A Prince in Prison: Publisher's Foreword by the Rebbe

[Riga] [1]

Gimmel[2] Tammuz 5712 (1952)

Brooklyn, N.Y.

B"H

In honor of the forthcoming Festival of Liberation, Yud-Beis-Yud-Gimmel Tammuz, celebrating twenty-five years since the deliverance of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe [Rayatz], whose soul is in the hidden realms on high, we are hereby publishing one of his maamarim of Chassidus, and a memorandum written by him, each in a separate booklet.

The maamar was written[3] on Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, 5687 [1927], during his incarceration at Spalerno Prison. The memorandum[4], describing his imprisonment, was completed in Riga on 15 Sivan, 5688 [1928], the first anniversary of his arrest. It is introduced here by a letter[5]* (dated 17 Iyar, 5694 [1934]) in which the Rebbe [Rayatz] outlines his seven terms of imprisonment.

The significance of this celebration has already been explained in the letter[6]* which the Rebbe [Rayatz] wrote [also on 15 Sivan] in 5688 [1928] in anticipation of the first anniversary of Yud-Beis-Yud-Gimmel Tammuz. In it he urges that these days be set aside as a time of farbrengen - "a day on which people arouse each other to buttress the Torah and Yiddishkeit in every place according to its needs."

Moreover, he blesses "all our brethren who love the Torah and who study and teach it - that G-d open wide His goodly treasure-store and bestow upon them and upon all our fellow Jews life and blessings in endless abundance; that He fortify their hearts with growing resoluteness in the dissemination of Torah and in the upholding of Yiddishkeit." He concludes: "And may we all be found worthy of seeing children and grandchildren engaging in Torah and in mitzvos and being blessed with ample livelihoods."

May G-d fulfill the blessings of a tzaddik, the Nasi of our generation, in full.

Menachem Schneerson

Notes:

(Back to text) [Riga]: The Rebbe Rayatz lived in the capital of Latvia from late 1927 until he moved to Warsaw in 1934.

(Back to text) Gimmel Tammuz: Anniversary of the day on which the Rebbe Rayatz was released in 1927 from imprisonment under capital sentence in Leningrad, and exiled to Kostrama. The Rebbe discusses the significance of this date in Sefer HaMinhagim: The Book of Chabad-Lubavitch Customs, pp. 88-89.

(Back to text) , The maamar was written: It was not reprinted in Likkutei Dibburim.

(Back to text) The memorandum, describing his imprisonment: Known in the original as Reshimas HaMaasar.

(Back to text) * Appears in HaTamim, Vol. VII, p. 60, [and in Igros Kodesh (Letters) of the Rebbe Rayatz, Vol. III, p. 79ff.].

(Back to text) * Appears in Kuntreis 59 (published in honor of Yud-Beis Tammuz, 5708 [1948]), p. 263 [and in Igros Kodesh (Letters) of the Rebbe Rayatz, Vol. III, p. 80-82]. [The complete letter, together with the maamar it accompanies, appears in English translation in Defiance and Devotion, pp. 96-101. For its historical setting, see footnote 5 there (or Sefer HaMinhagim: The Book of Chabad-Lubavitch Customs, footnote 155 on p. 40).]