The Carriage That Would Not Move
Taken in a sealed black carriage toward Saint Petersburg, the Alter Rebbe asked to stop before Shabbos, and the carriage could not be moved until he was ready.
A story ofRebbe Schneur Zalman of Liadiרבי שניאור זלמן מלאדיProfile ›
It is told that during the intermediate days of Sukkos in 1798, an armed officer came to Liozna to arrest Rav Schneur Zalman. The Rebbe slipped out by a side door, and the officer went away with nothing. Indoors again, he resolved that should the officer return, he would stay where he was.
The officer came back the day after Simchas Torah. Within hours the Rebbe sat inside the "Black Mary," a windowless carriage plated in black metal, which the authorities kept for prisoners facing the gravest sentences. Under heavy guard it rolled out of Liozna that Thursday night toward Saint Petersburg, by way of Vitebsk and Nevel.
On Friday at 10:30 in the morning, some six hours before candle-lighting, the Rebbe asked that they stop until after Shabbos. The officer paid no attention. A moment later the axles snapped. When they were mended, a horse fell dead, and fresh horses could not budge the carriage an inch.
The guards understood that they could not go on against the will of their prisoner. They offered to turn aside to a nearby village, but the Rebbe declined and agreed only to be moved off the highway into a field. There he kept Shabbos. Years later an old chassid, Rav Michael of Nevel, said that he had gone to see the place himself, and that among the old, drooping trees along the road one tall tree with full foliage marked the spot.
Source: Likkutei Dibburim (talks of the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rav Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn); in English as "The Black Carriage", adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles.
Most of us meet small pressures that push against Shabbos: one more email, one more errand, one more reason to go on a little longer. This week, decide in advance where your Shabbos begins and tell someone at home. When the hour comes, stop, even if a task is unfinished. The Alter Rebbe is remembered as a man who held that line under far greater pressure, and a clear boundary, held calmly, brings the quiet of the day into your home.