103 - Tishrei 3 – Chabad History

00:00 Is Yemei Chabad for the third day of Tishrei, which is the Tzom Gedalia. And, uh, on this day, the Rebbetzin Devorah Leah, the daughter of the Alter Rebbe and the mother of the Tzemach Tzedek, uh, she passed away on the, uh, third day of Tishrei. There's a whole story, as we're going to read, uh, that took place, uh, with her passing. She passed at a very young age, a relative very young age, and she left her son... Uh, thank you very much. And she left her son, uh, the Tzemach Tzedek, as an orphan, and his grand-- her grandfather is the one that, uh, took care of him, uh, and raised him, uh, as we'll see in a minute. Now, the Alter Rebbe, we read before, the Alter Rebbe was a student of the Maggid of Mezritch. Now, the Maggid of Mezritch passed away in the year Tet Kuf Lamed Daled, in which the Alter Rebbe was still a young man. The Alter Rebbe was all of, um, of twenty-nine years old. Uh, of twenty-nine years old, and, um, he already-- at that time, he lost his, his teacher, uh, the Maggid of Mezritch. And basically, the other rabbis, uh, left to move to Israel, some of the other senior students. And he was left with the, uh, daunting task of preserving Hasidism, teaching and spreading out the, uh, teachings and the philosophy of Hasidism and against a massive amount of people, of Misnagdim, of opponents of Hasidism. And in the year Tet Kuf Nun Beis,

01:51 this was, uh... The Alter Rebbe wasn't yet fifty years old. He was, uh, under fifty. It was a very difficult year for the Alter Rebbe. Um, during many months, beginning with Rosh Hashanah of that year until the Shavuot festival, uh, the family people did not know in how much pain, uh, the Alter Rebbe was. Even the closest to him, the family members, the older Hasidim, uh, because of all the bad things that were being done to the Hasidim by the opponents of the Hasidim, by the Misnagdim. Uh, during a gathering on the festival of Shavuot, you can tell at that point that there was a very inner, very bitter, deep bitterness. He was very, uh, in, in a, uh, trance, sort of very, very deeply in his thought. His lips were, uh, whispering and saying things, and his eyes were tearing. And, um, the people around him understood that there must be something very serious because looking at the Rebbe's face and seeing his, his, his bitterness, and people can tell that he was beseeching, he was praying. When he was saying those words, whispering, he was praying to Hashem. And everybody sort of felt that his teachers, the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid, were at that time in the room. All of a sudden, the Alter Rebbe gets up and with a crying voice he says, "Grandfather," as we know already, the Baal Shem Tov, he referred-- the Alter Rebbe referred to the Baal Shem Tov as his grandfather. He says, "Grandfather and

03:47 fa-- and teacher," that's his Maggid of Mezritch, "please arouse great mercy for me, for your students, for those who are connected to you, and for your teachings. Oyoy, gevalt, gevalt," he says, "Father in heaven, have mercy upon us." And the Rebbe fell, and he fainted, and he fell to a deep, a deep faint. Those people who were there at the time were very, uh, very upset. All the families, the rebbetzin and the daughters came running, and they brought the doctor. His name was Yonah. Yonah the doctor, Yonah Rephaim. And in the meantime, the young, uh, grandson of the Alter Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, Menachem Mendel, um, he was just two years and nine months old. He went in, and he threw himself on his father, yelling, "Zeidy, Zeidy," he says. And the Alter Rebbe opened up his eyes, and he saw how his young grandson is putting his hands, his small hand, and he's saying, "Zeidy, Zeidy, hold my hand and get up." He's gonna raise him up. The Alter Rebbe held onto the hand of his grandson, and he said to him, "Give me your hand." And the Alter Rebbe got up immediately on his feet, and he said, "Ze yenachmenu," this one will comfort us, talking about his grandson. It-- The holy work that the Alter Rebbe worked with totally self-sacrifice for eighteen years, that is from the year Tet Kuf Lamed Daled that his rebbe passed away, the Maggid of Mezritch, till that year of Tet Kuf Nun Beis, which was eighteen

05:38 years. And the Alter Rebbe educated and directed the Hasidim of Chabad. This aroused a great criticism above. And the Alter Rebbe needed somebody to defend him, to defend the mitzuyoshem and to arouse mercy. He sent special agents to the holy resting places, to the oil of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezritch. Now this was on the Motzei Shabbos of Selichos, like the Motzei Shabbos, the Saturday night when they say Selichos, and the eve of Zohar Bris. The Alter Rebbe called a few of his older students, and he told them about the very serious situation, about this criticism there is a, a-- above in the heavens. And he has a basis to think that on this coming Rosh Hashanah, which is Taf kuf nun gimel, these-- the criticism will pass from the criticizing the teaching of Hasidism. We're talking about a spiritual criticism over here in the heavens above, and it might land on him personally. Uh, and the Alter Rebbe asked them that they should arouse mercy, and also he was instructing them how, after his passing, they should help his son, the Mitteler Rebbe, Reb Dov Ber, that he should be able to lead and conduct with the Hasidim and the Hasidic institutions in the matter relating to Hasidim. The daughter of the Alter Rebbe, that was the Rebbetzin Devorah Leah, the mother of the Tzemach Tzedek, of the-- She heard all that her father was giving over to this group of students. She decided that she's going to exchange herself

07:38 instead of her father, because she says that her father almost said that he's going to pass away. She wanted to give up her life instead of her father. She feared for her father's life, and she thought how to do so. On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, after the mincha, after, after mincha, the Rebbetzin Devorah Leah, the daughter of the Alter Rebbe, entered to the room where there was the small minyan. There was the large schul, and then there was like a small room. It's called the small minyan. In which, at the time, there were the family members of the Rebbe and some distinguished, distinguished individuals from amongst the students, and they were all deeply involved in saying the Tehillim. And the Rebbetzin Devorah Leah came to the Aron Kodesh, to the Ark, to the Holy Ark. She opened up the doors of the Ark, and she announced. She says, "Entire community, you are, you are witness that in front of these holy Sefer Torahs, I accept upon myself with a clear mind, with a vow, and with an oath that I, Devorah Leah, the daughter of Shternish Sara-- of Shterna." Sorry, I said the daughter of Shterna. "I'm exchanging my father, Reb Schneur Zalman ben Rivkah," his mother's name, Rivkah, "that he should remain alive." On the first night of Rosh Hashanah, after the davening, the Alter Rebbe came out, and he said, "Where is Devorah Leah?" When he saw her, he began to tell her, "L'shana," like L'shana tovah you say after the davening.

09:24 He, uh, only had a chance to say the word L'shana. And the Rabbonis, the Rebbetzin Devorah Leah jumped and said to her fa-- to her father, "L'shana tova tikatev v'tichatem. You should be written for a good and sealed for a good year. Don't speak." And she didn't let him finish his blessing. She didn't allow for her father to finish his blessing. The next day, on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, Alter Rebbe gave a Hasidic discourse until Havdalah. After Havdalah, he called his daughter, Devorah Leah, and her husband, Reb Shalom Shahna, to, to his room. Reb Shalom Shahna was standing next to the wall, and he was crying. And he said, "What are we going to do with a child who is three years old?" Just, um-- And another child, uh... A-and, no, and, and, no, sorry, and, uh, such a child. How do you leave such a child, you know, a three, a three-year-old, especially such a child? On the second day of Rosh Hashanah, uh, the Rebbetzin Devorah Leah got sick, and on Seven Gedalia, on the third day of Tishrei, in Taf kuf nun gimel, she passed away while she was in clear mind till the end, till the last moment. Her last request from her father, um, was that he should educate and he should, uh, direct her only son, the Menachem. And the Alter Rebbe promised her to fulfill her wishes, and he told her that your son, Menachem, Menachem means a comforter, uh, he's a comforter to me, he's

11:15 a comforter, will be to you, and he will be a comforter to Israel. Um, the name of the Rebbetzin Devorah Leah was always mentioned amongst Hasidim with great awe, with great admiration. Um, because everybody knew very well her giving away of her life from Mesirus Nefesh and how distinguished of a, a person of spirit and, uh, has saved the tree of life, has saved the Alter Rebbe, basically. She was all of twenty-six years old when she passed away, and she is buried in the city of Lyozno. That was the, um, place where the Alter Rebbe lives. That's where she's buried in. And, um, this is, um, this is brought out in the story from the Alter Rebbe's life. And, um, we have many, uh, Chabad families. We have many girls with the name Devorah Leah because that's to-- that's named after her, after the daughter. And then of course, we know that, um, um, the Tzemach Tzedek was the one that, uh, later on published and, uh, expanded and, uh, was able to... In his time already, the Misnagdim were already a little bit softened up at that time and, uh, um, they allowed, uh, the Tzemach Tzedek was recognized as a great scholar also by all the, uh, other people, by the other groups and it, it sort of calmed down a little bit. It was a little easier at the time. There was other problems then as we learned with, with the government trying to infiltrate the Jewish education and with Peterburg, we

13:13 had other stories as-- But as far as the Misnagdim, it became a little bit, maybe this is what it means that it would be from them.