8 Tishrei 5552 (October 6, 1791) – Yahrtzeit of Reb Baruch, Father of the Alter Rebbe

00:00 Speaker 1 So we're up to Yemei Chabad on the eighth day of Tishrei. Um, Chesh Tishrei is the Yahrtzeit of Reb Boruch, uh, the father of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman. Uh, his Yahrtzeit is on the eighth day of Tishrei in the year Taf Kuf, uh, Taf Kuf Nun Beis. Um, so that's already two hundred and twenty years ago.

00:28 Speaker 2 Four hundred and twenty.

00:29 Speaker 1 Two hundred and twenty years.

00:30 Speaker 2 Two hundred and twenty.

00:30 Speaker 1 Two hundred and twenty years ago.

00:32 Speaker 2 So that's seventeen-

00:32 Speaker 1 Uh, actually, uh, two hundred and twenty-two years ago.

00:37 Speaker 2 Sixteen.

00:37 Speaker 1 Okay. So it would be seventeen fifty, seventeen fifty, um, fifty, uh, two. Seventeen fifty-two. Well, um, the, uh, story about the life of Reb Boruch are in great detail related in the book of the Zichronos, the memories, memoirs of the previous Rebbe, the Baba Rebbe memoirs. And, um, the previous Rebbe writes that, uh, the father of the Alter Rebbe, Reb Boruch, was one of those hidden tzadikim. Um, meaning that in his outer, uh, exposure, the way he looked, um, he looked like one of the simple people that lived on the settlement, but he was a, uh, a great scholar, and he, um, did tremendous amount of charitable work, and his conduct was with complete simplicity. Um, the following is told about the last years of his life, that he lived in the same city where his son, the Alter Rebbe, in the city of Lyozno. But he couldn't stand the fact that his son, the Alter Rebbe, would stand up in front of him, and he would give him great honor. And he would argue, his father would say, "How is it possible that such a man who the divine speaks from his throat should stand up in front of him?" And therefore, he decided that he left Lyozno, and he began to travel from city to city. But in every place that he would come to the shul, uh, they would all immediately tell-- they can tell that he is not just a simple person as he disguised himself, and people would always invite

02:35 Speaker 1 him to eat, uh, with them, to be, you know, take care of him. So he traveled from place to place until he came to the city of Sulich in Hungary. So over there, one of the, uh, wealthy people asked him that he should be his guest. And that person, that wealthy person, his business was making, uh, vodka, making, um, alcohol. And that particular day when he hosted the Rebbe's father-- the Alter Rebbe's father, Reb Boruch, he saw unusually unusual success in his business. So he understood that this success came because of this guest. So he asked of Reb Boruch that he should remain permanently in his home. Reb Boruch agreed to his suggestion, and he remained to stay to live in the home of that wea-wealthy person who took care of all of Reb Boruch's needs. Reb Boruch lived there for several years. When he felt that the time of his passing has come close, um, the people of the city, all the important, the great people in the city, all came and gathered, and they asked him, does he have any sons, and where do they live, so that they can tell him of his passing. So Reb Boruch says, "I have four sons in Russia. They're all rabbis," he says. "Two of them you should tell, you should tell. Uh, one of them, you just got to hint to them. And the fourth one, you don't even have to tell at all because he'll know on his own." I mean, he was talking

04:24 Speaker 1 about the Alter Rebbe. Uh, after the passing, uh, they buried him with great honor.

04:30 Speaker 2 In Hungary.

04:30 Speaker 1 And in the city where he was, in Sulich.

04:34 Speaker 2 Okay.

04:34 Speaker 1 And they gave him a very honorable spot over there. And the Chevra Kadisha, the, uh, people taking care of the deceased, put up a monument on his grave site. When the Alter Rebbe found out about the passing of his father, he sent a special, uh, agent, uh, to Hungary, and he gave him, uh, a large sum of money to pay that wealthy person that supported his father all these years. And he also gave money for the Chevra Kadisha for the monument, for the matzeva that they placed. But both the wealthy person as well as the Chevra Kadisha, they refused to accept the money. But the agent insisted for them to take the money because the Alter Rebbe will be very upset that they don't take the money. So they decided they're gonna go for a Din Torah. They're gonna go to a-- to adjudicate this in a Jewish court. And the ruling came out was that the Chevra Kadisha is obligated to take the money. But on the other hand, the wealthy person isn't obligated to take the money for supporting Reb Boruch. The city of Sulich today it's called Vinogradov, is in Ukraine. Today it's under-- it's in Ukraine.

06:01 Speaker 2 That was under the Austro-Hungary.

06:03 Speaker 1 Hungary. That was always in the-

06:05 Speaker 2 The empire.

06:05 Speaker 1 Yeah.

06:05 Speaker 2 Yeah, that's why.

06:05 Speaker 1 When they divide it up, so it's a-

06:07 Speaker 2 It was in Hungary. They listed as that, right?

06:09 Speaker 1 It used to be on the Granitz. You know, they used to be on the, on the boundary there. It kept on changing-

06:14 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah

06:14 Speaker 1 ... uh, hands.

06:15 Speaker 2 But, but it is-

06:15 Speaker 1 During the war

06:16 Speaker 2 ... it was part of the, the empire of Austria-Hungary.

06:17 Speaker 1 Must be.

06:18 Speaker 2 Yeah.

06:20 Speaker 1 Uh, it's not too far from the bo-border of, of Hungary.

06:24 Speaker 2 In Ukraine.

06:25 Speaker 1 Ukraine and Hungary.

06:26 Speaker 2 Yeah.

06:26 Speaker 1 And in the later years, the, um, the grave site has been fixed up a little bit, and it's-

06:33 Speaker 2 Okay

06:33 Speaker 1 ... they put up a, uh, tent around it, uh, put up an ohel over there. And that's, uh, from the, from the Rebbe's talk.