel River. There, at the bottom and to the right, sits the original red brick mausoleum of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), the Alter Rebbe.

The founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, Rabbi Schneur Zalman lived and taught in White Russia all his life. How he came to rest in central Ukraine’s Poltava region, 600 kilometers south of Liadi, is part of the dramatic tale of the Hasidic master’s last journey in this world. It is also the story of a Jewish leader who, during the great and terrible year of 1812 confronted and ultimately helped to destroy Napoleon Bonaparte, the emperor of the French and torchbearer of the Revolution, changing the trajectory of Jewish history and with it the world.

[Phinneous]

The Hassidic dynasty founded by Rabbi Schneur Zalman went on to become the nemesis of Soviet commie Russia, all the way up to and including secret underground schools and synagogues for most of the 20th century.

[left that other site]

Thank you for sharing this very interesting bit of history!

Happy New Year to You.

[left that other site]

Is this the Rebbe that Hasidic People go to visit the Ukraine in order to honor?

[Cronos]

I wonder why the Rabbe did that. Napoleon was very good for the Jews in Western and central Europe.

[af_vet_1981]

Excellent article; especially liked the Alter Rebbe’s reference to :

“ The Alter Rebbe alludes to the tradition that the Baal Shem Tov refused to travel in a wagon driven by a gentile who did not make the sign of the cross while passing a church along the road: “There is more repair for a non-Jewish believer than for a heretic,” the Alter Rebbe explained in the discourse. And so the lines were drawn: On one hand, there was Czar Alexander’s religious faith in the one Master of the Universe who created and controls the world, and on the other hand was Napoleon’s egocentric and heretical belief in his own divinity.”

[Ezekiel]

This is probably an excellent article, and I read articles before posting... well usually.

So I'll have to come back to it but right now I'm am putting the finishing touches on a really big project.

I saw the title though and the first thing that came to mind was Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Luv those guys, because they knew that they knew nothing.

So when they needed to find Napoleon...

>>>

"Okay, wait, if we were one of Europe's greatest leaders, and we were stranded in San Dimas for one day, where would we go?"

"Waterloo!!!"

(I'll let myself out..)

[af_vet_1981]

The well written article explains the reason succinctly.

[Phinneous]

The picture at the website is accurate. It was actually from a portrait of him taken while he was in prison for “treason” described in the article.
(He was sending charity money to Jews in (then) Palestine... which had to go through Ottoman Turk- hands.... painted as treason by, ironically, non-hasidic sects of Jews who were against the Rabbi’s philosophy. What’s new— Jews upset with each other...)

[Phinneous]

Define “good.” Very subjective. There’s the material...and there’s the spiritual.

[Phinneous]

Ditto-— and a thread that should unite religionists in our collective fight now.

[Phinneous]

LOL!

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

[M Kehoe]

Bttt.

5.56mm

[jjotto]

You’re thinking of Nachman of Breslov, whose grave in Uman, Ukraine, is visited by tens of thousands every year.

His followers are Breslov Hassidim. The have a large and friendly internet presence.

Schneur Zalman of Liadi’s followers are Chabad-Lubavitchers. They’re everywhere!

[left that other site]

Ah! Thank you for clarifying that. I didn’t know the details.

[BTerclinger]

Very interesting article, thank you Phinneous for posting it, and thanks for the ping, SJackson.

[Ezekiel]

“Were I obliged to have a religion,” the French emperor once said, I would worship the sun—the source of all life—the real god of the earth.”

That reminds me that the real God -- the God of Abraham --*always* gets there first, no matter the languages or religions of this world:

The Torah in plain English begins with IN THE, and ends on ISRAEL. Okay let be reformat:

INT HE IS RA EL

"Ra" isn't just the name of the famous sun god. Ra is "evil". Or you could make a name such as RAul Malo ("ra", evil) who was born on Tisha b'Av, the worst day on the Hebrew calendar, because...

When Raul ("wolf counsel") sang, "Crying", he was singing as the lone wolf, the lead singular Maverick (358, המאבריק) crying (calling) in the wilderness, preparing the way, as RAchel: "Alone and crying."

Raul Malo of The Mavericks Covers Roy Orbison's "Crying" at The Fonda - March 6, 2016

Talk about the timing, March of 2016. It's way more literal than it looks. And listen for the very first comment in the audience when he starts to sing.

It was the start of a big project with an unknown length of time at the time. And now along comes Raul with the "intel" inside.

Note the [doubled] megaphone imagery, on the drum into his ear and the literal megaphone to his right. And also where it was recorded as such, the place of the "deep", i.e. the meaning of the surname, The Foundation. The literal location was 6126 Hollywood Blvd, the place of the star of Moses' Mother. Moses' wife is nearby at 6124. A little bird told me:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stars_on_the_Hollywood_Walk_of_Fame

"You couldn't tell that I'd been crying over you. Crying over you. Oh and you said so long, left me standing all alone. Alone and crying."

It's hard to understand, but the touch of your hand can start me crying.

(Just hovering over that last link ought to make an impression.)

Roy and Raul, with the voices of angels. Like I've been saying, the prophets didn't disappear; they were redefined out of existence.

Isaiah 40
(The Haftarah for the week of the first Moon landing, with the dove "Columbia" returning on Tisha B'Av, hovering over the waters like a dove.)

1. Comfort my people, comfort them, says your God:
2. Speak comfortably to JerUSAlem, and cry to her, that her fighting is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins:
3. A voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God:
4. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
5. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it:

It's. All. Orchestrated.

Time for the total round-up!

[cyn]

// 1. Comfort my people, comfort them, says your God:
2. Speak comfortably to JerUSAlem, and cry to her, that her fighting is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins:
3. A voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God:
4. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
5. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it:

It’s. All. Orchestrated. //

the glory of the Lord is, shall be revealed..