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Incarcerated
Some famous prisoners:
Abraham: imprisoned by Nimrod for ten years (Talmud, Bava Batra 91a).
Joseph: incarcerated in the royal jail of Pharaonic Egypt for twelve
years (Genesis 39:20).
Rabbi Akiva: imprisoned by the Romans for teaching Torah (Talmud, Berachot
61b).
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai: confined to a cave for thirteen years after
the Romans placed a price on his head.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi: held for 52 days in the Peter-Paul Fortress
in Petersburg on charges of treason against the Russian Czar. Released on Kislev
19, 5559 (1798).
The common denominator of these “prisoners” is that each one’s
life and teachings constituted a milestone in the dissemination of Torah. Abraham
commenced the “age of Torah.”[1] Joseph was the link between the Torah of the
Patriarchs and the generations of exile in Egypt.[2]
Rabbi Akiva was the central figure in the transmission of the “Oral Torah”—the
body of Torah law and interpretation that is the key to understanding and applying
the “Written Torah”—from Sinai to Diaspora Jewry.[3] Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, author of the Zohar,
is our source for the Kabbalah , the mystical dimension of Torah. And
Rabbi Schneur Zalman was the founder of Chabad Chassidism, the movement that
fused the rational and mystical streams of Torah into a unified, comprehensive
program for life.[4] In each
of these cases, imprisonment served as the incubation period for the revelation
of a new, unprecedented dimension of G-d’s wisdom in our world.
Indeed, confinement always precedes a new beginning—consider the circumstances
of every birth (under Torah law, a newborn infant has the legal status of a
newly-released prisoner, since “there is no greater prison than the womb”[5]).
Thus the prophet Ezekiel compares the experience of galut (our current
state of exile and spiritual displacement) to a pregnancy, and the redemption
to the birth that follows.
Confinement—whether in the womb, in galut, or in an actual prison—is
a time of external limitation. But it is also a time of inner foment, a time
that can be utilized as a launch point for the infinite possibilities of a new
birth.
Based on a “19th of Kislev” entry in the Rebbe’s journal[6]
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[1]. “The world exists for six thousand years:
two thousand years of chaos (e.g. the Flood, the Tower of
Babel), two thousand years of Torah (beginning from when
Abraham began speading the knowledge of G-d at age 52),
and two thousand years of the messianic era (i.e, the world
has the potential to attain the ultimate perfection, and
Moshiach is destined to come in this period)”—Talmud,
Avodah Zarah 9a.
[2]. See Rashi on Genesis 37:3.
[3]. “All mishnayot, unless otherwise specified,
are from Rabbi Meir; all toseftot, unless otherwise specified, are
from Rabbi Nechemiah; all of sifra, unless otherwise specified, is
from Rabbi Judah; all of sifri, unless otherwise specified, is from
Rabbi Shimon; and all of the above is according to the teachings of Rabbi
Akiva''—Talmud, Sanhedrin 86a.
[4]. Editor’s note: According to the Yalkut Shimoni
(Shemot 168), Moses, who transmitted the Torah to humanity, was also a prisoner
(of his future father-in-law, Jethro) in Midian for ten years.
[5]. Talmud, Moed Katan 14a.
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