Episode 211 - The Childhood of the Mitteler Rebbe

00:00 We turn now to the Mitteler Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe’s son, and first of all to how the Alter Rebbe came to have a son. We know that after his wedding, the Alter Rebbe had daughters, but no sons, and he wanted sons. The Alter Rebbe related this on Shabbos Parshas Vayishlach 5533, when he was still with the Maggid of Mezritch, in the last year of the Maggid’s life: “On the last Shabbos of his life in this world, my teacher and Rebbe, Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch, said to me as he lay in bed, in the presence of the entire holy fellowship: ‘Yaakov sent angels.’ Rashi explains: ‘Actual angels.’ Yaakov sent the angels’ actual, physical aspect to Eisav, but kept their spiritual aspect with him. After Maariv and Havdalah, the Maggid said, ‘The vision of Ovadiah: one who serves Yud-Hei sees.’ ‘For with Yud-Hei, Hashem formed the worlds’: with the yud the World to Come was created, and with the hei this world was created. Ovadiah means one who serves Yud-Hei; ‘the vision of Ovadiah’ means that one who serves Hashem sees that vision. On Sunday, 17 Kislev, the Maggid told me that during the last three days before a person’s passing—before he returns his soul to Hakadosh Boruch Hu—he sees only the word of Hashem present in every physical thing. That night,” the Alter Rebbe said, “the Maggid revealed to me the order of the night of vigil before a child is brought into the covenant of Avraham Avinu, peace be upon him. The Maggid asked me why I did not ask about the order of a Shalom Zachar. I told him that I felt the holy conversations with which he was favoring me came by way of an awakening from Above, like dew dripping from the holy beard.” When the Alter Rebbe related these holy words, he leaned on his holy arms and remained in deep deveikus for an hour, filling those present with tremendous awe. For that deveikus was something like

02:46 and resembled his deveikus on Yom Kippur. But on Yom Kippur, the Alter Rebbe’s face would be turned toward the wall, whereas as he told this story, his holy face was glowing and radiant. Then he emerged from his deveikus and said, “‘And you shall be silent—do not say a word.’ That is what I said to my Rebbe, the Maggid.” My teacher, the Maggid, nodded his holy head in agreement. “In any event,” the Alter Rebbe related, “the Maggid then taught me the order of the day a child is brought into the covenant of Avraham Avinu, peace be upon him, and the order of a Shalom Zachar. He also told me, ‘Know this: “The vision of Ovadiah”—one who serves Yud-Hei sees. A son will be born to you, and you will name him after me. On the night of vigil before his bris, remember and recount what I have told you tonight.’” The Alter Rebbe continued: “Among the holy things the Maggid told me on the day of his passing, 19 Kislev 5533—that is, 1773 by their reckoning—was: ‘He will revive us after two days; on the third day He will raise us up, and we will live before Him.’ ‘He will revive us after two days’ refers to the first two days after the bris, when the child enters the covenant of Avraham Avinu, peace be upon him—twice ‘In your blood, live.’ ‘On the third day’—the third day after the circumcision—‘He will raise us up, and we will live before Him.’ A year after that conversation, on 9 Kislev 5534, my son Rabbi Dov Ber, the Mitteler Rebbe, was born, and I named him after my teacher and Rebbe, as he had told me to do. On the night of vigil before the child was brought into the covenant of Avraham Avinu, on 16 Kislev, I remembered and fulfilled what the Rebbe had told me a year earlier: ‘Remember and recount what I have told you tonight.’ This took place in the company of the holy fellowship: the tzaddik Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Horodok and the tzaddik Rabbi Avraham of Kalisk. After the bris meal, we traveled to the tzaddik Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Horodok for the Maggid’s first yahrzeit on 19 Kislev, which that

05:29 year fell on Shabbos Parshas Vayishlach. That Shabbos I repeated the Rebbe’s maamar ‘He will revive us after two days,’ which he had told me before his passing.” When the Mitteler Rebbe was born, his father, the Alter Rebbe, provided a special piece of cloth that he had kept to swaddle the baby for the first time after he was washed. He did the same when his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek, was born. When the Mitteler Rebbe grew a little older, the Alter Rebbe called over one of the young married men who had studied under the Maggid and said to him in his customary sing-song voice, “I have the obligation to fulfill the mitzvah ‘Teach them to your children’; you have the obligation to support and provide for your family. Come, let us exchange duties. I will give you the means to fulfill your obligation to support your family, and you will teach my son, the Mitteler Rebbe.” The Alter Rebbe explained how he wanted the young man to teach him. The first lesson would be the letters of the alef-beis: a point above, a point below, and a line in the middle make an alef. A Jewish child must know that the alef of the Torah is a yud above, a yud below, and a line of faith connecting them. The upper yud is the soul, the lower yud is the body, and the line connecting them is the line of yiras Shamayim. The Alter Rebbe blessed the young man that he should merit to raise students who excelled in Torah and yiras Shamayim. The Mitteler Rebbe grew a little more, and even in early childhood his extraordinary abilities were evident. He was tremendously diligent. When he studied with his first teacher of young children, the teacher would complain that the Mitteler Rebbe did not let him teach the other children: he wanted the teacher to work only with him. This teacher had two classes. One learned the alef-beis and how to combine letters into words; the second learned the meaning of the words of the prayers and began Chumash. While the teacher taught one class, the other reviewed its lessons. At that point, the Mitteler Rebbe was in the

08:05 younger class, and when his class was supposed to review, he would listen to what was being taught to the other class. This troubled the teacher. But when he tested the Mitteler Rebbe, the boy knew his own lessons well; his grasp and memory were remarkable. When he returned home from cheder, he would repeat from memory what he had heard being taught to the other class, and in this way he became familiar with many chapters of Tanach by heart. He studied in cheder with children his own age for one term, then studied with classmates much older than he was, because he had advanced so remarkably. One evening, when the child returned from cheder, he found several chassidim sitting in his father’s outer room, which the chassidim in Liozna called Gan Eden Hatachton. Among them were Rabbi Shmuel Munkes, Rabbi Yosef Kisses[?], and Rabbi Shlomo Rafael of Vilna. They were waiting to be received for yechidus with the Alter Rebbe. Meanwhile, the learned chossid Rabbi Yosef Kolbo[?] of Shklov also came in. He had previously been among the opponents of Chassidus and had become a chossid; he was one of Shklov’s wealthiest merchants and a great philanthropist. They all sat together and held a farbrengen. The Mitteler Rebbe wanted to go in to his father, the Alter Rebbe, but when he saw those chassidim—particularly Rabbi Shmuel Munkes, who liked to joke around—he went over to them. The Mitteler Rebbe was a lively, cheerful child and felt a special attraction to Rabbi Shmuel Munkes. As he approached him, he heard him ask Rabbi Yosef Kolbo[?] of Shklov, “Why are you so sad?” “Times are hard and business is poor,” Rabbi Yosef Kolbo[?] and Rabbi Shlomo Rafael, the wealthy man from Vilna, answered. Hearing this, the child turned to Rabbi Shmuel Munkes in surprise and said, “Why do you ask them such a question? After all, there is an explicit verse: ‘Their idols are silver and gold, the work of’”

10:25 The work of human hands. The reason for their sadness is “silver and gold, the work of human hands,” because they are blind and foolish. They think a person acquires silver and gold through his own actions and strength. Their foolishness clouds their judgment, and they fool themselves into thinking that the harder a person works at his business, running to Leipzig... Reb Yosef Kolbo[?] traded with Leipzig. He would travel to the fairs there and bring back merchandise, and also to Königsberg, where Reb Shlomo Rafael would buy his merchandise. Good beverages, bringing merchandise from Königsberg [unclear]. They think this will increase their silver and gold. They deceive themselves and reach a state of “they have mouths, but do not speak.” They have mouths; they speak and repeat teachings of Chassidus, but “do not speak.” They cannot bring the words in their mouths to bear on their inner selves and their faculties. “Speak” here has the sense of “He subdues peoples,” and so none of their words has any meaning. “They have eyes, but do not see”: they do not see Divine providence. They have ears, but perceive only the external aspect, and therefore “they do not smell.” They have no sense of smell, and through this, says the Mitteler Rebbe, idolatry comes into being. The Mitteler Rebbe said all this to Reb Shmuel Munkes. Then, when he was seven years old, the Mitteler Rebbe asked his father, the Alter Rebbe, why wealthy people are arrogant by nature. Their arrogance seems to be inborn, not something they acquired later. Even those who were not wealthy and suddenly became rich immediately undergo a change in their character and become arrogant, as though they had been born that way. The Alter Rebbe told his son: Hakadosh Boruch Hu placed a tendency toward self-importance in wealth. The chamber of wealth lies between Gan Eden and Gehinnom, as it says in Koheles, “G-d made the one opposite the other.” The chamber of wealth, situated between Gan Eden and Gehinnom, has two doors, one

12:57 facing the other. One door leads to Gan Eden, and the other leads to Gehinnom. “Grandfather, the Baal Shem Tov,” the Alter Rebbe told his son, the Mitteler Rebbe, “said that wealth is Gan Eden for one person and Gehinnom for another.” The Alter Rebbe explained: For someone who uses wealth for tzedakah, Torah and mitzvos, the wealth itself is Gan Eden. But for someone who uses it for himself, for worldly matters, or holds on to it as though it were a treasure, the wealth itself is Gehinnom for him. The Mitteler Rebbe wrote quickly, expressed himself easily, and had beautiful handwriting. He would write down all the teachings and conversations he heard from his father. The teacher who taught the Mitteler Rebbe in his childhood was Reb Avraham of Lepel[?]. The Alter Rebbe blessed Reb Avraham that he would see his own grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and those of his pupil—the Mitteler Rebbe. Reb Avraham lived for more than a hundred years and would walk to Lubavitch. Only toward the end of his life did he have to travel by wagon. His last visit to Lubavitch was on Shavuos 5632—that is, by their reckoning, 1872. “When I was studying with the Mitteler Rebbe,” Reb Avraham related, “I told him the passage in the Gemara, in tractate Shabbos 118. Ravina said to Rava, the son of Rava—I don’t remember the names exactly—‘Which mitzvah was your father especially careful with?’ He answered, ‘Tzitzis.’ I explained the passage to the Mitteler Rebbe in its plain sense: that Rava was more careful with the mitzvah of tzitzis than with other mitzvos. But the child smiled and said to me, ‘Could it be that Rava was not careful, for example, with the mitzvah of tefillin or the other mitzvos? Surely he observed every mitzvah with the utmost care and precision.’ ‘If so,’ I asked,” said Reb Avraham, “‘what does the question “Which mitzvah was he especially careful with?” mean, and what does the answer “the mitzvah of tzitzis” mean?’

15:30 “The child, the Mitteler Rebbe, told me: ‘It is simple. The question “Which mitzvah was he especially careful with?” means: Through which mitzvah did the light of his soul shine more brightly? The word for “careful” is related to the word for radiance and light. As it is written, “Your commandment is exceedingly broad.” The mitzvos are broad vessels through which the light of the soul is revealed. “The soul of man is Hashem’s lamp,” and a person’s soul will teach him. Every mitzvah is a particular gateway through which the light of a person’s soul is revealed. That is the meaning of the question Rabbi asked Rabbi Yishmael, son of Rabbi Yosi: “Which mitzvah was your father especially careful with?” He was asking which mitzvah allowed the light of his soul to shine most brightly—which mitzvah was the particular gateway for the revelation of his soul’s light. The answer was “the mitzvah of tzitzis”: through this mitzvah, the light of his soul shone forth, and this mitzvah added vitality and light to all the mitzvos he observed.’” The Mitteler Rebbe also loved chassidic stories, because his first teacher—it says here that this was Reb Dovber’s first teacher—encouraged him to listen to chassidic stories and instilled great enthusiasm for them in him. Once, the Mitteler Rebbe came upon a group of chassidim sitting together and telling chassidic stories. He heard the chossid Reb Chaim of the town of Dribin say that Dribin had the finest Torah scholars, who were staunch misnagdim. There were very few chassidim there, just a small group of young married men supported by their fathers-in-law. “I myself,” Reb Chaim of Dribin related, “was one of those young chassidic men, and we all studied under the gaon Reb Zerach Meir, known as ‘the Prober.’ Why was he called that? Reb Zerach Meir was a sixty-year-old Jew who never stopped studying Torah for a moment. Every subject he studied became a whole sugya for him, with many details. That is why they called him ‘the Prober’: it was as though he probed every detail of the sugya. When the gaon Reb Zerach Meir gave a shiur, they would invite

17:57 the elderly Torah scholars of Dribin, because he was highly original and explained things exceptionally well. When he delivered a shiur, he would say, ‘Pay attention, pay attention, and listen to the Torah insights that bring joy to the Tannaim and Amoraim in Gan Eden.’ Once, as the gaon Reb Zerach Meir was about to give a shiur, a traveler entered the beis midrash. The traveler set his bag aside, washed his hands, and we young men greeted him. Just then Reb Shalom Shlomo, a chossid who was a shopkeeper, came in. When he saw the traveler, he greeted him, asked whether he had eaten, and invited him to come to his home for something to eat. But the traveler said he had already eaten and sat down at the table to hear the shiur. The elderly scholars and the gaon Reb Zerach Meir told the traveler to give up his place at the table and not sit beside the elderly scholars. ‘Everyone,’ they told him, ‘must know his place.’ The traveler said nothing. He got up and stood to the side. Then the gaon Reb Zerach Meir began with his familiar introduction praising his own scholarship, and started teaching the Mishnah about ‘one who surrounds his fellow on three sides.’ When the gaon Reb Zerach Meir finished explaining the Mishnah, which took a long time, the elderly scholars said with great admiration that Torah insights like these surely brought joy to the Tannaim and Amoraim in Gan Eden. The traveler, who had been standing to the side listening to the shiur, now began to challenge and refute everything the gaon Reb Zerach Meir had proposed. First he repeated Reb Zerach Meir’s insights, and then he refuted each one at its root. Everyone present, led by the gaon Reb Zerach Meir, was completely bewildered. They sat in silence. The traveler went on to tell them that he had been in a small town, where he heard a young head of a yeshivah study this sugya. Over several hours, the young man studied the Mishnah and taught it to everyone. The elderly scholars and the gaon Reb Zerach Meir were deeply impressed. They rose, greeted the traveler,

20:17 and asked him to sit at the table. The traveler said to them, ‘But everyone must know his place.’ This traveler was the chossid Reb Menachem Zechariah. He stayed in Dribin for several years, and all the Torah scholars of Dribin became chassidim of the Alter Rebbe. The mashpia Reb Menachem Zechariah carefully oversaw the guidance of the chassidim’s children as well, and remained there in Dribin.