102 - Tishrei 2 – Chabad History

00:00 Have the second day of Rosh Hashanah, which is the second day of the month of Tishrei. That's the yahrtzeit of the Rebbetzin Shena. That was the youngest daughter of the Mitla Rebbe. Unfortunately, she was, uh, led to the gas chambers in Treblinka on this day, on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. Uh, you know, the, uh, previous Lubavitcher Rebbe had three daughters. Um, Chana, the Rebbetzin Chana, that was the oldest daughter. She was the wife of Rabbi Shmaryahu Gurari, known as the Rashag. He served-- Uh, they came to this country together with the previous Rebbe, and he served as the head of the Lubavitch Yeshivas during, um, during his tenure over here in, in the United States. Um, the second daughter was the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, and she was the wife of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. And the youngest daughter was Rebbetzin Shena, and she was married to Rabbi Menachem Mendel Hacohen Horenstein. Now, if you remember that in nineteen twenty-seven, after the, uh, the previous Rebbe was arrested and then eventually released of, from prison, so shortly thereafter, in the beginning-- in the end of nineteen twenty-seven, the beginning of nineteen twenty-eight, they left Russia. Initially, they moved to Latvia, to Riga, and then they moved on to Poland. When the war broke out, and first the Rebbe was in Warsaw, and then he went to Otwock. Uh, eventually, when the war broke out, and it became, you know, really, uh, dangerous, they were making all kinds of attempts to leave. The previous Rebbe having

02:02 citizenships in Latvia, he miraculously, as we have spoken about, escaped, and he was led first to Berlin, and from Berlin they went to Riga, and then eventually they came to the United States. In, uh, in nineteen forty, they came to, to the United States. But his daughter and, and her husband, they weren't allowed to leave because they were Polish citizens. And being that they were Polish citizens, uh, they, they couldn't get out. And when the previous Rebbe finally made it to the United States, he put in tremendous amount of effort to try and save them. Uh, but unfortunately, it did not turn out. And together with all the other Jewish people that were in Poland at the time, they were all gassed, and they were all, uh, put to death over there in, in, in, in, in Treblinka. And, um, the Rebbe would say Kaddish on the second day of Rosh Hashanah for his sister-in-law. There were several days in the year that the Rebbe would say Kaddish. He would say Kaddish for his grandfather, his mother's father, and also would say for the Rebbetzin Shena on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. So that is the yahrtzeit. Um, doesn't say here how did they determine that, uh, it was exactly that day. I mean, it just says that, um, that is when she was led to the gas chambers in Treblinka. It doesn't say here, uh, where this information comes from. Um, but you know, there were, uh, you know, people that remember that

03:48 were there and... But it's also, you know, a lot of times, it doesn't look like this case, but sometimes people who lost loved ones don't have a, a specific date. They don't know, you know, like in the, in the Holocaust. They didn't know really when to make a, uh, yahrtzeit, when to say Kaddish, and, and they would just set up one day in the year, and that was just it. You know, that's what they would do, and they would observe that day as a day of memorial for their friends.