7 of Teves - On this day in the year תק"מ 12/16/1779 Reb Tzvi the only son of the Besh"t passes away

00:00 So today is the, we'll do the Yom Yom for the seventh day of Teves, and this is in the year Taf kuf mem. That translates to December 16 and 1779. Uh, on this day, um, the, uh, Reb Zvi, the Tzadik Reb Zvi, the son of the Ba'al Shem Tov passed away. The Ba'al Shem Tov had an only son. His name was Reb Zvi. He had a daughter too, but he had only one son, and his name was Reb Zvi. And he was very well known for his humility and for his sort of totally unassuming way. There is a very interesting story related about the son of the Ba'al Shem Tov as far as continuing the leadership after his father, the Ba'al Shem Tov, passed away. After the Ba'al Shem Tov passed away, Reb Zvi, his only son, was chosen as the leader of the Hasidic movement. But after a year has gone in the leadership of Reb Zvi, the holy group of students who were in the, um, uh, Hasidic followers of the Ba'al Shem Tov, they saw that he was weak in his powers. He didn't have the strength. And the situation was such that they required a very strong man to be leading the Hasidic movement. Somebody who can sort of come out and stand up, somebody very strong. And that caused a great worry amongst the Chevrei HaKadesh, among the holy group, the students of the Ba'al Shem Tov, because they were concerned that the teaching of the Ba'al Shem Tov should

02:02 be able to spread, to perpetuate. During the second day of Shavuot at the meal, and this was the, after the first Yortzeit, the Ba'al Shem Tov passed away in Shavuot. So this was after the first Yortzeit of the Ba'al Shem Tov and the second day in the meal. So Reb Zvi, HaRav HaTzadik Reb Zvi was sitting at the head of the table. He was dressed in his Shabbos garments of his father, the Ba'al Shem Tov. The entire Chevrei HaKadesha were sitting around here. After he finished giving his teacher, his teaching, he stood up and he said, "Today my holy father came to me in my vision of his holy father, and he told me that the entire, uh, group of above," meaning all the spiritual souls or Tzadikim, the angels who are... So all of the holy above, the group above and their servants who used to come to the Ba'al Shem Tov, they were sort of the Ba'al Shem Tov's support, the spiritual support. They have transferred today to the holy and awesome... They called him the Berenu, the son of Avraham, which is the Maggid of Mezritch. So in other words, they've gone from the Ba'al Shem Tov to the Maggid of Mezritch. And therefore, the Ba'al Shem Tov is saying to his son, in his vision to his son, to Reb Zvi, "You should transfer, give him the leadership in front and at the standing when all the Chevrei HaKadesha is there, and he shall sit in my place at the head

03:54 of the table. And you..." In other words, Ba'al Shem Tov says, "Let, uh, the Maggid of Mezritch take the place of the Ba'al Shem Tov, and you go and take his place. And you should know that you will be successful." And he said, "Use the words of Tanakh, He will have double in the spirit of my abilities, the Ma- the Maggid of Mezritch." That's what the Ba'al Shem Tov told his son, and the son is saying it to the whole group at the gathering of the second day of Shavuot. And as he's saying this, he turned to the Maggid of Mezritch with a blessing of Mazel Tov. He took off his upper coat, and he passed it along to Reb Dubeil. And he in change, in turn, took the garment of Reb Dubeil, and he sat in the place of the Maggid of Mezritch, so they swapped places. So Dubeil, the Maggid of Mezritch, sat at the head of the table, and the whole entire group stood up on their feet to listen to the teachings that the new leader is going to say. About the story of Reb Zvi, the Lev HaRashab once says, "To be able to do such an act like Reb Zvi did requires tremendous amount of strength." Because we even find many Tannaim and Amoraim, those are the sages of the Talmud, that they did not look to become great at that level. But once they were up there, et cetera, they didn't want to say, they didn't want to

05:41 leave it either. And for Reb Zvi to become a leader and then to relinquish that and give it over to somebody else, that took a tremendous amount and tremendous strength on the part of Reb Zvi. So that took place on the seventh day of Teves. And now, uh, another thing which took place... This was in ta-- This previous thing took place in Taf kuf mem. Now, another thing is Zayin Teves, this is also the date of the passing of the righteous Rebbetzin Shifra, who was the wife of Reb Moshe, the son of the Alter Rebbe. This took place on the seventh day of Teves in the year Tafrej Tes, January 1st in 1849. Now, this Rebbetzin that we're talking about, she was the wife of Reb Moshe. If you remember, we studied that Reb Moshe got into a debate with the priests over there, and then eventually they captured him, and then he escaped. And he went away into exile, but his family, they went up to Eretz Yisro. They made Aliyah to Eretz Yisro. So the Rebbetzin Shifra, she was the daughter of the Rabbi Chosid, Rabbi Chosid Reb Tzvi Hirsch Meula, who was one of the great students of the Alter Rebbe. And she was the wife of Reb Moshe. But after he had gone into exile, she went with her children up to Eretz Yisro. And she passed away in Yerushalayim. And her burial place is on the Mount of Olives in Har Hazasim. That's where she's interned. A resting place. And

07:35 on her grave, it's written that here rests the modest and distinguished woman, Shifra, the daughter of Tzvi Hirsch, the daughter-in-law of the great genius, the light of the world, the holy and pure Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the Alter Rebbe, talking about the Alter Rebbe. So this was a very sort of sad ending. You know, they lived separately. I mean, for many, this took place Let me see. Over there, it said that he himself, he went to exile from the year Tov Kuf Ayin Vav until the year Tov Rej Lamet Ches. But his wife passed away, the Rebbetzin Shifra. She passed away in Tov Rej Tes. So that's still from Ayin Vav. It's still 30 years. And he was for 50 years, for more years he lived on. But the family separated and she lived in Israel. And then she passed away over there and he went to exile. And then, like I said, you know, he passed away on, it says here, in Tov Rej Lamet Ches. He apparently lived for another 62 years after that incident. Must have been a real old, old man. Because I don't know exactly when that incident took place. I mean, that took place in Tov Kuf Ayin Vav. How old was he then? He was born in the year Tov Kuf Mem Dalet. So he lived like for 95 years old. Because he was born Tov Kuf Mem Dalet and he passed Tov Rej Lamet Ches. So that's almost 100 years. I mean, five years he lived to

09:33 95. So he lived a, you know, very long life. Just interesting. Anyway, so this is the other thing that is the Yortzeit of the Rebbetzin Shifra.