We are in the twenty-seventh lesson in the chain of tradition. Today we begin the first part of the life of the Rebbe Rashab. The heading reads: "His Honor, the Holiness of our Master, Teacher, and Rebbe Shalom Dov Ber." At the Rebbe Rashab's brit milah, the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek instructed how to name him. He said that he should be called by the name Shalom Dov Ber, after his father, the father of the Tzemach Tzedek, who as is known was called Shalom Shachna. So the first name of the Rebbe Rashab was after the father of the Tzemach Tzedek. The second name was after the Mitteler Rebbe, who was called by the name Dov Ber.
When they called out the name, it is known that the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek would also refer to his sons and grandchildren by their initials. And already at the bris he said regarding his name Rashab. Why did the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek say Rashab regarding Rabbi Shalom Ber? He said Rashab is the letters of "basar" (flesh) and "shever" (breaking). That is, that one must break the flesh of the body.
Over the years, at various farbrengens, the Rebbe spoke about the meaning and the lesson to be learned from the name of the Rebbe Rashab. There are also various discussions: is it two names, or three names? Is it Shalom, Dov, Ber, and only when written does it split into two? Or is it from the outset only two names? In a legal document, for example in the tena'im, of which we have a photocopy from the Rebbe Rashab, or also from the Rebbe Maharash, when the name of the Rebbe Rashab is mentioned in it, it appears as two names. But, for example, in the explanations of the Rebbe's father in Likkutei Levi Yitzchak, when he speaks about his name, he connects it to the concept of "shnayim mikra ve'echad targum" (twice Scripture and once Targum). That is, that two names are in Lashon HaKodesh—Shalom and Dov are Lashon HaKodesh—and Ber is in Yiddish, a translation of the word Dov, as if "once Targum." That is to say, there are several ways of looking at this, whether it is one name or two names, but this is not the place to elaborate on the matter. In any case, there is the reference to this.
Let us continue. He was born in Lubavitch. The mother of the Rebbe Rashab, the Rebbetzin Rivkah, related that before the birth of the Rebbe Rashab, about a year prior, on the 10th of Kislev 5620, she dreamed that she saw her mother, the Rebbetzin Sarah, who was the daughter of the Mitteler Rebbe. She saw that she came together with the Mitteler Rebbe to her in the dream, and her mother says to her: "You and your husband," meaning she and the Rebbe Maharash, "should write a Torah scroll." And the Mitteler Rebbe in the dream adds and says: "You will have a good son, and do not forget about my name." She dreamed the same dream a second time on the 19th of Kislev, and only then did she tell it to her husband, the Rebbe Maharash.
We will not go into all the details of the story. The Rebbe Maharash very much wanted the Torah scroll to be written on hides of slaughtered and kosher animals, and they began the writing on the fifteenth of Shevat, because it took several weeks until they found such hides as the Rebbe Maharash wanted. They finished writing the Torah scroll in Elul of that year, and the completion and the bringing in of the Torah scroll were done discreetly, quietly, truly in a very small group, on the thirteenth of Cheshvan, and a few days later, on the twentieth of Cheshvan, the Rebbe Rashab was born.
And this is the next passage here. He was born in Lubavitch, on the 20th of Marcheshvan, 5621. At the time of the brit, which we mentioned earlier that the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek established his name, he also had to relate to the date, and he said "the 20th, 5621." There are two kafs [the numerical value 20 appearing] in the date, and this alludes to the level of keter ila'ah, the two kafs. So said the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek.
Let us continue. Whom did the Rebbe Rashab marry? He married his cousin, the Rebbetzin Sterna Sarah, the daughter of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Avrutch, the son of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek. She was born almost a year before the Rebbe Rashab, on the 15th of Tevet 5621 in Lubavitch.
Let us tell a few words about her, for her son, the Rebbe Rayatz, wrote about his mother, the Rebbetzin Sterna Sarah. He wrote that with her great wisdom, with the exceedingly great understanding that she possessed, and with the fine and wondrous character traits that she had, she acted and worked for the benefit of the family of the House of the Rebbe and for the benefit of the chassidim. She was accustomed to pray until her final day with deliberateness, three times a day, and she would recite Tehillim before Shacharis and Tehillim after Shacharis. She had daily study sessions in Midrash, in Aggadah, and in Chassidus, until her final day.
She passed away on the holy Shabbat, the 13th of Shevat in the year 5702, in the United States, in New York. On the morning of that Shabbat she said: "Today is Shabbat Shirah. The prayer must be entirely different." And she began to pray, and in the middle of the prayer, while reciting "Nishmat Kol Chai," she passed away with the siddur in her hand, and her resting place is in New York, not far from the Ohel.
The Rebbe Rayatz related that once he told his mother about the passing of the wife of the Rebbe Maharash, the Rebbetzin Rivkah, whose passing was also sudden, immediately after she finished praying. There is a description there, that she finished praying, gave the Rebbe Rayatz the siddur, placed her hand on his head and blessed him for having helped her. And immediately afterward, suddenly, she passed away. The Rebbe Rayatz told this to his mother, and her response was: "I bless myself that the same should be with me too." And indeed this is what happened with her as well.
The wedding took place on Motzaei Shabbat Kodesh, the 11th of Elul 5635. The Rebbe Rashab was fourteen years old, and the Rebbetzin was fifteen. When was this shidduch finalized? When the Rebbe Rashab was four years old, and his Rebbetzin was five. There was a directive from the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, the grandfather, that they should finalize the shidduch, and then they wrote down the main points between the brothers, between the Rebbe Maharash and his brother the Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak, in the presence of the father, the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, regarding the shidduch of these two children, and then it was set that the wedding would take place in ten years, in the summer of 5635.
The wedding took place in Avrutch on the date noted here: Motzaei Shabbos, the 11th of Elul 5635. The Rebbe Maharash, the father of the Rebbe Rashab, was not at the wedding. His health did not allow him to travel from Lubavitch to Avrutch, and only the mother, the Rebbetzin, traveled. The Rebbe Maharash very much wanted him to manage to return in time for the final sheva brachos in Lubavitch, but in practice there was a delay, and he did not return for the final sheva brachos in Lubavitch, and it already took place in Avrutch.
Furthermore, the next thing recounted here concerns the year 5640. What does he tell about 5640? "He began to work on communal matters." At that time, as we already recounted in the history of the Rebbe Maharash regarding that year, 5640, when there were pogroms against Jews, and the Rebbe Maharash occupied himself for an entire year with helping Jews during that period, the Rebbe Rashab had already entered communal activism, bringing his father all the information he needed to know on the subject, everything that was happening in the country, and helped in the efforts on behalf of the Jewish people.
From that year, 5640, which was three years before the passing of the Rebbe Maharash, his father began to draw him closer than the brothers and the son-in-law. He drew him very, very close and conveyed to him all the principles and all the matters — how one occupies oneself with communal affairs. Already then he designated him for the continuation.
The next matter, with which we will conclude, is 5643: "He began to guide the chassidim and accepted the leadership." In 5643, right at the beginning of the year, on the 13th of Tishrei, was the passing of the father of the Rebbe Rashab, as we recounted earlier. It is known that the Raza, the older brother of the Rebbe Rashab, Rabbi Zalman Aharon, did not want to accept the leadership. The Rebbe Rashab began to guide the chassidim, as is written here in 5643. He began to deliver a chassidic maamar, and the first maamar that he said was already on Sukkot, literally just two days after the passing.
Here it is written that "he accepted the leadership," even though in practice this took time. In practice he would deliver Chassidus in public, but receiving Chassidim for yechidus took until 5650 (תר"נ); until then he did not receive Chassidim for yechidus. The Rebbe would relate that these first ten years could be called ten years of his father's seclusion. Only after ten years, in 5650, is that considered the year that Lubavitch was encouraged. Chassidim felt, we have a Rebbe, we have a guide. It took ten years, but here, simply put, there is a successor, so that is excellent. In 5643 (תרמ"ג) here there is not described all the length of the stories as they appear in the memoirs of the Previous Rebbe in additional places.