We are in the twenty-fourth lesson in the chain of lineage, in the life story of the Rebbe Maharash in the second part. We have arrived at around the year 5626, and it is told: 5626, he accepts the leadership. Two words are written. What is a bit of the detail of this period? The passing of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek was on the 13th of Nissan 5626, and immediately afterward the one who accepted the leadership and filled the place of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek in Lubavitch was the Rebbe Maharash.
There were many expressions and hints, and more than that, from the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek before his passing, that his youngest son, the Rebbe Maharash, would fill his place. We will bring a few examples from what appears in the talks and memories of the previous Rebbe. For instance, it appears that the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek would say special maamarim only for the Rebbe Maharash, would call for him and tell him personal matters.
Something else interesting is written: that the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek had unique titles for each son: about one son he said "this is my baal habayis," about another son he said "this is my lamdan," another son "this is my chassid." Each son had some sort of nickname. About the Rebbe Maharash, the youngest, he said "kulhu yisnehu bi" — he has all the qualities, everything together.
In the year 5626, the year in which the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek passed away, at the beginning of the year the Rebbe commanded him to begin saying Chassidus in public, still during the lifetime of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek. And the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek sent a note to the chassidim in which he wrote: "To him you shall listen, as you have listened to me."
For example, there is a quotation in one of the letters that the Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek writes to the Rebbe Maharash. There is a letter of a few lines, and I will read one sentence: "Be strong and courageous to write and to speak, and I ordain you with great ordination," meaning he ordains him. "And do not fear any person. And may Hashem yisbarach grant you success in physical and spiritual matters, to learn and to teach, to observe and to do."
Many expressions in which one can truly see that the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek desired him, and the additional expression is truly fascinating and powerful. It is written that the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek said: "The flask of spiritual oil that the Baal Shem Tov transmitted to the Maggid in order to draw down the Alter Rebbe for his generations, with this power they drew down my son-in-law" — "my son-in-law" refers to the Mitteler Rebbe — "and with this power he anointed you." All the expressions truly show that the successor would be the Rebbe Maharash, and this is what is written here in only two words: recipient of the leadership. This was in the year 5626.
Let us continue further. In 5628, he travels to France to meet with communal activists. The Rebbe Maharash, as we have also related earlier, engaged greatly with self-sacrifice in the rescue of the Jewish people in many matters. Here it is noted that in the summer of 5628 he traveled to France, and not only to France, but to various places. For example, there is one of the letters of the Rebbe Maharash from the month of Menachem Av of that same year, 5628. He signs that he is located in a place on the border of Germany, Reineberg (Rhine Spa). That is to say, in the summer he was in these places, and it was all in order to meet with communal activists in order to act on behalf of the Jewish people.
When he returned to Lubavitch, it is told that along the way he was delayed for a few days in Odessa. Afterward, in Tishrei of 5629, he was in Kishinev, and only then did he return to Lubavitch.
Let us continue further. In 5629 he organized a permanent committee in Petersburg, concerned with communal affairs. It is known that during the period of the Rebbe Maharash's leadership there was very, very great antisemitism in Russia against Jews. Many ministers in the government were haters of Israel and plotted all sorts of schemes to carry out pogroms against Jews. The Rebbe Maharash felt the great responsibility that lay upon him, and gave himself over with self-sacrifice to stand at the head, in the front line of the campaign, to save Jews by every possible means. He was the living spirit in all matters connected to the welfare of the Jewish people. In that year, in 5629, he organized in Petersburg a committee of Jewish activists who were concerned with everything happening to the Jewish people as a whole, in order to do everything possible to protect the rights of the Jews.
Over the course of ten years, from 5630 until 5641, he himself traveled many times throughout Russia to all sorts of places and abroad, all in matters of communal work, and he made efforts with self-sacrifice in order to halt the pogroms that they were attempting to carry out against the Jews in Russia. On this he elaborates at the conclusion of the ten years.
In 5641 (1881) he made efforts and succeeded in quelling the riots. In 5641 there were actual pogroms against Jews in Kiev and Nezhin. The Rebbe Maharash traveled then, specifically and directly, to the capital city, Petersburg, to meet with the Minister of the Interior regarding this matter. On the one hand, he found favor in their eyes and succeeded in obtaining various promises that this would be prevented. When the pogrom broke out, he traveled to the Minister of the Interior, and spoke with him in very, very harsh terms: How could it be that he was not keeping his promise? And he told him, in a sort of threatening manner, that the Jews abroad would not remain silent about this. That is, he wanted to threaten the Russian government that the world would raise an outcry against them. The minister said: "Why are you threatening me with people from abroad?" And the Rebbe told him: "You do not know the Jewish psychology, you do not know the love of brothers that they have from one end of the world to the other," that is, he threatened him that the entire world would raise an uproar over this.
These were such threats, that when he finished speaking with him, they arrested the Rebbe Maharash in the very hotel he was staying in, holding him as a prisoner inside the hotel. For two days he was a prisoner. On the third day they released him, and he again met with the Minister of the Interior, continued speaking with him, and he promised him that there would be an answer within two weeks.
The interesting thing is that in that same year, 5641, in the summer on the 12th of Tammuz, the Rebbe Rayatz was born. The 12th of Tammuz 5641 is the birthday of the Rebbe Rayatz. At the bris of the Rebbe Rayatz, of course the Rebbe Maharash, the grandfather, was at the bris; he returned to Lubavitch. And during the bris he recounted and spoke about the activities in which he had been engaged during that period.
He related that when he began entering into the work of hishtadlus (endeavor) according to the instruction of his father, the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, as we have already read in previous passages, he said to his father, "Give me a blessing that I should succeed." His father told him that a blessing is like rain—meaning, if you plow and sow, the blessing will be of benefit, for it will have where to rest. Then the Rebbe Maharash said, "I have done what is required, I have plowed and sown, now I need the rain." And in practice, the hishtadlus indeed succeeded, and as he says here, he brought about the quieting of the persecutions. This was in 5641.
The next matter, and with this we conclude the account of the life of the Rebbe Maharash in this section, concerns his passing. Let us read the line as written, and tell a little about it. "On the eve preceding the third day of the week, that is, on Monday evening, the thirteenth of the month of Tishrei, the 13th of Tishrei 5643, he passed away." This is the passing of the Rebbe Maharash. "And his resting place is in honor in Lubavitch."
It is told that when the Rebbe Maharash was born, at the time of the bris, the father, the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, spoke. We already mentioned earlier things he said at the time of the bris regarding the name. But then he said a sentence like this: "The verse says, 'the days of our years are seventy years.'" The father said: "There are several levels in days. There is seventy, there is eighty. 'In them' with the letters." He said cryptic words, and they did not understand what he said.
Almost fifty years passed since then. When the month of Sivan of 5642 arrived, which was approximately three and a half months before the passing of the Rebbe Maharash, the Rebbe Maharash said: "Father said 'bahem' with the letters, that is to say fifty, for 'bahem,' the gematria of 'bahem' is forty-seven. The mem is forty, the hei is five, the beis is two, forty-seven. If we add the three letters it is fifty." That is to say, Father said 'bahem' with the letters, which is fifty, and he sighed. His passing was after fifty years.
It is told about the night of his passing. Perhaps we should first preface this. On the eve of Rosh Hashanah of that year, 5643, just a few days before his passing, which was on the 13th of Tishrei, two weeks earlier, he came in to speak with his Rebbetzin, the Rebbetzin Rivkah. He said a few words to her, from which she understood that his passing would take place that year. She began to say to him: after all, small children are being left behind, how is it possible? He did not answer her, but said to her: "I will ascend thirty-two levels upward, and you will ascend thirty-two levels downward."
What did he mean? The previous Rebbe explains that at that time, thirty-two discourses of the Rebbe Maharash's ma'amarim were transcribed. That is to say, I am ascending thirty-two levels upward with the thirty-two ma'amarim, and you will live in this world for another thirty-two years. And indeed she passed away in 5671 (תרע"א), thirty-two years later. This he told her on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, two weeks before his passing.
And let us come to the day of the histalkus itself. As we said, it was on Monday evening or on Tuesday, twenty-five minutes before his histalkus. So the Previous Rebbe relates. He took his pocket watch, disconnected it from the chain, took a piece of paper and wedged it into the watch in such a way that at eleven fifty-one at night the hands would stop and could not continue past that point.
And then he told the attendant to bring in his sons one after another. First entered the eldest son, Reb Zalman Aharon, and he spoke a few words with him and he left. Afterward the second son entered, the Rebbe of Warsaw, and he spoke with him, and when he left he wept very, very much. Afterward the third son, the youngest, Reb Menachem Mendel, entered. Then he called for his daughter, Chaya Mushka, who was still a young woman before her wedding, and said to her: "I was supposed to lead you to the chuppah together with your mother, but when the Holy One, blessed be He, does not want..." and then he placed his hands on her head and blessed her.
And so, while he was still sitting upon the chair, at exactly eleven fifty-one, he passed away while yet seated upon the chair, to his honored rest in Lubavitch, as we noted earlier.