1313 - Elul 13 – Chabad history

00:00 Speaker 1 Yemei Chabad for the thirteenth day of Elul, Yud Gimel Elul. Um, there are two, uh, things we'll discuss today. First, this was in the year Taf Reish Lamed Vav. Now we have the Hebrew dates over here, so we have to add a hundred because we're Taf Shin, so we have to have one hundred. And then we have to add from Lamed Vav till Ayin Gimel, which is, uh, another forty, close to forty years. So we're talking about a hundred and forty years ago. Well, that, that was the date. Uh, this date was the yortzeit of Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas. Um, this was the son-in-law of the Mitteler Rebbe, uh, the Mitteler Rebbe Dov Ber. And it was kind of unfortunate that the, um-- he died, his son-in-law died only, uh, s- two months after his wife, the Rebbetzin Devorah Leah died, um, who was the daughter of the Mitteler Rebbe. And there is further details in other places. Um, but the other thing, what took place on the thirteenth day of Elul in Taf Reish Nun Zayin. Uh, Taf Reish Nun Zayin, uh, would, uh, place us, uh, one hundred and, and, and fifteen years ago, uh, would place us. I like to use that kind of a calculation just because it puts it in a certain, uh, reference in your mind instead of just saying a year. Uh, so we're talking about a hundred and, and, and, and twenty. That was the, the day actually of the marriage that the previous Rebbe... I'm not

01:45 Speaker 1 giving you the exact date over here, but that was the date that the, um, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe got married to the Rebbetzin Nechama Dina. Of course, they gave birth to the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, which was the wife of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. So their wedding took place on the thirteenth day of Elul in the year Taf Reish Nun Zayin. Now it's interesting that when the previous Rebbe, uh, the Rebbe of Yosef Yitzchak, his name was Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak, when he came time of marriageable age, so they had the-- several suggestions, um, of who would be a proper shadchan, uh, uh, for the Rebbe, for the Rebbe's son. And we have to remember that the previous Rebbe was the only son of the Rebbe Rashab. They only had one son, which was the Rebbe of Yosef Yitzchak. So they were looking for a shadchan, and there were many proposals. And some of those proposals were, um, uh, very rich, uh, suggestions and, uh, with promises for large sums of, uh, dowry. Um, and the Rebbe's, uh, the previous Rebbe's parents, which is the Rebbe Rashab and the Rebbetzin Sterna Sara, that was the wife of the Rebbe Rashab, they were, uh, thinking and they, they were leading their mind. They wanted the shadchan with the daughter of Rebbe Avraham Schneerson, who was also the-- Schneerson, who was also of the Rebbe's family. But the grandmother, which was the Rebbetzin Rivka, she was the wife of the Rebbe Maharash, um, she wanted, you know, other shidduchim, you

03:44 Speaker 1 know, other, uh, the other, other brides. Um, you know, it's probably the nature of grandmothers or grandparents to try to look out for the physical and the well-being of their grandchildren, want to maybe have a, a rich shadchan, a rich, uh, in-laws. Um, yeah, well, I don't know if you know this story about, uh, this fellow. He was getting married and, um, his future father-in-law asks him, "What do you do for a living?" So he said, um, "You know, I sit and study. I don't do really much." So his father-in-law asks him, "Well, how are you going to pay for the rent for the apartment?" He said, "Well, God will help." So then, uh, he asks him, "Well, wait, what, but how are you gonna pay for the groceries to feed your family?" He says, "Well," he says, "God will help." And he says, "But mitzva, God willing, you're gonna have children, you're gonna send them to cheder, yeshiva, you need to pay for tuition. How are you going to pay for all this?" He says, "Well, God will help." So he turns to his friend, the father-in-law, he says, "This guy must be thinking that I'm God." But, uh, so people sometimes will, uh, want a, a shadchan for their, um, children. But in any wa- in any event, they decided that they're going to ask the chassan by himself, uh, what is-- he was very young at the time, where does he, um, where does he-- where does his heart go? What, what,

05:31 Speaker 1 what would he want? What does he want for himself? They told him about the various different, uh, shidduchim that were suggestions, and they added, they said, "Look, in the Torah it says, when it talks about the marriage of Isaac and Rebecca, Yitzchak and Rivka, the Torah says over there, let's ask the girl over there if she'll go with, in that case, if she'll go with the Eliezer to go marry to, to Yitzchak." So they're saying in a similar way, they're gonna ask him, what is his-- how does he feel about it? What does he think about it? So the Rebbe said, says, look, in that same parasha, it says that he instructed, Abraham instructed the servant to bring him a wife. He says, from my family, from my father's family. Since this family was Schneerson, they were from the family of the Rebbe, so he says he is more going towards marrying somebody from the family. And therefore, that was his suggestion. The Rebbe Rashab, in his invitation to the wedding, writes that Hashem has blessed him and privileged him with the marriage of his only son, Yosef Yitzchok, with the daughter of my cousin, Rebbe Avram from Kish, Keshinov. That was the place. And the date was set up for Friday. Erev Shabbos Kodesh on the 13th day of Elul that is coming up in the city of Lubavitch. And he's inviting them to come to join him on this happy occasion. And Hashem, with a prayer that Hashem should merit to rejoice in

07:30 Speaker 1 happy occasion altogether. This is what he wrote him. So Yud Gimel Elul is the day of the wedding of the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe. As we've seen, it seems like the month of Elul was a month in which many weddings were made. We've read about several weddings that took place on the month of Elul. I mean, every month probably. I mean, those months that you're allowed to, you know, weddings are not made, are not done on every month. Matter of fact, there's some times that are considered more auspicious than others. But it seems like in the month of Elul, it seems that was like something which many of the rabbis and the rebbes and the great tadikim took place. But there's also, I'm sure, in the other ones during other months and other times.

08:28 Speaker 2 Makes sense, though, like right before the new year, you sort of start a new year.

08:32 Speaker 1 Absolutely. That's brought down. That's exactly what is brought down. That before the new year, it's an auspicious time. It's a good time. It's a time for blessing. It's a holy month. It's a, yeah, that it's holy. There's especially the king is in the field. There's various different You don't have to worry about the caterer being able to

08:56 Speaker 2 When they walked the streets of the village, they were dressed in green.

09:03 Speaker 1 But in, of course, in those days, they didn't spend all the effort on material things. I'm sure they made nice weddings too, but it was mostly was the spiritual and the joy, the inner and the happiness that took place at a wedding. They didn't do all the fanfare or try to outdo one another and make it better and nicer. But that's what came along.