Episode 254 - The Rebbe Rashab's Mother, Rebbetzin Rivka.

00:00 Stories about Rebbetzin Rivkah, the Rebbe Rashab’s mother and the wife of the Rebbe Maharash. On Yud Shvat 5674, that is, 1914, the righteous Rebbetzin Rivkah, of blessed memory, passed away. Here are several stories. When the Rebbe Rashab would deliver Chassidus, his mother, Rebbetzin Rivkah, would stand in the women’s section and listen to him. On Shavuos 5643, that is, 1883, after the Rebbe Rashab delivered the maamar “And Hashem Descended upon Mount Sinai,” his mother, Rebbetzin Rivkah, asked him, “For whose sake did you deliver such a profound maamar?” Her son, the Rebbe Rashab, answered, “There is a young man here from Zhebin, and he understands.” Rabbi Gronem, who later became a leading mashpia at the Chabad yeshivah Tomchei Temimim, was there that Shavuos. Before Rebbetzin Rivkah fell ill, on a day when the Torah was read, the Torah scroll fell to the floor, G-d forbid, while it was being lifted in the second room of the large hall. All those praying fasted. In the days immediately following this incident, we heard that Rebbetzin Rivkah was ill. At the Frierdiker Rebbe’s instruction, we began saying Tehillim in the hall. Every night after midnight, we recited the entire Tehillim. On Friday, Erev Shabbos Kodesh, Yud Shvat, she passed away. Her son, the Rebbe Rashab, was not in Lubavitch at the time, and all the responsibility fell to her grandson, the Frierdiker Rebbe. He was deeply uncertain about where to bury her. There was no possibility of consulting his father by telegram, because it was Erev Shabbos Kodesh and the day was short. He had to decide on his own whether to lay her to rest in the women’s ohel, where there was a special place for all the righteous Rebbetzins, or beside the holy ohel of her husband and father-in-law, the Rebbe Maharash and his father, the Tzemach Tzedek. The Frierdiker Rebbe decided to bury her beside the ohel of his father and grandfather. When his father, the Rebbe Rashab, returned, he was pleased with the decision. Everyone in

03:06 the town came to the funeral, for they all held the Rebbetzin in great esteem because of her righteousness and kind heart. I heard many townspeople crying out during the funeral, “The mother of the town!” and other such calls. After her passing, we learned a great deal about her—how she had helped many poor people, the sick, and many others. She had brought goodness into the world without people knowing it. Her grandson, the Frierdiker Rebbe, was broken and crushed during the funeral. As he trudged through the snow, he suddenly lost one of his boots. On the way back, we saw that he could barely stand on his feet. The Tomim Reb Yitzchak Raskin and I helped him. We held him by both arms, one on either side, and supported him all the way. As we walked, he spoke as if to himself. He said, “A crown has been taken from our family.” Afterward he said, “A guest for Shabbos in Gan Eden.” When her son, the Rebbe Rashab, returned from his journey to Lubavitch, he said, “They’re going to the ohel, so they should visit Mother too. After all, she knew everyone.” Rabbi Gronem wondered whom the Rebbe Rashab meant: that she knew all the students of Tomchei Temimim, or that she knew the Tzemach Tzedek and her husband, the Rebbe Maharash. He decided that both interpretations were correct. During the shivah, her daughter, Mrs. Devorah a”h of Vitebsk, related that a woman once came to Rebbetzin Rivkah and said, “My son is ill, and I ask the Rebbetzin to give me some fruit preserves for him.” Rebbetzin Rivkah told the maid to give the woman some of every kind of preserve she had, and she did. But the maid suspected that the woman was lying, so that evening she went to the woman’s home to see whether the child really was ill. She found the child healthy, with guests sitting at the table, drinking tea and eating the Rebbetzin’s preserves. The maid was very upset that the woman had deceived the Rebbetzin, and she told Rebbetzin Rivkah. When Rebbetzin Rivkah heard, she said, “Well, boruch Hashem,

05:56 boruch Hashem, the child is healthy. I was distressed to think that the child was ill. Well, boruch Hashem.” The Rebbe Rashab replied to a letter of condolence he received from Rabbi Zaletsky of Pritsits [unclear]. The letter was full of praise for his mother, the Rebbetzin. I remember only that it contained a phrase like, “She has not died; she lives with us in our thoughts,” and other similar expressions. More stories. When the Rebbe Rashab was in Romanovka, in the Kherson province, Reb Asher, the shochet from Nikolayev, rode with him in a carriage. Reb Asher related that they showed the Rebbe Rashab such great honor that they unharnessed the horses and pulled the carriage themselves. The distress this caused was visible on the Rebbe Rashab’s holy face. Reb Asher concluded, “If only I could have such a broken heart at Minchah on Erev Yom Kippur as the Rebbe Rashab had then because of all the honor.” More stories. Once, Gavriel Cohen visited the renowned chossid Rabbi Dovid Tzvi Chen in Chernigov. Other people were there too. Suddenly, Dovid Tzvi Chen said to one of them, “Well, tell everyone now what happened to you with the non-Jews.” And this is what the man related: “I live in the village of Dor Mi Lubka [unclear], near the town of Nezhin, and, boruch Hashem, I earn a good living from my store. Once, I quarreled with several non-Jews, to the point that they wanted to kill me. I was very frightened. I did not sleep at home that night. The next day, the rumors that they wanted to kill me grew stronger, so every evening I went to sleep somewhere else. The spreading rumors filled me with fear. I traveled to Lubavitch. It was my first time there, and there were many visitors in those days, so the attendant, Reb Nachman, would not let me go in to the Rebbe ahead of those who had arrived before me. He told me to wait a few days. I did not know anyone there. Suddenly, I saw Rabbi Menachem Mendel Chen, the rabbi of Nezhin. I told him that Reb Nachman would not let me in.

08:54 “What did Menachem Mendel do? He went into a certain room—apparently to Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah—and then Reb Nachman called out, ‘Where is the Jew from Lubka?’ I went in to the Rebbe Rashab and told him everything that had happened to me. He blessed me that nothing would happen to me. But I was not satisfied with that blessing, and I said, ‘Rebbe, I’m afraid. I want a promise from the Rebbe.’ The Rebbe asked me with a smile, ‘What do you want—all the non-Jews in the village to die?’ Meanwhile, the attendant began calling me to leave and even pulled at me, but I did not budge. I said to the Rebbe once more, ‘Rebbe, please promise me. I’m afraid to go home.’ The Rebbe said to me, ‘Well, if I promise you, will you no longer be afraid?’ I said no. The Rebbe told me, ‘Well, I promise you that you will be rid of those non-Jews.’ When I heard this unqualified promise from his holy mouth, in such clear words, I felt at ease. I traveled home, and there I heard what had happened to my enemies while I was away. One had been riding his horse along the riverbank while drunk. He fell from the horse into the river and drowned. The second was killed in a different incident. Four other non-Jews went to set fire to the landowner’s courtyard. They were caught and sent to Siberia for eight years. Thus the Rebbe’s promise was fulfilled, and I was saved from all my enemies. Eight years passed, and those non-Jews who had been sent to Siberia were released and returned. I was still afraid they would kill me, but they became my friends and often visited my store in friendship.” Another story about the Rebbe Rashab. The Rebbe Rashab once traveled to Petersburg. When he arrived in the capital, he collected his belongings from the baggage car, but one suitcase was not returned to him. It had disappeared. Chassidim, led by Shmuel Michoel Treinin, searched for it. They hurried from office to office, but to no avail. The suitcase contained books that were very important to the Rebbe, and its loss caused him distress. And then, after

11:43 A few days later, Avraham Eliyahu Gurary came to the Rebbe. He was the son of Shmuel Gurary, the rabbi in Khorol [unclear]. Avraham Eliyahu had married some time earlier and had received a dowry of ten thousand rubles. He began trading, but things did not go well, and he lost all the money. He had only a thousand rubles left. Naturally, his family life suffered too, and he was at a loss. When he heard that the Rebbe Rashab was now in Petersburg, he went to ask his advice. As soon as he entered, the Rebbe said to him, “Ah, Avraham Eliyahu will bring me my suitcase from the train station.” The Rebbe gave him the claim ticket for the suitcase. Avraham Eliyahu went to the station. He knew nothing about the suitcase that so many people had been searching for. When he arrived, the station was quiet. No train was arriving or departing just then, so meanwhile he went over to the refreshment stand for a drink. He took out a pack of fine cigarettes, opened it, and took out a cigarette to smoke. As he did so, a non-Jewish man who was also at the stand watched him the whole time. Avraham Eliyahu asked him, “Do you smoke?” The man said yes, and the chossid Avraham Eliyahu offered him a cigarette. The man asked, “What are you doing here at this hour? There are no trains running.” In all innocence, Avraham Eliyahu told him that a Rebbe named Schneersohn had arrived and that he had come to collect his suitcase. “How remarkable,” said the man. “I’m the manager of the baggage storeroom. Please give me the claim ticket.” The manager went into the office and told the workers, “Bring me suitcase number such-and-such.” The workers went into the baggage storeroom, but after a few minutes they returned empty-handed and said,

14:13 “There’s no such suitcase there.” The manager raised his voice and shouted, “The suitcase must be there! Search carefully and bring it to me at once!” The workers took all the suitcases and other belongings out of the storeroom, and indeed, if you toil, you will find. They found the suitcase in a corner, hidden behind a large package standing beside it. Avraham Eliyahu thanked the manager and returned to the Rebbe Rashab with the suitcase of books. The Rebbe was very happy and said, “I owe you a debt.” “I’m indebted to you, Avraham Eliyahu.” Afterward, the chossid went in to the Rebbe for yechidus and told the Rebbe Rashab everything that was on his mind. He said, “I married not long ago and received a dowry of ten thousand rubles, but my trading did not succeed and I lost my money. Since then, the peace in our home has also been disturbed, and now I don’t know what to do.” The Rebbe Rashab asked him, “How much money do you have left?” Avraham Eliyahu said, “A thousand rubles. That’s all I have.” The Rebbe told him, “Travel to Kerch, and Hashem will provide you with a good livelihood. But when you travel, take provisions for the journey.” Avraham Eliyahu came home and told his wife what the Rebbe had said in yechidus. He added with complete faith, “Hashem will surely help us.” His wife was happy now too, and she prepared good food for the journey. The chossid took his tallis and tefillin and the food and traveled to Kerch. It was a very hot summer day, so first he went to bathe in the Black Sea. When he came out of the water, he sat on the shore and ate some of the fine food his wife had prepared, until he was satisfied. At that moment, a man sitting nearby on the shore was watching him and his good food. The man asked the chossid, “Where have you come from, and what are you doing here?” Avraham Eliyahu offered him some of his baked goods and, in all innocence, told him the whole story: how he had lost his money,

16:44 how the Rebbe had sent him here with the thousand rubles he had left and blessed him with success. “And now,” Avraham Eliyahu concluded, “the truth is that I don’t know what to do.” The man replied, “I hope I can help you. Let’s meet here tomorrow at this time. I’ll bring another man along, and we’ll decide on a business deal for you.” But he added, “Don’t forget to bring those good baked goods too.” And indeed, the next morning they met with the third man, whom he had brought along. That man said, “I feel for you, so pay attention to what I’m going to do. For the thousand rubles you have now, I’ll sell you a railcar full of cut paper for cigarettes, and I hope you’ll make a profit.” Avraham Eliyahu paid the thousand rubles, and the man sent the railcar to Kremenchuk, where there were cigarette factories. When Avraham Eliyahu arrived in Kremenchuk, he went to Tzvi Gurary’s factory and offered to sell him the railcar of cigarette paper. “How much do you want for it?” Gurary asked. “I want ten thousand rubles,” said Avraham Eliyahu, “to make up for what I lost.” Reb Tzvi said to him, “It should be enough if I give you two thousand rubles—twice what you paid.” But Avraham Eliyahu refused. Reb Tzvi offered him three thousand rubles; he refused. Reb Tzvi offered four thousand rubles. But Avraham Eliyahu held firm: “I want ten thousand rubles, exactly what I lost.” He left to look for another buyer for his merchandise. He met with other merchants, and one of them had already agreed to give him five thousand rubles. After Avraham Eliyahu told Reb Tzvi Gurary where he had bought the paper—for in his innocence Avraham Eliyahu had concealed nothing from him—Tzvi thought to himself, “I’ll go to Kerch too, to that same man, and buy from him as well,

19:21 “I’ll buy a railcar of paper from him too, for a thousand rubles.” He got up and went. There in Kerch [unclear], he made inquiries about the merchant until he found him. But the merchant told him, “All our paper has already been sold. I already have orders for it. I felt sorry for that Jew, so I sold him one railcar.” There was, in fact, a severe shortage of cigarette paper at the time. When Reb Tzvi heard that no more paper could be obtained, he immediately sent Avraham Eliyahu a telegram telling him not to sell his merchandise to anyone. He returned to Kremenchuk and bought the railcar of paper for ten thousand rubles. And so Avraham Eliyahu recovered everything he had lost. Avraham Eliyahu thought to himself, “I need to ask the Rebbe what to do next so that I’ll succeed.” Happy and in good spirits, he traveled to the Rebbe Rashab to ask his advice about what to do next. When he went in to the Rebbe and told him everything that had happened, he asked the Rebbe to tell him what to do next. But the Rebbe Rashab said to Avraham Eliyahu, “I’ve already repaid you that debt.”