13 Nissan: The Tzemach Tzedek (1866-2026)

00:00 The to Yud Gimmel Nissan, the , the date of the of the Tzemach Tzedek in 1866, about 153 years ago. We discuss-- In that the Rebbe discussed the Tzemach Tzedek and his writings. In when it was 100 years since the of the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe mentioned a story that the Friediker Rebbe said that after the long Ma'amarim of the Mitteler Rebbe, Mitteler Rebbe would say Ma'amarim for hours, and Hasidim got used to it, got used to the language style, got used to the contents of the Ma'amarim. So when the Tzemach Tzedek began the messius, and his Ma'amarim were in a different language style, a different signet, although they weren't so long, but for Hasidim, it was difficult to absorb the Ma'amarim, as the Friediker Rebbe explained, because they were not used to this signet. As the Tzemach Tzedek, when he would say a Ma'amar, he was speaking in Hasidus, he would also refer and reflect on a Midrash, on a Gemara, on a Zohar, on a Lurianic, and all this was combined together, blended together. And the they were not used to this flavor of Ma'amarim. And the Rebbe continues that we can add also as a, uh, Ma'amar HaMusar that the Friediker Rebbe then spoke also about the gadlus of the Rebbe Maharash. And as the Rebbe connects it that in the-- that in the same sense that Yud Gimmel Nissan is the of the Tzemach Tzedek, it is also the beginning of the messius of the Rebbe Maharash, that the Tzemach Tzedek

01:54 told him that he should already say Hasidus. This was already in the lifetime of the Tzemach Tzedek. So it's told that when the Rebbe Maharash was a young child and it was in the first years of the Tzemach Tzedek's messius, Rebbe Maharash was then about six or seven years old. So Hasidim asked the, the Rebbe Maharash in regard to a certain quote of a Ma'amar, a Midrash that is mentioned in the Ma'amar of the Tzemach Tzedek, that in one of the Ma'amarim of the Tzemach Tzedek mentioned that Tishrei is Tishrei It means that you will leave-- you will, you will, uh, be lenient as you'll forgive, which this is a Midrash. One Hasidim the Ma'amar. One of the Hasidim went over to the Rebbe Maharash, which at his age he was still playful, playing, and they asked him, "Where is this Ma'amar in the Midrash?" They were not used to it, as mentioned earlier, that the Ma'amarim of the Mitteler Rebbe were different than the Ma'amarim of the Tzemach Tzedek. Tzemach Tzedek would be quoting from many references, including the, the Midrash. The Tzem-- The Rebbe Maharash, in the middle of his play, answered that this is a Midrash in Parsha Emez on this and this pasuk, and the meaning is this and this. In when the Rebbe was commemorating the, uh, hundred years of the of the Tzemach Tzedek. So the Rebbe mentioned then that at the birth of the Tzemach Tzedek, Tzemach Tzedek was born Rosh Hashanah. At the, uh, the first Rosh

03:36 Hashanah in his lifetime was Taf kuf Nun. The Alter Rebbe then began saying the of Tanya. Like Ma'amarim, he said it of the next few years up to the-- about four years, from Rosh Hashanah Taf kuf Nun to Yud Kislev Taf kuf Nun Daled. And the, the, the Rosh Hashanah alone, he said the first three of Tanya, which, uh, the, um, the three of Tanya, the Rebbe says, we see a blend from Niglah, Hasidus, Kabbalah, all the , Midrash . And this is exactly the style of the Tzemach Tzedek's that it was . It was blended together from all aspects and sections of , Niglah, Kabbalah, Drush, and Remez. The Rebbe once mentioned upstairs, uh, in the apartment of the previous Rebbe when the Rebbe would be eating the there. On one occasion, the Rebbe said that the Tzemach Tzedek wrote twenty-four thousand Hasidus. is eight pages. So it's eight times twenty-four thousand pages. Most of it were burnt in the fire. The same thing is also been regard to Niglah. And one thing in regard to the Tzemach Tzedek wrote five hundred and that was all sadly burnt in the big fires that took place in Lubavitch in various years. Yud Gimmel Nissan, Taf Shin Yud Alef, nineteen fifty-one, right after the Rebbe accepted the messius, the Rebbe asked Shmuel Levitin to go over for the Omud to the Omed and daven. And after Ma'ariv, he told him to with the, uh, um, call of Hasidim. In general, Shmuel Levitin, since he was from

05:42 the Zichron Hasidim, so he would daven for the Omed at the of the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe Maharash, and the Rebbe Rashab. So Rab Shmuel then mentioned in the name of his father Who was at the Stalkes Tzemach Tzedek that the Mariel was then not in Lubavitch by the Stalkes. When he came to Lubavitch, he said, "A Rebbe like this, we did not have yet. From one line in his Maamarim, we could make a complete Maamar. And Rebbe Maharash added not only a line, but even a word." So the Rebbe, the Rebbe responded that the Drush HaChasidus of the Tzemach Tzedek is a big treasure. The Rebbe says, "I didn't have a chance yet to go through them in the appropriate way, but just on the surface. But from what I learned, be'iu ne'orei, what I did go through in, in a greater depth, I could add that every Hagah, every comment of the Tzemach Tzedek and Maamar of the Alter Rebbe is a hein rab, is a big treasure." In Taf Shachavab nineteen sixty-six, commemorating then the hundred years since the Stalkes and the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe then came out with a new campaign to begin publishing the Tzemach Tzedek's Maamarim under the title Eida Teida. There was a fund, a tzedakah fund, a keren hameya, referring to the hundred years and already at the end of Taf Shin Chaf He, the Rebbe already began going into the hundredth year, initiating this campaign, the gift tzedakah for, uh, uh, printing his Sefarim in

07:38 numerals of a hundred. The Rebbe then spoke about the Gematria of the Tzemach Tzedek, which is the name of Mashiach, Menachem Sheme and Tzemach Sheme. It's interesting, over the years, the Rebbe mentioned sometimes hinting to a direct connection between the Tzemach Tzedek and himself. In Hayim Yeim, for example, in the biography of the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe mentions the sons of the Tzemach Tzedek and their descendants up to a certain generation. When it comes to Rabbarach Sholom, the oldest son of the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe makes a point of mentioning the genealogy, the generations up till his father which stands out very obviously that the Rebbe is actually connecting from the Tzemach Tzedek till his father, Rab Levi Yitzchok. Interesting i-- fac-- uh, stories that the Rebbe would mention by Farbrengen that the Tzemach Tzedek would make Parates, he would make his Dvarim in Peterburg, in Petersburg, when the Rosh Hashanah was a time that he would decide which government minister remains in government, which one is-- uh, leaves the government, and so it happened through the year that exactly his-- what he wished, what he wanted was fulfilled. Whenever the Rebbe wanted to accomplish it in the world, certain countries, certain governments, the Rebbe would always make the introduction what the Tzemach Tzedek did. And after that, not much after that, Hasidim saw that something dramatic happened in a certain government. Someone quit, someone was put down, demotioned. Different Inyanim that happened, especially as they stood out in, uh, in the early mems, early

09:53 eighties. Another interesting, uh, story that there was-- there were a few or, or, or one or two that felt that the Rebbe is not doing enough for the people in Russia. They see the Rebbe is doing everything, but they're not aware of what the Rebbe was doing for people in Russia, so it seemed to them the Rebbe is not doing. So the Rebbe once said, said Yechidus to someone that in the ti-ti-time of the Tzemach Tzedek, there were young children that were drafted to the army, cantonists. Some of them were freed. There was a suspicion that the Tzemach Tzedek's hand was involved. In other words, the Tzemach Tzedek, uh, actually was involved in it behind the scene. So the government sent spies to check what goes on by the Tzemach Tzedek on a daily basis. After that time, they saw that Tzemach Tzedek is involved in a Maamar Chassidus. Here he's involved in learning. Another occasion, he's involved in answering questions in Halacha. And all this saved the children. As Hasidim understood from this Sipur that the Rebbe is r- also is reflecting it, beneath himself, that he actually, although people are not aware, but he was actually doing much on the behalf of the Yidden in Russia. Beneath to the Hayim Yeim Meshas in Taf Shin Daled Mem. In nineteen eighty-four, when the second volume of Kamins came out on the Hayim Yeim. So the, the, there were certain Parparois, Gematriois beneath to the Rebbe's second name, but without a Ayin. In, uh, in

11:37 Eretz Yisrael, in other places, they many times they write it without an Ayin. And some Gematrias, numerical values of Ramazim really fit very appropriately with this Cheshbon after without Ayin. So the Rebbe wrote as follows, "Mem rutzarach li is be-Ayin." The Rebbe's second name needs to be with Ayin. "Sha'arehu al shem HaTzemach Tzedek since he is named after the Tzemach Tzedek." We conclude with a story that the Rebbe, um, in Yechidus once told Rab Yossel Goldstein, who was a Menahel in the Beis Yankiv in Brooklyn. And the techinat Dvarim was that the Rebbe mentioned to him that he has the occasion in a yeshiva, a school, a girls school, which is not exactly Hasidish, uh, and especially not Chabad, that he can mention in his speeches, in the Shiurim, Inyanim from the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe Maharash, the Rebbe Rashab, the previous Rebbe, and the Tzemach Tzedek. Rab Yossel Goldstein understood it very well that the second time the Rebbe mentioned Tzemach Tzedek was referring to himself. In conclusion, as we find ourselves in the days following Yud Aleph Nisan, I will share a short story which I recently heard from Rabbi Shmuelu, the Rab Shlicha, and an educator in England. This took place on the thirteenth of Nisan Taf Shin Chaf Beis nineteen sixty-two, a few days after the Rebbe reached his sixtieth Yemei Lehades, birthday. The Rebbe approached Rab Shmuel Witten, one of the elder and distinguished Hasidim, and handed him sixty-one dollars to buy Mashke and

13:31 so on for the Farbrengen with the Talmidim of the Yeshivot seven-seventy. Sixty-one implied the sixty-first year in which the Rebbe has just began to enter on the eleventh of Nisan of that year. The Rebbe then added that the Hemsha, the series of the three days coming from Yud Aleph Nisan through Yud Gimmel Nisan should be Nimsha, continued and have an impact on the entire year.