187. The Kallah That Almost Married Choson That She Wasn’t Permitted To

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlach. Here is a giveaway biggest story of the Alter Rebbe. This is the early years when the Alter Rebbe was a Talmud by the Mezritcher Maggid. And at that time, even the Talmidie HaMaggid, the Talmidim of the Maggid, didn't know yet how great the Alter Rebbe was. They didn't know how great he was as a tzadik. They didn't know how great he was as a gaon, a Talmid Chacham that he knew a lot to learn. He was very new, and the Alter Rebbe didn't show anything that he knows. So people thought he was just, you know, um, not so important. At that time, there was a Jew who lived in a village not far from Mezritch, where the Mezritcher Maggid was, and that Jew was marrying off his son. His son was getting married, and he wanted one of the Talmidie HaMaggid should be the Mesader Kidushin. Mesader Kidushin is the Rav that, uh, you know, is in the chuppah and oversees everything, right? The Rav is called the Mesader Kidushin. And he wanted the Alter Rebbe that from all the Talmidim of the Maggid, he chose the Alter Rebbe. And he asked Alter Rebbe, "Will you come to the village on the day of the wedding and be the Rav of the wedding, the Mesader Kidushin?" The Alter Rebbe agreed. Came the day of the wedding, the Alter Rebbe went to the wedding. And as you know that right before the chuppah, the mechutanim, the father of the kallah, the father of

01:55 the chassan, and the Rav and the chassan, they sit by the ta-- by a table, and they write the ketubah. Right? The ketubah is a special piece of paper where it says that the, this chassan is marrying this kallah, and the names, the names of their fathers, and that the chassan promises to support the kallah after he marries her. He's gonna give her food, he's gonna give her a place to live, he's gonna give her everything she needs. Um, and also that, Chas ve'Shalom, if he dies, then he's, uh, gonna give her-- she's gonna be able to get a certain amount of money so she can live. So the ketubah is an important part of the wedding, and usually the Rav sits with the, with the two, two parent, two fathers, and the chassan, and they write the ketubah. They fill in the names of the chassan, of the kallah, of the father, of the chassan, father of the kallah, and then they fill in, um, the dates, what day the wedding is, and how much money the chassan will give the kallah if he dies or if he divorces her. He has to give her a certain amount of money. And the Alter Rebbe sat down and brought-- took out the long ketubah and took out a quill and a inkwell, you know, where you put in the... In those days, they wrote with, with the quill. And he started writing the name of the chassan and the father's name. First, the date on

03:25 top. When it came to the kallah, the Alter Rebbe was like, got a little quiet. And he said to the father of the kallah, "What's her name?" And the father of the kallah said her name. But the Alter Rebbe's made it, p-- made it sound like he didn't hear. "What's the kallah's name?" And the guy said again, "That's her name." And he told her name. And the Alter Rebbe, instead of writing down the name, sat quietly, deep in thought, and nobody knew what was going on. The father, chassan, kallah, sitting there, and they're wondering, "We wanna go to the chuppah already, but he's not writing the name of the kallah." So finally, Alter Rebbe is thinking and thinking and thinking, and then the Alter Rebbe says like this: "Do you know why every wedding has a caterer? Why every wedding has a band, music? Why every wedding has, you know, somebody who, um, cleans the, the hall? It's because you need to have all these things, so the wedding will be a good wedding, right? You need to have music. You need to have good food, so you need a caterer. But why do you need a Rav? What is the Rav doing in the wedding? What is his job?" They didn't know. So Alter Rebbe said, "Well, the Rav's job is to make sure that the chassan kallah are really who they are, the chassan and the kallah, and that the everything is according to Halakha, correct." Then the Alter Rebbe turned to one

05:18 of the people there at the wedding, says, "Please go call the kallah, I need to talk to her." Everybody was surprised. So the man, they called over the kallah, and the kallah was very nervous. She didn't know why the Alter Rebbe needs to talk to her, and Alter Rebbe said to her like this: "Tell me, were you married before?" She said, "Yes, I was, and shortly after my wedding to the, to this first husband, he died." The Alter Rebbe asked, "And did you have any children with that husband?" And she said, "No, I have no children." Says Alter Rebbe, "Yes, but did that husband that died, did he have any brothers?" And she said, "No, he didn't have brothers. He had one little brother who left town, and nobody knows where he is." Now, obviously, she didn't know the Halakha. She was very simple. She was not learned. She didn't know that if you're married to a man and you have no children from that man, and he dies, and he has brothers, she, she can't marry anybody else before the brother gives Chalitza. Chalitza is the way, what you do is, it's, it's like a get, like a divorce, but he has to, you know, set her free that she can go and marry someone else. She didn't know that, and she just goes and get married to this guy. She wants to get married to this chassan here. So by everybody realized what was happening, the Alter Rebbe said, "Well, it seems like

06:58 this wedding cannot happen. You didn't get Chalitza. We need to find the brother of that first husband that he should give you Chalitza, and then you're free to marry anyone you want." And that's the story that people heard the first time when the Alter Rebbe was still very young, and nobody knew the Alter Rebbe is there, such a great person. But that story became very famous. Everybody heard that story. They realized that the Alter Rebbe had Ruach Hakodesh, and he saved a, a, a, a bad marriage from happening, a marriage which was forbidden. Asur was an Averia for them to get married, and he saved them from that.