22 Tishrei 5589 (September 30, 1828) – Passing of Reb Aharon HaLevi of Strashelye

00:00 Speaker 1 Um, the Yemei Chabad, the Chabad days in Chabad for the twenty-second day of Tishrei, that's Shemini Atzeres. And the, uh, Reb Aron HaLevi from Strashele, he was one of the great students of the Alter Rebbe, passed away on the twenty-second day of Tishrei, Shemini Atzeres, in the year Taf kuf pei tes. So now we're talking about, uh, almost two hundred years ago. Um, um, and, um-

00:38 Speaker 2 Eighteen thirteen

00:39 Speaker 1 ... uh, you know, minus, you know, we're talking mi-minus thir-

00:42 Speaker 2 It's around the time of-

00:43 Speaker 1 One hundred and ninety, uh, what?

00:46 Speaker 2 The Revolution, when Napoleon's around.

00:48 Speaker 1 So what time? Eighteen wh-what?

00:49 Speaker 2 1812, 18-- the American Revol-- American War, you know, it was when France-

00:53 Speaker 1 Um, exactly. Um, it's, um-

00:56 Speaker 2 It's around the time when France invaded Russia. Same time, yeah, like-

01:01 Speaker 1 Yeah. Um, it's, um, let's see, uh, from, um, um, let's see. It's, uh, nine and, uh, and four, thirteen, minus thirteen, so it's two hundred minus thirteen years.

01:19 Speaker 2 Two hundred minus thirteen.

01:21 Speaker 1 Thirteen years.

01:21 Speaker 2 So it'd be 1800s.

01:23 Speaker 1 Yeah, something like that.

01:24 Speaker 2 Time, this is-

01:24 Speaker 1 Okay. So, um, he, this Reb Aron HaLevi from Strashele, he was an eighth generation from the Holy Shalah. The, uh, was a great, uh, holy Talmudist and scholar who's wr-written, uh, many important works, and he's a great influence on, on the Jewish philosophy and on, uh, on, on, on, on the code of law. Very, very involved rabbi. He was an eighth generation. And from the time that this Reb Aron was a very young child, um, or a young man, very young, he totally separated himself, and he had no interest in the, um, desires of this world. He didn't really, wasn't involved in any materialism, and he devoted his entire life to the study of Torah diligently with an immense, studious, uh, wondrous, studious, uh, way. And, um, when he was still young, he became close to the Alter Rebbe. He became very close to the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe held him very dear, and he gave him a lot of attention. He actually made him a study partner with his son, the Mitler Rebbe, who then became the Lubavitcher Rebbe that followed the Alter Rebbe. They would study together. Reb Aron would study together both the revealed and the Hasidic parts of the Torah. There was a tremendous powerful love between Reb Aron and the Mitler Rebbe as if they were brothers. And Reb Aron was close to the Alter Rebbe as if he was a son. He was just like his children of the Alter Rebbe. Uh, his style of service of Hashem

03:32 Speaker 1 was very, uh, very awesome. Uh, it was with a great excitement, a lot of noise. There was a lot of expression. Uh, so anybody who would see or hear him, you know, daven or learn would sort of become excited himself. After the Alter Rebbe was released from prison, when the, when they wrote bad about him, and then eventually went out, he writes a letter to Reb Aron, and he addresses him in the letter, uh, "To my honorable student, my, uh, not just student, but my permanent student," sort of, uh, "godly giant," you know, a great, a goan, a likki. And he quotes, like, from the, uh, prophets where the person said, "Pishnain beruchi," double of my spirit, meaning that is even, like, double than the Alter Rebbe. He was, like, giving him a tremendous amount of, of credit as he speak to Reb Aron HaLevi, uh, Yechiel. Eventually, when the Alter Rebbe moved, uh, from Lyozno to the city of Liadi, um, as we learned after the second time in Petersburg, he moved to Liadi. He too settled in Liadi, and he lived for eight years, he lived in Liadi. And several years before the Alter Rebbe passed away, um, there was... Something happened, uh, that he, um, uh, it doesn't say here. Have to look up in other, uh, places the exact things. But, uh, there was, uh, some discontent over there. There's a fallout. There was some fallout. Uh, it was, uh, spiritual, or it was, uh, also on the physical-

05:38 Speaker 2 Personal

05:38 Speaker 1 ... on the personal. There was, uh, some fallout from which he suffered greatly, and he-- there was a fallout over there, and he had to sell his home, and he moved to the city of Oshva. And over there, he continued to sit, and he studied Torah, and he, and he prayed, and he would travel to the Alter Rebbe occasionally. And from that point on, there became a Separation between him and the Mittler Rebbe. We learned earlier they were like brothers, but something happened, and they were already no longer so close to each other.

06:18 Speaker 3 Get my jacket.

06:19 Speaker 1 Yeah. So, um, after the Alter Rebbe passed away, uh, this, um, separation became even wider. In other words, they went further apart. Uh, eventually, that-- and there was a group of Hasidim of the Alter Rebbe that accepted Reb Aaron as their Rebbe. They would tra-- they would travel to Strashun. Uh, I guess the-- it says here that he went to the city of Oshva, but it doesn't say here that he moved to Strashun, but I guess at some point after Oshva, he must have moved to Strashun because that's where he's known, uh, Reb Aaron Strashun, because it says that the people would... You know, there were some of those who followed the Alter Rebbe after his passing went to Reb Aaron Strashun. Now, now we understand also how it split, uh, because there was a group that didn't go with the Mittler Rebbe, and they went with Reb Aaron.

07:26 Speaker 3 Who-- that was the Mittler Rebbe? What does he mean?

07:28 Speaker 1 That's the Mittler mean the Miller Rebbe.

07:29 Speaker 3 The Miller, okay.

07:30 Speaker 1 That was the son of the Alter Rebbe.

07:32 Speaker 3 The Alter meaning?

07:32 Speaker 1 The older Rebbe.

07:33 Speaker 3 The older Rebbe.

07:33 Speaker 1 The, the first one. So he was, Reb Duber was the Mittler, was the son of Schneur Zalman. Schneur Zalman, the Alter Rebbe, and Reb Duber was his son. Um-

07:42 Speaker 3 He was the founder of Chabad, Schneur Zalman.

07:45 Speaker 1 Schneur Zalman was the founder of Chabad, yeah. He was the first Rebbe, and then we had the Mittler Rebbe following him. Now, the Hasid, there was a Hasid, uh, Reb Abo of Sashnik. That was his name. The previous Rebbe relates what he heard from this Reb Abo of Sashnik, that he said that when he was twelve years old, his father took him to Reb Aaron to Strashun. And he says the way Reb Aaron would speak was with fire. He would speak with fervor, with like a flaming fire, he would speak. When he would mention the name of the Alter Rebbe, he would stand up, up fully, and he would-- couldn't continue speaking because he was so m- m- moved, and he was so, uh, connected, and he was so, uh, entrenched with him. And, uh, this Reb Abo, uh, the previous Rebbe is, is relating that Reb Abo said when he would even relate how the excitement of Reb Aaron, he himself would become so excited. This Hasid, Reb Abo, would become excited. And he said like this: "I want you to know, even though that eventually I had the great privilege to see the Mittler Rebbe," which basically was the rival at this point of this Reb Aaron, or Reb Aaron was his rival, okay, "and I had the privilege to connect to the Tzemach Tzedek," which was the next Rebbe in line, the third Rebbe of Chabad. "But nevertheless," so in other words, I'm a Chabad, I'm a follower of Chabad of the

09:29 Speaker 1 direct line. "But yet," he says, "I will never forget that which I've seen and that which I've heard from..." He called him the Hasid Reb Aaron. He said he was a Hasid. A Hasid means a follower. Because he says he was a Hasid, he was a follower, he was a righteous man, he was a tzadik. He was a holy, he was a pure man, a kadosh v'tahor, but not a Rebbe. He didn't call him a Rebbe because-

09:56 Speaker 3 So what it is?

09:57 Speaker 1 He, he said he didn't accept him as a Rebbe. But this was all when he would recite a ma'amar of the Alter Rebbe, that's how, uh, engulfed or enflamed in a, in a trance he would sort of be, uh, just by connecting himself spiritually with the Rebbes.

10:18 Speaker 3 What it tells you is that he may have-- in public, he would never put him down. But the two of them together probably just didn't get along at some point.

10:28 Speaker 1 No, this was-

10:28 Speaker 3 So he'll praise him

10:29 Speaker 1 ... he was only-- no, this was actually only in, in, um... It was, it came out in the public eventually. So some of the, some of the, uh, people chose to go after-

10:41 Speaker 3 Yeah

10:42 Speaker 1 ... Reb Aaron, and some of them stayed with the Mittler Rebbe. And that caused a rift, uh, between the two. But this fellow was saying, this Reb Abo was saying, "Notwithstanding that I'm a follower of the, uh, Chabad and the Tzemach Tzedek, and I saw the Mittler Rebbe, but yet, um, I can't take away from what I've seen."

11:03 Speaker 3 Right.

11:04 Speaker 1 He says, "Look, I'm not gonna call him a Rebbe because he ain't a Rebbe." But-- or at least he's not my Rebbe. But he says he's a Hasid, he's a kadosh v'tahor, everything, yeah, but not a Rebbe. During the year Taf kuf Pe Zayin, uh, that is the year when the Mittler Rebbe was imprisoned. And Taf kuf Pe Zayin is, uh, is also just, it's hundred and ninety years, just short, hundred and eighty-seven years, hundred eighty-seven years ago. Um, Taf kuf Pe Zayin. Um, when the Mittler Rebbe was incarcerated, Reb Aaron too was incarcerated. Uh, and, uh, he went out on Rosh Chodesh Kislev of that year. So he was also, like, considered, like, one of the followers of the Alter Rebbe and some of the complaints that they had. And he authored, this Reb Aaron auth- authored many books in the style of the Hasidus Chabad. And his passing was as mentioned in the Shemini Atzeres on the twenty-second day of Tishrei on the year Taf kuf Pe Tes in the city of Strashun. We said that was probably his final place where he moved. And he is interned over there in the city of Strashun. That is where he's interned.