We are in the thirty-third lesson on the chain of lineage and the life story of the Rebbe Rayatz, in the third part. We stopped at the conclusion of the description of the year 5681, and we continue here according to the order that appears here, 5684. Before we read the text inside, we will give an introduction to this period.
We are speaking here about the initial period of the Previous Rebbe's acceptance of the leadership. As we have seen, the acceptance of the leadership took place in the middle of 5681, in Nissan. From the time he accepted the leadership, he engaged with great mesirus nefesh in maintaining Yiddishkeit throughout all of Russia and beyond. This was at the beginning of the Soviet regime, and there were members of the "Yevsektzia" there, a sort of Jewish division within the regime. They destroyed and interfered with everything connected to Yiddishkeit, in an actual war. And the Rebbe, for his part, was in contact with all the cities in Russia, with the entire country, regarding the establishment of chadarim, yeshivos, mikvaos, rabbanim, shochtim, everything needed for all the cities. The Rebbe Rayatz was in contact with all the places.
It is told that at a certain point, in 5682, nine students from among the Temimim gathered. The Rebbe Rayatz was the tenth, and they made a covenant among themselves and swore to sacrifice their lives for Judaism to the very last drop of blood. There were very, very harsh persecutions against the Rebbe, and also against the chassidim, and they literally gave up their lives. There were those who asked the Rebbe: "Is this truly what is required, sending people who did not return?" People were sent to Siberia and were killed, murdered.
The Rebbe told them that in the Beis HaMikdash there were all sorts of avodos—the avodos of the korbanos that the kohanim performed, and all kinds of avodos. But there was one avodah, on Yom Kippur, when they would send the sa'ir to Azazel, and it is related that the person who was appointed to this task would not complete his year—he would die. And nevertheless, there were many who leaped at the chance, who wanted to enter into this avodah in the Beis HaMikdash. The Rebbe Rayatz said that if this was so in the Beis HaMikdash, now, regarding the chinuch of children, it is even more than that—it is simply sending Yidden to mesiras nefesh.
The Jewish world was completely unaware of what was happening in Russia at that time. This can be seen in an interesting way when the Rebbe asked for help. A great deal of money was needed—financial assistance from the Agudas Yisrael organization in the United States. They wrote a letter to the Rebbe, asking that the Rebbe write them, more or less, a report: how many expenses he had, how many Torah students he had, how much each one costs per month, and then they would provide support.
The Rebbe writes to them at length, and from their reply it is evident that they have no concept whatsoever of how things work in Russia. He described to them the underground networks and the secrecy, and how it is forbidden to mention his name, where everything is located, and what kind of mesirus nefesh, and how much money he needs. He specifies there, in 5683 or 5682, that he needs approximately seven thousand dollars a month. Translated into today's terms, that is more than a hundred thousand dollars a month, which he needs in order to finance this entire vast operation. And he told them that it is impossible to give them a report. They said that if they want, they need to give without this itemized accounting.
In any case, we have arrived at 5684, the year we will now begin to study here. The Rebbe Rayatz traveled to Moscow, where there was an annual gathering to summarize the activities, and the Rebbe was preparing to return home. Where did the previous Rebbe live at that time? He lived in Rostov, where the first Rebbe passed away, and where the acceptance of the leadership took place. He intended to return to Rostov. On the way, a messenger came, and the Rebbe received word that his mother had asked to convey that he should not arrive in Rostov, but rather retrace his steps back to Moscow, because the secret police, the GPU, were waiting for him. The moment he would arrive in Rostov, they would arrest him.
So the Rebbe Rayatz returned to Moscow, and he was there for half a year. His wife, daughters, and mother were in Rostov, and he did not return for half a year, until erev Pesach. On erev Pesach he returned secretly, and they discovered that he had returned, and it was very, very difficult. They wanted to arrest him, and then there was great pressure, and they agreed to silence the matter if he would leave Rostov and move residence, leave the place. And this is essentially what is described here in brief.
Here it is written thus: 5684, he was forced by the Cheka, which was that secret police, on account of the informing by the Yevsektsia. The Yevsektsia is the Jewish section, the Yevsektsia we mentioned earlier. They caused him to leave Rostov. They pressured him, and it was a kind of agreement that if he would leave Rostov, they would not arrest him. And then he moved his residence, settling in Petersburg, and engaged in maintaining Torah and Judaism. The center moved to Petersburg, where he carried out the entire matter. Petersburg is the city that was afterward called Leningrad. Rabbis, chadarim, yeshivos, shochtim and bodkim, garments of proper measurements, the establishment of mikvaos, all the Jewish work in the world—everything came from there, from Leningrad, from Petersburg.
The next detail, he founded a special committee to help handworkers, so that they would be able to keep Shabbos. Every livelihood profession of a Jew back then, in whatever factory it might be, was truly problematic, because when Shabbos or a holiday arrived there was no possibility to keep Shabbos or the holiday. So the Rebbe Rayatz invested a great deal in order to help people to have self-employment, handwork, that they would open what are called weaving houses at home, things from which they could make a living, without needing to give a report to a manager, to a boss, as to why he does not come on Shabbos, and to get entangled with that. There was a very great investment in this in order to help workers to be able to work in handwork.
The next matter, the founding of Agudas Chabad in the United States and Canada. After the conclusion of the First World War, and particularly after 5681 (1921), when the problems began, what are called the decrees in Russia, Jews began to leave Russia. It was not yet en masse, but they began to leave Russia—some moved to Eretz Yisrael, some to the United States, some to Europe. And the Rebbe Rayatz wrote in 5684 (1924) a letter to all the chassidim who were in the United States, in the month of Cheshvan, and asked them to establish an agudah that would look after matters together, and that they would have rules and regulations and whatever would help them. He also sent personal letters to certain chassidim who were involved in this, such as Rabbi Dovid Shifrin and Rabbi Eliyahu Simpson. There is a book called "Toldos Chabad in the United States," and there the whole matter is described at length, and this is what is written here in one line, that in that year he founded Agudas Chabad in the United States and Canada.
Let us look at one more matter, [from the year] 5687. In 5687 there is a lengthy account, and this is really its beginning. The founder of the yeshivot in the land of Bukhara. What was this? There was a chassid, called Rabbi Simcha Gorodetzky. Upon Simcha Gorodetzky the Rebbe Rayatz placed various missions, which required him to travel to all sorts of places in Russia. There is an entire story about this, how it saved his life from a medical standpoint. In any case, at a certain point the previous Rebbe called for him and said to him: You are already married, and it is very difficult for a married man to travel from place to place, and he determined for him that he should travel to Samarkand and be the spiritual leader for the Jews of Bukhara.
Even before he traveled, he told the Rebbe that his wife lived in Kremenchug, and that he had heard that his wife had given birth to a daughter, and therefore he wanted first of all to travel to Kremenchug to see his wife and the daughter, and then he would travel to Samarkand. The Rebbe said to him: "If she had given birth to a son, you would need to travel for the bris, but this is a daughter, there is no bris. You can travel to Samarkand, and your wife and the daughter will come to you afterward. You will travel now, the matter is urgent, there is not even time for excursions." So he sent him straight to the shlichus, and he arrived there, in Bukhara.
He established there, as is told, a large Talmud Torah, which was called "Tiferet Bachurim." This developed over time into an institution of a thousand children, with many teachers. All of this was the establishment of the yeshivot in Bukhara, which here appears in a single line. There were many episodes surrounding this. The continuation will come with God's help.