We are in the third lesson of the sequence of the chain of tradition, and today we begin the first period of the account of the life of the Alter Rebbe. We will study the first few lines. The first thing the Rebbe brings here about the Alter Rebbe is that he was born on the 18th of Elul, 5505. The Alter Rebbe was born on the 18th of Elul. As is known, the 18th of Elul is also the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov, the birthday of the two great luminaries.
It is not entirely clear where the Alter Rebbe was born. The doubt is whether he was born in Liozna, or whether he was born in Posen. We have already seen that the grandfather, roundabout, was called Rabbi Moshe of Posen. So it is not clear where he was born, the Alter Rebbe. And he was born in the year 5505 (1745).
In this year, 5505 (תק"ה), we see that the Rebbe Rayatz immortalized the information about this year, for the Chabad publishing house brings forth all the works of Chassidus to the world. So the Rebbe Rayatz established that it should be called the publishing house "Kehot." One of the reasons why it is called by the name "Kehot" is because "Kehot" spells the letters tav-kuf-hei, which is actually the year of birth of the Alter Rebbe. In other words, when one sees any Chabad book, you can know from where all of this began. It all began from 5505, from the moment the soul of the Alter Rebbe descended into the world, the teaching of Chassidus began to spread throughout the world.
"And his mother's name was Rivkah, daughter of Rav Avraham." Rivkah was the name of the Alter Rebbe's mother. There is a well-known story that when the Alter Rebbe was taken to prison, and, per the Alter Rebbe's request, they came to pray at the home of Rabbi Yitzchak of Berditchev, they did not know the mother's name to tell him how to pray. So he opened the Chumash, and it opened to where it is written: "And Yaakov saw that there was shever (grain) in Egypt." Then Rabbi Levi Yitzchak explained: "shever" is shin-beit-reish, which stands for "Shneur ben Rivkah." The name of the Alter Rebbe's mother was Rivkah.
It is written "Rivka daughter of Rabbi Avraham." That is, here we see that the name of the grandfather of the Alter Rebbe on his mother's side was called Avraham. G-d willing, when we later reach the names of the sons of the Alter Rebbe, we will discover that the second son of the Alter Rebbe was named Chaim Avraham. There we will also elaborate and see that it became clear to the Alter Rebbe himself afterward, that the full name of his grandfather was Chaim Avraham, and not Avraham. But here, at this stage, we still know that the name of the grandfather was Rabbi Avraham.
The account continues, describing what happened afterward. At the bar mitzvah celebration, after the Alter Rebbe reached the age of thirteen, the great leaders of the generation described him with the phrase "he is a rabbi, a tanna, and he may dispute." When the Alter Rebbe was at his bar mitzvah, it is described—the previous Rebbe describes this in his talks—that all the geniuses of the generation were present, and they came to take part in the bar mitzvah. It was a very special occasion. And the Alter Rebbe, as a thirteen-year-old boy, delivered novel Torah insights, and he delivered such wondrous novel Torah insights that all the geniuses who were present were beside themselves, and there, on the spot, they ordained him for the rabbinate at his bar mitzvah, and they granted him the title of rabbi.
Now the title given to him, "Rav," expresses his greatness. What is written here is "Rav, being a Tanna, may dispute." What does this mean? This is a definition whose source is the Gemara. In the Talmud there is a group of Amoraim who lived at the end of the Amoraic period, and they have a status like a Tanna. In general, we know that a Tanna is of higher stature than an Amora. Therefore an Amora cannot dispute the words of a Tanna. If something an Amora said is cited and there is a Mishnah that contradicts his words, then the words of the Amora are rejected. But there are a few individual Amoraim who lived, in fact, at the beginning of the Amoraic period. They have a status like a Tanna, and they can dispute a Mishnah. And one of these few is Rav. His name was Rav. Several times in the Talmud, when a question is raised about Rav that ostensibly there is a Mishnah contradicting what he said, then the Gemara says: Rav, being a Tanna, may dispute. Rav is a Tanna, and he can dispute another Tanna.
That is to say, even though he lived in the era of the Amoraim, this is a very lofty title—to call a person who, in our case the Alter Rebbe, was ostensibly young, thirteen years old, they gave him such a title, saying that although he is young, he possesses power like that of the era of the Tannaim. This is essentially the title. The Previous Rebbe notes that they recorded this special title of the Alter Rebbe in the register of the Chevra Kadisha.
Let us add a few more words. When the Alter Rebbe was a five-year-old child, his father, Rabbi Baruch, registered him in the ledger of the Chevra Kadisha, that is, he registered him to serve in the Chevra Kadisha. The Alter Rebbe himself said over the years that he was grateful to his father for this, that he had entered him into it already at the age of five. For example, one of the stories that is told is that when the Maggid of Mezritch passed away, the Alter Rebbe merited to be among those who attended to the holy body of the Maggid. He also merited, by lottery, to attend to the head of the Maggid. Why did he merit at all to enter this lottery? Because they decided that only one who has membership in the Chevra Kadisha would have the possibility of being connected to this. And the Alter Rebbe had it already from the age of five; he was already registered as a future member of the Chevra Kadisha, and when he reached the age of bar mitzvah, he was already registered there since the age of five, for at the age of bar mitzvah they added to his name in the ledger of the Chevra Kadisha the title "Rav," that he had received a special ordination up to that level of "tanna hu palig" [he is a tanna and may dispute].
Let us continue another line into the year 5520 (5"20), his wedding. The Alter Rebbe married at the age of fifteen. This was when he was in 5520. The date of the Alter Rebbe's wedding was on Erev Shabbat, Parashat Nachamu, the 12th of Menachem Av. This was the Alter Rebbe's wedding day.
What happened right after the wedding? Here it is written: "He conducted a great campaign, with his effort and his money, among the Jews to engage in working the land." After the wedding he received money, a dowry. So the Alter Rebbe took the dowry money he had received, and he invested both his effort and his money—the money he received from the dowry—in order to encourage Jews to have a livelihood, to buy land, so that they would have the ability to work, and he engaged with this a great deal.
And in later years he engaged in this even more. That is, it is related in the book of his history that when he returned for the first time from Mezritch, he engaged in this even more. By then he had already heard the Baal Shem Tov's approach of cherishing simple Jews and the matter of a dwelling place in the lower realms. So he invested even more in this—to find a livelihood for Jews, in the plain sense, so that they would have one. He invested in this both effort and money.
One more line. In 5524, when the Alter Rebbe was nineteen years old, in 5524, he went to Mezritch for the first time. As is recounted in the Hayom Yom entry of the 11th of Menachem Av. There is a description there that the Alter Rebbe went together with his brother, with the Maharil, only that his brother went without his wife's permission, so he immediately returned back. And the Alter Rebbe, who went with permission, remained there until after Pesach of 5525. Until then he remained with the Maggid.
And there are many additional things that occurred in his life, but we relate to and read only what the Rebbe included in the summary, the main points, in the genealogical chain of the Alter Rebbe.