Episode 217 - The Tzemach Tzedek and the Chassidim

00:01 We now turn to the third Rebbe of Chabad, the Rebbe known as the Tzemach Tzedek. Let me remind you of the order: the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, was a student of the Maggid of Mezritch and the founder of Chabad Chassidus. He passed away at the end of the war with Napoleon, during the flight from Napoleon. His son, the Mitteler Rebbe, then became Rebbe. After the Mitteler Rebbe passed away, the Tzemach Tzedek became Rebbe. He was the Alter Rebbe’s grandson—Rabbi Schneur Zalman’s grandson through his daughter Devorah Leah. How did he become Rebbe? We will continue telling the story of his life in the episodes to come. For now, we will tell stories of chassidim connected with the Tzemach Tzedek. Here are the stories. In a certain town—somewhere in Europe, of course, in White Russia, Little Russia, or Ukraine—the local rabbi had a custom of leaving home every year after Pesach for several months. He said that the town’s poor residents could not provide enough for his livelihood, so he traveled to various places, as maggidim did, delivering sermons to make up what he lacked. The townspeople agreed, and the rabbi continued this practice. He also founded a yeshiva in his town. Each day after their studies, he would learn a little mussar with the young men, and so he did for many years. Then one day, after returning from his travels, the rabbi told the townspeople that he planned to move to Eretz Yisroel with his family. They held a farewell gathering attended by everyone, and the rabbi spoke to them. Afterward, he invited the young men studying in his yeshiva, as well as former students who were now young married men. At the farewell gathering, the rabbi told his students, “Now I will reveal a secret to you. I am actually a chossid. All those trips I supposedly took as a maggid were trips to the Rebbe—to the Tzemach Tzedek.

02:52 “And the daily mussar I learned with you was not ordinary mussar, but Chassidus from the Tanya. Back then, I read you the first page of the Tanya and said that I did not know the name of the book I had found. I said that since it was good, we would learn from it together. But you should know that it is the Alter Rebbe’s book.” The chossid-rabbi explained to them the goodness of this light, what a Rebbe is, and what Chassidus is. He concluded: “Now, before I leave you, I will tell you briefly: Go to Lubavitch. Go to the Rebbe. Keep this secret for a while, and afterward do as I have advised.” After the farewell gathering, the rabbi left for Eretz Yisroel, and his students kept his words secret for about a year. But then, all of a sudden, many young married men disappeared from their homes in the town. They had hired wagons and gone to Lubavitch. The town was in an uproar until it became known where they had gone. When they returned, they learned Chassidus and Tanya openly and no longer had to tear out the rest of the book. They also established their own shul for davening, because they davened in a different nusach. They now chose a chossid as their rabbi, too. Rabbi Aharon Yaakov accepted their request, but agreed to serve for only a year and a half. Meanwhile, their shochet also left, having found a better position. The chassidim sought a chassidic shochet and bodek, but the householders would not agree to that. “A chossid as rabbi and a chossid as shochet and bodek too? No, that goes too far. We will oppose it with all our might.” The chassidim traveled to the Tzemach Tzedek and asked the Rebbe what to do. The Tzemach Tzedek told them, “Take note: the shochet and bodek should specifically be one of the chassidim. But the rabbi need not necessarily be a chossid.” And that is what they did. Another story: As a child, the Tzemach Tzedek grew up in the home of his grandfather, the Alter Rebbe. One day, the Alter Rebbe held his young grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek, in his arms. The Tzemach Tzedek was

05:46 then a small child. Sitting comfortably on his grandfather’s lap, he stroked his beard and said, “Zayde, Zayde.” The Alter Rebbe said to him, “That is Zayde’s beard. But where is Zayde himself?” The little boy placed his hands on the Alter Rebbe’s head and said, “That is Zayde.” The Alter Rebbe said to him again, “That is Zayde’s head. But where is Zayde himself?” The Tzemach Tzedek pointed to the Alter Rebbe’s eyes, but received the same answer. He put his hand on the Alter Rebbe’s hand, then on his body, and each time the Alter Rebbe gave him the same answer. What did the Tzemach Tzedek do? He climbed down from his grandfather’s lap, hid behind the door, and suddenly called out loudly, as children do, “Zayde! Zayde!” The Alter Rebbe turned toward him and said, “What?” The Tzemach Tzedek said, “That is Zayde.” In other words, when he called him by name and his grandfather turned to him, that was Zayde himself. And another story: One of the Tzemach Tzedek’s chassidim was deeply in debt. All his creditors took him to court and gave him no peace. He wondered what to do, until an idea occurred to him: “I’ll sell my house, pay all my debts, rent a place, and live in peace. What does it matter if I live in a rented place rather than a home of my own? Many people do not own homes.” But as a devoted chossid, he asked the Tzemach Tzedek. The Rebbe told him, “No. Do not sell your house under any circumstances.” Many days passed, and his creditors gave him no peace. He saw no solution and no relief. Again he thought, “I have to sell my house.” Again he asked the Tzemach Tzedek, and again the Rebbe told him, “Do not sell your house under any circumstances.” The chossid went through more difficult days. His situation deteriorated to the point that he grew weary of life and did not know what

08:29 to do. He wished to die. In the end, he could not withstand the difficult test. He sold his house, paid all his debts, and revived his spirits. But before long, the chossid passed away, rachmana litzlan. The Tzemach Tzedek said of this: Our Sages said of certain people, including those with many creditors, that “their lives are not lives.” What does “their lives are not lives” mean? It means this: their life-force—the source from which they receive their vitality—is a place called “not lives.” That is where a person with many creditors draws his vitality from. So as long as he had many creditors, he received vitality from that source. But once he paid all his debts and had no creditors, that source was no longer there, and for that reason he passed away, may it not happen to us. Another story: A Jew came to the Tzemach Tzedek and said, “I want to divorce my wife because I wish to give tzedakah and she prevents me.” The Tzemach Tzedek told him, “As is known, the Hebrew words for ‘man’ and ‘woman’ each contain the word ‘fire’: ‘man’ has the letter yud, and ‘woman’ has the letter hei. When they unite, Hashem’s name—the yud and the hei—is between them, as our Sages said, ‘The Shechinah is between them.’ The difference between a yud and a hei is that the yud is contracted, while the hei expands. What is contracted and hidden in the man is revealed and expansive in the woman. But know that it begins with the man. Enough said for one who understands.” And another story: When the Tzemach Tzedek was in Petersburg, at the great assembly where they wanted to change the Jewish education system, one of the Polish chassidim did him a favor. This was a very wealthy man who did business with high-ranking ministers in Petersburg. The Tzemach Tzedek did not know him at all, nor did he know that this was the man who had done him the favor. One day, that man came to him,

11:30 He introduced himself to the Tzemach Tzedek and told him, “I am the one who handled that matter for you in Petersburg.” The Tzemach Tzedek thanked him and asked, “With what shall I bless you?” The man replied, “Baruch Hashem, I lack nothing. I have everything—children, happiness, and honor. But one matter troubles me, and I ask the Rebbe to explain it. In many places, the idea of individual Divine Providence is explained: every thing, even something small and seemingly insignificant, and every event in the world has a specific purpose from Above. I cannot understand this.” The Tzemach Tzedek explained the matter to him clearly and thoroughly. It was apparent that this man was capable of understanding such things, yet he said to the Rebbe, “Rebbe, I still don’t understand.” The Tzemach Tzedek motioned for him to come over to the window. “Look outside,” he said. “See that gentile traveling with a wagon loaded with straw? A Jew is walking behind the wagon. He takes a tiny stalk of straw from it and picks at his tooth. Something in his tooth is bothering him, and because of it he cannot daven properly. Know,” the Tzemach Tzedek told him, “that this Jew is one of the thirty-six tzaddikim. He is about to stand and daven. So know that this entire village, that gentile, and the wagon loaded with straw—all of it was created for this Jew, so that he could stand and daven properly.” When the Tzemach Tzedek told the man this and showed him what was happening, the man said, “Now I understand what individual Divine Providence is.” And another story, from the time of the kidnappers: There was a period when Nicholas I decreed that Jewish children be taken and conscripted into the Russian army. This posed an enormous danger to the children and caused terrible anguish to their parents. There were kidnappers—people who abducted children, sold them, and delivered them to the Russian army. In one town, they kidnapped

14:34 a boy whose parents were poor and could do nothing to save him. The boy had a wealthy uncle, a merchant who often traveled to Moscow. When the uncle heard what had happened, he immediately began trying to find out where the boy had been sent. He learned that the boy was at an army camp in Moscow and traveled there. After paying a bribe, he received permission to enter and see the boy. The boy was in the tailors’ section, learning their trade. He was cheerful and happy, without a care. He had become assimilated among the gentiles. This deeply distressed his uncle. He traveled to the Tzemach Tzedek in Lubavitch and told him about the boy. The Rebbe said, “Please try to bring the boy to Lubavitch, even for a short time.” The uncle went back to Moscow and tried to entice the boy to go away with him for a little rest, but the boy refused. The uncle bribed the officials in charge of the boy to persuade him, but that did not help. He told the officials to treat him harshly and beat him so that he would want to leave them. After much effort, the boy finally agreed to travel with his uncle to the Tzemach Tzedek for a rest. The uncle did not take him to the countryside as he had promised, but brought him to Lubavitch. It was late on Friday afternoon. When they came to the yeshivah hall, which the chassidim called the zal, it was full of people. The Tzemach Tzedek was due to come and deliver a maamar of Chassidus. There was a great commotion, and when the Rebbe suddenly entered, the chassidim parted and cleared a path down the middle for him. The Tzemach Tzedek walked along the path between the chassidim, who stood watching him. Among those in the front row, he saw the kidnapped boy standing beside his uncle. The Tzemach Tzedek fixed a piercing gaze on the boy, and the boy began to tremble. He felt severe pains in his stomach, so severe that he thought his end had come. They stayed there for Shabbos and Sunday. The boy was angry with his uncle for deceiving him and bringing him there, and he waited

17:02 impatiently to leave and return to Moscow. On Sunday evening, the uncle brought the boy into yechidus with the Tzemach Tzedek. When he entered, the Tzemach Tzedek said to him, “Well, do you want to go back?” The boy had a change of heart and said, “No, Rebbe.” The Rebbe gave him instructions on how to conduct himself, and the boy stayed with him. In time, he married and lived in a village in Russia, but he never returned to the army.