Tes & Yud Kislev: The Mitteler Rebbe - Part Two

00:00 Speaker 1 10 Kislev and Kislev are basically the dates of major, uh, more than major events in the Mitteler Rebbe's life. 10 Kislev, the Mitteler Rebbe was born, Tet Kuf Lamed Heh. That's 1774-3. And 54 years later, in the year 1827, the Mitteler Rebbe was Nistalik on this day, 10 Kislev.

00:32 Speaker 2 His birthday?

00:33 Speaker 1 So he was born and Nistalik the same very, very same day, 54 years later. Kislev marks another date, a date when he was released from prison a year before he was Nistalik. That is late 1826. We'll discuss some major events in the Mitteler Rebbe's life based on what the Rebbe states, uh, in various publications. In addition, I think also in the beginning of our Yam Yem where the Rebbe writes major events, uh, during his lifetime, initiatives, et cetera. So the first thing is of his biography. The Mitteler Rebbe was born the ninth of Kislev Tet Kuf Lamed Heh, as we mentioned. In the year Tet Kuf Mem Hez, he was 14 years old. We don't know exactly the date. He got married. The Rabbeim got married teenage age, um, early teenage years. Um, the Alter Rebbe got married when he was 15. The Mitteler Rebbe, 14. The Mach Tzedek, 14. The Rebbe Maharash, 14. The Rebbe Rashab, almost 15. The Rebbe Rash-- uh, Ma- uh, the previous Rebbe, 17, and the Rebbe, 27. So in the year Tet Kuf Mem Hez, the Mitteler Rebbe got married. His wife, the Rebbetzin, was a daughter of a very... A, a Hasid, not a rich person. He was a Hasid of the Alter Rebbe, and he had hardships marrying off his children. They were all daughters, and he needed to give, uh, alimony and, uh, nadam, and he didn't have any money to furnish them. When he came to the Alter Rebbe and he told the Alter Rebbe

02:43 Speaker 1 that no one wants to make a shidduch with him, the Alter Rebbe says, "I will make a shidduch with you." Mitteler Rebbe. As soon as that happened, everybody jumped in. In the year Tet Kuf Nun Alef, which was when he was about 16, 17 years old, his father gives over to him the guidance to be a mashpia on young Hasidim, which means the Hasidim would discuss things with him, different matters with him. They would have a... I wouldn't say yechidas because the, it was the lifetime of the Alter Rebbe, and he would advise them. There is a famous story that happened when one of them once came to the Mitteler Rebbe, and, uh, the Mitteler Rebbe answered the door, and the Mitteler Rebbe said, "The person you're looking for is not here now." And he's thinking to himself, this Hasid, this is in real life. This is not a dream. What does it mean he's not here? So the Mitteler Rebbe answered, "You're not looking for my flesh and bone. You're looking for my mind and heart, and I'm somewhere else now," which means I'm not available. Which actually this gives us a very interesting lesson, that when a person sometimes comes to another person and he wants to talk over a serious matter... So there's two ways of approaching, although there is no two ways to approach it. There's only one way to approach it, but sadly, there's also a, a, a, a different option that some people take because they're perhaps selfish on

04:20 Speaker 1 their part. One is you listen in, you make sure you give the person undivided attention. The other option, which is wrongfully done, is he's thinking to himself, "The other person wants to talk, let him talk. Let him talk himself. Let him talk off of his heart. Let him have an impression that I'm listening, and that's it." So the Mitteler Rebbe did not take that option. The Mitteler Rebbe felt the right option is you have to be sincere, you have to be involved, undivided attention to w-with whom you are speaking. The Rebbe once used this story by Farbrengen. The Rebbe came into Farbrengen. It was Shabbos Mevorchim, Sivan Taf Shin Yod Gimel, 1953, and the Rebbe began the Farbrengen with this story. And then the Rebbe said, "It's Shabbos. It's Mevorchim HaChodesh. We're benching the Chodesh of Sivan, and the people that are here now are not here." In other words, the Rebbe is like referring to that the audience is somewhere else. Okay, now we go on weiter. In the year Tet Kuf Ayin Gimel, that's late 1812, as a result of the war with Napoleon, Chodesh Teves, the Alt- the Alter Rebbe was Nistalik. He was Nistalik on the way. They took him to... He was Nistalik in Piena. They took him to Haditch. It was a very bitter, uh, time period. The Alter Rebbe was running for four months from Napoleon. Chayei Shana on the 18th of Elul, 1813, Taf Kuf Heh Ayin Gimel, the Mitteler Rebbe settles in Lubavitch. Originally, during the

06:18 Speaker 1 wartime, the Alter Rebbe had planned to settle in Kremenchuk, and he sent the Mitteler Rebbe to check out the place. But once this darkness took place, plans changed, and the Mitteler Rebbe got offered the city of Lubavitch to settle there. They'll rebuild it for him, and he took up the offer. He accepted it, and he moved into Lubavitch, and the Rebbeim lived there for 102 years. In Taf Kuf Heh Ayin Dalet 1814, Friediker Rebbe sets up a board to rebuild the Jewish cities in Russia. Many cities were destroyed because of the war, and the Mitteler Rebbe set up a board of fundraising, and they were actually helping people, um, uh, rebuilding and, uh, rev- r- revivering after the, this whole war that made big damage, financial damage, chulluh, to Russia. In the years 1816 and '17, the Mitteler Rebbe sets up a Yishuv in Hebron. That is when the Mitteler Rebbe encouraged, urged Hasidim from Tzvast, Tveria to settle in Hebron, and that's how old the Yishuv Chabad in Hebron is, 100, 208 years. At this point, it's, uh, an old Yishuv. The Mitteler Rebbe bought a, uh, shul there, as we spoke in the shiur, Ben D'gir to Hebron, the shul Avram, uh, Avraham Avinu shul, and he-- and later his family. Different occasions, groups went to Hebron from Russia. Originally, it was one group that moved from Tveria to, uh, uh, to, Tzvast Hebron. Another group was moved from Lubavitch. Mitteler Rebbe's three children, the Mitteler Rebbe's family, one of them was the

08:34 Speaker 1 famous Rebbetzin Menuchah Rochel. She settled in Hebron. She was there half of her life. She lived about 89 years old. Um, half of her life, 45, 44, right in the middle, that's when she settled in Hebron. It was the time of Tzemach Tzedek, and she received his berachos. Late 1826, the Mitteler Rebbe was arrested. There were libels from different angles that were reported to the government, false libels, and the government fall- fell for them because they felt it's something which is rebelling against the tsar, and therefore they arrested him. They called him in for interrogation, chulluh, and he was imprisoned, uh, till everything was checked out. One came from the Mitteler Rebbe's mother's family, who were not Hasidim. They were envious of the Mitteler Rebbe, that the Mitteler Rebbe, envious from him that he, uh, was conducting himself as a king, gadol, as far as they're concerned, and he was, like, building a shul as big as the Beis Hamikdash which didn't make any sense. Anybody who looks at that space over there, it's impossible that they're Beis Hamikdash. And, uh, on another-- from another angle came another, a, a person, uh, uh, a very low-life person who was a nephew of one of the board members who were helping rebuild the Jewish cities. One of the Hasidim who was helping rebuild the Jewish cities was Rabbi Pinchas Reizes. He was a chaser by the Alter Rebbe. There's a whole story about him separately. And he had-- did not have children. Sadly, did not have

10:27 Speaker 1 children. He had a nephew, but that nephew was a real gangster, and when he saw there was a contract of money, he wanted the money. So he told the Mitteler Rebbe that he, he is the lo- lone survivor. Mitteler Rebbe says, "It's not your uncle's money. It's not my money. It's public money. It's money for, uh, to help re- revitalize the, the, the, the, the settlements, that Yidden should have parnasah, livelihood, everything." He decided to get back at the Mitteler Rebbe, and in one of the numbers, he wrote a zero, added a zero, which means that Mitteler Rebbe was collecting money, making trouble. So the Mitteler Rebbe was arrested right after Simchas Torah, and he was taken to Vitebsk. It wasn't in Peterburg like by the Alter Rebbe, but Vitebsk, and he was there till Tishki Sliv. Tishki Sliv was on a Shabbos, the day of his yomim tovim, and he had permission to have a minyan every day, up to 20 people every tefillah. And you can figure out the math once you know the, the, the formula. And Shabbos, 50 people by the ma'amar. He would say a ma'amar every Shabbos. We have to understand, this is not like the Alter Rebbe's time. It's not like the previous Rebbe's time. It was Hasidim who demanded one thing. When they came to Professor Habenthal, who was very close with the Mitteler Rebbe and was very close with the, uh, uh, with the government, very respected. When the Hasidim came to him- They said one

12:14 Speaker 1 thing. They asked for one request. What was the request? We want that our Rebbe should have permission to deliver Hasidic discourses in jail. He looked at them like wild, and... But he kept it in his mind. A while later, he got back to them, and he said, "Yes, it's approved, and these are the conditions: twenty people by a minyan, uh, three times a day, and fifty people, uh, by the ma'amar." And this meant basically that, um, the total of about, uh, from the beginning of Cheshvan till Kislev, about four or five weeks. So you have the Moshiach seven times. Um, so you have the Moshiach, uh, um... You had, uh, seven times twenty-one is a hundred and forty, which means you have, um, three times a day a minyan. Seven times three is twenty-one. Twenty-one times twenty is a few hundred already. Then you have a ma'amar twenty people, and that's how it went on from week to week. First Kislev was Shabbos. Shabbos, he got the news that he's free. Can't go anywhere. He immediately sat down, started to say a ma'amar, "Atah Echad V'shimcha Echad." Middle of the ma'amar, he said, "Make a space, pnu makom, der Tate idu, the Alter Rebbe is here." And which means he came from a higher world, and the Mitteler Rebbe continued the ma'amar. So basically, this is the story benegei at the singin. The moser, the, uh, the one that, uh, uh, um, mosered, put a libel against the Mitteler Rebbe, one of them, who was

14:22 Speaker 1 this, uh, nephew of this Hasid. He was at a hearing, and suddenly he caught himself, put his foot in his mouth, and he said, "Rebbe." So the Mitteler Rebbe says, "Give a look." He tells the government, the officials. "Here he, he calls me who knows what, and here he acknowledges that I'm his Rebbe." And that's when he lost face, and he just slipped down completely, and the Mitteler Rebbe was released. Although the papers, the, the, the claims against the Mitteler Rebbe were not officially cleared till after the histalkus of the Mitteler Rebbe, which was, the Mitteler Rebbe was histalik eighteen twenty-seven, so it was eighteen thirty-two. It was found in the papers from the Russian government in the last thirty years that he was, uh, that's when he was cleared. Then came a new thing. A kiddush HaMelech, a, a order from the government to draft young Jewish children for the Tsar's army. Eight nine-year-old kids were schlepped off the streets in the Tsar's army for twenty, thirty years. Many of them went alkidush Hashem, jumped into lakes just to, not to convert. Others, uh, uh, held out. It was a bitter gezera. The Mitteler Rebbe went to his father's resting place, to the Alter Rebbe in Haditch, and asked to be mevatel gezera, and he also delivered them a discourse. On the way back from Haditch to Lubavitch, he passed Nezin. He got sick. He was not able to continue to Lubavitch, and after a few days, he was histalik on Wednesday, first Kislev,

16:15 Speaker 1 and he was interred, interred in, in Nezin. That's where his Ohel Hakodesh is. Uh, it was the night of the histalkus, and the doctors were ready to give up, and one doctor said to another, "Wait, give it a chance. He's laying there like no sign of life." So they said, "Give him permission to speak." As soon as they whispered into there that he has permission to speak, he immediately sat up. A whole new chaya started to come. He started to speak for hours. Hours. At one point, he said he wants to speak about the ketz, the time of Mashiach. And Hasidim were pushing around, and the hat of one of them fell on the Mitteler Rebbe. The Mitteler Rebbe said this is a siman that he has to start talking about that, and instead, he started another ma'amar, which was Ki Imcha Mecher Chayim, and he was histalik by the word Chayim. Like the Rashbi who was histalik by the pasuk Ki Shamti VaHashem Asah Biroch HaChayim. His Svarim. The Mitteler Rebbe wrote many Svarim in addition to delivering Hasidic discourses, and he published the Svarim in his lifetime. Rarely that we find by any of the Rabbeim that they publish their Svarim in their lifetime, but the Mitteler Rebbe's an exception. He also wrote Halachik, um, Svarim on Even HaEzer, which are marital laws, and Yeda Aya, also different, different laws, prohibitions, v'cholo. The Mitteler Rebbe would say ma'amarim which would go for hours. There were times that he said ma'amarim for sixteen, seventeen

18:02 Speaker 1 hours. And, uh, the Alter... Mitteler Rebbe's grandson, the Rab-- the Mariel, Tzemach Tzedek's son, he would be the stander on who he would lean. And the said my morem and the, and the, and Hasidim, his Hasidim are very into it. That was their whole life, and they would ‹zover› the my morem. They would ‹zover› not only the my morem, but as the Rebbe once said, I think in a ‹sicha›, even the cough between also. And now we go on to a picture of him. The Mitteler Rebbe is the only one that there's no picture existing of him. So the Rebbe says, ‹Mikol nasiy Chabad›, from all the nasiy Chabad there's a picture through which you can, um, picture for ourself the image of the tzadik. Besides the Mitteler Rebbe, there's no picture left. So the Rebbe says, ‹Bemeila›, since when a person learns something, he has to picture like as this person, the original source who delivered this, is standing in front of him. How could you do it if you're not-- you don't have a picture? You have no idea what he looked like. So the Rebbe gives a very simple solution. ‹Vaabir bazea›, the Rebbe says, ‹Yodu hamayim bazal›, that through ‹limud haTorah› we accomplish ‹asiyat hamlekchim›. Through learning Torah, we connect with the Aibishter. Why? Because ‹Ano nafshik service Yehovish›, the Aibishter has en-enscribed himself and placed himself, enclosed himself in Torah. Therefore, through ‹limud haTorah› we take the Aibishter himself. So comes the question now, how do we picture the Aibishter?

19:41 Speaker 1 So the answer is the Aibishter doesn't have any image, doesn't have a body, doesn't have the image of a body. In the same way that you connect with the Aibishter, the same way you connect with the tzadik, with the Mitteler Rebbe. So this is what the Rebbe continues in the nef-- next column, that since tzadikim are compared to the Creator, ‹Yesh leimar› we can say that the ‹Inyam baal hashamua imeit kenegdi›, that the, the source of this Torah, the person who delivered it originally standing right in front of us, is accomplished through delving into the Torah of the tzadik. Since the tzadik has put himself in Torah, enclosed himself there even without a picture, similar to the Aibishter, that we connect with the Aibishter even if we don't have his image, because there's no image from him. ‹Ein le guf ve'ein ledmusa guf›. Doesn't have a body, doesn't have an image of a body. Now we go on to the Mitteler Rebbe's Kapelye. Kapelye means choir. The Mitteler Rebbe himself did not compose Nigunim, did not conduct with the choir. It was a group of Hasidim, Lubavitch and others, who would compose Nigunim. The Friediker Rebbe says the reason why these Nigunim were composed was to keep the Mitteler Rebbe from ‹kles hanefesh›, which means from expiring, from expiration. The Mitteler Rebbe, because of his ‹tvekos› and meditation, which was considered a big exertion... It says when the Mitteler Rebbe would think in Kipper between the, the, the tefillas, sweat would come down from his

21:11 Speaker 1 head, although he didn't do any physical energy. So the reason was because the Mitteler Rebbe would sometimes reach the level of expiration, ‹kles hanefesh›, that the neshamah would leave the guf. Therefore, they needed to sing Nigunim which are considered ‹rotzi veshuv›. Some of these Nigunim are the Kapelye Nigun is the famous nigun, that's the four parts, which actually I just saw, I think the last hour, the Living Torah of this week, the Rebbe discusses that nigun with someone in Yechidus, with a musician. And the Rebbe says it has different parts and different moods and very deep, and, uh, deeply connected with the soul. And, uh, very interesting how the Rebbe explains it to this person. The Friediker Rebbe explains the four stanzas in the nigun, the Kapelye Nigun, which is called Kapelye Nigun, that it's a war with the evil inclination. It's a, a talk from the Friediker Rebbe in nineteen forty-three, Tishri Gimel Pesach. Another nigun of the Kapelye is called ‹Rotzi Veshuv›. And guess what? This nigun is a, the Duchaning nigun. The nigun they sing by Duchaning is called ‹Rotzi Veshuv›. That is the nigun that they played by the Kapelye. In addition, there are Nigunim the Hasidim themselves sang, ‹Nezer Yitzhak›, ‹Ano Avdo›, uh, Nigunim that Hasidim, uh, from the Mitteler Rebbe sang, use these Nigunim traveling ‹vkholum›. Now, getting back to the ‹svarim›, the Mitteler Rebbe wrote many ‹svarim› and published them. The Rebbe says this shows ‹Al hafatzas hamayones›, spreading the wellsprings of Hasidism that it should reach out

23:04 Speaker 1 everywhere. We're gonna quote from some of the ‹inyanim› of the ‹svarim› on the topic of Torah, tefillah, and mitzvos. On the inyan of Torah, in Torah there are two levels. There's the inner part of Torah, and there's the external part of Torah. The inner part of Torah is in an obvious way revealing the infinite level of Godliness, which is literally infinite. The external part of Torah, over there we only see the external level revelation. So in Torah, the, what the Mitteler Rebbe wants to stress is two things. On one hand, he stresses that the re- concealed part of Tayla- Torah has a revealed part of the infinite revelation. On the other hand, the Mitteler Rebbe stresses that the revealed part of Torah also has an infinite revelation, but it's found by only neshamas who are learning Torah for the sake of Torah, and therefore they merited to Ruach Hakodesh and to Nevuah, to prophecy, like the Rashbi, Rabbi Akiva, and Hillel Hazaken. Going on now to tefillah. The Mitteler Rebbe writes that tefillah is compared to the spinal cord. In the same sense that the spinal cord is not one of the two hundred and forty-eight organs. Spinal cord of a person, although you would think two hundred and forty-eight organs, spinal cord, for sure. Not at all. And the reason is because of its uniqueness that it's so general and it generates life into all, uh, the, uh, organs and the nerve system, everything goes through there. Therefore, it is not broken down as

25:13 Speaker 1 an individual organ.Likewise, the Inyan of tefillah. Although according to some opinions, it is not one of the two hundred and forty-eight commandments, nevertheless, it is something that distributes, draws down Chayas energy in fulfillment of all the mitzvahs. In other words, tefillah gives the koach in the beginning of the day to fulfill Torah mitzvahs with a very special zest and fervor. While we are talking about tefillah, we'll mention from letters of the Mitteler Rebbe speaking how a person should conduct himself during tefillah. So the Mitteler Rebbe says, "To notify in my name to every per- every city a minyan, the close one and the, uh, far ones, they should make a strong resolution not to talk during davening from the time the chazan begins. And they should place, appoint a supervisor who is trustworthy that he will not show favoritism to anybody and will be on top of this. Because I can't describe in writing," the Mitteler Rebbe says, "the great aggravation that I am suffering when I see what goes on by davening, people walking around, speaking nonsense and worldly matters, and ex-exclusively in the time when the chazan is davening. Young and old are walking together and no yoke of any fear of heaven." No yirat shamayim. So the Mitteler Rebbe concludes, "Will Hashem accept such a tefillah?" He says, "Have mercy on your soul. My beloved, my brother, my friends, be ashamed of your deeds." This is a letter from the Mitteler Rebbe in his time. Over the years, it comes in

27:09 Speaker 1 very handy. And then he writes further, a little a few pages further, I don't know if it's the same letter or another letter, that therefore repent in a sincere way, full-heartedly to daven from a siddur an hour or more, not to be yetzer, just mumbling lip service, shaking the, uh... That the lips are moving and you don't even know what you're saying. Sometimes it is a matzih that you would never believe that in his time this already was taking place. The person starts davening, doesn't use a siddur, knows everything by heart, and b'meheleh starts moving his lips, and as soon as he stops, he knows he finished davening. In other words, he doesn't need a siddur. He just... Everything is lip service. And he doesn't know himself what he's saying. That's what the Mitteler Rebbe says. The Rebbe Rashab also writes such a letter in his time. It seems like it was a big problem. And you don't hear his voice. The Rebbe, the, the Mitteler Rebbe says when a person raises his voice, it brings out a kavana. And then the Mitteler Rebbe says don't be concerned about these makas who are thinking of walking back and forth, that we already were nesaydah, there was already an inspiration to stop this thing of walking by davening, but everybody should be standing in one place and daven with a liveliness, tfilas Shmoneh Esreh that is said, recited quietly. Now we go on weiter, mitzvahs. Through mitzvahs, we, we draw down the ratzon of Hashem. A

28:41 Speaker 1 mitzvah needs to be done because this is the, the King has commanded us, Hashem has commanded us. The taamei ha-mitzvot, the reasons for the mitzvahs, that's the second segment. That's an additional segment. That is the feature to underst- to have intention, uh, meditation by davening, kavanah, so that the reason for the mitzvah helps for the kavanahs of mitzvahs. A pisgam of the Mitteler Rebbe. The Mitteler Rebbe said to someone on yechidus, "When one person speaks with another in inyanim of avodas Hashem and they learn together, it is two nefesh elokis, two godly souls and one natural soul." But why? Why exactly? So the Rebbe explains, "Ein adam cheyta v'lei lei." A person doesn't sin if he can't benefit from it. So b'meheleh, when he is sitting with someone else, it's only one person who has this issue of the nefesh, uh, nefesh abahas, nefesh ativis. Right. Because he is, he is dealing with one who is having that issue from his nefesh abahas. So he's not... It's not... So b'meheleh, he hasn't, he doesn't, you have... He doesn't have to deal with his. He is sitting with someone else and helping the other person overcome. And therefore, because the nefesh abahas is not interested in making the second person sin, so it's just one and one, and then there's the friend who helps him in avodah to overcome this trial. Now, the question over here is also why is it nefesh ativis? Why don't you use nefesh abahas? Chassidus Chabad is always nefesh abahas. And

30:24 Speaker 1 the Alter Rebbe, Tzemach Tzedek was asked that question. Tzemach Tze-- And they, they said to Tzemach Tzedek, "The Rambam himself uses nefesh ativis. Why is it that Chabad uses nefesh abahas, the animal soul?" So Tzemach Tzedek answered, if I'm remembering correctly, that, "My Zayde, my grandfather, has identified the animal s- the natural soul as an animal soul." So the question is, why does the Rebbe use the, uh, nefesh ativis? The answer is the date. The date, ma yan yam, is 20 Teves. 20 Teves is the yahrtzeit of the Rambam The male that the Rebbe uses, davka hosting the Rambam, the Rebbe chooses a pisgam from the previous Rebbe that says over there natural soul. Now we go to pisgamin quotes from the Rabbeim Benegia the Mitteler Rebbe. What they said about the Mitteler Rebbe. Tzemach Tzedek, his son-in-law and nephew said that if they would cut by my father-in-law finger, it wouldn't be blood, but chasidus. The Mitteler Rebbe's life was chasidus. Tzemach Tzedek also said that from the time of the passing of Rashbi, that he was nostalgic by the word chayim, ki shom tziva Hashem es habrocha chayim. He did not see such a nostalgia till the Mitteler Rebbe, ki im cham meker chayim. The Rebbe Rashab said, in my, uh, uh, ledaiti, where it says, al nechi emet, that Mesharabeinu standing between the Eibishter and you and the Jewish nation, the Yidden, he said this was the Mitteler Rebbe. The Mitteler, he was the mediary connecting Yidden with the Eibishter. And this

32:11 Speaker 1 could also be another pirush why it's called Mitteler, the middle one. There's a few different pirushim for that. There's one pirush, I would say the word from the Rebbe Rashab. And the Rebbe Rashab con- con- continues and concludes, what the Mitteler Rebbe gave chasidim, no one gave. Another pirush why the Mitteler Rebbe is called Mitteler, because there were chasidim who were from the Alter Rebbe to the Tzemach Tzedek. From the Alter Rebbe to the Tzemach Tzedek was 15 years. That's it. Mitteler Rebbe's nasius was very short. The male, when chasidim needed to identify the Rebbes, who they're talking about, so they would say their Alter, their Mitteler, their Heintiker. Their Alter is the Alter Rebbe, the middle one is the Mitteler Rebbe, the Heintiker today, today's Rebbe. When we were children, we, I mean, that's how, how, how we heard it then. The Friediker Rebbe and the Heintiker Rebbe. We referred to the Rebbe as the Heintiker Rebbe. Later, it became, with the new generation, it became the Rebbe. But this was the way we referred to Alter, like the chasidim from them. The Friediker Rebbe said that the Mitteler Rebbe demanded from younger light. They should understand in the attribute of kesar like they understand their own five fingers. How much a person's bechal understand the anatomy of their body. It's not just five fingers, it's joints with meises. It's called yad because there's 14 joints. So b'meile, this is how the Mitteler Rebbe wanted. They should relate to kesar like they relate to

33:49 Speaker 1 their own fingers. The Rebbe said that by the Mitteler Rebbe, we find something that our sages tell us that the Eibishter counts, calculates the years of tzaddikim from day to day. The Mitteler Rebbe was born tes Kislev. He was nostalgic on that very same day, 54 years later. So there we see b'golui in an obvious manner how the Mitteler Rebbe was poshed. The Eibishter calculated exactly to the day. Customs that the Rabbeim had, the Rebbe Maharash would say chasidus in Yud Kislev to his grandfather. So he would say a maimer. In Tov Rishmam, he farbreng twice, the night before Yud Kis- Yud Kislev, the night before and the daytime. When he sat down to farbreng the night before, he said, "Hein praved the simcha di eynikel." Today, the simcha is commemorated by di eynikel. Morgen ve der eynikel praven. What's the difference between der and di? Those that know Yiddish. Di means female. The Rebbetsin Rivkesh, she's also a granddaughter. So the Rebbe Maharash said today, di is Rebbetsin is also farbrenging with the women. Morgen ve zayn der. Like you say zi, ze, er, zi, man, woman, er lemaushal is a man. A woman is zi. So when we say di eynikel with a Yud, that's loshon nekaveh, female. And when saying, uh, der, der eynikel, that means er. So he's referring to himself. Tes Kislev, the Rebbe Rashab would say the last kaddish after the three tefillahs, just the last kaddish. On one occasion, the Rebbe Rashab said they should learn Mishnayos with

35:35 Speaker 1 the perakim that begin with the asios, the chapters that begin with the letter of the Mitteler Rebbe's name. In other words, the chapters that begin with the letters of the Mitteler Rebbe's name, which as we spell the Mitteler Rebbe's name is dalet, vav, beis, ayin, reish, five letters. So it's a paytik that starts with a dalet, with a vav, with a beis. And the Rebbe Rashab adds, the Mitteler Rebbe does not need our Mishnayos, but we need to want to learn Mishnayos for him. And he also gave money to buy mashke to farbreng. Asiri be Kislev, which is next week, um, Wednesday. It was the day that the Mitteler Rebbe was released from prison in Vitebsk in Tov Kuv Pe Zayin, as mentioned earlier, late 1826. It is a joyous day for Anash. We do not say Tachnun. And it's customary to make a farbrengen with the public. And b'negiat to not saying Tachnun, it's not only then, but already Mincha, Tes Kislev, Tuesday afternoon, by Mincha we don't say Tachnun. Because basically it's already the beginning of the Gula. Yud Kislev, the Rebbe Rashab would visit his mother, who was the eynikel of the Mitteler Rebbe, and he would farbreng there. It was, it was more like a conversation. He would ask her different questions. Mitteler Rebbetsin Rivka had a phenomenal me- phenomenal memory, and she would share many memories with her grandson, the previous Rebbe. Friediker Rebbe had notebooks written things that he heard from his grandmother. She was the eynikel of the

37:18 Speaker 1 Mitteler Rebbe. She's born Tov Kuv Tzadik Dalet. Um, and she was niftar when she was 80 years old. In those years, living till 80 years old was a, a big thing. She was born, she was born, I don't know if we have a date, and she was nostalgic Yud Shvat. Mom is like the eynikel, the previous Rebbe. That's why the Friediker Rebbe would originally say, "My mother," the Kovet, her yard site. And she would answer the questions that the, uh, Rebbe Rashab asked her, asked, and the tmimin were there. They sang some negunim, and it was a short farbrengen. Just to mention another word, b'negiat to Yud Kislev, the previous Rebbe said Yud Kislev is the day of the birth of a Hasid, and Yud Tes Kislev is the bris, which means there's different stages how a person refines himself to the level of, uh, chasidus. And th- v'meile there's different levels in bris. Does a bris mean only to remove what needs to be removed, or a bris also means to open up, open up the heart i- in, in a positive way? So this is how the Rebbe explains it in great length in the Likutei Sichos, the Cheilei Gimel, Amud 800. "V'al kitzev ranenu sheich niofar," that they should awaken and rejoice those who are dwelling in the dust, talking about the Rabbeim, "v'hu b'seicham," the Mitteler Rebbe, "u'v'reisham," and in the lead.