We are in the forty-third lesson of the "Shalsheles HaYachas," concerning the biography of the Rebbe, in the third section. We have reached the year 5685 (1925). Let us first read what is written in the language of the "Shalsheles HaYachas": In the month of Tishrei he travels in honor of the holiness of the Rebbe Rayatz. As is related, that at least part of the holidays of Tishrei he spent with the Rebbe Rayatz. The Rebbe was in Leningrad for part of the holidays of Tishrei, as is described, that the Rebbe had a small room, not far from the apartment of the previous Rebbe, and there the Rebbe stayed during Tishrei, at least part of Tishrei.
The continuation that appears here: during that period he met with the Gaon Rabbi Yosef Rosen, of blessed memory, the Gaon of Rogatchov, and received semichah from him. There is testimony, as is recounted, that during that year of 5685, mainly during the summer, the Rebbe met face to face with the Gaon of Rogatchov. There is testimony of letters on matters of halachah that the Rebbe corresponded about with the Gaon. And the Rebbe's mother, Rebbetzin Chana, told a chassid, Rabbi Berel Yunik, that the Gaon of Rogatchov granted the Rebbe semichah. That is to say, we do not have a copy of this semichah, there is no documented testimony, but so Rebbetzin Chana related.
In 5686 (1926), one line appears here: "traveling on the mission of his father-in-law," meaning the Rebbe traveled on the mission of the Rebbe Rayatz. Here we already have the appellation "his father-in-law," that is, we already know that the Rebbe was designated to be the son-in-law of the Rebbe Rayatz. The Rebbe Rayatz sent him to visit the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva in Kremenchug. This is recorded in the memoirs of one of the chassidim, who was then a tamim in the yeshiva, Rabbi David Okolov. He relates that the Rebbe visited there at the yeshiva in Kremenchug, and spoke with the bochurim about matters of study. He even remembers which sugya they discussed. There is in Tractate Bava Metzia, folio 30, side 2, where the Gemara explains the verse that states "and you shall make known to them the way," and there the Gemara notes each word in the verse and what it means. They asked the Rebbe what is the meaning of the words of Rashi there. He remembers that the Rebbe opened and said: "According to what appears to me, the explanation in Rashi," and began to explain the Rashi to them, and afterwards they noticed that all the difficulties that various commentators raise on the Rashi were resolved simply through the manner of explaining Rashi, as the Rebbe had explained it from the outset. So from the outset there were already no questions at all. This was in 5686 (1926).
Let us look at one more segment about 5687. The year 5687 appears here in two parts. First part: In the month of Marcheshvan, he participated in the rabbinical conference in the city of Korosten, in Ukraine, Volhynia. It is told that there was a desire to establish a conference of Jewish leaders from all across Russia. The Rebbe Rayatz strongly opposed this, and said that nothing would come of it. But afterward there was an update, meaning they understood that to hold a conference of everyone who bears the title of Jewish leader would not head in a good direction. So they held a conference of rabbis, only the G-d-fearing observant ones, and to this the Rebbe Rayatz gave his consent and a push.
This gathering took place in the month of Cheshvan, on three days—the 18th, 19th, and 20th of Cheshvan—in the city of Korostyn in Ukraine. The Rebbe Rayatz was chosen to be the honorary president of this convention, but in practice the Rebbe Rayatz did not physically participate; he only sent a letter of support, and apparently, as his actual representative, the one who participated there was the Rebbe.
That year the Rebbe was in Leningrad. It is told that at the famous farbrengen of the previous Rebbe on Purim Katan of 5687, which was followed afterward by the arrest, the Rebbe also participated in that farbrengen. In the second part that appears here in brief, he was in Leningrad, and at the time of the arrest of his holiness the Rebbe Rayatz [he] worked extensively for his release. Here it is told in two words that when the Rebbe Rayatz was arrested, the Rebbe worked much for his release. There are many details in this. We will bring just very briefly a few points.
That night when the Rebbe Rayatz was arrested was on the fifteenth of Sivan. There is already in the diary of the Rebbe Rayatz, which is brought in "Likkutei Dibburim," in the account of the arrest, where everything that happened that night during his arrest is noted in detail. There is also a diary written by the chassid Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim Althaus, who also describes from his perspective what happened that night. He describes that on that night, when the representatives of the police were in the home of the Rebbe Rayatz, at a certain point Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, the middle daughter of the Rebbe Rayatz, was alone in one of the rooms. She approached the window—she was alone in the room, no one was present—and from the window she saw who was standing in the street below? Her chatan, that is, the Rebbe, was standing in the street below. So she called out to him from the window one sentence: "Schneerson, guests have arrived for your visit." This was already an understood code as to what was happening.
The moment the Rebbe heard this, he immediately understood the meaning, and ran swiftly to inform those close to him what was happening. First, he ran to the home of the chassid Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim Althaus, who is the one who documents the matter. Afterward, he ran to the home of the secretary, Rabbi Chaim Lieberman. The secretary Chaim Lieberman lived in a house that in the middle of the night you could not enter; there is a guard standing outside. The Rebbe came together with Althaus, and they tried to enter, but the guard would not allow it. So they shouted to him from the window and hinted to him that there was a need to be careful about the matter. And then Chaim Lieberman understood, grasped the matter, and lit a fire, burning all the suspicious documents, so that if they were caught, no trace of them would remain.
And when the police arrived at the house, they saw the remnants of the fire and understood that the whole affair was already over. Then they asked him who the two people were, because the watchman had told them that there had been two people here. So they asked Chaim'l Lieberman, who were the two who had been there? He did not turn them in; he said: "It was two drunks who had lost their way," and with that the matter came to an end.
Another thing that the Rebbe did that night was that he ran to take the manuscripts, the holy handwritten manuscripts of the maamarim of the Rebbe Rayatz, which are actually maamarim of our Rebbeim, our leaders, that the Rebbe Rayatz had kept, and he took them and scattered them in the homes of chassidim. Among the homes, he placed some in the home of Rabbi Zalman Duchman, and in other homes as well. And when one looks at the notes of the Rebbe Rayatz, one sees that he writes about thoughts he had that night in prison, during the interrogations. What did he think about? In worry, what is happening with his son-in-law, about the Rebbe he was worried? And what is happening with the manuscripts, did he manage to lay his hands on them in time? At that time the Rebbe was concerned about both of these matters.
It is interesting to note that in one of the years, much later, in 5715 or 5716, there was a farbrengen of the elder chassidim together with the Rebbe, in the upstairs apartment of the previous Rebbe, on the tenth of Tammuz. This was before the farbrengen with the public; it was a small, intimate farbrengen. At that farbrengen, the chassid, that same Reb Zalman Duchman, who had received the manuscripts from the Rebbe that same night, stood up and declared to all the chassidim, pointing at our Rebbe and telling them: "Had it not been for the Rebbe, we would not be celebrating today the festival of the redemption in Tammuz," none of this would have been. He literally spoke of how much the Rebbe had done there through his efforts. Then the Rebbe signaled to him to be silent, not to speak. Therefore, afterward, when the chassidim asked him to tell about it, he said: The Rebbe does not want me to tell, so I will not tell. Here it all appears in brief, in a single phrase, that the Rebbe worked much for his release. It does not tell what, but a large part of the matter was in the merit of the effort that the Rebbe exerted in this matter.