The Rebbe Rashab - Part I

00:00 As we just commemorated, the Yemai Led is the birth date of the Rebbe Rashab, the fifth Rebbe of Chabad. The abbreviation is Rab Sholin Duber. And he was born Taf Rech Chaf Alef, late 1860, in the city of Lubavitch. We will, in honor of this, begin a new series focusing on various aspects of the Rebbe Rashab and events in his lifetime and his writings. Rebbe Rashab, as mentioned, was born on the twentieth of Cheshvan in the city of Lubavitch. He married his cousin, the Rebetzen Sternesoda, who was the daughter of Admurabi Yeshev Yitzchak Navruch, the brother of the Rebbe Marash. Rebbe Marash was the father of the Rebbe Rashab, so basically it was his first cousin. And the chasana took place Metzoi Shabbos on the eleventh of Elul, Taf Rech Lamad He, 1875. In the year Taf Rech Mem, at the age of nineteen years old, Rebbe Marash grooms his son, the Rebbe Rashab, gets him involved in public affairs, which meant traveling to very important meetings in the government in Russia to oversee and avoid pogroms or other decrees that potentially were gonna take place against the Yidden in the different cities in Russia. In the year Taf Rech Mem Gimel, after the passing, after the hisdalkus of the Rebbe Marash, Rebbe Rashab begins guiding Hasidim and accepts the post of Rebbe. In the year Taf Rech Nun Beis, 1892, endeavors to have the expulsion from Russia, from specifically Moscow, rescinded, and effects a postponement until the summer. Provides substantial financial subsidies to enable

02:28 those expelled to settle in new places. In the year Taf Rech Nun Gimel, 1893, the Rebbe Rashab re-establishes the Committee of Communal Leaders in Petersburg. In the year Taf Rech Nun Daled, 1894, the Rebbe Rashab visits the settlements in the Kherson province. In 1897, during the Sheva Brachos, after the wedding of the previous Rebbe, the Rebbe Rashab announces a surprise announcement that he is establishing a yeshiva. The yeshiva, about a year and a month later, received its name as Temcheit Mimim. This was when the Rebbe Rashab was at Hakofes, at the seventh Hakofe, as the Rabbeim would be honored with the Sefer Teda on the first Hakofe and the seventh Hakofe. When he was up to the words Temcheit Mimim, the Rebbe Rashab announces the yeshiva will be called Temcheit Mimim. These yeshivas are blossoming all over the world up till this date. In the year Taf Rech Nun Ches, 1898, he travels in the public interest to Kiev and Odessa. The year 1899, he expresses his negative views regarding certain parties amongst the Yidden in Russia. In the year Taf Rech Samech Alef, 1901, he visits Germany, France, and Holland on communal concerns. In the year Taf Rech Samech Beis, with the assistance of the philanthropic brothers Polyakov and with the help of ICA, the ICA is an organization that helped in regards to the activities of the Rebbe Rashab. He establishes a factory for weaving and spinning wool in Dubrovna, which was in the Mogilev province. Some two thousand Yidden earn ample livelihoods

04:56 working there. In the year Taf Rech Samech Daled, 1904, the Rebbe Rashab establishes committees to send matzah to Jewish soldiers in the Far East. This was the Russo-Japanese War, and the Rebbe Rashab was making sure that the Yidden should be able to receive matzah for Pesach. The year Taf Rech Samech Vav, 1906, successfully endeavors in Petersburg to halt the pogroms. In the year Taf Rech Samech Zayin, 1907, he prepares a detailed program entitled The Union of the Observant Jews. It's called the Isakhdus HaYireim, and conveys it to Harav Rabbi Breuer and the learned God-fearing Harav Yankiv Rosenheim. In the year Taf Rech Samech He, 1908, he participates in the meeting of communal leaders of Germany in Berlin. In the year Tafresh Samachtes 1909, at the Kerowitz Conference, he announces his withdrawal from a certain party that he did not agree with their policies. In the year Tafresh Ayin Aleph 1911, he establishes a Yeshiva Teda Samas in Hevren, which was in Eretz Yisrael, and he sent a mashpia and a proximate minyan of bocherim that should learn there. And this went on until World War I, and then conditions did not allow it to continue. And eventually, it was moved over to Yerushalayim, where the Yeshiva Teda Samas today is existing and growing. In the year Tafresh Ayin Vav, late 1915, on the 17th of Cheshvan, he leaves Lubavitch and moves to Rostov, which is located on the River Don. The reason was, it was because of World War I conditions, and the Jewish leaders

07:22 were in danger, and therefore there was a need to move out of Lubavitch. This was after 102 years that the Rabbeim, the Nesi Chabad, the leaders of Chabad resided in Lubavitch from the Mitel Rebbe till the Rebbe Rashab. In the year Tafresh Ayin Vav 1916, during the summer, he establishes Yeshivas in Gruzia, and he sent bocherim, Chassidim, as shluchim there to set up Yeshivas to educate the communities in Georgia, which is Gruzia. In the year Tafresh Ayin Zayin 1917, he succeeds in securing legal exemption from military service for 2,382 religious functionaries, Rabbonim, Chazzonim, Shochtim, etc. In the year Tafresh Pei 1920, Meitzoi Shabbos, Parshas Vayikra, evening of Sunday, the 2nd of Nisan, at 3.30 a.m., he was nostalgic, he passed away, and is interred in Rostov on the River Don. As it's mentioned that for 20 years, he was interred in one location, and then when the status of that Beis Achayim, that cemetery, was changing to a different status, so there was a need to carry him over to a new location. And those who were present at this procedure testified that the Rebbe Rashab, after 20 years, the body was whole as the day of his passing. The Rebbe Rashab had one son, the previous Rebbe, Kveit Kedushe Sadmur Horav Rabbi Yessef Yitzchak. Im Echad Hashem, in the upcoming installment, we will discuss an overview of the Rebbe Rashab's life as the previous Rebbe wrote it up right after the istalkos of his father around 1920.