13 of Shvat - In 5702 1/2/1942 passing of Rebbetzin Shterna Sara, Mother of previous Rebbe.

00:00 Do the, um, the, uh, Yom HaChabad for the thirteenth day of Shevat. And that was the day that the Rebbetzin Stirna-Sarah, who was the, uh, wife of the Rebbe Rashab, the mother of the previous Rebbe, she passed away, uh, that day. Now, we saw she's actually interned- Right ... uh, in the cemetery right by the Ohel on the other, uh-- Right across the sh-- across the, uh, walkway from the Ohel is the three Rebbetzins you have over there. You have, uh, the, um, um, the Rebbetzin Stirna-Sarah, and then you have her daughter-in-law, which was the Rebbetzin Nechama Dina, the wife of the previous Rebbe. And then you have the Rebbetzin Nechama Dina's, uh, granddaughter and daughter of, uh, of, uh, I mean, Stirna-Sarah's granddaughter and Rebbetzin Nechama Dina's daughter, which was the wife of the Rebbe- Yeah ... uh, which was Chaya Mushka. They're all-- You can see. If you wanna see, he has a picture of that also from the last time that we were there. And, um, and here we go again. On the-- on her tombstone, basically you get-- in one look, you get a good picture, a good things of the whole lineage- Yeah ... in, in, in a way also as it involves various different Rebbes, because- Chaya Mushka ... the Rebbetzin Stirna-Sarah-- By the way, the thirteenth of Shevat in the year, uh, seven oh two. So that's January second, nineteen forty-two. The Rebbetzin Stirna-Sarah, she was born in the city of Lubavitch. Remember, this was the Lubavitch. She

01:52 comes from the Lubavitch dynasty in the year Taf Res Chaf. Um, she was actually one year ahead, uh, than the Rebbe Rashab. Rebbe Rashab, um, she ended up marrying, uh, the Rebbe Rashab, but she was, um, the, um-- She was born one year before him. She was actually older than the Rebbe Rashab because the Rebbe Rashab was born in the year Taf Res Chaf Alef, twenty-six twenty-one, and she was born on six twenty. Uh, and she actually ended up, as the family we talk about, that she ended up marrying her cousin, the Rebbetzin Stirna-Sarah, because she was the daughter of one of the Tzemach Tzedek's sons. The Rebbetzin Stirna-Sarah was the daughter of Yosef Yitzchak, a son of the Tzemach Tzedek. And the Rebbe Rashab was the son of, uh, was the son of the Rebbe Maharash, who was also a son of the Tzemach Tzedek. So the Rebbe Maharash- Yes ... and his brother, Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak, uh, sorry, Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak's daughter ended up marrying the Rebbe Rasha-- the Rebbe Maharash's son. So they were cousins that they got married. But like I pointed out, she was one year older than him. Uh, she was also born in the city of Lubavitch. But this brother, the Rebbe Maharash, the father of the Rebbe Rashab, became the lineage, became the Chabad Rebbe. The Rebbe Maharash was the fourth, and the Rebbe Rashab was the fifth. But his brother, the Rebbe Maharash's brother, Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak, also became an Admur. An Admur means a Rebbe,

03:49 but not a Chabad Rebbe. We've learned about him already. He became, uh, the, um, the son-in-law of... No, so he became, um, the son-in-law of Rebbe Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas. He became the son-in-law. Uh, y- his mother, uh, was the Rebbetzin, uh, Chana. Uh, Chana was the mother of this, um, Reb-- of, of, of, of the Rebbetzin Stirna-Sarah. Stirna-Sarah because her mother was Chana and her father was Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak. Those they were. Uh, now, this Chana was a daughter of Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas because so they married. Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak became a son-in-law of Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas, and we learned Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas was the son of Reb Mendel Chernobyl, who was the son of Reb Nachum Chernobyl, who was also one of the oldest students of the Maggid of, of Mezritch. But Rebbe Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas also was the son-in-law of the Mitteler Rebbe. He was the son-in-law of the Mitteler Rebbe. One of the daughters of the Mitteler Rebbe ended up marrying Rebbe Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas. We went through this already, the Mitteler Rebbe's daughter. One married Yaakov Chaim Slonim. One ended up marrying-- Chaya Mushka ended up marrying the Tzemach Tzedek, right? And, uh, one ended up marrying Rebbe Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas. And then one-- Two were married to another. Another we just learned the other day, uh, escapes my mind at this moment. But the, um, th-this one, this particular one, uh, ended up marrying the daughter of, uh, the Mitteler Rebbe, ended up marrying,

05:31 uh, the, um, Rebbe Yaakov, the Rebbe Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas. And they had a daughter named Chana, who ended up marrying the, uh- Yosef Yitzchak ... who ended up marrying Yosef Yitzchak, the son of the Tzemach Tzedek. And then they had a daughter, Stirna-Sarah, who ended up marrying the son of the Rebbe Maharash, the brother of Yosef Yitzchak, to the Rebbe Rashab. Now, uh- She was the fifth in the Chabad rebbetzin's, you know, because she was the wife of the Rebbe Rashab. And she was very, uh, uh, well known for her great wisdom and very good, beautiful character, which she did lots and lots of work towards the family of the Rebbe, towards the Hasidim, especially at that time for the Yeshiva, Tomchei Tmimim, they founded the Yeshiva. That she was there, um, and she founded a, um, an organization which was a gr- a women's organization, uh, to, uh, support, um, the students of the Yeshiva. Um, especially those-- the students that used to prepare to come up to Tomchei Tmimim. They used to have the younger kids to prepare them so they can go up into the big Yeshiva. So she would, uh, head that organization. And when her husband, uh, the Rebbe Rashab left to Eretz Yis-- uh, to, uh, outside, not Eretz Israel. He went outside. He went for medical reasons or other things. So she would actually serve as his secretary, and she would, uh, copy his letters and, uh, different things that he needed to do. She would- He

07:29 went to Germany. He went to Germany. He, he was a Freud- To Wiesbaden, I think he went there ... Freud. To Freud, yeah. He did that too. Sigmund Freud. Yeah. And, you know- He studied psychology. He did a lot of, a lot of, yeah, a lot of-- He did a lot of traveling. So she, she, his wife, the Rebbetzin Sterna Sara, would sort of take over for him, uh, and, uh, and to take care of this, the ongoing business, what needed to be done. Now, there's also interesting, the previous Rebbe, when he was arrested, after his father passed away, uh, his father passed away in the year Taf Reish Peh. Um, and, uh, that's nineteen twenty, approximately nineteen- You did get it right again. Yeah, nineteen twenty. Yeah. So what happened was-- But she lived, his wife, the Rebbe Rashab's wife, lived all till for another, uh, another twenty-two years. So, um, she lived another-- because she died in the United States already. She came to the United States, you will see. But so she was there while her son became the Rebbe. So because he was the only son, her-- Once her husband passed away, the Rebbe Rashab, the previous Rebbe became Rebbe. And that was a, a very, very difficult time. The previous Rebbe got the brunt. That was right when it all changed. Revolution. The, the revolution, the Russian Revolution and, and the, the communists, you know, when the Jewish section, they did-- they, they, they caused a lot of trouble for

08:57 the, for the, for all people, especially for the Jewish and the Hasidic people that had a lot, a lot of service. So it was a very, very difficult time. And they came at that point to arrest the previous Rebbe. You know, we know that arrest that we-- that's before he-- eventually he left, but it was a very, very serious time, and it was a very scary time. And they actually arrested the previous Rebbe. They condemned him to death. And, you know, trial, no trial, they didn't care in those days. They just did whatever they, they wanted. So in his, uh, writings, the Rebbe wrote up a little bit or a lot, but he wrote up describing what took place when they arrested him. So this is part of the Rebbe's, her son's writing, the previous Rebbe. He says that when all this talk finished, when they came to arrest him, and all the talk finished, and they wait-- they waited for the, uh, for the machine, for the, I guess the car to take the Rebbe to the prison, to the cold Shpalerki. All of a sudden, into the Rebbe's room comes in his mother, uh, the very renowned rebbetzin, Sterna Sara. Up till that point, she was in her room. She didn't know what was going on. And when she saw the uncalled guest, you know, they came with their, I guess the uniforms, the KGB or whatever, the police, the NKVD. And, um, she banged her hand and she calls and she scr-

10:32 she yelled out with a very scary voice, "What's going on? Why did they come? Are they going to, uh, also, uh, attack people who are totally clean, haven't done? They just do work for the community, just like you, my son." She says, uh, "No," she says, uh, with a, with a, uh, strong voice. "I will not let you-- them take you," she says. "I'm gonna go instead of you. Take me," she says to the head of the, uh, uh, group. "Take me. Don't scare. Don't take away my son's peace. Uh, he's my only, uh, my only son, and he's always there to help people in their troubles," she says. "And, um, are you going to even people who are upstanding people, are you going to pass and do such terrible judg-judgment? Whoa. Imprisonment? Whoa, whoa, my husband." And she started screaming, "Our son, Yosef Yitzhak, they're taking him. Your only son who, uh, gives his life away to do good. Your only son. Your son who keeps the mitzvahs with total self-sacrifice. Whoa, these r- um..." ... murderers, these robbers, they've come. For what? My holy fathers, uh, um... She says, uh, "They're trying to, to extinguish your light. No matter what, I'm not gonna allow them to take you," uh, she says. So the previous Rebbe went with his mother to her room. He spoke to her, he tried to calm her down. And, um, uh, after he was taken to prison, uh, uh, somebody related what he saw, the vision that he saw

12:39 in the Rebbe's home. He says he saw that the older Rebbes and their Steipler was standing on a bench next to the Aron Kodesh. Her body was bent, her head was bent, and half of her body was, like, inside of the Aron. And she was screaming with bitterly, with a voice, "Rebbe, Shel Olam, but it's for your Torah and for your service that my son is being taken, my only son. Help me, God, and save me, and may Hashem be with us as he was with our fathers, and certainly you're not going to neglect, neglect me and, and, and let this happen." So this was... You know, you can imagine a mother, um, going through all those days of, uh, of, of, uh, those fearful days, and they were very, very difficult. In the year Tav Shin, that's in the year, and that's in, uh, again, nineteen forty, when the Rebbe was saved, as we learned, his mother came along with the Rebbe. Um, the Rebbe was the previous Rebbe. For the two last years of her life, she was very, very weak, and she was constantly under the doctor's supervision. And, um, during the last three months of her life, uh, she was lying in bed, and she still kept her, uh, or day, her daily service. Um, she davened slowly three times every day. She said the Tehillim before davening and afterwards. She studied, uh, Midrash, Aggadah, Hasidas, different studies she was studying. On Shabbos, on the holy Shabbos, in the portion of

14:26 Beshallach, on the thirteenth day of Shevat, in the year Tav Shin Beis, as we said before, in, um, seven oh two. In the morning, before the davening, the Rebbetzin said, "Today is Shabbos Shira." Meaning when you read the portion of Beshallach, you sing the song when the Jews pass through in the, uh, water, and it's called... We do it in the morning as Yoshir, the special song. She goes, "Today is Shabbos Shira, so supposed to daven better today, different. It's supposed to be a special davening today." And in the middle of the davening, when she came to the portion which it says, the soul of old man. It was just right before Berakh over there. So she passed away and returned her soul to Hashem while she was holding on to the sitter. Um, the previous Rebbe at that time was at a visit. He was in Chicago at that time. And the funeral was therefore delayed until he came back on Monday, which was the fifteenth day of Shevat. He came back. It was delayed for two days. And she's interred, as I said before, in New York next to the, uh, Ohel of her son, the previous Rebbe, and that's the, um, that's the, uh, place that we said before that, um, where you have the, the Rebbetzins who they're, um... Now, it's, um, you know, it's interesting that, uh, on a Shabbos Shira, you know, uh, um, on a Shabbos that, you know, you sing songs to Hashem and, um, the, um,

16:13 souls of the, of the Tzadikim is, you know, their, their life is like a song of Hashem, you know. It's their whole life because that's what they did. But that's, that's it. Okay. So we'll leave it at-