6 Adar יום הולדת הרב מנחם מענדל בן הצעיר של רבי מהר"ש תרכ"ז

00:00 Today we'll do Yemei Chabad from the sixth day of Adar. This is in the year Taf Reish Chaf Zayin. That's six twenty-seven, five thousand six hundred and twenty-seven. You're not as good as Marty yet. Yeah. So, um, on this day is the birth of Rabbi Menachem Mendel, who was the youngest son of the Rebbe Maharash. The Rebbe Maharash had three sons. He had one-- The oldest one was the, the Razoh, Rav Zalman Aden. Then there was the next, under him was the Rebbe Rashab, Rav Shalom Dov Ber. He became the Rebbe. And then there was a younger one. His name was Rabbi Menachem Mendel. He was born within the year of mourning for the Tsamach Tzedek. That's the Rebbe Maharash's father. The Tsamach Tzedek passed away in the year Taf Reish Chaf Vav. Um, this is exactly almost to the year, the how-- the, the Tsamach Tzedek passed away on the thirtieth day of Nisan. Yeah. He was born on the sixth day of Adar in the following year, so that wasn't quite a year. It was just- Right ... almost, almost a year after. It was still within the year of the mourning. So they named him Rabbi Menachem Mendel on the name of the Tsamach Tzedek who passed away. And he was a great help to his brother, the Rebbe Rashab, who sent him in the community affairs working for him. He sent him many times to the capital, you know, to, uh, the capital of Russia when it was dealing with-- they

01:36 needed to deal with matters pertaining to the community. The Rebbe related in a, uh, talk in Shabbos Parshas Nosy, Tov Shin Lamed He. So the Rebbe related that the brother of the Rebbe Rashab, which was called on the name of the Tsamach Tzedek, and at one point he translated the Book of the Tanya into Russian. And he said this translation to a, uh, great, uh, individual who was not Jewish. He sent him a copy, and he was very, uh, excited- To get it ... to get and-- from the Tanya, from what is written in there. Because of his financial state- Who wrote the Tanya again? That was the Alter Rebbe, Rav Schneur Zalman. Okay. The founder of Chabad. Because of his financial standing situation, he was forced to leave Russia, and he moved to Paris in France. And later on, he went over to live in the island of Corsica, which belongs to, uh, to, uh, to France. So, uh, later on, in the year Taf Shin, so that's already in the year that the, um... It was right before the war, you know, before the war, the, uh, when the war broke out, you know. Around nineteen-- This was around nineteen forty, you know, that time. The previous Rebbe sent a telegram to the Rebbe, who was at that time in France. The Rebbe was down in France, and the Rebbe writes to him that, "My uncle, Mendel," that's the- His- ... his father's brother, uh, the Rabbi Menachem Mendel, the s-son of the

03:21 Rebbe Maharash, the youngest brother, says, "Needs help," he says to the Rebbe. And he says, the Rebbe says, "If you, if you have the possibility, I would ask you to, um, to send him some help, you know, maybe some money or something like that." And, um, the Rebbe gives him the, uh, address as Yerushalayim, Corsica. That's the address of the... So the Rebbe was, um, as, um, the, um, uh... He, um, he passed away actually in the year Taf Shin Beis. That's in nineteen forty-two, in the island of Corsica. I don't know where that was in the war. Where was in the, what was in the war? Where was it during the war? That was during the war, wasn't it? Before- Yeah, yeah. But where, but where, where were they standing during the war? I mean, as far as- The French were- ... with the, with the, with the German and with the, and with the French, you know, at that time. I'm not sure exactly. That was before the Vichy government that came in. When was that exactly? Okay. We have to check. It may have been before, yeah. This was before, right? Uh, he actually is, is interned in, um, in Corsica. Now, the Rebbe tried to get him moved to Eretz Yisrael from there, to move his body to Eretz Yisrael. And the Rebbe writes in one of his letters, printed in Nigras Kodesh- This is the Alter Rebbe you're talking about. No, no, I'm talking about the Rebbe, yeah, our Rebbe

04:47 who, uh- Oh, your Rebbe then. Yeah. You're right. Yeah. The Rebbe. Yeah, the Rebbe, yeah. So he writes, "As far as my uncle," uh, that's his uncle, uh, grandfather uncle, because it's not the Rebbe's direct uncle. It's not his... It's his, uh, grandfather's- Right ... which is Rebbe Rashab's, uh, brother. So he says, "As far as the great, uh, granduncle, Rabbi Menachem Mendel." So we don't know the exact time of his passing. I don't know exact time, but that was in the city of Bastia. Bastia, which is the main city of the Cors- the Corsica islands, the Corsica islands. Bastia, was it? Or- Bastia, is that-- Do you know the name? Yeah. Is that the name? What is it called? Bastia, I think. Bastia. He calls it Bastia. Um, and during the time that the-- That was during the time, he says here clearly, that the Nazis Germans- Right ... Im Achshav were being raised. They were dominating France at the time. Right. They had taken over France. They have taken over. And, uh, he is interned in the, uh, cemetery over there. His formal name was Mendel Schneerson. And, um, it says, it says, "Certainly, there are offices-" Uh, as such in Paris, based on these information, you can find the exact place. They were looking for his- Burial site ... uh, burial site. So the Rebbe says you can base it on this information. So this is-- the Rebbe is writing already in, um, in a, a later time, uh, uh, to get

06:32 him to Eretz Israel. But in the year Tofshin Tezion, that was already in the year nine- in 1955 already. Uh, his body was actually brought up to Israel. From there. And yeah, and by the instruction of the Rebbe, um, he was interned in Safed. They buried him in Safed. You lived in Safed, right? I lived in Safed, yeah. Yeah. He says, based on the testimony- There's a lot of famous rabbis buried in Safed. Yeah. Based on the testimony of somebody who actually saw, um, he took care of the bur-burial of the body, and they said that his body was intact, notwithstanding that it was fifteen years after he- He'd been buried ... after the, uh, uh, after he's been buried. They, they dug him up. He says it's Corsica in the Mediterranean, he said. That's where he is. Yeah, the Corsica Island. The Corsica Island in the Mediterranean. Yeah. Um- They dug him up then. Yeah, they dug him up, and they put him into, um, into there. Now, another thing is, um, this is, uh, this is already in more recent times. It is the sixth of Adar Alef. It was a double Adar like we're gonna have this year. In the year Tofshin and Tes, that was the day of passing of the righteous Hasid, Reb Shmaryahu Gurary, known as the Rashag. He was the brother-in-law of the Rebbe and the son-in-law of the previous Rebbe. He married the older daughter, Chana, of the, uh, previous Rebbe, and he was the Rebbe's brother-in-law.

08:07 Uh, he was appointed by the previous Rebbe, Reb Shmu- the Rashag, Reb Shmaryahu Gurary. He was appointed, uh, as the, uh, head of the, uh, the dean and the, uh, basically heads, masters of all the central yeshiva of Tomchei Tmimim. Right, right. And he was dedicated to this, uh, task completely with total dedication till his last day. Um, the, uh, letter from the Rebbe, previous Rebbe writing to him, this is the fifth of Tammuz, Tammuz . He writes to him, "You have with you my son-in-law, Reb Shmaryahu, that, um, the matters of Hasidus and the, um, honor of Hasidus in general, and specifically the Ha- the honor of Lubavitch are very, uh, dear to him. He's a very straight and a very, um, um..." How do you say? And he, he tell him that he understands things real, real deep and, um, he can give good advice, you know. That's, that's what he writes him. Um, he was a, a great expert, the Rashag, in the Hasidic teachings, and he was totally devoted and connected to the Rebbe, uh, his brother-in-law. During the days of his, uh, mourning, um, the Rebbe davened actually in his, in his house, which was upstairs. Uh, the Rebbe also instructed they should spring-- they should print a special edition of the Tanya in remembrance of his name, and that the printing should complete during the shiva. Um, the Rebbe also participated when they, uh, erected the tombstone, uh, which was on the first day after shiva day, after sunnat

10:10 shiva. They-- On a, in the Fabregen, in the Shabbos Parashat Tzav, which was the Shabbos in the shiva, the, um, Rebbe mentioned the Ra- the Rashag, his brother-in-law, and he said that he, uh, merited to fulfill the mission, the shlichus of the-- my father-in-law, the previous Rebbe, the leader of our generation, by spreading out, um, the wellsprings in the outside and in a way that it bear fruit and the fruit, fruit, et cetera. And he's interned, uh, next to the, um, next to the, uh, Ohel, next to the, uh, place of internment of his father-in-law, the previous Rebbe in, in New York. And, um, I believe that- Seven Seven Parkway. Yeah. Uh, no, that's in the cemetery over there. Oh. At the old, old Montefiore Cemetery. Oh, okay. And, and- That's where you went with Marty, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And, uh, al- also my-- I believe that, uh, my father, Alav Ha-Shalom, he would say for the year, my father would say Kaddish for him. Uh, they asked him to, to say Kaddish for, uh, for the, uh, from-- It came from the, I guess, from the Rebbe's office. Uh, they asked- For him. To say- It's an honor, yeah ... to say, to say Kaddish for him all the time. I'm not sure if they asked specifically for my father, Alav Ha-Shalom, or they just asked to find someone. But, uh, I know my father said Kaddish for him, um, during the entire year. I mean, eleven months, you know, that Kaddish is said.

11:41 Um, and it was, it was, you know, uh, it was, uh, a certain sense of, uh, sacrifice on his part because he was sort of the older son-in-law, and he was, like, totally, totally devoted to the Rebbe. He would sit at every gathering right next to the Rebbe's right side. Who's you saying here? No, the, uh, Rashag, the Rebbe. Oh, okay. He would, uh, he would sit like the Rebbe would sit in the mi- in the center, and he would sit to the Rebbe's, he would sit to the Rebbe's right over there, and he would sit and listen to all the, uh, talks, you know, that the Rebbe would be giving. And, uh, he was, um, like, completely, uh- Absorbed ... uh, yeah, completely, uh, devoted to the Rebbe. It's, um, you know, it's amazing that for a person of that age and of that stature to, to, to stature to be that