1311 - Elul 11 – Chabad History

00:00 This is the Yemei Chabad for the eleventh day of Elul. It's the wedding date of the Rebbe Rashab with the Rebbetzin Sterna Sara. Um, the Rebbe Rashab, just again to have it in context, is the father of the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Shalom Dov Ber. Um, Shalom Dov Ber was the father of the previous Rebbe, and the previous Rebbe is the father-in-law of the present Rebbe. So you have the Rebbe, his father-in-law is Yosef Yitzchak, the previous Rebbe. His father was Reb Shalom Dov Ber. Oh, okay. His father got married on the eleventh day of Elul. His wife, Shalom Dov Ber wife, was the Rebbetzin Sterna Sara. His wife's name was Sterna Sara. Now, let's just go back. They all married into the family, as we'd spoken many times. The, uh, Tzemach Tzedek, that's the third Lubavitch Rebbe. Now- After the Mitteler Rebbe. After the Mitteler Rebbe, good. So Dov Ber had-- His son-in-law was the Tzemach Tzedek, Rebbe Menachem Mendel. So Rebbe Menachem Mendel, he had seven sons. It so happens that his youngest of his seven sons became the successor and the Rebbe in the Chabad lineage. His name was the Rebbe Maharash, Reb Shmuel. So Reb Shmuel was the youngest of all the seven sons. The Tzemach Tzedek, all of his sons were great, um, scholars and righteous people, tzadikim. But Chabad Rebbe, there was only one. It was the youngest. Uh, and that's a whole 'nother history how that took place. But, uh, like the Rebbe himself, the name is also Schneerson,

01:50 'cause he's also-- comes from another son of the Tzemach Tzedek, from one of the seven sons, from Baruch Shalom. That was another son. But one of the sons of the, uh, Tzemach Tzedek was Reb Yosef Yitzchak. So you had Reb Yosef Yitzchak had a daughter, Sterna Sara. Yosef Yitzchak's brother was the Rebbe Maharash, the youngest brother. He had a son, Shalom Dov Ber. So Shalom Dov Ber, the Rebbe Rashab, married his first cousin. First cousin. They were two brothers, the Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak-- the Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak. He was known as Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak from Urovitch, Ur-Uretch. That was a city-- Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak, the son of the Tzemach Tzedek, there was also a whole debate over there because he ended up moving in with his father-in-law's community. He moved to that, to that community over there. So that's why he did not actually become in the lineage of Chabad, because he married. There was a little to-do there, so we'll probably read about the history, how he ended up being over there instead of the city of Lubavitch. Because as we know, the-- starting from the Mitteler Rebbe, after the passing of the Alter Rebbe, they moved to Lubavitch, and Lubavitch was the headquarters for the Chabad movement. So the Mitteler Rebbe, Dov Ber, and then the Tzemach Tzedek, Reb Menachem Mendel, and then the Rebbe Maharash, Reb Shmuel, and then Reb Shalom Dov Ber, for a good chunk of time, they lived in Lubavitch, the city of Lubavitch. That was the headquarter. But the

03:31 Rebbe Maharash's son, Reb Yosef Yitzchak, who was the father of the Rebbetzin Sterna Sara, he lived in the city of Urovitch, where-- which was his father-in-law's city. That's where he moved into. So they set the hasanah up for-- This was Saturday night, the eleventh day of Elul, and in the year Taf Resh Lamed He. So just to put it in perspective, so we're talking about hundred and forty, uh, almost- Eighteen seventy. Oh, yeah. One hundred and forty years ago, about like that. And, um, this wedding of the Rebbe Rashab took place in his, uh, father-in-law's, where his wife lived, in the city of Urovitch. And the Rebbe Maharash did not end up going. His father did not go to his own son's wedding. They had a disagreement over there because the Rebbe Maharash wanted the wedding to be where his son lives, in the city of Lubavitch. Um, they wanted the wedding to, uh, the father of the kallah, Reb Yosef Yitzchak, that was his brother, the Rebbe Maharash's brother, he wanted that the hasanah should be over there. And of course, in the end, he ended up, uh, winning this one. And the hasanah took place where the kallah lived, and the Rebbe Maharash didn't end up traveling. Uh, it doesn't give here the details, um, of why the Rebbe Maharash didn't go, what really took place over there, but that's probably have to do some research for that to find out, you know, why that took place. Uh, the only one that went

05:18 along with the-- Uh, not the only one, but the mother, the Rebbe- Rebbetzin. The Rebbetzin went along. She went. Yeah. The Rebbe Maharash's wife, uh, she went along, uh, with, uh, with her son, with the Rebbe Rashab. Um, the, uh, Rebbe Rashab himself describing his way, his, his-- the journey when they traveled to the city over there, he said, uh, that his father, the Rebbe Maharash, they-- he escorted them for a certain different to the village of Achremiva. And he relates that interesting thing, that there was only one, one, one bench over there. It was enough for one person to sit. Hmm. Now, the Rebbe was going to give a Uh, a talk, but here's a chassan. Uh, the talk was gonna be a discourse, and the chassan has to, um, sit also. Oh. So he said, basically, one of the people, uh, a young person bent down, and he was used as a chair Uh, for, um, um, and for, for the, for the chassan. So the Rebbe Maharash can say, you know, gave the discourse then. And he sort of said, in Kabbalistic words, he says that right now in the world, it's the revelation of the Sefirah, which is of the, uh, Sefirah to the Kabbalah, Kabbalistic terms of the mother. Ema, it's called, it's the level of Binah. So that's what we have presently. So it's the mother that's going along with you. But in the future, there will also be the revelation of the level of the, uh, father, there

07:11 will be the intellect of the Chochmah, which is the, um- ... a greater level, so I will be there too, sort of the, um- In spirit, I'll be there. Yeah. Well, and in the future. Sure, yeah. So, and, um, they, um, said they were bringing in, in a box, they were having a, uh, a small box with a gift for the kallah, and the Rebbe Maharash asked what was laying there. And there was like a hat, and he saw it, and he, um, he sort of cut off the, uh... There was a kind of a, of a feather over there. Um, the Rebbe Maharash now, you know, Hassidim, uh, have a custom that they wear a shtreimel. Yes. Shtreimel, that's a big fur hat. A mink hat. A mink hat. It's, it's not in the custom of, uh- Not in the custom ... Chabad, it's not in the custom. But in the olden days- They did wear them? They wore them. Mm-hmm. But the, and perhaps this will explain, he says that the Rebbe Maharash said that he should not put on the shtreimel for the wedding, and that he should only wear it in Lubavitch, in the city, not over there. Um, he says that the Rebbe Rashab conducted himself, uh, like that. He only wore his shtreimel during, uh, time that he spent in Lubavitch. Uh, his father also asked him that for the Shabbos, of the Sheva Brachos, he should come back to the city of Lubavitch. Um, but you know, he's--

08:55 there was again opposition from his father-in-law, from Reb Yosef Yitzchak. Did he move, did he move to that- No, no, he didn't. So, um, so whatever happened is, it, it so turned out that he was late leaving over there, and he never made it in time. So he was, he was-- He spent Shabbos on the road. He didn't make it over there, so the, the Shabbos, Sheva Brachos was neither there nor in Lubavitch. It was, it was on the road. Um, and he says generally that the Rebbe Maharash was in great and very elated and a very joyful state during the entire, uh, Sheva Brachos, uh, uh, time. And, uh, he gave 32 discourses, Hassidic discourses. And when the Rebbe Rashab came back to the city of Lubavitch on the 19th day of Elul, um, so, uh, there it says that the Rebbe Maharash was very joyous. And his father told him, he says, "I have regards for you, uh, from my father," which is the Tzemach Tzedek, "and from the grandfather," which would be the Mitteler Rebbe, "and from the father of the grandfather," which would be the Alter Rebbe. And that's a gift together with a understanding heart. It says, "Lev Mevin." The word lev has the numerical value, heart has Lamed-Beis, is lev. Um, he says that's the reason for the 32 discourses, 'cause that's the understanding heart as a gift that is given him over at that particular time. It's a number thing. The Rebbetzin, yeah, the Rebbetzin, uh, related that

10:40 after her wedding, when they came to Lubavitch as the daughter-in-law of the Rebbe Maharash, she says she was a little bit, uh, uh, depressed, or she was, felt bad because she saw that all the people in the, uh, Rebbe's family were all tall people, and she was very short. Very short. So she says that my father-in-law, the Rebbe Maharash, told her that she shouldn't feel bad. She says because it's known that trees that are shorter produce better fruits. So he says not to feel bad. So this, the wedding of the Rebbe Rashab to the, uh, Rebbetzin Schneur Sara took place on the 11th day of Elul. That's the day of, uh, in the Yom Chabad, 11th of Elul.