We are in the twenty-sixth lesson in the chain of lineage, in the biography of the Rebbe Maharash, in its final part. Today we will study and tell about the Rebbe's daughters and about his books, which is the final part. In the list of the Rebbe Maharash's daughters, the first daughter: aleph, Mrs. Devorah Leah, whose husband was the chassid Rabbi Moshe Aryeh Leib Ginzburg of Vitebsk.
The eldest daughter of the Rebbe Maharash, Devorah Leah, was older than her brothers, older than the Maharaza and the Rebbe Rashab. I will tell a few things about her.
The Rebbe once related that he learned from her even when she was a little girl. The Rebbe told this on several occasions, one of them on Simchas Torah 5753. When Devorah Leah, the daughter of the Rebbe Maharash, was a little girl, it once happened that she cried. Something happened to her and she began to cry, and they gave her something to calm her down. Then she said: "I am not stopping crying, I am only taking a break." The Rebbe told this story and learned from it, and said regarding the farbrengen: "We are not stopping the farbrengen, we are only taking a break until the next farbrengen."
There is another story about her from her childhood. It is told that the Rebbe Rashab, when he was a child, once asked his father, the Rebbe Maharash, why the last day of Pesach is a holiday? The first day is a holiday, because we left Egypt, but what is the reason that the last day is a holiday? Before the father answered, his sister, Devorah Leah, who was a little girl, said that when a whole week passes, that the Jews are careful throughout an entire week, then they become happy and joyful. Thank God we managed to fulfill the task for a whole week, so we make a holiday. Further in the story, it is told that the Rebbe Maharash, the father, came with the sons and with the daughter to the grandfather, to the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, and told him the entire dialogue, what Devorah Leah answered. Then the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek said about her answer: "This is a good intellectual explanation," he gave her a grade for this matter.
Another story from her childhood, that the arrangement was that every day the children of the Rebbe Maharash, Rebbetzin Devorah Leah and the Maharza, would come to their grandfather, the Tzemach Tzedek, and say "Shema Yisrael" and "Baruch Shem," and the Rebbe would give them in return half a kopek as money, as a coin.
Another interesting point about the grandfather's giving to the children. The Rebbe relates that the Tzemach Tzedek would give very small sums of money to his grandchildren so that they would learn Nach by heart. For each chapter they knew by heart, he gave them a coin of five kopeks. To the children this was surely a lot. The girl, Devorah Leah, who is actually also a granddaughter, learned Nach by heart and received. One day Devorah Leah sees one of the grandsons walking around with a ruble and a half, which is one hundred fifty kopeks. She asks him: "How did you get such a large sum?" He said: "You should know, the grandfather gives ten kopeks for each chapter of Mishnayos, and five for each chapter of Tanach. Today I learned ten chapters of Mishnayos and ten chapters of Tanach, so I received one hundred fifty kopeks." This appealed to her, and she went, diligently studied and learned ten chapters of Mishnayos by heart, as a girl. The next day she came to the grandfather and said to him: "I deserve one hundred fifty kopeks today." And he says: "How did you reach such a large sum?" "I learned ten chapters of Mishnayos by heart as well, and another ten chapters of Tanach." The Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek said to her: "For Mishnayos I do not pay." She said: "If so, I will no longer learn Mishnayos." He said: "That is exactly what I want. Mishnayos is not for you."
She was very wise, and she used to test her brothers in Gemara. When they would return from cheder, she would test them in Gemara. She was a very, very great scholar. When she was already older, the Rebbe recounts that from the year 5656, when he was sixteen years old, a new source of chassidic stories was opened to him. That is, he visited his aunt, his father's sister, Devorah Leah, and she had stories that she received from the Rebbetzin of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, from the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka—things that she herself had seen, and things that she had heard from the Rebbetzin of the Alter Rebbe. She was a source of stories. The Rebbe says: A new source of stories was opened to me from her.
A final point: it is told that when she heard that her father had passed away, she took it so hard that she turned to face the wall. For three days she stood facing the wall and heard nothing of what was happening around her. It was very, very difficult for her to accept and to calm down. This was the Rebbetzin Devorah Leah, the eldest daughter of the Rebbe Maharash.
The second daughter, B., Mrs. Chaya Mushka, whose husband was the chassid Rabbi Moshe HaKohen Orenstein. Her husband, who is mentioned here, was the son of a father named Rabbi Zalman Shaul. He was a shushvin at the Rebbe's chupah, when our Rebbe married. That is, when they led the Rebbe to the wedding to the chupah, on one side he was taken by his father-in-law, the Rebbe Rayatz, and the Rebbe's father was then in Russia and could not leave for the wedding. So Rabbi Moshe HaKohen Orenstein, who was the son-in-law of the Rebbe Maharash, was the shushvin who took the Rebbe from the other side to the chupah.
Who escorted the Rebbetzin to the chuppah? After this the Rebbe returned, and the Rebbe Rayatz and his Rebbetzin escorted the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka to the chuppah. And behind them, the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, who is in fact the wife of Rav Moshe HaKohen, also accompanied as a shushvina to the chuppah.
The son of that Rabbi Moshe HaKohen Ornstein was called Menachem Mendel, and he was the son-in-law of the Rebbe Rayatz. The Rayatz had a young daughter, called Sheina, and her husband was Menachem Mendel Haldman, the son of that Jew, Moshe HaKohen Ornstein. He is mentioned in the Hayom Yom in the saying of the 1st of Nissan, where it is mentioned that the Rebbe Rashab, his brother-in-law, instructed him that in the month of Nissan, when reciting the Yehi Ratzon after the Nesi'im, since he was a kohen, told him that even though you are a kohen, you should say the Yehi Ratzon on all the days, and he explained to him that this is relevant to the matter. This appears in the saying of the 1st of Nissan.
The last part is the books, the writings of the Rebbe Maharash. In his works there are three categories here. The first is called Likkutei Torah on the three parshiyot. Then we have Likkutei Torah with Torat Shmuel, which is all his maamarim in the order of the years, and there are twenty-six volumes there. And the last part is the Igrot Kodesh.
Let us speak about the first, Likutei Torah on three parshiyot. What is this? It is a book that was published after his passing. As mentioned, his passing was in 5643 (תרמ"ג), and the Rebbe Maharash himself prepared these maamarim. He prepared maamarim whose source is Torah Or of the Alter Rebbe, inserted there the hagahot and biurim of his father, the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, and added many hagahot and biurim of his own, and prepared them for printing. There were thirty-two maamarim that he prepared for printing. As you may recall, we recounted in previous days that before his passing he told his Rebbetzin that he would ascend thirty-two levels upward, and he was referring to the thirty-two maamarim that he had prepared.
But there was a very unpleasant story connected with this. It was not printed during his lifetime. It is known that after his passing he had opponents, and even among the chassidim not everyone was connected to him. There were those who tried to besmirch his name after his passing. Through various schemes, the opponents of the Rebbe Maharash interfered and managed to introduce errors into the printing of this book called Likkutei Torah on three parshiyot. They managed to remove from it all the elucidations of the Rebbe Maharash, leaving only the elucidations of the father, and then they said: "See, he takes from the Alter Rebbe and from his father and attaches it to his own name as if it were his." That is, by removing them, they caused his name to be besmirched. And then afterward it was no longer printed as a book in its own right, Likkutei Torah on three parshiyot. But this is the first composition that the Rebbe himself prepared, Likkutei Torah on three parshiyot.
Why is it called "on three parshiyot"? Because he only managed to prepare on Bereishit, Noach, and Lech Lecha—the first three parshiyot of Bereishit. Afterward, as we said earlier, all the years of the things he said are detailed here. And the final item is the Igrot Kodesh, a book containing the letters, the Igrot Kodesh of the Rebbe Maharash.