We are in the ninth lesson, in the chain of lineage. In the biography of the Alter Rebbe, in the eighth part. We stopped in the middle of the description of the sons of the Alter Rebbe. We learned about the first son, the Mitteler Rebbe, the second son, Rabbi Chaim Avraham, and now we are on the third son.
The third son, the honorable holy Rav, the chassid, Rabbi Moshe. He was born in Liozna in Tammuz 5539. They named him Moshe after the great-grandfather of the Alter Rebbe. The great-grandfather of the Alter Rebbe was Rabbi Moshe of Posen. The Alter Rebbe named his youngest son after him. The Alter Rebbe cherished this son very, very much, and he would say that by the grace of Hashem, my son Moshe possesses excellent talents, ten times more than the one after whom he is named. Rabbeinu Rabbi Moshe of Posen was a very lofty Jew, so he said that his son was ten times more.
It is told that when the Alter Rebbe was taken to his second imprisonment, on Isru Chag of 5561, the government granted the Alter Rebbe permission to take with him only two companions. One of the two was this son. He was then twenty-two years old, his son, and he took him as a companion. Afterward, when the Alter Rebbe settled in Liadi, after he returned from the second imprisonment, as we already recounted in a previous segment, he appointed his son, Reb Moshe, to manage all the communal affairs in Liadi.
The conclusion of Rabbi Moshe's life was such an interesting conclusion. It began that on one of the occasions they presented before the king—King Alexander the First—they presented before the king the two sons of the Alter Rebbe, the elder son, the Mitteler Rebbe, and him, Rabbi Moshe. They presented him before the king. And Rabbi Moshe wondered, he thought that they had presented them with disrespect, because first they presented the gentiles there, and afterward they presented them. So he said some sharp word to the chief priest who stood there, and he answered him, there was a discussion there, somewhat sharp matters, and from this a religious debate developed.
This was in the month of Cheshvan 5576, three years after the passing of the Alter Rebbe, when a very great religious debate developed with the chief priests. And it continued for a full month. There were month-long conventions of religious debates between all the priests and Reb Moshe, the youngest son of the Alter Rebbe. In the end, Reb Moshe defeated them. Since he defeated them, they became angry, so they decided to take him into imprisonment, to imprison him, because he had defeated them, and they took him under heavy guard in order to lead him off to some place.
And there, in the middle of the road where they were, before they had yet brought him along, it was evening, and a deep sleep fell upon all of them. And he, Rabbi Moshe, fled from them, and he received special divine strength. For twenty-four hours he ran and ran, and ran without stopping. There was snow, it was in Kislev, of that same year 5576, there was much snow, and he ran and he ran. That night when he managed to free himself from them, it was the 19th of Kislev — that is when he managed to free himself, and afterwards, the tradition, there are descriptions of exactly where he arrived and so on.
His family members left Russia, traveled to the Land of Israel, and he was afraid to reveal himself. So he lived in hiding until the end of his days, until Sivan 5638. He passed away at the age of ninety-nine, and until the end of his days he lived in hiding. There are many stories in the book Beis Rebbe about his entire period of exile, how he lived. He would collect charity, but in such a way that he refused to accept more than a single perutah. He took only exactly as much as he needed. He always went about dressed in clean and orderly garments, and lived as one of the hidden tzaddikim. That is to say, he truly did not reveal himself. People did not even know his name, and even if they did know his name, he never went up for an aliyah to the Torah so that they would not discover his father's name. He truly did not want anyone to know who he was.
And also before his passing, when he was already in a condition where the Chevra Kadisha spoke with him and said—they understood that his passing was very near—they asked him, "Where are you from?" so that they could pass information along to your family. So he said, "There is no need, they will know on their own already." He did not even want to reveal it. As we said, he passed away at the age of ninety-nine, and he is buried in the city of Radomyshl, there in Russia. These are the sons of the Alter Rebbe.
Now the daughters of the Alter Rebbe. His daughters. The first, the Rebbetzin Freida, was born in the year 5524 (1764). She was very, very wise, and the Alter Rebbe would say maamarim of Chassidus especially to her. He would simply give it to her, only she, and even the brothers were not permitted to be present when he would say maamarim of Chassidus to her. There are interesting stories that her brother, the Mitteler Rebbe, was so eager to hear maamarim of Chassidus from his father, that he would send her to ask the Alter Rebbe about certain matters. He would hide in the room, since he was officially not permitted to be there. So he would hide in the room, and he would listen secretly to the maamarim that his father would say to his sister, and sometimes when it seemed that the Alter Rebbe had not said everything and something was missing, he would send her hints that something was missing.
For example, once the Alter Rebbe was teaching her maamarim about all the garments of the Kohen Gadol, and he went through garment after garment and explained them according to Kabbalah and the secret dimension. But he did not speak about the avnet, and he was lying under the bed. So he threw his avnet, his gartel, up into the air like this, so that his sister would understand that the avnet had not been discussed. Then the Alter Rebbe understood that he was signaling the matter here, so he sent him outside. He did not permit him.
The Rebbetzin Freida was very, very special. She passed away not long — just five months — after her father, after the Alter Rebbe, on the 17th of Sivan 5573.
The second daughter was the Rebbetzin Devorah Leah. There are the famous stories that she gave her life for her father. She took upon herself to depart from the world. Immediately after one son was born to her — he was a small child — but she heard that there was a decree against her father. So she made a beis din swear, and she made them swear in advance that they would do whatever she would ask of them, without their knowing beforehand what they were committing themselves to, and they committed. And then she told them that she wanted them to rule that she must depart from the world, so that her father would live. Then they were already alarmed, but they had already committed.
In any case, this is what happened, and indeed she passed away, literally three days after this story, on the 3rd of Tishrei, 5553. And in essence, through this she saved the Alter Rebbe. She passed away in Liozna. Her husband—who was the husband of the Rebbetzin Devorah Leah? He was called the Rav, the chassid, Reb Shalom Shachna ben Reb Noach. His family name was Altshuler. His father, Reb Noach, who is mentioned here, was one of the chassidim of the famous Reb Menachem Mendel of Horodok. And his father passed away when Shalom Shachna was a small child. The Alter Rebbe drew him very close, this small child, and he brought him to his home, and he grew up in the house of the Alter Rebbe. And in time he married the daughter of the Alter Rebbe, Devorah Leah. In the year 5556, when they printed the Tanya, he was one of those involved in the printing of the Tanya. His name appears at the beginning of the Tanya, as one of those involved. This was the second son-in-law of the Alter Rebbe.
Now let us look at the third one. This is the Rebbetzin Rochel. The Rebbetzin Rochel, the youngest daughter of the Alter Rebbe. One son was born to her. She passed away very young. Five years after the wedding she passed away. She is buried in Liozna, next to her sister Devorah Leah, and the little son, the only one she had, he too passed away young, and in effect there is no continuation from her.
Who was her husband? Her husband, the chassidic rabbi, Rav Avraham son of Rav Tzvi Sheines. The father of her husband, Rav Tzvi, who is mentioned here, was among the more prominent Jews in the city of Shklov, a city of misnagdim, and his father was among the great opponents of chassidus. And he himself, the son-in-law of the Alter Rebbe, he himself was also a gaon and very sharp and a great sage, but he was a very very great misnaged. Even though he was young, he participated in all the excommunications against the chassidim. He was very very much against, but in the book Beis Rebbi it is told at length how he was exposed to the inner dimension of the Torah.
He began to study the book "Reishit Chochmah," which was the book they did not want him to study, and he studied it. There is a description there of how he would hide it under his pillow, so that his father would not discover that he was a young man studying it. His father discovered it, and his father beat him with such blows that the bed broke from the intensity of the blows. He suffered very great torments at home, until he fled from home. There is a full description there of how he fled and arrived at Chassidus, arriving at the Alter Rebbe.
After a period during which he was staying with the Alter Rebbe, his father wanted him to come to him. The father asked. The father sent a letter that he should come to visit him, and the Alter Rebbe told him: "Your father asks, perhaps you should travel to visit." So he said: "I will not travel until I receive a commitment with an oath that they will not harm me. If there is a commitment, then I am willing to travel." And there was a commitment. So he returned back to them. There is a description there of how he lived, also in difficulty; they did not beat him, but they also did not honor him so much. It doesn't matter.
After a long period, he was married. He became a widower, he returned to the Alter Rebbe, and then the Alter Rebbe asked him to marry the Alter Rebbe's daughter, the daughter Rachel, and his father agreed to this. He said that he wanted his father's consent, that his father should agree that he marry. So there is also a description there, he sent to ask his father. So his father said to him, "I know that in any case you will not listen to me. And even if your Rebbe tells you to marry a maidservant, you would also do that. So you will not listen to me. So why should I do something that would make you go against your father? So I agree. Fine, so this will also fulfill the honoring of one's father."
In short, he married the daughter of the Alter Rebbe, Rachel, but they were married only five years, and after five years, as we mentioned earlier, she passed away, the daughter of the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe used to study with him personally, nigleh and Chassidus, to draw him very, very close. After the daughter passed away, he married again, a third time, to someone else, and children were born, great Torah scholars, and so on and so forth. That is the story.