Episode 219 - The Tzemach Tzedek - In His Childhood and Adulthood

00:00 We are telling the story of the life of the third Rebbe of Chabad, the Tzemach Tzedek, Rabbi Menachem Mendel. At the age of fourteen, the Tzemach Tzedek married his cousin, the daughter of his uncle, the Mitteler Rebbe. The Tzemach Tzedek was the Alter Rebbe’s grandson through his daughter Devorah Leah. We remember the stories about her extraordinary character and how she gave her life for the Alter Rebbe. Rebbetzin Devorah Leah’s brother, of course, was the Mitteler Rebbe. So the Tzemach Tzedek married the Mitteler Rebbe’s daughter, his cousin. Her name was Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka. Then something happened. Here is the story. It took place at the beginning of 5567, four years after the Tzemach Tzedek’s marriage to Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka. His uncle Rabbi Yehuda Leib and the Tzemach Tzedek took part in a discussion of a serious halachic question. Because the Tzemach Tzedek yielded and overcame his feelings, a story unfolded. What happened? The Tzemach Tzedek’s wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, who was the Alter Rebbe’s granddaughter, showed her grandfather manuscripts of Chassidus that the Tzemach Tzedek had written. She did not tell her husband, the Tzemach Tzedek, and she did it without his permission. So the Tzemach Tzedek wanted to divorce her. This is how it happened. The Tzemach Tzedek wrote the discourse called Shoresh Mitzvas Hatefillah in 5566. The Alter Rebbe saw it and took great pleasure in it. One day the Alter Rebbe called his granddaughter Chaya Mushka, the Tzemach Tzedek’s wife, and instructed her to bring him some of the manuscripts her husband had written for himself. She did not know which manuscripts to bring, because there were many bundles of writings. When she saw one particularly large bundle, she brought it to the Alter Rebbe. It contained

02:50 the discourse Shoresh Mitzvas Hatefillah as well. When the Alter Rebbe saw this discourse on Chassidus, he called his brother Rabbi Yehuda Leib and the chossid Reb Pinchas Reizes, whom we already know as one of the Alter Rebbe’s greatest chassidim. The Alter Rebbe told them that he needed to recite the Shehecheyanu blessing and wanted them to answer amen, so that “by the testimony of two witnesses, the word of Hashem shall be established.” The verse in Yeshayahu says, “And as for Me, this is My covenant: My spirit that is upon you, and My words that I have placed in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, or from the mouth of your children, or from the mouth of your children’s children.” A daughter’s children are considered like sons. A child demonstrates the completeness of the one who brought him into the world, and the third generation—meaning the Tzemach Tzedek—completes the perfection of the one who brought his parent into the world. The Alter Rebbe explained several points about this and told them about the discourse he had seen by his grandson, Shoresh Mitzvas Hatefillah. He stood and recited the Shehecheyanu blessing, including Hashem’s name and kingship, and they answered amen. The Alter Rebbe said, “And now may Hashem fulfill His good word from this time forth and forever.” Everyone answered amen. That year, a serious question was brought to the Alter Rebbe. Usually his brother Rabbi Yehuda Leib would examine questions that came to him. But after seeing his grandson the Tzemach Tzedek’s writings in Chassidus and the revealed teachings of Torah, the Alter Rebbe told his brother Rabbi Yehuda Leib to discuss this matter with the Tzemach Tzedek. The Tzemach Tzedek and Rabbi Yehuda Leib debated the question for several days, then came to tell the Alter Rebbe their views. The Alter Rebbe instructed them to put their conclusions in writing. The Tzemach Tzedek related how remarkable it was to see the joy on the Alter Rebbe’s holy face as he spoke about halachah. A few days later, Rabbi Yehuda Leib, the Alter Rebbe’s brother, and the Tzemach Tzedek brought what they had written to the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe called

05:27 his brother Rabbi Yehuda Leib and said to him, “See how great is the power of toil in Torah. The Tzemach Tzedek has extraordinary abilities: his exposition is in the style of Rashi, his analysis and explanations in the style of the Tosafists, his breadth of knowledge and reasoning in the style of the Rambam, his sharpness and quick grasp in the style of the Rashba, and his depth and originality in the style of the Ran.” The story of their debate over this question became widely known. In Tishrei 5567, when people gathered at the Alter Rebbe’s, they learned that he had recited the Shehecheyanu blessing, and the chassidim began to esteem and honor the Tzemach Tzedek even more. Then, on Simchas Torah, someone told the Tzemach Tzedek that the Alter Rebbe had seen what he had written. The Tzemach Tzedek was deeply upset and angrily told his wife that he would divorce her for bringing his writings to the Alter Rebbe. His wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, the Alter Rebbe’s granddaughter, told him she had heard that honoring a grandfather takes precedence over honoring a father, since the father, too, is honored when his father is honored. So when the Alter Rebbe instructed her to bring him the writings, what could she do? She also told him not to forget that he, the Tzemach Tzedek, owed the Alter Rebbe the honor due to a father, since the Alter Rebbe had raised him—especially as he was also his teacher. The Tzemach Tzedek told her he would look into the matter, because he harbored a grievance against her. Until he completed his examination of it, he could not live with her. Although Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka was a strong-minded woman, her heart was broken. She cried for several days and waited about two months, hoping that perhaps the Tzemach Tzedek would change his mind. After that, she told her father, the Mitteler Rebbe, the whole story. The Mitteler Rebbe was deeply moved. He called his son-in-law, the Tzemach Tzedek, and spoke with him about it. Seeing how firm he was on the matter, he told his father, the Alter Rebbe. On Shabbos Parshas Mikeitz, Shabbos Chanukah, the Alter Rebbe delivered a maamar of Chassidus, “Our Rabbis taught: The mitzvah of the Chanukah lights,” with two explanations[?]

08:21 of it. He delivered the explanations in his room. After everyone had left, the Alter Rebbe said to his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek, “I know that you are examining a matter of halachah. Since you are personally involved, it will be difficult for you to arrive at the truth. I would like to examine it together with you. Two G-dly souls, as against one reasoning soul, will be able to uncover and clarify the true halachah.” Although the Tzemach Tzedek was correct from the standpoint of halachah, he changed his mind and regretted having considered divorcing his wife. The Alter Rebbe said to the Tzemach Tzedek, “To remove any resentment from your heart—and on the contrary, to give you my support—from now on, while I am at home, I will study the revealed teachings of Torah with you at set times twice a week. Three times a week, I will review for you the discourses I have already delivered and the explanations of the teachings I received from my teachers. Then the words will be fulfilled in you: ‘Plant faithful saplings; may your planting flourish and your offspring blossom.’” Leaning on his arms as he customarily did in deep spiritual absorption, he sighed deeply and concluded with the words of the verse, “The harvest will flee on a day of sickness and incurable pain.” The Tzemach Tzedek then showed the Alter Rebbe his Sefer Hamitzvos and many of his explanations of teachings he had heard, which he had been writing down from about 5564 onward—that is, from when he was eleven years old. Not eleven—fifteen. The Alter Rebbe kept his promise to the Tzemach Tzedek about their regular study sessions. Each session lasted an hour and a half: in winter, after Maariv, and in summer, from seven o’clock, or sometimes seven-thirty, in the morning. The Tzemach Tzedek relates that after each session, he would seclude himself for six consecutive hours to review the lesson. For three hours he would study aloud and contemplate it, and for three hours he would write. First he would write up what he had heard, taking care to preserve his teacher’s words exactly as spoken. This usually took him more than an hour. During the remaining time, he would record his own explanations and additions to what he had heard: notes, references, and resolutions of questions he had previously left open.

11:30 Notes of questions to clarify at the next lesson. In 5568, the Tzemach Tzedek saw for the first time the writings the Alter Rebbe had in his possession: what the Alter Rebbe had written down and received while in Mezritch. They included many teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, with the times they were delivered, the explanations of the disciples, and especially the explanations of the Maggid, whose soul is in Eden. There were teachings of the Maggid as he delivered them, together with the explanations of his son, the holy Rabbi Avraham the Angel. Among the writings were also short notes in the Baal Shem Tov’s holy handwriting; teachings and stories in the holy handwriting of the Maggid and of the holy rabbi of Polnoye. There were five discourses that the holy tzaddik Rabbi Nochum of Chernobyl had heard directly from the Baal Shem Tov, written in his own holy handwriting and given to the Alter Rebbe in return for what the Alter Rebbe had reviewed for him; five discourses he had heard from the Maggid in yechidus; and several more discourses from the other disciples, chiefly the holy Rabbi Avraham, the Maggid’s son, and the holy Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk. All the discourses and written transcripts were in three bundles, and another five bundles contained transcripts in the Alter Rebbe’s holy handwriting of what he himself had heard from our teacher the Maggid. From 5568 onward, the Alter Rebbe would from time to time give the Tzemach Tzedek a discourse to study, on condition that no one know about it and that he not copy it for himself, but only study it. Of the three years from 5567 to 5569, the Tzemach Tzedek told his youngest son, the Rebbe Maharash, “They are engraved on my heart, and they were days of happiness—the brightest days of my life, days filled with light and enduring goodness.” As the Rebbe Maharash relates, the Tzemach Tzedek’s wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, passed away on Friday, erev Shabbos Parshas Vayigash, 8 Teves 5621. The Rebbe Maharash relates that on Motzaei Shabbos he was with his father, the Tzemach Tzedek, who was deeply moved and said:

14:26 “The holy words of my grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, have come to pass. In Teves 5564 he said, ‘The harvest flees on the day of illness.’ Nad has a numerical value of fifty-four. Fifty-four years have passed from then until today, the number of nad. Now,” the Tzemach Tzedek told his son, the Rebbe Maharash, “I understand why the Alter Rebbe sighed then. How will the story end?” the Tzemach Tzedek said, and sighed deeply. The Tzemach Tzedek went on to tell his son, “I received a clear promise from my grandfather of a long life. But yechidus takes a great toll on one’s health, and who knows how many years that adds up to?” The Tzemach Tzedek began speaking about the discourse the Alter Rebbe delivered on Parshas Vayigash in 5567, the first Shabbos of renewed closeness after the estrangement—that is, after the episode we related. It is the maamar “Vayigash Yehudah” in Torah Or. “That Motzaei Shabbos,” the Tzemach Tzedek related, “my grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, called me and asked whether I knew the entire maamar. I said that I knew only its general outline. My grandfather reviewed the maamar with me and told me to put it in writing. When I brought him the written transcript, he was pleased with it, and it was an auspicious moment. My wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, was with him and thanked him for the reconciliation and renewed closeness. He blessed her and, in yechidus, gave me an explanation of the maamar. It is the discourse with the additional explanation at the end of Parshas Vayigash in Torah Or.”