16 of Sivan - Passing of Rebbetzin Freide, Daughter of the Alter Rebbe - בשנת תקע"ג נפטרה הרבנית הצדקנית פריידא בתו של אדמו"ר הזקן

00:00 Speaker 1 Trevor here for the sixteenth day of Sivan, and this is in the year Taf Kuf Ayin Gimel, which is five hundred and seventy-three. This is the day that the, uh, holy Rebbetzin, the righteous Rebbetzin, Freida, she was the daughter of the Alter Rebbe. Uh, she passed away on this, on this day in five seventy-three on the sixteenth day of Sivan. Rabbi, are any of these pictures the Alter Rebbe? The Alter Rebbe is the... Without my glasses, I can't see anything now. No. Okay. Yeah. So the, the Rebbetzin... No. That was in nineteen seventy-three. Nineteen seventy-three. So the Rebbetzin Freida... I got it. Yeah. It's the one on the top. No, right at the top over there. Higher up. That one. Yeah. Yeah. Rabbi, she was um- The Rebbetzin Freida, she was a very special, a very, uh, a great and important woman. She was, she was very dear to her father, the Alter Rebbe. He would actually give special Hasidic teachings just for her. Uh, her brother, the Mitteler Rebbe, the second Lubavitch Rebbe, there's no picture of him. Um, so he, uh, when he needed to, um, find out something, uh, matter in the Hasidism that he wasn't sure of, and he needed to ask his father, so he would ask his sister, the Freida, to ask the Alter Rebbe. And the Mitteler Rebbe would hide, and he would listen to the response, what he would say. He would listen in to the response of his father to the... Why, why specifically? I guess

01:47 Speaker 1 because maybe a son is easier to refuse. A daughter who wants to learn Hasidism maybe can't refuse. So I mean, why couldn't he ask himself and get the answer himself? But apparently, that was a way of getting through to his father's heart, wanting to, uh, know the answer maybe right then and there. The Alter Rebbe once expressed himself about his daughter, the Rebbetzin Freida, that in, in, in truth, that the soul of his daughter is actually from the masculine world. But, uh, for some, for a special some reason, that soul dressed up in a, in a woman's body. Uh, the Rebbetzin Freida was born in the year of Taf Kuf Chaf Daled. Um, uh, she passed away just about... That's five hundred and forty, uh, twenty-four. She passed away about a half, about, uh, a half a year after the Alter Rebbe, and she is, uh, actually, uh, interned very close to the, uh, place of the tziyun, the interment of the Alter Rebbe in the city of Haditch. The- Seventeen sixty-four. Pardon? Seventeen sixty-four. Seventeen sixty-four. Two hundred and sixty years ago. Okay. So she, um, she was-- I guess she died very young. Um- But look how their souls were so close, you know what I mean? Yeah. The Reb Nachum, who was the son of the Mitteler Rebbe, related that this Rebbetzin Freida was, uh, very weak, and she wasn't, she wasn't a very healthy physically person. And at-- once the Alter Rebbe passed away, she became very weak, and they had

03:29 Speaker 1 to move her into some, uh, country area. When she felt that her strength is going and she's about to pass away, she called, uh, many Hasidim and she asked them that after her passing, they should, uh, move her, intern her in Haditch, and that they should bury her to the right side of the Alter Rebbe. But the Hasidim didn't really know what to do because although they knew that she was very dear to her father, but to bury a woman next to the holy kever of their Rebbe was like sort of, uh, not sure. They didn't know what to do. So when, uh, s-several days passed by, the Rebbetzin Freida called the Hasidim again. When the Hasidim came to her house, though they had found that she was in bed in the middle of the room, uh, in all-- dressed in all her garments, and she asked Hasidim that they should stand around her bed, and she started to say the morning prayer of Elokei neshanat abbi, tahereish neshamah chatabihi, what we say in the morning prayer, "The soul that You give me is pure. You created it." And when she came to the words that you say, "And You are destined to take it from me," she raised her hands, and she put out her ten fingers towards above, and she scram-- she, she screamed out loud, uh, "Father, wait. Here, I'm coming." And her soul passed away. So the Hasidim understood that a woman who had such a-- She passed away under such

05:15 Speaker 1 kind of, uh, uh, circumstances. It was a privilege, and, uh, you have to give in to her request, what she had asked. But they weren't absolutely sure yet. So when they came to the cemetery, and they came to a crossroad over there, one, um... They walked by the , I mean, they were on the road, but there was a crossroad. Uh, one, one way led to the city of Kremenchuk, and the second one led to Haditch. Decided they're gonna allow the horses on their own, and wherever the horses are gonna take, that's where they're going to bury her. So you understand that Reb Nachum answers the, uh, completed the story that the horses continued to Haditch. And as she requested, she has been interned right next to the ceiling of the Alta Rebbe.

06:14 Speaker 2 Which was her father.

06:16 Speaker 1 Which was her father.

06:17 Speaker 3 So you say she was, she was buried in the plot, right-

06:19 Speaker 1 Yeah. General- Yeah, right next to him. Generally speaking, you know, there's issues about, um, men and women even at, even at the burial to keep them separate, you know, not next to each other. I mean, that's the way it's done in the... I know in other places they have families together, but in-

06:34 Speaker 3 It varies

06:34 Speaker 1 ... in, in, in, in like by us in the cemetery, they have the women not too far, but not right next to each other. Uh, but, uh, like you saw that the rebbetzins are all next to each other, uh, right outside across-

06:46 Speaker 3 Across the aisle

06:47 Speaker 1 ... across the aisle and the-

06:48 Speaker 3 Yeah

06:49 Speaker 1 ... the men are on this side. But, uh, I guess she had a special, uh, zechus, a special exception, exception and, and, um... You know, um, when I was growing up, the Montefiore Cemetery was, was empty. It was plenty of place. Today there is no space over there. It's-

07:10 Speaker 3 But there really isn't no halacha that says they can't be buried together.

07:15 Speaker 1 No.

07:15 Speaker 3 It's, it's more-

07:17 Speaker 1 No, it's more, it's tradition. It depends on the tradition of the place, you know, what, what they do.

07:20 Speaker 3 Because if you go to West Roxbury, the, the rabbis are in one section by themselves.

07:24 Speaker 1 I know. Yeah.

07:25 Speaker 2 So why do you think the Montefiore Cemetery is surprising that it's filled? You know, just-

07:31 Speaker 1 I mean, there's a few years passed by. The world, the nature of the world keeps on going, uh, nature keeps on, uh, beats all odds, you know, you know, you know, every time, you know, that's what happens. You know, and, uh, in sixty years, uh, uh, a cemetery fills up.

07:48 Speaker 2 Yes. Where is Montefiore Hospital? Is that Manhattan or the Bronx?

07:51 Speaker 3 Oh, no, it's in the Bronx. I was there.

07:53 Speaker 2 It's in the Bronx. That's what I thought.

07:53 Speaker 3 It's okay. I went there for something.

07:55 Speaker 2 But this cemetery is in Queens.

07:57 Speaker 1 It's called the Old Montefiore.

07:58 Speaker 2 Old Montefiore.

07:59 Speaker 1 There's a New Montefiore which is-

08:01 Speaker 3 My wife's, my, uh, wife's parents are buried in Montefiore in Melbourne.

08:05 Speaker 1 Yeah. That's, uh-

08:07 Speaker 3 In, uh-

08:08 Speaker 1 Okay.

08:08 Speaker 2 He was a great philanthropist, Montefiore. He did many things in Israel.

08:13 Speaker 1 Let's do Yemei Chabad for the sixteenth day of Sivan. This is in the year taf reish samach tes, six hundred and ni- uh, six hundred and sixty-nine, just over a hundred years ago, uh, hundred and five, hundred and five years ago. Uh, that was the day that the, uh, Chassid Reb Yisroel Arye Leib Schneersohn, he's the brother of the Rebbe. Uh, he was born on the sixteenth day of Sivan in that year.

08:43 Speaker 2 Nineteen sixteen.

08:44 Speaker 1 Uh, which one is it? What is the English date?

08:47 Speaker 3 What did you say? Sixty-nine?

08:49 Speaker 1 Yeah, sixty-nine.

08:51 Speaker 2 Oh.

08:51 Speaker 1 Sixteen of Sivan of sixty-

08:52 Speaker 3 No, that's nineteen oh nine.

08:54 Speaker 2 Nineteen oh nine.

08:54 Speaker 1 Nineteen oh nine.

08:55 Speaker 2 Yeah.

08:55 Speaker 1 Okay. Uh, he was born in the city of Nikolaev. That was where, do you remember earlier, their father, Reb Levi Yitzchok, uh, he was, uh, invited by his father-in-law to sit and study, and he supported the family. So he w- the-- that he was the rabbi. His father-in-law was the rabbi of the city of Nikolaev. So he was over there, and, uh, that is when he was born, uh, Yisroel Arye Leib. And he was a very diligent, uh, student. And, um, his mother, the Rebbetzin Chana, a blessed memory, peace onto her, she would have to sort of pry him away from his learning so he'd eat, 'cause he'd be so immersed in his study. Um, and one of the Chasidim that once, um, visited after they moved to the... Reb Levi Yitzchok, the father, became rabbi of the city of Yekatirinoslav in the Perepratrsk. Uh, and this was during the nine days. So he said that I saw that the youngster, this Arye Leib, was each night of the nine days sitting and completed an entire tractate of the Talmud in, in, in, in each of the days. He had, uh, un-- exceptionally, uh, deep and he had a natural, uh, depth and talents, you know, just unreal. Uh, one of the nights, um, Rebbetzin Chana called me to show how the diligence of her son, Arye Leib. She went into his room and she called him by his name. He did not respond. Uh, she called him a second time, once, twice, but he

10:55 Speaker 1 still didn't respond. So she came over and she shook him by his sleeve, and he still didn't answer. That's how he was, uh, concentrated in depth in his study. He didn't see anything. He didn't feel anything. He didn't hear anything. So she says, "Look," this is the mother talking about how diligent, how strong her son of Leib. That was how the rebbetzin bragged. She says in front of me, uh, she bragged in that way. Uh, which by the way, you know, there is that famous story about, uh, the Alter Rebbe, uh, living in a second, um, floor together-- on the top floor together with his son. They shared a house and the, I guess, the Alter Rebbe occupied the upstairs part of the whole house, uh, the maybe the second floor. And I'm not sure it was like today, like totally two different apartments. It was just probably, it was an upper floor, and then there was a lower floor. And his son, the Mitteler Rebbe, Dov Ber, he, um, occupied the lower floor. And it was known that the Mitteler Rebbe, similar to what we discussed over here, he was somebody who- Really attach himself to the, uh, study, what he was studying, he, the, to the ideas so that he would almost, you know, not be, no longer be in this world. He was like in a different world. He was in the world of, of Hasidism, of Torah, and then, and ideas, and he didn't sense what's going on around him. So

12:38 Speaker 1 he had a, a child, it was a young child that fell out of the cradle or something and started crying, but he was, uh, you know, you wouldn't hire him for a babysitter. Uh, he was so engrossed in his learning that he, he didn't hear the, the child crying. And, but his father, who was at one floor up, and he was also studying, but he did hear the baby crying, and the Alter Rebbe went down to the baby, took care of it, and put it back and made sure he doesn't cry anymore. And during all this time, all the commotion, he didn't-

13:16 Speaker 2 Still studying

13:16 Speaker 1 ... he was, he didn't know anything. He was in a different world. He didn't listen. When he finished, his father told him that it is very important to study. It's very important to be dedicated to your studies. But he said, "When a child cries, you have to hear."

13:36 Speaker 2 Mm.

13:36 Speaker 1 So in other words, you can't be to that extent. You have to be able to listen. The Rebbe uses this story as a metaphor. Uh, Rebbe says that there are people, Jewish people out there that are crying for help. Um, sometimes they cry with a voice that you can hear. Sometimes they're crying that you don't even hear their voice. Uh, but they're crying out. They're looking for guidance. They're looking for meaning. They're looking for spirituality. They're looking for somebody to hold their hand and to show them about their Judaism, about their Yiddishkeit. And one can't say, "Well, I'm too busy studying," or, "I'm too busy being connected to Hashem, and therefore, I can't hear. I don't see, you know, I can't do that." No. A person has to always make sure that if a child cries, if there's somebody that needs help out there, you have to be available, and you have to answer the call. And that is what the Alter Rebbe said, and that's what the Rebbe said. The, the lesson from this story is that you must always hear the cry of a child. But in this case, I mean, he was still a youngster, and he didn't have that responsibility. That's a responsibility for a person when he reaches the time that he's supposed to be working with other people and helping them out. But in any event, we see the great, um, uh, level of his brother. He, he, Yisroel Arie Leib, he is buried in Tzfat, in the holy

15:10 Speaker 1 city of Tzfat. And on the thirteenth day of Iyar is his yahrtzeit. And it's tradition that the, uh, people go to visit, uh, his gravesite. The Rebbe's asked in the past that people go visit his gravesite. It's also, um, you know, his... He, um, he went to, um, to England. He went to continue his studies, and then he passed away, and he eventually, they buried him in, in, in Tzfat.

15:41 Speaker 2 Oh.

15:41 Speaker 1 The Rebbe kept his passing from his mother, that his mother shouldn't know. He would actually go through great deal because he felt that she wouldn't take it well if she knew that he passed away. She would be very dev-- she would be devastated. So he kept it from her. He did all kinds of tricks.

16:02 Speaker 2 Yeah.

16:03 Speaker 1 Until the day she died, she never really found out that he wasn't-

16:06 Speaker 2 Yes

16:07 Speaker 1 ... that he wasn't alive. Uh, he, uh, the Rebbe would send cards in his name, like, uh, New Year's cards and things, Rosh Hashanah wishes, and things like that. He went through a great deal of, at length, of effort to hide hi-his passing from his mother. That's the way the Rebbe cherished his mother's not being upset and not, uh-

16:30 Speaker 2 The, the rabbi that died, is he the one who didn't hear his little baby crying?

16:36 Speaker 1 No. It's a totally true story. I just brought it in. He was just somebody that the Rebbetzin, which is his mother, bragged about-

16:46 Speaker 2 Yeah

16:46 Speaker 1 ... to show the depth of his, uh, his concentration and the learning that he didn't see anything. I brought in another story from the Alter Rebbe and the Mitteler Rebbe, so that's a different, that's a whole different story. But I just brought it in because it has the same idea of somebody studying so deeply. But I brought it out to say that at the end of the day, one needs to hear the cry of a child and the, uh, maybe a, a deep concentration, but ultimately, one needs to hear the cry of a child.