13 Tishrei – Yahrtzeit of the Rebbe Maharash (Age 49)

00:00 Speaker 1 We make Chabad for the, um, thirteenth day of Tishrei. Yud Gimmel Tishrei in the year Taf Reish Mem Gimmel. Um, one hundred and, um, thirty.

00:16 Speaker 2 Eighteen eighty.

00:18 Speaker 1 One hundred and thirty, uh, thirty-one years ago.

00:22 Speaker 2 Eighteen eighty to thirty-one.

00:24 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm. That it was September twenty-six in eighteen eighty-two.

00:27 Speaker 2 Oh, right, eighty-two.

00:28 Speaker 1 Okay. So in any event, that was the, um, day of the Yahrtzeit of the Rebbe Maharash. The Rebbe Maharash, Reb Shmuel, he was the youngest and the seventh son of the Tzemach Tzedek of the third Lubavitch Rebbe. He became the Rebbe after him, the Rebbe Maharash. Um, and, um, he passed away on the thirteenth day of Tishrei. The word Echad, like we say, "Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad." The word, word name, the word Echad, the numerical value is actually thirteen also. Alef, Ches-- Now, thank you. Alef, Ches, Daled, which is Alef is one, Ches is eight, and Daled is four. So it's, uh, so it's the thirteenth day, uh, word Echad spells thirteen. And there is a verse that says, "Echad ve'echad yigashu," one and one. It's interesting that his father, the Tzemach Tzedek, um, he also passed away on the thirteenth day of the month. But he passed away on the thirteenth day of the month of Nisan. Uh, Nis-- The month of Nisan and the month of Tishrei are very closely connected because the month of Nisan is the first month by the Torah. The Torah calls it the first month. But by creation, the first month is Tishrei. There is a connection. Echad ve'echad yigashu. There is one, thirteen to thirteen, the thirteenth day of Tishrei together with the thirteenth day of, uh, of Nisan. Now, he was, like I mentioned, the seventh and the youngest son of the, uh, Tzemach Tzedek. He was, uh, known much for, uh, his, um,

02:21 Speaker 1 phrases of, uh, "Lechatchilah Hariber," that he used to say that one need not battle with challenges, but just go beyond them, you know, out of the box sort of kind of approach. Um, he lived a very short life. He died very young. He was just a-- He was just about, uh, forty-nine years old when he died, under fifty when he died, when he passed away. Um, he had a lot of, uh, ailments. He was with a lot of pain and, um-

02:54 Speaker 2 What was his name?

02:55 Speaker 1 Over here, Reb Shmuel. His name is the Rebbe Maharash, Reb Shmuel. Um, it gives you the exact day. He, he, he passed away exactly eleven fifty-one. They say that eleven fifty-one, and I guess that must be, uh, AM, I'm assuming. Uh, because otherwise... Yeah, it has to be because in the, in the-- it's, it's the thirteenth day of Tishrei. Um, so, uh, the, um... I-I'm just trying to think. Maybe it's eleven fifty-one PM. I'm not, I'm not sure. It just says here eleven fifty-one. It doesn't say AM or PM over here. Um, it could be at nighttime of the thirteenth of Tishrei, or it could be daytime of the thirteenth of Tishrei. It doesn't say here. Uh, but something very, uh, amazing took place. Uh, we mentioned earlier he used to have, uh, two golden, uh, walk watches with a chain. So what he did was, about twenty-five minutes before he passed away, he took his, uh, watch, his, uh, pocket watch, and he removed it from a chain. He took a piece of paper. He stuck it into the, uh, into the clock. So, um, he stuck it into the watch so that the dial should stop exactly when it reaches eleven fifty-one. For a minute, you know, we-we're dealing with a clock over here now. So he put in a piece of paper so that when the visor would come to eleven fifty-one, it would stop, and that's when he passed away, exactly at that, at that instant. Uh, and then he... So

04:41 Speaker 1 he had twenty-five basic minutes left from doing this till he passed away. He told his attendants to bring in his holy sons. He had three sons, uh, and he wanted to instruct them before his passing. So first, his older son, his name was Reb Zalman Aron, also known as the Razah. He spoke to him. After he went out, i-- came in the Rebbe Rashab, his son who followed him as the Rebbe, Reb Sholom Dov Ber, the Rebbe Rashab, and then he spoke with him. And the previous Rebbe relating this says that my father was very emotional and cried a lot. And when he left, then the youngest son, who was born at-- when they were already older, his name was Reb Menachem Mendel, and he spoke to him, and then he passed away while sitting still on his chair. So basically, within the twenty-five minutes, it looks like he was able to call in all of his sons and tell them before, uh, and instruct them. Now, elsewhere it's related that before his passing, he a-asked to call in his daughter. He also had a daughter. Her name was Chaya Mushka. Uh, she was very young. When Chaya Mushka entered, so the Rebbe Maharash said to hi-her, "I should have-" Had the privilege of taking you to the chuppah, to your marriage together with your mother. But when Hashem doesn't want, et cetera, you know, it does-- didn't happen. So he blessed her by placing his hands on her head. Uh, the Rebbe once related

06:26 Speaker 1 that the, um, Rebbe Maharash was a man with great suffering. He suffered a lot, a lot of physical ailments. Even during the lifetime of his father, the Tzemach Tzedek, uh, again, being the youngest of the son, he followed and he stayed in Lubavitch, the, the Tzem-- the Rebbe Maharash. But his father, uh, during his life, he was very sick. So when his father find out about it, he said, had he known, uh, early enough, he would have been able to bring down that he should minimally live for fifty-two years like Shmuel the Prophet. He didn't even live, he didn't make it to fifty. So he said he would have at least may had helped him live till fifty-two. Uh, notwithstanding the fact that he was always in, uh, lots of pains, he was always with a big smile. Uh, the last time he visited the, uh, professor, the doctor who was attending to his health. So the doctor says to him in, uh, in a language in, uh, itze, itze. I'm not sure exactly how to pronounce it. It means go, go. You can go home to Lubavitch, he told him. He says, "You can go." Um, so, so the Maharash says that going from this world to the other world, uh, to the, uh, Olam Haba, there's also a itze, itze, you know, go, go. You know, you have to, I guess, move over. This was the last time he told him you can go home to Lubavitch, and he sort of said it,

08:04 Speaker 1 paraphrases to going over from this world to the other world. Um, in another, um, uh, occasion, the Rebbe related that the, uh, Rebbes, the Chabad Rebbes had a custom that on Erev Rosh Hashanah, they would go and talk to the, to the Rebbets and to their wives and say a few words before Rosh Hashanah. And in the Rosh Hashanah before, uh, Reish Mamgimmel, before he passed away, that's thirteen days before, fourteen days before he passed away, um, the Maharash went into the Rebbets and Rivkah, that's his, uh, to his wife, to the Rebbetsin. And he told her a few words from which she understood that he was going to pass away from the world that year. He predicted, he was able to tell that this was gonna happen. So, uh, it's... And it's known that Rebbe Maharash, his leadership was like a Ba'al Shemski, meaning like the Ba'al Shem Tov, everything was miraculous. In all of his leadership, it was in a very miraculous way. So he was open miracles at the time of the Rebbe Maharash. So the Rebbetsin had asked him, uh, "But we have little children. Uh, what is gonna be about our little children?" The, the Rebbe didn't answer her, but he just told her, he says, "I'm going to be going up thirty-two steps and in the heavens above, and you're going to go up thirty-two steps in this world." What he meant was, the previous Rebbe interpreted eventually, and he said that the thirty-two steps above, he was referring

09:49 Speaker 1 to the thirty-two, uh, uh, Ma'amarim Drushim, these discourses in Likutey Torah, which were on the, uh, three portions that were printed then. That was an elevation of the thirty-two related to that. And the thirty-two levels that she's going to be elevated below, he was referring to, uh, an additional thirty-two years that she continued to live after her husband, after the Rebbe Maharash has died, and she passed away in the year Taf Resh Ayin Daled, which is exactly one hundred years ago. Uh, she went. So she continued to live another, um, another thirty-two years, um-

10:33 Speaker 2 And she is the wife of the-

10:34 Speaker 1 Of the Rebbe Maharash

10:35 Speaker 2 ... the third.

10:36 Speaker 1 Of the fourth.

10:37 Speaker 2 Of the seventh.

10:37 Speaker 1 Of the fourth Rebbe.

10:39 Speaker 2 The fourth.

10:39 Speaker 1 The fourth Rebbe. Now, uh, the, uh, interment and the, uh, gravesite is at, is in the city of Lubavitch. And they, they have, um, oil over there, the tent, and set up for that. So Yud Gimmel, Tishrei is the yort site, and Taf Resh Mem Gimmel is the yort site of the, uh, Rebbe Maharash. Yeah. We learned, we learned earlier that, um, his, his leadership was in a way that, in a very wealthy way, and, uh, his carriage was with gold, and his sticks was with gold, and, um-

11:13 Speaker 2 Yeah. That's right. Yeah.

11:13 Speaker 1 But it seems like, you see, he didn't really benefit from this world. He was full of pains and everything else.

11:19 Speaker 2 No, no, but I think he-

11:19 Speaker 1 And remember we had the story about that the, um, the Rebbetsin Chana, which yesterday was, um, on the Bav Tishrei was her, was her yort site. Um, she was the daughter of Reb Meir Shlema of Yanovsky, of Yek-- of Nikolaev, who was one of the rosh, you know, who used to be by the, uh, Rebbe Maharash. And then we learned that, uh, when he came back, they asked him, "How come the Rebbe Maharash behaves in such a, uh, wide way?" So he said, "Petach, petach, who do you think gold was created for? For the-- It was created for, for to be used in kedusha, in holiness."

11:57 Speaker 2 He wants to create. As is in business, he's trying to create an image.

11:59 Speaker 1 Yeah.

12:00 Speaker 2 Right?

12:00 Speaker 1 Well, uh, this was, um-

12:02 Speaker 2 That's what he wants

12:02 Speaker 1 ... spiritual, uh, spiritual level.

12:04 Speaker 2 Yeah, you're right. To show that, you know, he could attract people and with his-- he could... His elevation to deal with, with outside forces that the common person couldn't.

12:16 Speaker 1 Well-

12:16 Speaker 2 That's what he felt

12:16 Speaker 1 ... yeah, different, uh, different approach. I'm not sure exactly that the-

12:20 Speaker 2 Some of them were very humble, and he wasn't the humble type. But they-

12:22 Speaker 1 I'm not sure it has to do with-

12:24 Speaker 2 Well-

12:24 Speaker 1 I'm not sure

12:25 Speaker 2 ... if you look at that elaborate type of, uh, the way, the way you present yourself, you try to put yourself on a different elevation. It's like in business, you know, people try to do the same thing.

12:37 Speaker 1 Um, well, it's, um, I don't think that we can really apply... I mean, we're talking about spiritual levels-

12:44 Speaker 2 Well, I understand

12:44 Speaker 1 ... and we're talking about, um, you see, um-

12:50 Speaker 2 Which part? Yeah

12:50 Speaker 1 ... unfortunate in the world of, the world of business that you're talking about, uh, most of the concern of the people is for self-ex-ex-exaggeration to-

13:01 Speaker 2 Well, no, he wasn't talking about that. No, he's just showing-

13:03 Speaker 1 But, um, sometimes you have the, uh, "Vayigbal libe bedarkei Hashem." There's a verse that says that his heart has become holy in the ways of Hashem. In order to present, uh, the message, it wasn't a selfish or smallness expression of, of wealth, but rather it was a representation of who he stands for. It represented Yiddishkeit, it represented Chabad, and that was the, um, the honor was not his personal, but it wasn't his, uh, selfish, uh, smallness-

13:40 Speaker 2 Okay

13:40 Speaker 1 ... but rather it re-it represented the organization. It represented Hashem. It was the darkei Hashem. It was God's, I guess, um, beauty. It was the gold for Hashem. Like when a person has a beautiful voice and he davens in the shul, he praises Hashem with his voice. If he has money, he makes a beautiful shul. So it was done to beautify the shul. Yeah, I'm sorry.

14:02 Speaker 2 No, no, no, no, no, I was just getting at is, is there's an image that has to be created also, so that, you know, if God can take care of me, he can take care of everybody else. So this... It's a, it's an image play, too. And that's just part of... Because I think that's what he was trying to create. But no other rebbe did what he did. And that was-

14:22 Speaker 1 Uh, not to that ex-- not known for that.

14:24 Speaker 2 Not known for that.

14:25 Speaker 1 Yeah.

14:25 Speaker 2 Yeah.

14:25 Speaker 1 Okay. But there were... But amongst, like, there were-

14:28 Speaker 2 Most of them tend to be humble more or less, right?

14:30 Speaker 1 Yeah, living a more simplistic, as you wanna say.

14:34 Speaker 2 Right.

14:34 Speaker 1 More of them would live in a simple way. But amongst the different tzadikim, there were about really both types. Like, for example, there was the Rizhiner, who was the grandchildren of the Baal Shem Tov.

14:45 Speaker 2 Yeah.

14:45 Speaker 1 They also lived in a very extravaganza way. So there was, I mean, there was some.

14:52 Speaker 2 Could be the time.

14:53 Speaker 1 Uh, it was some and there was, there was others. Um, I mean, there's probably, uh, uh, more of a spiritual explanation rather than such a very simplistic-

15:02 Speaker 2 Yeah, it could have been the time

15:03 Speaker 1 ... uh, approach, I think

15:04 Speaker 2 It could have been the time that they lived in, too, the way things were, too.

15:06 Speaker 1 You know.

15:06 Speaker 2 We don't know. You know, it's very hard to say. Not there.

15:09 Speaker 1 But certainly, but certainly, I mean, these were... and, uh, servants of Hashem, and-

15:15 Speaker 2 Right

15:16 Speaker 1 ... it wasn't a, uh, a selfish expression or an expression of their self, uh, uh, expression-

15:23 Speaker 2 No, not at all

15:23 Speaker 1 ... just themselves. It wasn't, uh, personal. It was all in the service of Hashem. That's goes without, without a question. Now, um, generally speaking, we-- Some argue, uh, like today, um, that if you, um, make a, like you say, a better image, a better presentation, uh, then you can attract and you can influence, you can impact more people. The problem we have today is, you know, everybody is using things and advertisement or, uh, various different, uh, means to try to influence people's minds, to manipulate, to get people to buy things. But we know very well that not everything that everybody is selling is of value, but they're trying to manipulate. So while we may use and we wanna, uh, be out there in the forefront, uh, representing, showing a good face so that we can attract people, but we really have the goods. We're not selling something which we're just trying to manipulate somebody to buy, so to enrich us or to make us famous or to, uh, get us... We, we, we're trying to give them Yiddishkeit. Unfortunately, sometimes the only way to reach the people, um, is by using these garments of Esav, what they're called. You know, you gotta dress up in the garments that people use in order to be able to reach the people, because otherwise, uh, you won't be able to reach people. The Rebbe Maharas perhaps used his, um, his, his, his, his expression of his wealth or behaving in a way that mastered, uh, honor and, uh,

17:12 Speaker 1 in a wealthy carriage. He-- perhaps he was able to attract-

17:16 Speaker 2 Yeah

17:16 Speaker 1 ... other people to... who otherwise could not be attracted, um, uh, to, uh, to, uh, experience, you know, their heritage or to, uh, uh, do things which were beneficial for the Jewish community.

17:30 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

17:30 Speaker 1 But the point is, one has to always remember that these are just tools.

17:35 Speaker 2 Right.

17:35 Speaker 1 You have to remember that the merchandise, that we're not the same-

17:38 Speaker 2 Yeah

17:38 Speaker 1 ... we're not at the same level. We're, we're total... It's a total different level. We're selling something totally different. So sometimes we use the, the garments, we use the tools that others use, but it still don't put us on the same, uh, uh, the same. It's totally different. Uh, uh, but I, I, I, I hear you. I mean, it's, it's, uh, you know, a good-

17:57 Speaker 2 It is, it is a form of marke-- It, it, we, it's a form of marketing in a way to try to attract people. So, and in those times, we don't know what it was like over there, what they were dealing with.

18:07 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

18:07 Speaker 2 They had a competition. You know, there is a competitive-

18:11 Speaker 1 Uh-

18:11 Speaker 2 There is some competition in there.

18:13 Speaker 1 Uh, well, it could be.

18:14 Speaker 2 Could be. Could be. You know.

18:15 Speaker 1 Could be possibly, yes.

18:16 Speaker 2 You know.

18:17 Speaker 1 I mean, there's very... Yeah, I mean, it's, it's-

18:18 Speaker 2 These are the times

18:19 Speaker 1 ... you know, when you have- When you have, like, in today's da-- time and a time of day and time, where you have, like, all kinds of forces pulling-

18:27 Speaker 2 Right

18:27 Speaker 1 ...at the young people-

18:28 Speaker 2 Right, we don't know where it's at

18:29 Speaker 1 ...and if you don't have a balance to offset that, and you don't make Yiddishkeit as exciting-

18:35 Speaker 2 Right

18:35 Speaker 1 ...and you can't wait for them to come into the study hall and start figuring out a passage in the Talmud or a-

18:41 Speaker 2 Yeah

18:41 Speaker 1 ...Hasidic concept, you gotta get them out there in the street. How are you going to-- doesn't talk to them. There's a disconnect, and there's a, a gap over there. How are you gonna-- So you gotta sort of bring them down to them and pull them in, and once you pull them in, you gotta put out the fishing rod-

18:57 Speaker 2 Right

18:57 Speaker 1 ...and hook them, and once you hook them in, then you can hopefully-

19:00 Speaker 2 Because that's kind of-

19:01 Speaker 1 But then we can't re-- but we can't get caught up by the-

19:04 Speaker 2 No, no, no, no, no, no, no

19:05 Speaker 1 ...and realize we know that this is not really what it's about. It's the essence of, of Yiddishkeit, what it's about.

19:11 Speaker 2 Right.

19:11 Speaker 1 It's just means of grabbing your attention. It's so to grab the attention, especially when you gotta compete against everything, all the-

19:21 Speaker 2 Yeah

19:21 Speaker 1 ...gadgets out there, so it's-

19:23 Speaker 2 You know what?

19:23 Speaker 1 ...kind of getting harder and harder.

19:24 Speaker 2 In those times, it, it, the-- it wasn't too bad in, in, um, in Russia at that time. It wasn't until I think when Alexander became the tsar that things started to change in the late 1880s.

19:38 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

19:38 Speaker 2 So things were still pretty, not great, but were-

19:42 Speaker 1 Yeah, and the-

19:43 Speaker 2 Were, were, were decent, let's put it that way, in comparison

19:45 Speaker 1 ...it's, it's, it's an interesting concept. You know, the Jews had to contend then with the Maskilim. Those were the enlightenment, the enlightenment movement, which was very strong at the time. It was, it was-- And that was attracting a lot of, uh, a lot of young people. And, uh, then, you know, somebody would have to make a, a choice, sort of say, "Well, do I wanna choose and live a life of poverty and, you know, a life of religion, or do I wanna, you know, go out and get myself a good education, and then maybe forget about my, my Yiddishkeit?" So perhaps I'm just saying what you're saying is-

20:22 Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah

20:23 Speaker 1 ...sometimes a, uh, looking at a rabbi who is g- is wealthy or gives the appearance of well-to-do is an attraction for a person to say, "Oh, well, I don't have to be poor in order to be religious."

20:39 Speaker 2 Yes.

20:39 Speaker 1 "I don't have to be-- give up."

20:41 Speaker 2 Right.

20:41 Speaker 1 "Really, I could..." And if you didn't tell them, not now, of course you're wealthier than any money can buy you if you are connected with Hashem and you are, uh, emotionally and pur-- you have your purpose in life. No money can buy that, and this is more value, but it takes, uh, a lot of learning and it takes a lot of, uh, experience in order to begin to feel that way. In the beginning, it's actually, uh, very lucrative to go ahead and maybe the other side. So maybe that was a very good point. Maybe that was an idea.

21:13 Speaker 2 That, that talk about the ones from the Lithuanians were influencing, but I don't know if they, their influence was trying to get down to that area, but it was very difficult because it was, it was a whole different type of society. Was, wasn't it the Lithuanians tend to be more educated than the, than the East Europeans?

21:30 Speaker 1 I'm not sure. Could be.

21:31 Speaker 2 It was a whole-

21:32 Speaker 1 Well, I'm not, I'm not sure. But there was, uh-

21:34 Speaker 2 There was gaps

21:35 Speaker 1 ...there, there was a, um-

21:37 Speaker 2 Then there was

21:37 Speaker 1 ...there was a definitely, um-

21:39 Speaker 2 Yeah

21:39 Speaker 1 ...sometimes people needed to, uh, thought that they had to choose between a life of deprivation and being religious or a life of excess and, you know, and being not religious. But it doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't really. It's, it's just the opposite, but it-- you can have, you can have both. You don't have to give up one or the other. But the, again, the end of the day is that as we know that money and success cannot buy you really meaning and purpose and, and, and life and, uh, there is, um, nothing as, um, you know, when we, um, have a, a, a spiritual, meaningful, and, uh, uplifting life experience that we feel good about ourselves, we feel good about our being in this world, and we feel good about, uh, uh, you know, doing the right thing and, uh, and fulfilling the purpose of our creation, not just to live like, you know, accidents and like animals just here and duration and just-- but really making a difference in the world and ourselves and in the world and our environment and, and, and, and, and, and, and doing something, you know, accomplishing something positive. And the guide is the Torah, and the, uh, way of life of Yiddishkeit is the way to achieve the maximum, to maximize our, uh, ability to impact the world in a positive way.