1 Cheshvan 5642 (October 24, 1881) – Birthday of Rebbetzin Nechama Dina, Wife of the Previous Rebbe

00:00 Speaker 1 Yemei Chabad for the first day of Cheshvan, um, in the year taf reish mem beis, um, so that puts it a hundred and seventy, uh, years ago, hundred and seventy-two years ago. Um, uh, I mean, that's a hundred and thirty-two years ago. Um, that's the day that the Rebbetzin Nechama Dina, who was the wife of the previous, uh, Lubavitcher Rebbe, Reb Yosef Yitzchak. Her name is Nechama Dina. Uh, that's the day that she was born. You find in Chabad there are many names Nechama Dina, named after the, the Rebbetzin, the wife of the previous Rebbe. After the, uh, wife of the Rebbe, uh, passed away, uh, Chaya Mushka, then you have a, a whole bunch of Chaya Mushkas. But before the, uh, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, then you have a whole bunch of Chanas, uh, because that was the Rebbe's mother's name. And then be-- also you have the Rebbetzin Nechama Dina. So you have many, many Chabad families that have a Nechama Dina in the girls' names. But in any event, the Rebbetzin Nechama Dina was born on the first day of Cheshvan in the year taf reish mem beis, and, um, she was born in the city of Kishinev, and, um, her father was Avraham Schneersohn, uh, who-- Reb Avraham Schneersohn, who was the son of the Rebbe Yisroel Noyech of Nezhin, known as the Maharim. We mentioned several times that the Tzemach Tzedek, the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, had seven sons. Each one of his sons became, um, a Rebbe in their own right.

01:56 Speaker 1 The youngest one, the Rebbe Maharash, the fourth Chabad Rebbe, became the Chabad Rebbe. He remained in the city of Lubavitch, and he continued the Chabad dynasty directly. But the other sons of the Tzemach Tzedek, they sort of branched off in other communities, and notwithstanding the fact that they branched off, but they still had a strong connection to Chabad because the teaching of the Hasidis came down from the Tzemach Tzedek and the Alter Rebbe, so it was still sort of a branch of the Hasidis Chabad. Uh, and, uh, the Maharim, that is Reb Yisroel Noyech, was one of-- that was the second one of the Tzemach Tzedek's sons. Uh, he became a Rebbe in the city, city of Nezhin, and he had a son whose name was Reb Avraham, Reb Avraham Schneersohn, and his daughter, Nechama Dina, eventually, uh, married, uh, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, and she married him at the age of sixteen years old. Uh, that's when she got married to the previous Rebbe.

03:09 Speaker 2 And he was-

03:10 Speaker 1 Now, of course... Uh, no.

03:12 Speaker 2 No, he was not with them?

03:13 Speaker 1 No. Um, the, um, uh, Rebb- the, um, you know, the previous Rebbe had a very turbulent and, uh, very difficult, uh, life. He lived in a very, uh-- times that were very difficult for the Jewish people. Uh, being a wife of the Rebbe wasn't easy, uh, at, uh, at that time. Of course, the Rebbetzin, the Rebbe's wife, our Rebbe's wife, is a daughter. Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka is a daughter of the Rebbetzin Nechama Dina and the previous Rebbe. And certainly many, um, moves from, as we've studied, from Russia, being persecuted over there and eventually, you know, going out into, uh, Latvia and then from there to, to Poland and from Poland itself to Otwock and then back to Warsaw, then back to Latvia, and then finally back to the, um, United-- then finally to the United States. And, uh, the, uh-- physically, it was an impossible life for them. It was very, very difficult. But, uh, I guess the last years of her life, she lived in, in, uh, in, in New York. And she, um, she's actually in the cemetery, uh, where the Ohel is, where the holy resting places of the previous Rebbe and the Rebbe. Right opposite there is a woman's section. Uh, and the, uh, Rebbetzin is buried over there. Her gravesite is over there too. And, um, at many, uh, um, I guess, uh, special, uh, zechusim, uh, privileges to her for all the great things that she and her husband, they both contributed to, to Jewish life and, uh, to

05:11 Speaker 1 Hasidim, and, uh, it was like, uh, a life with Mesirus Nefesh.