16 of Nissan - תר"פ - Day of passing of Rabbi Mordechei Dov Twersky

00:00 Speaker 1 Today we're gonna do Yemei Chabad for the 16th day of Nisan in the year Taf Reish Hey. That's 680, 5680. 16th day of Nisan. Oh, perfect. Which corresponds to... This is in April 4th, 1920. That's the day of passing of the holy rabbi, Reb Mordechai Dov Tversky from Tumshpol. That's a kind of city, a city of Tumshpol. Now, we're gonna see that really Mordechai Dov's name was not really Tversky. His name was really Schneersohn. Now let me-- I'm gonna back up a little bit and see who the Mordechai Dov Tversky was. The Mitteler Rebbe had a son. The Mitteler Rebbe's son did not become the Rebbe. His son's name was Menachem Nachum. That was the son's name of the Mitteler Rebbe. The Mitteler Rebbe, who was the son of the Alter Rebbe, had a son, Menachem Nachum. Menachem Nachum did not become the Chabad Rebbe, did not go. His brother-in-law, which means Menachem Nachum's sister's husband, the Tzemach Tzedek, he became the third Lubavitch Rebbe. Menachem Nachum, um, he married... Now we're going to see, this, this is a son of the Alter Rebbe, of the Alter Rebbe, uh- Mitteler Rebbe ... of the Mitteler Rebbe. A son of the Mitteler Rebbe. Good. Yeah, thank you, listening. Now, he married his niece. What does it mean his niece? You know, from the Torah, you're allowed to marry your niece. You can't marry an aunt, but you can marry a niece. So he married... This is again, a big family things we'll see. He married his

01:47 Speaker 1 niece, niece- Uh, the aunt's daughter, yeah. That is, he married his father's, uh, um... No, he married his, um- Niece ... uh, his niece, his niece was his sister's daughter. His sister's daughter. Oh, his sister's daughter. Right. He had a sister whose name was Sara Freida. Sara Freida was, um... Hold on one second. He had one son. So Reb Nachum, who was his son, married-- That was his second marriage, though, but he married, in his second marriage, he married his niece, and his niece was his sister's daughter. Right. His sister, his sister was Devorah Leah. The Mitteler Rebbe, one of the Mitteler Rebbe's daughters was Devorah Leah. Right. And his son was this guy. Was-- One of the Mitteler Rebbe's d- was Devorah Leah, who was a daughter. She was named after the Alter Rebbe's, had a daughter, uh, Devorah Leah too. Uh, she d-died young, as we learned, uh, earlier when- That's one of the kid-- he brought up the kid. Yes, that's right. That was Tzemach Tzedek. That was his-- her daughter. But the Mitteler Rebbe had a daughter named Devorah Leah, and Devorah Leah was the sister of Menachem Nachum, of Reb Nachum. They were brothers and sister. So later on, Menachem married the daughter of Devorah Leah. But Devorah Leah's husband, remember, was Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas. Oh. Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas, and that also has to do with the lineage as we went through with the Rebbetzin Sterna Sara. But let's- Let's- That's what we learned in the... But Yaakov

03:47 Speaker 1 Yisroel of Cherkas-- Let's go just take, stick to here before we get confused over there. Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas married a daughter of the Mitteler Rebbe, married to Devorah Leah, the daughter of the Mitteler Rebbe, and their daughter, Sara Freida, married the, uh, married her uncle, Menachem Nachum, her mother's brother, Menachem Nachum, who was the son of the Mitteler Rebbe. So therefore, the son of the Mitteler Rebbe, Menachem Nachum- Son of the- And the... So they, his son and his granddaughter, the Mitteler Rebbe's son and granddaughter got married. His, Menachem Nachum got married. His son, his son got married to... His son married- Whose son? The Mitteler Rebbe's son married his granddaughter. If you marry a niece, that's what it means. Right. Who's- If you marry a niece, the Mitteler Rebbe is the, is the, is the- Oh, the Mitteler Rebbe's granddaughter. Correct. The Mi- the Mitteler Rebbe's son married the Mitteler Rebbe's granddaughter. Right.

04:50 Speaker 2 Talk about gene pool.

04:51 Speaker 1 Yeah. Why? Because the Mite- Mite- Mitteler Rebbe's son-

04:53 Speaker 2 I get it

04:54 Speaker 1 ... Menachem Nachum, married the Mitteler Rebbe's granddaughter. He married Menachem Nachum's sister's daughter, Sheyna Freida.

05:00 Speaker 2 She's the niece, yeah.

05:01 Speaker 1 Now, they had... Now, remember, the father, the, the, the, um, the, uh, the father of this Sheyna Freida, Sheyna Freida, the wife of Menachem Nachum. Now, they-- we're talking about the wife that he married. Her mother was a daughter of the Mitteler Rebbe, but her father was a son of Reb Mordechai of Chernobyl.

05:29 Speaker 2 Okay.

05:30 Speaker 1 Reb Mordechai of Chernobyl, because Yaakov Yisroel was a son of Mordechai Chernobyl. Who-- Mordechai was a son of Reb Nachum Chernobyl. He had a son, Mordechai Chernobyl. Mordechai had a son whose name was Yaakov Yisroel, who became a son-in-law of the Mitteler Rebbe, married the Mitteler Rebbe's daughter, Devorah Leah. Eventually, the Mitteler Rebbe's son, Menachem Nachum, married his sister's, uh, the daughter, Sheyna Freida, who was married to the son of Reb Motel Chernobyl, Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas. And they had a son who they named Reb Mordechai Dov. So, Reb Mordechai Dov and his last name was Tversky. Now, Mordechai Dov, now it's easy to remember. Why was he named Mordechai Dov? Uh, both name of the grandparents because his father's, Yaakov Yisroel's father was-

06:20 Speaker 2 Mordechai

06:20 Speaker 1 ... was Mordechai.

06:22 Speaker 2 And Dov-

06:23 Speaker 1 But, uh, uh, his, his, his, his, uh, um, Reb Mordechai's, uh, mother's-

06:34 Speaker 2 Uh

06:34 Speaker 1 ... Re- Re- Mor- Uh, um- Um.

06:42 Speaker 2 Dov's-

06:43 Speaker 1 The Dver-- D- Dvars-- The, the, uh-

06:45 Speaker 2 Dov

06:45 Speaker 1 Uh. Yaakov-- Reb Mordechai Chernobyl was the grandfather of Reb Mordechai Dov. He was named Mordechai Dov because his, uh... F- Freida was Reb Mordechai Dov's mother, right?

07:07 Speaker 2 Right.

07:08 Speaker 1 And Freida's father was Reb Mordechai.

07:11 Speaker 2 Yeah, his father.

07:12 Speaker 1 Right. So that's why the first name Mordechai he got-

07:15 Speaker 2 From his grandfather

07:15 Speaker 1 ... from his father.

07:17 Speaker 2 From his father

07:17 Speaker 1 ... his, his mother's father.

07:20 Speaker 2 Yeah, who was that Chernobyl, right?

07:22 Speaker 1 Was the Chernobyl son.

07:24 Speaker 2 Right.

07:24 Speaker 1 And the name Dov he got for his father's father, the Mitler Rebbe, Dov Ber. Dov, Dov.

07:34 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

07:35 Speaker 1 And it was also his mother's grandfather.

07:40 Speaker 2 That's grandfather.

07:41 Speaker 1 Because Dov, the Mitler Rebbe, was also, uh, f- um, was also, uh, Freida's grandfather because Freida was the daughter-

07:52 Speaker 2 Dov Ber

07:53 Speaker 1 ... no, Freida was the daughter of Dvorah Leah, who was the daughter of the Mitler Rebbe. He was just Dov Ber, the name Dov Ber. I mean, it's just if you looked at a picture you would see it very clearly. He was named Mordechai Dov. Again, Mordechai was his fa-- Mordechai was his mother's father because his mother's father was Reb Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas-

08:21 Speaker 2 Dov Mordechai

08:22 Speaker 1 ... who was a son of Mordechai. Okay? So, well-

08:30 Speaker 2 His mother or his, or her mother's, or the, uh-

08:33 Speaker 1 It was a grandfather. So he was man, man, man named-

08:35 Speaker 2 We don't know which grandfather

08:36 Speaker 1 ... not named after his, his grandfather was Yaakov Yisroel, but he was named after his great-grandfather-

08:43 Speaker 2 Great-grandfather

08:43 Speaker 1 ... Reb Mordechai Chernobyl. And also on the, uh, on his father's side though, he was named after his grandfather because his father was Reb Menachem. He was directly, he was a son of the Mitler Rebbe, and also on that same side he was a great-grandfather from his mother's side because his mother was a daughter of... Her mother was a, uh, uh, her, her, his mother-

09:12 Speaker 2 Yeah

09:12 Speaker 1 ... was a daughter of the Mitler Rebbe.

09:14 Speaker 2 Rebbe.

09:15 Speaker 1 So it was a great-grandfather. If you take the mother's side, it was two grandfathers, and if you take from his-

09:20 Speaker 2 Father

09:20 Speaker 1 ... from the father's side because his father was a son.

09:22 Speaker 2 Oh, boy.

09:23 Speaker 1 Now, okay. Now, uh, one thing is surprising though, why would he call his family name Tversky? Tversky, he called him Tversky because the, um, he was a son of Menachem Nachum. Reb Mordechai Dov was a son of Menachem Nachum. Menachem Nachum was a son of the Mitler Rebbe. The Mitler Rebbe's name was Schneersohn. That's where all the Schneersohns come from.

09:48 Speaker 2 Right.

09:48 Speaker 1 So his father's name, but he adopted the name of his grandfather, which means Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas.

09:58 Speaker 2 Also Cherkas.

09:58 Speaker 1 Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas's name-

10:00 Speaker 2 The Mitler-

10:00 Speaker 1 ... was Tversky.

10:01 Speaker 2 Was that the Mitler Rebbe's father?

10:03 Speaker 1 Son-in-law.

10:04 Speaker 2 Son-in-law.

10:04 Speaker 1 That, that, Mitler Rebbe's son-in-law was Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas.

10:07 Speaker 2 Of Cherkas.

10:07 Speaker 1 Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas-

10:09 Speaker 2 Oh, that's their family name

10:09 Speaker 1 ... who married, uh, their name, Cherkas, their name is Tversky. Reb Mordechai Chernobyl is named Tversky. Reb Menachem Chernobyl is named Tversky. Their name-- That's where all the Tversky families come today from.

10:19 Speaker 2 They're all rabbis.

10:19 Speaker 1 They all come from there, from that, from that, from-

10:21 Speaker 2 Oh, oh, they come from the Chernobyl dynasty.

10:23 Speaker 1 From the Chernobyl dynasty, yeah. I would say all.

10:25 Speaker 2 So why, why did he name Tver- Tversky?

10:26 Speaker 1 Uh, but he named it Tversky because Yaakov Yisroel, which was his Yaakov Yisroel, that was his mother's father, which Yaakov Yisroel-

10:39 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

10:40 Speaker 1 ... was, was, was his, which, which was, which was Reb Mordechai Dov's mother's father.

10:44 Speaker 2 Right.

10:44 Speaker 1 They didn't have any sons. Yaakov Yisroel had no sons.

10:49 Speaker 2 Oh.

10:50 Speaker 1 He only had daughters, so that means all the daughters got other names. Just like his own mother.

10:56 Speaker 2 Right.

10:56 Speaker 1 Reb Mordechai's mother, conceived, it doesn't say it, but Reb Mordechai's mother, uh, whose, uh, uh, was named, who's Freida, uh, she changed her name to Schneersohn because Menachem Nachum presumably was also Schneersohn.

11:12 Speaker 2 The, the women took the husband's name.

11:14 Speaker 1 Took the husband's name, but in this case, the husband took the woman's name.

11:19 Speaker 2 There's no law that says that.

11:20 Speaker 1 Her, her, her, the woman's name.

11:21 Speaker 2 No. Right.

11:22 Speaker 1 The son... It's not the woman took her own name, but her son took his mother's maiden name.

11:28 Speaker 2 Maiden name.

11:28 Speaker 1 His mother's maiden name was Tversky because the grandfather only had daughters, and they all married and had different names. So it turns out that that Tversky would not be any, any names, any of the names.

11:41 Speaker 2 The names are gone.

11:42 Speaker 1 Even though from Menachem Nachum, there were other sons because Yaakov Yisroel was only one of the many sons of Reb Mordechai.

11:49 Speaker 2 So you can do that? You can take your-

11:51 Speaker 1 There's no rules against last names. You can put any name you want.

11:54 Speaker 2 Well, the only reason last names were given out was for tax purposes.

11:57 Speaker 1 Yeah.

11:58 Speaker 2 That's the only reason you have a last name because originally in Europe it was decreed that was the only way to keep track.

12:05 Speaker 1 Um-

12:06 Speaker 2 Really?

12:06 Speaker 1 And, um, he, he served as a rabbi. They call him, they call it Teshuvah. Um, so really, I mean-

12:15 Speaker 2 I've heard of that, yeah

12:15 Speaker 1 ... if you look at, you look at it, you know what I mean. Then we were talking about the daughter Freida that ended up marrying her uncle, Menachem Nachum, the son of the Mitler Rebbe. But Yaakov Yisroel had another daughter, uh, her name was Chana besides Freida, uh, who was Yaakov Yisroel's son, and then she had a daughter whose name was Sterra Sara. Sterra Sara became the wife-

12:50 Speaker 2 Of the Rebbe

12:50 Speaker 1 ... of the Rebbe Rashab. So that's another daughter of Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas. We said he had daughters only, but that's another daughter.

12:59 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

12:59 Speaker 1 Chana.

12:59 Speaker 2 In the case of-

13:00 Speaker 1 Sterra Sara was actually... Sterra Sara, we just said she was the daughter of Chana, uh, but this Chana, she married Reb Yosef Yitzchak, who was the son of the Tzemach Tzedek. As we've learned before.

13:22 Speaker 2 Who-

13:22 Speaker 1 But I guess it gets-

13:23 Speaker 2 It gets more Chabad.

13:24 Speaker 1 It gets more Chabad.

13:25 Speaker 2 Where are you going for?

13:26 Speaker 1 It's all-

13:26 Speaker 2 Who, who wrote the Yemei Chabad?

13:29 Speaker 1 No, no, Yemei Chabad was collected by a fellow named, uh, Rabbi Kamenetsky. Um, actually they've now done it today. They have it already much more advanced and we're using this because in the book form we started doing this. We'll finish that.

13:40 Speaker 2 Well, that wouldn't even work.

13:41 Speaker 1 But today, like, you have more information and clearer information online. You have Chabadpedia, you have, uh-

13:46 Speaker 2 Yeah, but the pedia is not English.

13:48 Speaker 1 Yeah.

13:48 Speaker 2 None of these are in English.

13:49 Speaker 1 They don't have it in English?

13:50 Speaker 2 The pedia-

13:50 Speaker 1 This is not in English either. Oh, they make it in English too, yeah.

13:53 Speaker 2 Yeah. So see the-