13 of Nissan - תרכ"ו - Day of passing of the Tzemach Tzedek

00:01 Let's do Yemei Chabad for the thirteenth day of Nisan. This is in the year תרח. Uh, that's, uh, five thousand six hundred and twenty-six on the thirteenth of Nisan. Uh, that's the day that the Tzemach Tzedek, that is the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, that he passed, passed away. Uh, um, and the Tzemach Tzedek was actually sick for, uh, several years. In the year תרח, that six years earlier, he has gotten very sick, the Tzemach Tzedek, and, uh, more than six years until he passed away, uh, he was sick. Um, about a half a year before passing away, he also became very-- uh, it became very hard, difficult for him to speak. But there were still, you know, some great revelations. He was able to, um, uh, to lead the Hasidim and, um, do wonders. And, um, he refused people to ask him any matters as they pertain to physical matters. That this whole idea, you know, by a Rebbe, you know, people don't only ask, uh, spiritual questions, um, how to get closer to Hashem, how to daven better, how to learn better, how to, uh, be emotionally connected to Hashem. Those are the main seemingly functions of a Rebbe. But then by extension, um, the, uh, Hasidim always ask the Rebbe for blessings, for advice, for guidance, and also in very material matters. Uh, there was once a story which, um, um, somebody, uh, came to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe told him, um, "Listen, you trust me when you ask me, like, business deals

02:00 and the physical things, so you can trust me when I talk about, uh, spiritual things." Um, but the point here is the Rebbes were not always keen, uh, on people, uh, getting them involved in this materialistic things. They wanted more to be spiritual. People should be more involved in spiritual matters. Uh, but yet, a Rebbe, out of the concern and love for every Jew, uh, and whatever the situation, they also continue to bless them of physical matters. And, uh, we know that you cannot really separate the physical from the spiritual so much. Uh, if God helps a person and gives them their physical needs, their mind is free and, uh, they're open to, uh, serve God spiritually. That's why Maimonides says that the reason why we anticipate and look so much forward for the times of Mashiach is not so that the physical, material sta-state will change for the better, that we won't have to worry about our livelihood and things like that, but rather it's because of the spiritual state that will take place. And when things will be okay, in other words, it'll be very easy for us to achieve our financial security, so we will not have to worry about that. So then we will be able to devote all our time to the study of Torah and the observance of mitzvahs. So it turns out that even a physical problem that a Yid has, uh, whether it is with his livelihood, whether it is marrying off their children, whether it is,

03:44 um, health issues, whether-- whatever it may be, but it's always connected. The physicality of a Jew is always connected to spirituality, and therefore it is important. And the same thing is we read in the letter of the Rebbe. The Rebbe was once asked, "Should one pray for material things or only for spiritual things?" The Rebbe said, "Of course, one needs to pray." The halakha is that one needs to pray for things that, uh, disturb a person, that, that bother a person. And it's, uh, first of all, the belief that Hashem listens to your prayers, and number two is that Hashem has the ability to change things around for you for the better. That's why you're praying to Hashem, and you're asking God to make things better for you. So that expresses a deep belief and a deep thought to Hashem. But yet, the Rebbes were not always, uh, so keen when people, uh, totally got involved in the material parts of their lives, and that's what they preoccupied the Rebbe with, and they did not, uh, take, uh, the time to improve and better their spiritual standing. And the Rebbe would always connect, um, anything you asked him, he would always connect it to your spiritual state. So if you asked the Rebbe for a blessing, uh, for some material things, the Rebbe would say, "Well, certainly you're studying the Shiurim of Chitas, uh, the Chumesh Torah and Tanya. Those are study. Uh, certainly you're-- you know, check the mezuzahs, put it, make sure that

05:20 it's filled in our kosher." The Rebbe would connect every physical request also with something spiritual. The Rebbe would get, uh, the, um, um... try to use every situation to gain Hashem's blessings because God's blessing is like rain. Now, when it rains, then the, uh, earth can produce. But in order for the earth to grow things, you need to plow it, you need to make it soft, you need to be able to absorb the rain, and you need to sow it with, with kernels, with seeds. You need to be able to-- So for the water to, uh, work, it needs, it needs a fertile ground. It needs- Uh, the earth to be fitting for that, uh, for the rain, for the water comes down. So the Rebbe's bracha, the Rebbe's blessing is like the rain that comes down. But yet, to make the ground for you a receptacle, you gotta plow your own ground, you gotta sow your own seed. That means that you gotta do the mitzvahs, you gotta do-- you gotta improve yourself, and then the Rebbe's blessing is the rain that'll help you, and then you'll be successful. So it was always tied together, these things. But yet, you know, people who just, uh, were, uh, I guess, mostly involved with their physical, financial, and their material lives would ask the Rebbe a lot of questions in the, uh, material sense. So here it says that the Tzaddik refused in the end. He refused to accept people who wanted to talk to him

07:01 about physical matters. He didn't wanna accept that anymore. Uh, there's also a, uh, metaphor I once heard that, um, a, uh, certain, um, person was, um, um, asking the Rebbe about physical matters and... And-- But he didn't connect to the Rebbe at all in any spiritual way. You know, he didn't, he didn't study, or he didn't teach. He di- he didn't feel himself connected to the Rebbe at all. He just wanted his physical betterment. And uh, and by the way, even the Alter Rebbe, the grandfather of the Tzaddik, he already complains also in letters that whoever heard such a thing to go ask a, a Rebbe of physical things. Even the prophets in the olden days in Israel, uh, you know, there were like ex- exceptional prophets where people would come and ask them about physical matters, like where to find the donkeys and things like that. But it's a-- this is not who-- you know, he's rebuking them. But in this case, um, you know, the, uh, the Rebbe... Uh, that's all I heard. I mean, it's not, uh... Uh, so I'm not sure if-- how, how accurate it is in, in reality, but so the Rebbe gave him a metaphor. He says like this. He says, "You know, a blessing that you want me to give you." In this story, um, he gave-- There was a metaphor that there was once a, uh, person, they used to travel by horse and buggy, and they came to this marketplace, and, um, they would need

08:39 an order for the wagon. They were leaving the marketplace. In order to leave, they would need grease to grease the wheels so that they can roll. You'd have to grease the wheels every so often so that they can work, so they can pull, so the horses can pull the carriage. And this, this gentleman, he was at the, um, at the end. You know, everything closed already, and he forgot to get his, his, his jug of grease that he needed to take along so he can grease the wheels when necessary. Like an oil, it needs a lube. They need a lube. They need oil. They need to lube the wheels. So what is he gonna do? So he's standing, he's standing outside the city. He's afraid to leave the city because now how's he gonna go without this lube? So another person dry-- rides by with another carriage. He says, "Look, I'm stuck. I don't have any, uh, grease with me. What do I do?" So he says, "You know what? Uh, if you go to this person's house, you know I got my grease over there." So he goes to the person's house and knocks at the door. The guy opens, lets him in. He says, "I hear that you have-- you may have some grease for sale." He says, "No, I don't sell any grease." He says, "What do you mean? I just spoke to this other fella. He told me that you gave him grease." He said, "Mister." He says, "You don't understand."

09:55 He said, "Me and the other person that you met, we do business. We're both diamond merchants, and we do business in many, many, uh, lot, lots and lots of business, lots of money. And somebody like that, so we do business, he comes, and he asks me some grease I have in my garage for something like that. But you, I say we don't do any business," he says. "We're not... So I don't have grease. You know, I only sell grease to those that I do business with." And the metaphor means to say that you come if you do business. In other words, if you're connected to the Rebbe, and you study, and you do what the Rebbe wants, and you're involved, so then the Rebbe greases your wheels, too. So the Rebbe gives you a little blessing, so all the material- materials go well, so that it'll be greased properly. But in a case like, uh, when you're just asking the Rebbe just, you know, uh, help me that I should make a million dollars. I mean, why, um, what kind of... We don't grease that. But that's only a story because the truth of the matter is that the Rebbe gave blessings to anybody who came. The Rebbe gave everybody. But the Rebbe encouraged people to do good deeds so that they're worthy of the blessing, so that the-- when the rain comes, it has where to, uh, uh, come on to, that it comes on fertile, that the land, the earth will be fertile.

11:23 And therefore, but at the end of his life, he refused to accept people that came to him for physical matters. Now, he would say at that point, "I don't see anymore a body. All what I see is the light of the soul." So he had, like, X-ray vision. He no longer saw what's in front of him. So, uh, he said, "I cannot respond to you on physical matters." And, uh, people would ask him only... That was the personal meeting with the Rebbe. Seemingly, that they would still ask him, uh, through a letter, through the attendants who would pass it along. Uh, also his speech was difficult, so it was hard to understand the teaching of Hasidism that he would, he would say. A couple of days before he passed away, he became very weak, and they invited the doctor in the city of Lubavitch, and he says-- he said that he doesn't see anything. Doesn't see anything. And the next day, um, the situation became worse and the Hasidim were very upset. And all day they were saying Tehillim. They also add the name Meir. You know, when somebody is not well, sometimes by adding a name that has a special- Oh, light. They mean light ... Meir means light, to continue to shine and to continue to, you know. Towards the evening, the situation got a little bit better, but after a little bit of time, they saw that there is really no hope. And there was the attendant, his name was Chaim Ber.

13:10 He put his ear next to the Rebbe. He heard the Rebbe whispering, "L'ma'an yirbu yimeihem," so that your days will be prolonged. And, um, this was eleven o'clock at night. They saw that there's really nothing that they can do anymore. His bed was standing in the middle of the room, and around it there were standing people with lit candles. And the, uh, Tzemach Tzedek was lying there without any movement, just he was looking at the people. In many ways, um, this reminds me in the last, uh, last y- last years of the Rebbe, who's named after the Tzemach Tzedek, uh, reminds me in a way that, uh, they would take out the Rebbe, uh, uh... Rebbe couldn't really move that much and, uh, or at least parts of his, uh, sides was, uh, uh, from a stroke that he, uh, suffered and, um, he would-- they take him out in the, uh, balcony. It used to be the woman's balcony. They take him out, and all the Hasidim were down there. The Rebbe was no movement. The Rebbe would just look at the... And for short period of time, sometimes a little longer, and people would sing down there, but the Rebbe would just, just look at them, and it was like a- Absorbed. It's like- Very... Yeah, you can see some of the, uh, videos they have from that. But, um, this was, uh, twelve thirty, uh, in the aft- in-- after midnight. Um, it was like a-- from his, um, lips coming like

14:46 a sweat and his soul went up in purity, up to the heavens. The Rebbe Maharasch said, "I want you to know my father did not die. If you want to ask something of him, you can ask. I also asked him," he said. And the entire community said Tehillim, and after each book of Tehillim, one of the sons said Kaddish. He had seven sons. I'm not sure if they all were there, but one... an-another son said Kaddish. And at the funeral, nobody cried. Uh, it was... They went like it says here, I'm not sure exactly what it means, but it says they went like to a wedding. But when they came home from the cemetery and the Hasidim sat on the ground, they were like, uh, uncontrollable cryings and, uh, it was just impossible to tolerate it. Um, the sons had to come out from their room and they said that the people... This is the Mismedresh. They probably had a family room or where they were inside. This was in the Mismedresh, and they had to tell them to stop, to stop it. You know, the people were, like, just going on and on. That's what it said. This too, um, reminds me of a little bit of the scene, you know, after Gimmel Tammuz, after, uh, the Rebbe's, um, that was, um... Uh, the Rebbe Maharasch writes in the, um, in the, uh, notes of the Chevre Kadisha. He writes about his father. He says that Hashem desired the souls of the Tzadikim, and

16:24 on the, um, night before the third, the Thursday, which is the thirteenth of Nissan in the year Taf Reish Chav Vav, uh, the holy ark that contains basically his father's, uh, body, the luminary of Israel. The prayer is that those that rest in the dust will arise and will, uh, utter songs, and amongst them also the-- my father, the Tzemach Tzedek, he will teach us the wonders from God's Torah, because the dew of Torah will revive the body. Uh, Amen K'El Yaharon. The previous Rebbe writes that when the Tzemach Tzedek, uh, passed away, they did not tell it to the Hasid of Rebbe Yekusiel Me'Leplav for a half a year. The people were so attached to the Tzemach Tzedek that they couldn't take it, so it took a half a year, this Hasid, Rebbe Yekusiel Me'Leplav, for a half a year, they didn't tell him about the passing of the Tzemach Tzedek. When he found out, he was screaming, and he said, "Fools, why did you allow the Rebbe to pass a- pass away? Why did you allow him to pass away?" And it reminds us, uh, reminds us of the, uh, Rashi about Moshe Rabbeinu, that the Jewish people were saying that we're not gonna allow Moshe Rabbeinu to, uh, to pass away. And, uh, it says that he passed away, it was in midday, so Hashem is basically saying, "Well, nobody have no choice." You know, it's, uh, this is the heavenly decree. So, uh- So now, uh, and he was very, um,

18:22 very, uh, very, very upset, and he expressed, um, like very, uh, harsh language about the tragedy what took place. He was very, very upset. And, um, it says he started to walk by foot, uh, to Lubavitch. Also, it says here that he broke the windows in his home. I'm not sure exactly whether that was like a expression of grief or somehow, you know, you open the windows, you know, when there's a, uh... When you're in the vicinity of a body. But no, this sounded like he was... I'm not sure. I don't know the whole history. The Tzemach Kehati seems to be-- I mean, the reason they're bringing it down over here, I'm not sure, but seems to be that they're trying to say something over here. But, uh, maybe it's just the, um, the idea that he, uh, was, uh, so connected to express how much the Hasidim were in pain and how much the grief was that they even did, did this kind of, these kind of things. But- Rabbi Yeah. Was he a, a comrade of Tzemach Kedem or was- No, a Hasid. A Hasid. He was a Hasid. When the, when he came to Lubavitch, he says, "I'm going to wait for the Rebbe to do-- to tell me what to do. I'm not doing anything without... I'm not davening. I have to hear what the Rebbe is gonna tell me." He went to the ohel of Tzemach Kedem, and he sort of stayed there, stretched out over the resting place for

19:58 the entire day. And when they... At the end, when they took him, he was fainted. And you know, I've seen all this by the Rebbe, you know, that this, you know, there were people on the... When he came to from his faint, he says, "Gotta go out." He says, "We have to make a, a dance." And, uh, then he says to the sons of the Tzemach Kedem, uh, "Come and listen, uh, a Hasidus that your father said." He told them, uh, to listen a Hasidus that their father says. He remained in Lubavitch to choose for himself a Rebbe because he left several sons, um, from amongst the Tzemach Kedem's sons. But after hearing Hasidus from all the sons of the Tzemach Kedem, he said to the Rebbe Maharash, "Up till now, I speak to you in a direct way." You know, not in, not in a way of saying, uh, like you, talking to the you instead of here. In Yiddish, there's a respectful way of saying, not in a direct way, like somebody who's not present saying about them. Like third person. Yeah, third person. "But now," he says, "You're my Rebbe. Put on your hat and say Hasidus." That's what he said now. Wow. Um, apparently that, uh, he carried a lot of weight there. We have to read up a little bit more about the Hasid, Rabbi Yisrael Melekh. Let's read up more about him to see exactly. Rabbi Yisrael Melekh, he was actually all the way back from the Alter Rebbe.

21:47 He became a Hasid of the Alter Rebbe. Wow. And it's, it says over here that he was originally-- he wasn't, um, uh, very, um, very bright. He didn't have very, um... He wasn't very talented. And, um, uh, he came to the Alter Rebbe once when the Alter Rebbe was wearing tzitzit, Rebbe Nutam. And he actually jumped from one window to another wil- window, and he came in and he's crying bitterly, "Rebbe," uh, the... He says, "Take away, cut out my left, uh, my, uh..." I guess his yeteer hara, his evil inclination. He used their own language, and the Rebbe blessed him. He said, "Atah mechayes kolam," and his heart turned around. And he became a, a, an outstanding, uh, Hasid and scholar in, in, in, in understanding the service. Um, notwithstanding the fact that he wasn't actually... I said a scholar, no. He, he... Hasidus, uh, and, and, and service of Hashem, but he wasn't like, uh, a very learned and know- knowing how to learn. Uh, the learning the revealed part of Torah, he couldn't, but Hasidus, he understood, it says. And, uh, um, and so this is what, what about him. Um, it actually says that the Alter Rebbe wanted to bless him with, um, with wealth. He says he doesn't want wealth because he doesn't want it to distract him. And, um, um, this story that we were talking about, Rabbi Yisrael was already in his nineties. Mm-hmm. Uh, when the, when the story we were talking about Rabbi Yisrael Melekh, and,

23:51 uh, they didn't wanna tell him because of his health. They didn't wanna cause him health. And, um, um, he, um... And he's the one that basically, um, I guess, went, uh, and said about the, the Rebbe Maharash. So he wasn't just anybody. That's why we bring down the story of this Rabbi Yisrael Melekh. And he had, uh, various, uh, you know, powerful expressions. Some of them sometimes which are hard to just in the rational mind. Today, we, um... There are certain kinds of expression that one wants to express, like an emotion, like an, a feeling. Uh, something, a very sensitive thought, and it's not something that you can really explain, or it's not something that you can sort of, uh, uh, publicize. You know, people ask you, "Oh, what does it mean? We don't understand it." It takes a long time. So amongst Hasidim, amongst them, they would be able to say a certain... And then, you know, you need to explain exactly what it means, and you don't take it out of context. You gotta take it the way it means. But if somebody wants to just take those words and to take them out of context, they seem strange. Sometimes they see, uh... You know, like one of the things they said about the Hasidim to the Vilna Gaon, the Gaon, that the Has-- the, the, the to Rebbe Yo, the Gro, against the Hasidim, that they ate on Tisha B'Av. So okay, they ate it. That's true, they ate on Tisha B'Av.

25:22 But it was happened to be Tisha B'Av on Shabbos, you know, so there was no fasting. So, you know, if you say a story without... There's a connotation. You don't tell the whole story. Sometimes there's an expression. You say something. The Hasidim say something, you know, uh, in, in a sense, he gives you a feeling and express it in words. If you're just gonna take the words and you're gonna just make a heading in the newspaper and say, "Oh, look, this is what he said," that means taking it totally out of context. And we live today in a world which, especially the information and anything you say is immediately, you know, all over the world, and that's why we have to be more careful what we say. Even in when I read some of these expressions over here, you know, and I'm recording this. So sometimes, you know, I have to be careful because there are certain things that are said over here which need to be explained, and it's very hard. So I, I don't fully say all the time the full sentence just so that it's not misinterpreted and misrepresented because sometimes it can-- somebody can hear it and say, "Oh, look, this is what they said. They said something like that." Now, well, within context, it makes sense. It's like saying they ate on Tisha B'Av. Yes, you know, it was on Shabbos, so I mean, you have to really know what you're, what you're talking about. But this just expresses to

26:49 us to see the deep, uh, love, the deep connection, and the care of abiding Hasidim and the Rebbe and the love that took place over there, that it's just something that was like a real tragedy for somebody to lose, uh, a Rebbe. So this was Yud Gimmel Nissan Taf Resh Chavuh is the yahrtzeit, the passing of the, uh, Tsamach Tzedek, Rebbe Menachem Mendel.