20 Menachem Av - Day of the passing of the great genius and kabbalist, Rabbi Levi Yitchak Schneerson, father of the Rebbe. כ' מנחם אב יאהרצייט של הגאון המקובל הרב לוי יצחק שניאורסאהן אביו של כ"ק אדמו"ר

00:00 I wanted to, um, discuss Yemei Chabad, uh, about the twentieth day of Menachem Av. Uh, that's the Yahrzeit of HaGaon, Hakodesh, HaMakubal. He was a genius, a brilliant, brilliant man. He was also a very fluent, knowledgeable in the mystical, in the Kabbalah of the, uh, hidden parts of the secrets of the Torah. He was like beyond anything, you know, just knew all the Kabbalah. And on top of that, he was a righteous and a very holy tzadik person, and he was, uh, the rabbi in the city of Yekatirinoslav, uh, known as the Dnepropetrovsk. That's what it's called, uh, now. Um, and his day of passing, his Yahrzeit, is on the twentieth day of Av, ח"א Av. His day is ח"א Av. It's-- this year it comes out on Shabbat, on the Shabbos is the twentieth day of, of Av. Now, he was, as many others, um, suffered greatly under Stalin's henchmen. And, um, he was a rabbi who worked very hard to save Yiddishkeit, to continue Judaism under the most difficult, impossible circumstances. Because you had a few rabbis and a few, uh, people that-- Hasidim, that they decided that no matter what, they have to keep up the tradition. And Mesirut Nefesh, which means self-sacrifice, total dedication for the cause, even at the price of their life, of their freedom, they didn't care. They said they have to do. And the HaGaon, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok, the father of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, he was one of those people, one of those few people who stood

02:12 up, and he fought for Yiddishkeit 'til the last moment, until they actually arrested him, and they punished him, and they sent him away into far away places. They sent him to, um... He actually-- originally, he was, um, um, sent to, um... Trying to remember the exact name of the place over here, where he was sent to. Um, he was in Chiali. He was in place-- He was in a place called Chiali. I'm not sure exactly where that is, but that was a godforsaken, uh-- That was a place in the boondocks. It was just no man's land. It was very physically, it was impossible. The Rebbetzin describes in some places, uh, the conditions, the living conditions, just the physical living conditions with the bugs and with the annoying and the heat. It was just impossible. There was no Jews over there. There was nobody. He was a great rabbi. There was no books. There was no-- nothing to study, nothing to... He remembered. He was-- remembered everything in his head. His mind was like a brilliant... And the Rebbetzin, his wife, came to be with him where he was. She brought him a few books, and she also went and made up, uh, ink from grass. She learned how to make some kind of writing material. He would write around the rim of the books that he had, the few books. He had a Tanya, he had a, a Zohar. He had a few-- with a few books that he had with him. He would sit

04:10 and write all of his notes in little, tiny letters. He was like a fountain, an endless ideas coming out all the time, all the time, all the time. Now, eventually, in the year Tosh"u Daled, that was nineteen forty-four, okay? He-- broken and weakened from all of his experience, he finally came to the, uh, capital of Kazakhstan, which was Almaty, you know, today, Almaty. But it appeared like he became-- That was a big city. It was already, uh, allowed some freedoms over there. It was freedom and everything else, and he was like-- seemed like he has come to a point in his life in which he's finally able to, uh, sort of, uh, relax a little bit and be able to live his life in a half a normal way. But just this relaxation brought about the... Reb Levi Yitzchok was diagnosed with, with cancer in that thing. And, um, it seems like during the troubles that he had in Chiali, in this place over there, because of all of the, the difficulties, that sickness stopped spreading. It was just sort of kept on hold. There was so much other tzoros over there that also the, the sickness was in tzoros, and it didn't, it didn't hurt him. But unfortunately, when he came to the, um, sort of comfort now, that sickness once again- Uh, raised its ugly head and it started doing terrible things to the Rebbe's physical. And, um, the doctors tried to, um, to save him, to do something for him, but the

06:19 condition became worse from day to day. And during his last day, he was so weak. He said to one of the bystanders, he showed him his hand. He says, look, there's only bones and there's no, there's no meat over there. He's just so deteriorated. And actually in his last day before he passed away, he, um, he asked for some water and washed his hands. And he sort of said, it's time to move over to the other side, you know, to go to the other side. And this was on a Wednesday, the 20th day of Manachem Av. He became so, so worse and he suffered terrible pains. He was in tremendous agony. Uh, and he kept on whispering the whole time. People tried to listen what he said. And he was sort of whispering about the difficulties that the Jewish people are experiencing at the heels of Mashiach and all the, all the, the hardships. And, um, they made a, um, next day, uh, the 21st day of Av, they made the funeral for him. And, um, it's interesting that his wife, the Rebetzel Chana, who was with him the whole time, um, was sort of, uh, quiet. She accepted it. She controlled her emotions after his passing. But during the funeral, she was like totally, um, lost it. And, um, and she was sort of saying, you know, you left us alone. Who did you leave me with? And, um, it was, um, under those conditions, it was really, um, uh, impressive to see that

08:05 how all the people of the community over there came to the funeral. It was dangerous still. It was, uh, uh, everybody was sort of coming in secret and they were coming just to be there with him and give him his last respects. And, um, after many years, they were able to save a lot of his writings. When the Rebetzel, his wife, the Rebetzel Chana, came to this country, that's a whole story by itself, how they snuck out and how they finally came over here. So when they finally came to this country, she brought along those books that the, uh, Levi Yitzchak, Rogan, Rav Levi, what he wrote on those books. And they took, and the Rebbe later on, they, uh, published those. Again, they are the average person who is not familiar with the Kabbalah. Even if you are learned like in the other verse, in the other parts of Torah, but if you're not well-versed in the Kabbalah, uh, you have a hard time reading and understanding his books. And, you know, people have made attempts to actually, uh, explain. The Rebbe would explain a piece of the, of his father's writings, you know, from time to time at the, uh, public gatherings. And, uh, but it's fascinating to see how the person's mathematical skills also, he would, uh, come up with these, uh, numerical values of certain words and how it equals and how it, it, it fits in. And, uh, it's also very, uh, telling, uh, later on also the correspondence between

09:48 the Rebbe and his father. Um, I mean, this goes back earlier years. Uh, the Rebbe in 1927, 28, he left Russia. Uh, here we're talking already 1944, we're talking about, we're talking about. So there was a time, uh, like in the middle, the Rebbe used to write to his father back and forth and very scholarly letter, letters, but also very, uh, very Kabbalistic. Um, and it's interesting in one of those letters, the Rebbe's father writes to the Rebbe. He says, I appreciate very much your insight and your brilliance. And, you know, you're really, uh, making me very proud with your ability of analysis. But the Rebbe makes, uh, his father makes to him one observation. He says, you should base your analysis that it should also be fitting in with the Chochma Sakabala, with the mystical part of Torah. That's how, if it fits in with the mystical, then you know that what you're saying is actually accurate because it fits into the whole picture. It was, yeah, it's amazing how the, the, his father was also praying so much for the Rebbe and blessing him to have children. You know, the Rebbe didn't have any children. He was always praying for him and always wishing him and giving him the best. And it was a, a very special, um, uh, connection. You know, if we want to learn, a lot of times you want to learn what does it mean to respect, you know, how do we respect a parent? And look, from the

11:33 Rebbe you can learn anything. You see the Rebbe's respect to his father and cherishes. And then his mother, the Rebbe being as busy as he was and, uh, never missed a day of going to visit his mother. Every single day he'd have tea with his mother. He'd make sure and he'd, he'd, he'd give her the attention, give her the time. And, um, also when the Rebbe's brother passed away, he lived in England at the time. The Rebbe continued to correspond with his mother as if it was the brother. He didn't want his mother's health. He didn't want her to feel she was ill and he didn't want her to, uh, suffer more. So he pretended to be the brother and he would keep on sending her postcards as if the brother's still alive, not to let her know, not to cause her any more, uh, pain or suffering from that. So we can just learn just even the simple derech eretz, simple way how to behave and what it means to, uh, to, to give respect. And, uh, you know, it's, it's something that, you know, we don't almost experience that, that, that much. Um.