11 Menachem Av - The alter Rebbe left Petersburg and moved to Liadi - י"א מנחם אב - אדה"ז עזב את פעטערבורג ועבר לגור בליאדי

00:00 Wanted to discuss Yemei Chabad for the eleventh day of Menachem Av. Uh, the Hasidim suffered a lot from their own peers, so to speak. You know, a lot of times we find that it's your people that are closest to you become, uh, the biggest problem. Uh, they were known as Misnagdim. Uh, Misnagdim means opponents. They opposed, uh, the Hasidic, uh, uh, teachings and the Rebbes that taught, uh, that taught the Hasidic teachings. Now, we can't really fully, uh, blame them at the time because this was like a new stream, a new movement. This was something new to the, uh, Jewish people. Uh, while the Jewish people traditionally have involved themselves fully in the Talmud, in the, uh, study of the revealed part of the Torah, and there was sort of a hierarchy in those who were very fluent in the Torah, very knowledgeable. They were sort of kept on a pedestal, and, uh, and rightfully so. But what was the problem was that the people that weren't as learned or were a lesser level, they were looked down upon, and they were degraded. You know, if you'd come to a shul, they'd never give an Aliyah for somebody who is not, you know, an expert in the law or... It was just a general feeling for other people. Um, didn't make them feel very comfortable. And there was actually a time that some of the Jewish people felt disenfranchised. They didn't feel they really belonged. And there was a time that they weren't doing well

01:48 financially, a lot of them. There was a lot of pogroms. There was persecution. There was a lot of tzaras the Jewish people had. So they weren't really accepted amongst the elites, uh, of the religious community. Uh, they didn't do well financially. Uh, a lot of them decided that they're better off joining the other religion and, uh, you know, doing away with their Judaism. And it was a, a, a very difficult time. The Baal Shem Tov tried to change that, and he brought in the whole idea that Hashem really wants your heart, and if you mean it, and if you're sincere, and if you're, uh, really devoted to God, it doesn't matter how much Torah you know, God loves you just the same, and that you're important, and you're part of the Jewish people. And again, his followers later on, the Maggid of Mezritch and the Alter Rebbe... But some of the other side, they took it as an affront to them. They took it as a, uh, sort of a lack of giving credit or importance to the people who are studying the Torah. They thought that doing so and saying that everybody's important takes away inevitably from the really important people. And, and they objected. And of course, there was other things also. There was, you know, my group, your group, uh, as you know, we're famous for-- Jews are famous for, you know, like the story in the island. You know, there was one man over there, and he had two shuls. He

03:20 says, "Why do you need two shuls? One-- just one person." He says, "One I go to, one I don't go to." So So, uh, you know, so again, but this was a more, uh, serious disagreement. It was a philosophical disagreement. And the unfortunate thing was that they stooped to a pretty low level to the extent that the way they wanted to do away with the Hasidim, some of the opponents from the Jewish community actually, was by going and telling the government bad things about the Hasidim, about the Alter Rebbe in this particular case, saying that he's doing counter-revolutionary things. Uh, you know, it was the Tsar at the time, and he was at war with Napoleon in, in, in, in France, who-- It, it was the free world versus-- sort of Europe versus Russia. And, um, the Alter Rebbe was imprisoned twice, uh, because of complaints against him, uh, brought about mainly by the, uh, other side, by the opponents of Hasidim, known as the Misnagdim. Uh, one of them is more celebrated. We know it was a more... And we have the holiday of Yutot Kislev, of the, uh, nineteenth day of Kislev. But the, uh, lesser, the second one, he was also arrested, um, and he was freed on the third day of Hanukkah. That was the twenty-seventh day of Kislev he was freed. Now, the Alter Rebbe's, uh, main place where he lived was the city of Lyozno. That was the city that he lived. After the second time that he was

05:11 arrested, the, uh, government did not want him to leave Petersburg at the time it is called-- Then it was also called Petersburg, as it, as it is called today. So they didn't want him to leave Petersburg, but he should-- They wanted to keep an eye on the Alter Rebbe. Uh, there was a certain, uh... Those days, Russia was divided, like, into various different sections. There was a, a governor sort of that governed. He had pretty much a lot of influence and, and there was a guy, uh, uh, they called-- in Hebrew, it's called a nafzik. He was, like, the governor and governed that area. So there was a fellow named Lubrimis Rimsky. I hope I'm pronouncing it correctly. And somehow he was told about the Alter Rebbe's really outstanding scholarship and knowledge and intellect and genius and He wanted to meet with the Alter Rebbe, and he did meet the Alter Rebbe. He was utterly impressed with the Alter Rebbe. And he said to the Alter Rebbe, he said to him like this, "If you will agree to come and move to one of my areas that I'm in control of," which he, he governed. He says, "If you agree to go over there, then I'll see to it in the government, in the government, in the general government in Petersburg, so that they allow you to move, so you won't have to be in Petersburg itself." And when the Alter Rebbe agreed, uh, the Alter-- He actually settled the Alter Rebbe. He built homes

06:48 for the Alter Rebbe and the Hasidim in the city of Liadi. So after the second arrest at Petersburg, the Alter Rebbe moves from Lyozno, and then he moved to Liadi. In Liadi, under the, uh, governor, Lyubrimsky, under his, Chabad expanded tremendously. It was a tremendous, uh, boost because the Alter Rebbe can freely teach, the Alter Rebbe can freely have the gatherings of the Hasidim. It was actually turned out, as we've been talking about, that the, uh, sometimes the negative brings with it actually a greater amount of revelation. In this case, it turns out that being arrested and being forced basically away from his city of Lyozno actually increased the activity. It helped him in the end. Although while it was happening, it seemed a negative. Uh, the Alter Rebbe left, uh, Petersburg for, I guess, freedom, going to Liadi on the eleventh day of Av. That's why the eleventh day of Av is remembered as the day that the Alter Rebbe left there. It took him a few days. By the fourteenth day of Av, he actually arrived in the city of Liadi. So not to mistaken, you know, we call ourselves Lubavitch or Lubavitch Hasidim because of the city of Lubavitch. The Alter Rebbe, Schneur Zalman, the first Rebbe, never lived in Lubavitch. It was only his son. It's the Mitteler Rebbe, called the Mitteler Rebbe, because at the time of the third Rebbe, he was the middle one, and that name stuck to him. He's still called the Mitteler Rebbe, or in Yiddish,

08:34 the Mitteler Rebbe. He was the Rebbe known as Dov Ber, Duber. He was the son of the Alter Rebbe. Um, he is the one that moved to Lubavitch. And at that point, Lubavitch, uh, stuck. The name of Chabad is synonymous with Lubavitch because that was the city. And then for many generations, till the Rebbe Rashab, who eventually moved to Rostov, moved out of the city of Lubavitch. But the Mitteler Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe Maharash, those were the following, the, uh, Rebbes until the Rebbe Rashab, uh, i-i-- were-- lived in the city of Lubavitch. Um, but the Alter Rebbe's, uh, main two places that he lived was in, first in Lyozno, and then after that in the city of Liadi. Uh, this is called White Russia and that area. And the influence was next to the Ukraine from the Alter Rebbe from there. From these areas, he was able to be influential in all those areas. There's also another, uh, thing mentioned here for the eleventh day of Menachem Av, which is the yahrtzeit, the day of passing of a very distinguished and outstanding Hasid. Uh, his name was Reb Hillel, uh, Patacher. Uh, his-- Actually, he was a Levi. His family name was Malisov. Okay? But, um, he's known better by the city of Patach because he was the, actually the rabbi in that city, and he was probably one of the most, uh, celebrated and, uh, Hasid that everybody knows. Uh, um, he actually-- Very interesting is that he got married, uh,

10:22 before he was thirteen years old. He got married. And they used to call him the Chol Hamoed. Let me tell you why the Cho- why the Chol Hamoed. Because on Chol Hamoed is a holiday. It's like a semi-holiday. Actually, by Hasidim, we don't put on the tefillin. Some put on the tefillin without a bracha. Some put on, uh, for the beginning of the davening. It's sort of a question halachically. Hasidim don't put on tefillin at all. Um, but you do put on a tallis. So they used to call him the Chol Hamoed because he wore a tallis because he was married, but he didn't wear the tefillin because he wasn't bar mitzvah yet. So they called him the Chol Hamoed. I don't know why they picked the Chol Hamoed. Why not the Shabbos, the Yontif? I mean, there's a lot of, uh... But I guess the Chol Hamoed is like the day that stands out that you don't put on tefillin. Shabbos, we never put on tefillin. You know, I mean, but Chol Hamoed, there is a question saying, "Well, oh, this guy, you know, he's not putting on tefillin yet, but he's putting on a tallis because, uh, he was married before he was, uh, thirteen years old." Um, and also, uh, he was, uh, a very knowledgeable-- Thank you. He was very knowledgeable, and he was a, an expert. And he, he, like, knew the entire Talmud and all the codifiers at the age of thirteen years old. He studied the Kabbalah, and

11:53 he would pray using the secrets of the prayers of the Arizal. And he would, you know, be just very, very religious. He would, um, um, fast a lot and, uh- He was just an exceptional Jew. Yeah, go ahead. I just have to ask, how old was his wife? You know what? That's a perfect question. I wish I would know the answer. It doesn't say here. I'm only looking up these sources over here, but probably can look up. Uh, I'm going to assume that she was probably about that age also, you know, about that age. Um- How old a woman is forty? Um, the, um, the story goes, this is in-- The Rebbe writes in one of-- in the Sichas, the Rebbe writes that this Reb Hillel Paritcher originally... No, this is not in the Sicha, but we-- it's known he used to be a Hasid of another Hasidim. There is the Chernobyler Hasidim, um, and, uh, there was a Mordechai from Chernobyl. They were also-- they were actually, uh, descendants of the Baal Shem Tov. They were, you know, from a very distinguished f-- uh, I think it is. I think so. Um, but whatever. They were a distinguished, uh, Hasidic branch. Uh, um, and this, uh, Reb Hillel used to be his Hasid, but he once came across the Tanya, that's the writing of the Alter Rebbe, and that transformed him immediately into Chabad Hasid. He wanted to follow the Alter Rebbe. But, uh, he very much desired, uh, to meet up with the

13:27 Alter Rebbe, and it was sort of, uh, not meant to be. He-- Whenever he would, uh, try, uh, to come to the place where the Alter Rebbe came, the Alter Rebbe has already left. He could never find the Alter Rebbe. He, he'd come to the city, and the Alter Rebbe left. So then he had an idea. He said, instead of following the Alter Rebbe and missing him, he said he's gonna-- when he heard that the Alter Rebbe is going to reach and coming to a certain city, the Alter Rebbe used to do a lot of traveling, so must have gotten a lot of miles. No, they used to travel by-- They didn't give no freaking, they didn't give no frequent flyer miles. They were driving by horse and buggy. Horse miles. Yeah, horse miles. Uh, and, um, so he would travel there. Uh, he decided he's gonna travel there before the Alter Rebbe, before the Alter Rebbe is gonna get there. And that wasn't enough because he knew somehow he's gonna miss him. So-- Because always there were certain things going on somehow. So what he did was he went to the apartment where the Alter Rebbe was going to stay, in that place that they prepared for the Alter Rebbe, and he hid underneath the bed. He figured that way he's going to... Now, at that time, he was, he wasn't yet-- He wanted to follow the Alter Rebbe, but he hasn't yet actually met the Alter Rebbe. He had some questions for him.

14:57 So he prepared some question in a tractate known as Erchin. It's when a person, uh, says the value of a certain person, he's gonna pay his value for tzedakah. There's a certain-- The Torah gives us in the Chumash, in Vayikra, different, uh, pricing what you person... But yeah, that's a Talmud discussion. He wanted to ask the Alter Rebbe. So he's under the bed. As soon as the Alter Rebbe enters, enters into the room, before Reb Hillel Paritcher can say anything, uh, and come out of his hiding place to meet with the Alter Rebbe, he hears the Alter Rebbe saying-- And the Alter Rebbe used to say things with a sing song. Known to the Alter Rebbe, he has a sing song. And he said as follows. He says, "Sometimes there's a young man who has questions in Erchin." Erchin means to evaluate, as we said before. He says, "First, you must evaluate yourself." This is the Alter Rebbe saying, "Before thinking about evaluation, evaluate yourself." Reb Hillel heard this, he fainted because Alter Rebbe read his mind, and he told him, and he told him right away to evaluate himself, basically. Uh, by the time he came to, the Alter Rebbe's already left. So he never ended up seeing the Alter Rebbe. Only after the Alter Rebbe passed away did he travel to Lubavitch in the year Tet Kufa in Heid, and he connected entirely to the Mitler Rebbe, which was the son of the Alter Rebbe, and then later on to his follower, the

16:37 Tzemach Tzedek, that's the son-in-law of the Mitler Rebbe and a grandson of the Alter Rebbe. He connected himself to them. Uh, the Mitler Rebbe instructed him that he should-- this Reb Hillel, that he should travel in the, uh, small villages in South Russia. There were many Jewish small settlements where Jews were isolated, really, and didn't have too much exposure to, to Jewish life. They were working hard, and they were working the land. They were farmers and things like that. So the Rebbe told him he should go around collecting physicality and sowing spirituality, meaning he should collect tzedakah from the people and give them some Yiddishkeit, give them some Torah. Um, and all of his life, Reb Hillel was like a spiritual counselor, uh, and he would travel amongst the different settlements. Uh, the Mitler Rebbe and also the Tzemach Tzedek would send young people of quality to get their education by Reb Hillel. He should sort of act as their spiritual counselor to show them what and how to be a real, uh, Hasid. He started off as the Rav in the city of Paritch, as mentioned, that's why he's known as Reb Hillel Paritcher. But after Reb Boruch Mordechai Babrovsky passed on-- Uh, actually, I understand he left, traveled to Israel, he became the main rabbi of the city of Bobruisk, which was a larger city. And, uh, the Rebbe MaRash once said to his son, the Rebbe Rashab, "Reb Hillel is a real servant of, of God with his body," so that his

18:20 body was so trained already that his body felt, felt what it needs to do. It just knew what it needs to do. Just like the mind, the brain is a vehicle, it's a, uh, a vessel for the intellect is there, and the eyes are the vessel for the power of seeing, et cetera. So the body of Reb Hillel, it was just a vehicle. Whatever needed to be done, he just knew. He just done it on its own. Besides that, he was also a very, very intellectual, uh, giant, a genius. He could understand and, um, he was able to explain many Hasidic concepts, built a very strong intellectual and solid, uh, basis. And he, he did write a lot, and he left some, uh, many writings. Uh, the most known was a book called the Pele Yichud. Um, and, um, the, um, uh, he was actually buried-- He asked to be moved before his death to the city of Kherson. He, he's buried over there. They recently, uh, added a, um-- fixed up the, uh, area over there around his grave. They have a little tent over it, and they-- Many people go and pray at his gravesite because he's, he was a great tzadik and a distinguished person, and, uh, certainly a very God-fearing and a servant of Hashem, uh, on a very special great level, uh, that he was. And, um, his yahrtzeit is, uh, today, uh, on the eleventh day of Av, uh-