THE INVESTIGATION IN 1823–4 revealed the discrepancies between the government's official policy towards hasidim, which was generally positive, and the somewhat negative personal attitudes of the bureaucrats who had formulated the policy and were supposed to implement it. A subsequent investigation that started at the end of 1824 and continued into 1825 was to fully reveal the nature and destructive consequences of these unresolved contradictions.

In November 1824 the tsadik Meir of Opatow complained to the Government Commission for Internal Affairs and Police that local police harassment was impeding the assembly of hasidim for prayer and demanded the immediate enforcement of the ruling of the previous investigation that had legalized hasidic shtiblekh in full. On behalf of the commission, Staszic sent Rabbi Meir's complaint to the Government Commission for Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment so that the issue could be examined more closely. That august body dismissed the complaint on the grounds that it did not concern religious freedom but rather police order, and that it therefore came under the jurisdiction of the Commission for Internal Affairs. The Commission for Internal Affairs duly agreed to investigate.

Rabbi Meir, questioned in Opatów, denied authorship of the petition. He claimed that he had never accused the local police, had not submitted a complaint to anyone, and had not consulted anyone about this issue. But, he said, disturbed by the fact that the decision of the viceroy to allow hasidim to hold separate services had still not reached Opatów, he had written to the Bereksohn family in Warsaw, ‘asking that a ruling be sent quickly and that they try to remove all possible obstacles’. In accordance with this wish, Jakub Bereksohn Sonnenberg had submitted a note to the Government Commission for Internal Affairs, but, in consequence of a misunderstanding, according to Rabbi Meir, the note had included a complaint about the behaviour of the Opatów police. Since an unsubstantiated charge could have led to police harassment of Rabbi Meir, and even to legal action against him, Rabbi Meir consistently denied any connection with the accusation and even stressed that during searches the police had not committed ‘any indecency or impropriety; they behaved quietly, calmly, and respectfully’.