11 Tishrei 5553 (September 27, 1792) – The Tzemach Tzedek Was Brought into Cheder by the Alter Rebbe

00:00 Day Chabad on the eleventh day of Tishrei, um, this is in the year tof kuf, uh, nun gimel. Uh, that's the day that the-- That's the eleventh day, the day after Yom Kippur, uh, the day that the Tzemach Tzedek, the grandson of the Alter Rebbe was brought into cheder through by the Alter Rebbe, brought him into cheder. If you remember, uh, we had learned that his mother, the Tzemach Tzedek's mother, Devorah Leah, uh, she passed away on the third day of Tishrei, and she basically, uh, substituted her father. Basically, he, he-- She gave up her life so that her father can live, and she basically swa-swapped, uh, her own life for her father's life so that he can continue, uh, teaching and, um, spreading, uh, the Hasidic teaching. And she asked her grand-- her father, uh, the boy's grandfather, Menachem Mendel, Tzemach Tzedek's, uh, grandfather, the Alter Rebbe. She'd asked her father that he should take care of her son, and the Alter Rebbe did raise him. So the Alter Rebbe took the young, uh, Menachem Mendel, and he raised him in his house. Uh, a couple of days after her passing, which this is-- we're talking about the eleventh of Tishrei, and his mother passed on the third day of Tishrei, so this is just, you know, um, seven days later, eight days later. Um, so the Alter Rebbe called a Hasid by the name of Avrohom Ben Shimshon, Avrohom the son of Shimshon. He asked him that he should become the teacher, the,

01:50 uh, tutor teacher, the melamed, um, for his grandson. And he had told him that he has certain reasons that-- known to him, that he wants his grandson, Menachem Mendel Ben Devorah Leah, to be brought into cheder on the day that follows Yom Kippur, which is, uh, called-- The world call it Beshem Hashem. They call it God's number, in God's name. The name of the day of-- after Yom Kippur is called God, in God's name. So, uh, the procedure that took place that after Yom Kippur, the Alter Rebbe went up, uh, very early, uh, to do the, uh, morning prayers. And the Alter Rebbe himself would be the one who led the prayers. He was the shliach tzibur, and he had his young, uh, grandson saying the kadeshim. He was saying kadesh for his mother who's just passed away. And the Alter Rebbe was the balkore, the balkore. He read from the Torah at that time, and it was Thursday in the section of Haazinu. It was, uh, that part. That was the Torah reading for that day, the day after Yom Kippur. And there was no-- In the place of a Cohen, the Alter Rebbe got the Aliyah. In the place of the Levi, the father of the boy, the Rav Shalom Shachna, the rabbi, the tzadik, Rav Shalom Shachna, he got the second Aliyah. And for this third Aliyah, you know, you don't call a, uh, child to a Torah. You gotta be bar mitzvah. So they-- What they did was they called their--

03:37 That section begins with the words, has very profound and emotional words, especially for that occasion. It says, "Zichrot Yamai Seylam," remember the days of bygone, the days of the early days. So those, um, that's the section which Shalishi, the third part of Haazinu begins. Um, they gave an Aliyah to the child together with his teacher. And the way they, uh, the way they did it, they, they called him up by saying, "Menachem Mendel, uh, the son of Rav Shalom Shachna uBen Devorah Leah." They used both his mother's and his father, his father and his mother's name, son of Shalom Shachna and Devorah Leah, and together with the Rav Avrohom Ben Rav Shimshon, which means his melamed also went up with his Aliyah with him. That's what we do, you know, on like a Simchat Torah when we give all the minors an Aliyah. So, uh, they get it along with, uh, somebody else who is an adult, and they get the Aliyah, so they sort of join the Aliyah. And that's what they did for, uh, this, uh, for this boy. That portion of the Torah reading is Zichrot Yamai Seylam, remember the days of the world bygone. The Alter Rebbe read with a very emotionally, very, uh, uh, intense, uh, feelings, and, uh, each word sort of penetrated to the mind and to the heart. And, and then there's the words that it says, "Yomtzehu be'eretz midbar yisev veniyveneke yitzone kisheneinu." Those are words, he finds him in the land of a desert, and

05:23 Hashem shows about how Hashem's love and Hashem expression that He surrounds us, and He, He builds us and He protects us like the, um, eye, the, the, uh, eyeball, ki isheneine. That was like sort of implying that He was going to protect, uh, it was His job now to protect His grandson and to make sure that he's well. Uh, there were tears, um, two large tears, uh, came from the eyes of the Alter Rebbe onto the Sefer Torah. Uh, after the davening, the Alter Rebbe instructed to wrap the child with a tallis so that he shall not see anything, be fully covered. And they carried him on, on their hands to his mother's grave, and it's interesting, this was still, uh, usually we don't go to a, um, to a grave, uh, to visit a grave. It's sometimes the tradition is not to do so, but in this case they did do so. Uh, they brought him, could be because it was an exception or maybe again, something to, um, to look into. So they carried him to his mother's grave. Um, sometimes they say you stay like four amas away, maybe not like... But this says just they brought him to his mother's grave. And the Alter Rebbe, the entire family and the, a large group of Hasidim also went along to the, uh, cemetery. And when they came to the cemetery, the Alter Rebbe, uh, went with the child and his father, Rav Sholom Shachna, very close, it says here. He came close

07:12 to the, uh, to the gravesite, to the tzaddik, to the monument of the Rebetzin Devorah Leah. And the Alter Rebbe announced with a loud, powerful, and a very joyful voice. He said, "Mazal tov, uh, Devorah Leah, daughter of Shterna." That's her mother, that's his wife, the Alter Rebbe's wife. "Today," he announced, "I am bringing your son, Menachem Mendel, the son of Devorah Leah, to Torah. Bless him that just as he has entered to Torah, so may he enter to Chuppah, marriage, maasim tovim, good deeds, v'arech yamyim v'shanim, long life and long days in life." And the entire, uh, community responded with a resounding amen. When they came back from the cemetery, the Alter Rebbe instructed to bring the child into the, uh, hall of the synagogue, and he asked that the teacher, Rav Avraham, to teach the child the entire first portion of the Book of Vayikra. And, um, in that time, the Alter Rebbe was-- While he was teaching, he was leaning on his hands, his holy hands, and he was like in a very deeply, uh, meditating in, in, in a deep connection with, with Hashem. And when the, uh, learning was over, the Alter Rebbe gave the child, um, a honey and a, um, and a hard egg, which had various different verses on them. There is a whole, um, process today that we also follow, uh, when you bring in a child to, uh, cheder, that's called his initial, um, training. And so there is a whole, uh, some of it

09:17 is mentioned over here. There's actually more details. It's, um, brought down. There's, uh, pamphlets and there's, uh, instructions in, in, in various different available. I'm sure it's available online also, in which, uh, these are meant to give the child that extra love and the extra, the honey and the verses and, uh, to create a desire so that hopefully they will sit and continue to study the Torah and love the Torah and grow up to be, um, you know, great, um, great, great Jews. Now, we know of course that Tzemach Tzedek grew up to be the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, and he was a, a giant in all aspects. Besides being the leader, he was also a, uh, very, uh, brilliantly and knowledgeable in all the writings of his grandfather and his father-in-law and the Torah and the, the revealed part and the secret part of Torah. And matter of fact, he gained the respect from the entire Jewish community, even from some who initially opposed the Hasidim. He was able to, um, get everybody, uh, sort of to recognize the ways of, uh, of, of Chabad and the ways of the teaching. And, uh, there was sort of a change, a movement towards, uh, reconciliation. And, um, it was very accomplished. There's a lot of writings we have from the Tzemach Tzedek. He's written, a prolific writer in, in Torah and in, in all ki- all aspects of Torah.