25 Tishrei 5570 (October 5, 1809) – Passing of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev

00:00 Speaker 1 Chabad for the twenty-fifth day of Tishrei, and this is in the year Taf Kuf Ayin, two hundred and four years ago. Okay? And that was the day when the great righteous tzadik passed away, Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev. We've all heard of Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev being one of the most, uh, uh, strongest, I should say, advocates for the Jewish people. He always went before Hashem arguing the case. Uh, he was the best defense lawyer for the Jewish people. There's many, many stories told about Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev. He passed away on the f-- twenty-fifth day of Tishrei in Taf Kuf Ayin. He was actually five years older than the Alter Rebbe. He was a contemporary of the Alter Rebbe. He was also a student of the Maggid of Mezritch, and, uh... So he was born in the year Taf Kuf. That's, um, the five in the Hebrew, that is five thousand, uh, five hundred. So, uh, now we're five thousand-

01:14 Speaker 2 Seven

01:14 Speaker 1 ... seven hundred and seventy-three. So, uh, he lived, uh, seventy-four. We just turned seventy-four, yeah. So- He was like seventy when he died ... um, he closely resembled... The Alter Rebbe was born, like, five years after him and passed away two years, uh, three years after him. He was born five years after him and passed away, uh, three years after him. And, um, the Ba'al Shem Tov, um, who Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev followed eventually through the teaching of the Maggid, when he was born, uh, he sort of gave the Hasidim, uh, the people around him, he gave them two times to say l'chaim. He gave mashke, uh, some, uh, drink, alcoholic drink, uh, to say l'chaim and mezonos. And he was announced sort of at the time that at this point, a soul was born which is going to advocate only good for our brethren, for the Jewish people. That was the hallmark that the Ba'al Shem Tov said about Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev when he was born. He was a great genius. He was a, just an outstanding, uh, uh, scholar and, and giant. And in the year Taf Kuf Lamed Alef, which would make him thirty-one years old, um, he became the rabbi in the city of Pinsk. But that city was a fortress with many Misnagdim, many opponents of Hasidim, and they would torture him. They would cause him a lot, a lot of problems.

03:03 Speaker 2 Not-

03:03 Speaker 1 So the problems that rabbis have don't start from today. No. Over there, they, they would cause him because he would travel to the Maggid of Mezritch. He was his student. So they didn't like it. They were Misnagdim, so they were causing him a lot of trouble. In the year Taf Kuf Mem He, that was when he turned, it's easy, when he turned forty-five, uh, he actually moved, and he became a rabbi in the city of Berditchev, which he was able to lead in a relaxed and a very respectable way until the time of his passing, uh, Taf Kuf Ayin. So for twenty-five years, he was the rabbi of the city of Berditchev. Uh, Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev was also very close with the Alter Rebbe, and he would tremble when they would talk and mention the Alter Rebbe, uh, mention the Alter Rebbe. Uh, it is related that when the Tanya, which is of course the main, uh, book, uh, of Hasidism Chabad of Alter Rebbe published, so when it came to his hands, he got so excited, and he said, "This is, like, amazing how they are able to put such a great big God into such a small, tiny book." He said, you know, how they were able to do that. Uh, he also became a mechuten. They married their children. Grandchildren married. His grandson, the grandson of the Berditchever, which was the son of his daughter, uh, his grandson's name was Reb Yekusiel Zalman. He married, uh, the daughter, the Rebbetzin

04:55 Speaker 1 Bella, who was the daughter of the Mitteler Rebbe. So the Alter Rebbe's granddaughter for Reb Levi Yitzchok's grandson. And that wedding took place in the city of Zhitomir. It's known as the Zhitomir Chassan, the great-- the grand wedding, because at that wedding there were many great Rabbonim and many great giants. Uh, similar to what we see in the Chumash, it says he made a mishteh gadol, uh, a great, uh, party, and Rashi translates, "B'yom gomo," when Yitzchak was weaned, Avraham made this big party. So what does it mean, a big party? So, uh, Rashi, one comment Rashi says there was that the great people of the generation were participating in that party. So at this particular party, there were many, many great... So it's called the great wedding of Zhitomir. And during that wedding, uh, the Alter Rebbe, uh, said a Hasidic discourse, a ma'amer derush, and he concluded with the words, "Tzadik Hashem b'chol darachav." God is righteous in all of his ways, meaning that Hashem is referred to as a tzadik. But he says, Hashem is the tzadik, the one above. But Rabbi Levi Yitzchok, that's his mechuten, he's the tzadik below. He's the, the righteous of below. And the Alter Rebbe would praise his mechuten, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok, for his total self-sacrifice to always find a merit for every son and daughter of Israel. The Alter Rebbe would say that when a Jew says Tehillim, and he mentions the Rabbi of Berditchev, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Berditchev, so then those letters reach the

06:53 Speaker 1 room of merits, and that arouses in turn great mercy for the person and for his family members. After the passing-- After his passing, the Berditchever, the Alter Rebbe, traveled to Berditchev to offer his condolences, uh, to the family, and he also visited at the grave site, at the tziyun, of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok. Uh, the Rebbe writes in Likutey Sichos, the Rebbe writes over there, uh, that we know that there is an expression based on the name, uh, uh, coming from Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, that the Shabbos that precedes, uh, Tisha B'Av, it's known as the Shabbos Chazon. The Shabbos we read in the portion, the Chazon, Yeshayahu, the vision of Yeshayahu. Supposedly, it's a very sad-- It talks about the punishment of the Jewish people, the penalties, that they're going to go into exile. But the Berditchever, uh, went and he interpreted in the positive by saying that Shabbos Chazon, it's a Shabbos of vision, that every Jew is shown the third Beis Hamikdash that is in the future to be built. And the Rebbe said that this is something very special, that this was revealed and came to us. How do we know about this? Through the Berditchever. The Berditchever is the one that told us about that. And this is a, a, a theme that Chabad has taken and ran with. It's sort of a very important, uh, part and an important subject that we study and we discuss and we, we live with. But it's the Berditchever who revealed this. So

08:41 Speaker 1 the Rebbe writes there that the Berditchever had a special connection with the Alter Rebbe and with Chassidus Chabad, and that's why it is sort of incorporated and became part of it. It's also interesting to mention that the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, the wife of the Rebbe, uh, she is a seventh generation to Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Berditchev. She's a dire-- a direct descendant. Her grandfather, who was Rabbi Avraham Schneerson, yeah, he was Avraham Schneerson, that was the-- that was her father's mother. We read also the yahrtzeit, the Rebbe used to say Kaddish on Isru Chag because, uh, that was the day that the, uh, that she was killed by the, by the Germans, you know. So the Rebbe's, uh, her-- So her, um, um... The Rebbetzin's, uh, grandmother's father, who was known as Rabbi Avraham Schneerson from the city of Kishinev, he was a grandson, a great-grandson from the Rabbi Levi Yitzchok. So that's the other connection to Rabbi Levi Yitzchok, and his interment, his place of-- resting place is in the city of Berditchev. And there's also known that when the Alter Rebbe was arrested, uh, he sent a, um, a, a note to Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Berditchev that he should pray for, for him. And, um, at the time, they asked what is the, uh, if he know-- if he said the name, because when you make a Misheberach or you pray for somebody, you wanna know the name and the mother's name. So he asked the shaliach, he asked him, "Does he know what

10:35 Speaker 1 the name of the Alter Rebbe's mother was?" But I guess in the confusion, they didn't know. They didn't know, and he didn't give it. And he actually asked the Rebbe, Berditchever asked whether the Rebbe sound-- sounded confused when he was taken to, uh, to the prison, or he was relaxed. He said he was a little bit-- He, he remembered to take along the slippers, so that means that his mind was still, was still there. But in any event, Berditchever opened up a Chumash. He was trying to figure out, and he says-- he opened up to the words, and it says, "Shever." The words- The word shever is in the Parshas Meketz. The word shever means that there's food. Uh, there was like, uh, in Egypt when they were having the hunger, the famine over there. So it says that Yaakov saw that there was shever b'Mitz-b'Mitzrayim. So the word shever, the Berditchever said, is an abbreviation of Schneur, Schneur Zalman, we know his name, ben Rivkah, because shin, beis, resh. It's Schneur Zalman ben Rivkah. So that's how they figured out. And, um, also- What is shever b'Mitzrayim? Huh? What? Yeah, shever b'Mitzrayim. Yeah. So the point is b'Mitzrayim, meaning in, in, uh, incarceration, sort of, that the Alter Rebbe was in trouble. And, and of course, eventually we see that, um, the Alter Rebbe was, uh, freed and, uh... But the, the Ba- Berditchever suffered a lot, but he always stood by the side of the, of the Rebbe. It was a little bit

12:11 Speaker 1 of a different style. It wasn't the Chassidus Chabad style. Um, and there was also other stories about a chassid that we mentioned before, about the Rebbe was, uh, uh, who was s- who was supposed to go on first, but they were giving honor each, each other, and, uh, the Alter Rebbe, uh, and the Re-- the, the, the Berditchever, and then they figured it out, but that's other stories. But that's, that's