We are in the forty-second lesson in the chain of lineage, in the account of the Rebbe's life in part two. We stopped after the description that in his childhood, in the summer, the Rebbe would travel several times for a few weeks to be with his grandmother and grandfather, where they took care of him and so on.
The next matter, it is written: "Studies with immense diligence and succeeds." The Rebbe in his childhood studied with immense diligence. The documentation we have of this period, as we already related in the previous segment, is that the Rebbe's melamed in his childhood was the chassid Reb Shneur Zalman Milekin, whom the Rebbe's father asked to be the melamed. And a description from one of the children who learned together with the Rebbe is from the chassid Reb Nachum Goldschmidt, who later went to Eretz Yisrael. He describes in his memoirs the sons of Reb Leibik, who had an unusual nature of diligence. The Rebbe was very, very serious all the time, and he describes that the other brothers were sometimes a bit more in a state of joy, but the Rebbe was very serious. The melamed continued to teach the Rebbe until approximately the age of eleven.
At the age of eleven, the teacher said that he could no longer teach the Rebbe, arguing that his talents were greater than his own, the teacher's, and that he could no longer teach him. Then the Rebbe's father brought another teacher, an immense Torah scholar from another city, who taught him, and the study took place in the home of the Rebbe's father.
Over the years, in his farbrengens, the Rebbe recounted many interesting anecdotes from the period when he studied in cheder. This is just one example that the Rebbe related in 5740. The Rebbe was speaking about the study of Gemara, that it has rules for how to learn Gemara. The Rebbe says that printed in the Gemara at the end of Tractate Berachos are the rules of the Talmud, how one must learn Gemara. The Rebbe says that even his teachers did not study the rules of learning with him. And the Rebbe says that he discovered the rules of learning for the first time when a Vilna Shas came into his hands, quite a number of years after he had already been learning on his own. Then he discovered the rules of the Shas. And the Rebbe says: "When I looked into them, I saw that these are not the rules written within the Gemara—rules of when the halachah follows this one in monetary matters and in prohibitions—no. These are simply rules of how to learn. And to our regret," said the Rebbe, "back then they did not pay special attention to this." Today in yeshivos they teach these rules, simply how to learn, but he said that even his teachers did not teach him, and he alone discovered it afterward.
Let us continue further, still describing the Rebbe's enormous diligence. It is told that the second teacher too, once the Rebbe reached the age of bar mitzvah, already said: I am also unable to teach him. And then the teacher became the Rebbe's father, Rabbi Levi, who became his teacher. This is what is briefly described here: Under the guidance of his father, the honorable, holy, the great Torah genius, the pious Rabbi, the kabbalist, our teacher Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of blessed memory, who was head of the rabbinical court in Yekaterinoslav, and who acquired in the dawn of his youth knowledge in all parts of the Torah, both the revealed and the hidden. It is written here briefly about the Rebbe's tremendous perseverance throughout all those years.
Now there is a jump here from 5659 to 5678. Everything that occurred in the intervening years is not described. In 5678 it is written here: standing at his father's right hand, meaning, the Rebbe helped and assisted his father. There is no lengthy description here, but for example at least twice at farbrengens, once in 5732 and once in 5739, the Rebbe told about himself and said that being the firstborn to his father, who was the chief rabbi in Yekaterinoslav, and also because he was fluent in the Russian language, he had to help his father, and many times he would have confrontations with the Yevsektzia, and the Rebbe stood up to them and was not intimidated by them, and he simply stood at his father's right hand to assist him in the work of the rabbinate. This is what is mentioned here.
Another point is mentioned: and in organizing aid. Among other things, he assists him in leading the community and in organizing aid for the Polish refugees who arrive in masses to Yekaterinoslav due to the First World War. Many refugees came, and he had to assist them, and the Rebbe's father, as the father, was responsible for everything that was happening, and the Rebbe was his right hand in this matter.
The next thing mentioned here is 5682. It is written: he visited the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva in Kharkov, and likewise in the year 5684. What happened in those years when the Rebbe visited Kharkov and was at the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva? As is told, the Rebbe had a brother, who was later murdered in the Holocaust, named Berl, who had to go many times to doctors. There were doctors in Kharkov, and the Rebbe would travel to accompany his brother to the doctors. When the Rebbe traveled with him to Kharkov, he would visit the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva, and the temimim who studied in Kharkov describe that the Rebbe and his brother would visit there, and speak with the students about Torah matters. So it is described here that he visited at least several times, both in 5682 and in 5684.
The next event is [the year] 5683. He travels to visit Rostov. As we have already recounted in the biography of the Rebbe Rashab, the Rebbe Rashab left Lubavitch and moved to Rostov, along with the Previous Rebbe. [The year] 5683 refers here to three years after the passing of the Rebbe Rashab. In 5683 the Rebbe traveled to visit Rostov, and there he met for the first time with his honor, the holy Rebbe Maharayatz. There is a journal written by Rabbi Chodakov, in which he describes what the Rebbe told him: that the first time he visited and met the Rebbe Rayatz was on Sukkot of 5683 in Rostov, as it is written here, in Rostov.
That same year — this is not detailed here — the Rebbe was once again in Rostov, and this was already close to the time of the Rebbe's shidduch. As is told, in the summer of that year, 5683, the family of the Rebbe Rayatz itself left Rostov and traveled for rest to a place called Kislovodsk, and the Rebbe joined the family afterward for a certain period. The Rebbe also traveled there, and the purpose of the trip was the first meeting with the one designated to be the bride, the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, for the purpose of the shidduch. The Rebbe Rayatz returned from there to Rostov, and the Rebbe returned together with him, after he had already met with the Rebbetzin, and remained there several days with the previous Rebbe. This was in 5683 in Rostov.
5684 (1924) — travels to Leningrad. The Rebbe travels to Leningrad, where he was present for the first time at a farbrengen of his honorable holiness the Rebbe Rayatz, who drew him especially close. Regarding this point, that the first time the Rebbe was at a farbrengen of the Rebbe Rayatz was in 5684, there are some discrepancies with what is written here, because here it is written that the first time the Rebbe was at a farbrengen with the Rebbe Rayatz was in Leningrad in 5684. Elsewhere it is written that it was indeed in 5684, but not in Leningrad but rather in Rostov, at a farbrengen of the Rebbe Rayatz. So it is not entirely clear when the first farbrengen at which the Rebbe was present with the Rebbe Rayatz took place.
In 5684, in which we currently find ourselves, it is written that the Rebbe Rayatz drew the Rebbe especially close, and there is an interesting addition here: "His Holiness the Rebbe Maharayatz initiates him into the secret of his affairs and his communal leadership." The Rebbe Rayatz already brought the Rebbe in to be a director of all sorts of matters connected to leadership. He assigned him special roles in various areas, and from all the descriptions there is one word with which they defined him, among other things, as his minister of education. The Rebbe Rayatz called the Rebbe "the minister of education."
This appears in the memoirs written by the Rebbetzin Chana. There it is told that she said that the Rebbe Rayatz immediately recognized the Rebbe's virtues, and would not let him leave him, and said that he was appointing him as minister of education. And it is told that there was a certain professor Bartshenko, something like that, who approached the previous Rebbe and sought an explanation about the symbol of the Magen David. He wanted to know according to Kabbalah. So the Rebbe Rayatz said: Let him call my minister of education, and he will give you an explanation. He called the Rebbe and told him to come to Leningrad. The Rebbe was there for three months, and wrote a comprehensive composition of explanations on this subject of the color of the Magen David.
At the conclusion of this section of 5684 it is written: he especially stood at the right hand of the Rebbe Rayatz, in his holy struggle to safeguard the Jewish people in Soviet Russia. There is no detailed account here of exactly what took place, but the Rebbe was in the midst of these matters, and carried out all kinds of actions, both open and covert.
His honorable holiness the Rebbe Maharayatz designated him as a groom for his daughter. In 5684 (1924) it was established that the Rebbe was the intended groom of the previous Rebbe. The wedding took place later, in 5689 (1929), as he relates further on, but already then he set him up as a groom. Here he adds an interesting point: why indeed was it decided that the Rebbe would be the groom of the previous Rebbe, and where did this begin. He brings that this was in accordance with the instruction of his father, an instruction of the Rebbe Rashab, in accordance with the instruction of his father his honorable holiness the Rebbe, that the bride would be the righteous Rebbetzin Mrs. Chaya Mushka, peace be upon her. The chassidim relate—for example this appears in the book "Lishma Ozen" by Rabbi Duchman, and in many places—that the Rebbe Rashab said to his Rebbetzin that with respect to this granddaughter, Chaya Mushka, one ought to think about one of the sons of Rav Levi. That is to say, this was years earlier, and following this statement perhaps the match came about, thank God, that the Rebbe as the groom of the Rebbe Rayatz.