We are in the eleventh lesson in the chain of tradition, and today we begin the first part concerning the life of the Mitteler Rebbe, who is the second in the order of the leaders of Chabad. The title for the Mitteler Rebbe: The light of the honor of the holiness of our Rebbe, our master and teacher Dov Ber. The Mitteler Rebbe is named after the Maggid of Mezritch, the teacher of the Alter Rebbe.
It is known that the Alter Rebbe married, as we have already discussed in the account of the Alter Rebbe's life history, in the year 5508, and it took many years until a son was born to him. For fourteen years he had no children, and the firstborn son, the Mitteler Rebbe, was born after fourteen years. It is told that beforehand he would request blessings from the Maggid for children, and the Maggid also gave him a segulah, saying that hachnasas orchim is a segulah for children.
In any case, it is told in the book of the family history that two days before the Maggid passed away, on the 9th of Kislev, the Maggid called the Alter Rebbe and spoke with him about the procedure: exactly how one conducts the night before a brit milah, how one conducts the Shabbat that is called Shalom Zachar before the brit, and he explained to him the entire order of the matters. There is great detail there, and among the things he said to him thus: it is written "Chazon Ovadiah," from the haftarah of those days. What is "Chazon Ovadiah"? Ovadiah is a combination of two words, oved Yud-Hei, servant of Hashem. One who serves Hashem, then chazon, he has a vision, he sees what is happening. And he added: a son will be born to you, and you shall call him by my name.
And the Mitteler Rebbe was born exactly one year later. The Maggid told this to him two days before the 9th of Kislev of 5533 (תקל"ג), and on the 9th of Kislev 5534 (תקל"ד), a year later, the Mitteler Rebbe was born, and therefore he was named Dov Ber, like the Maggid of Mezritch. This is the heading: "Born on the 9th of Kislev 5534."
The next thing noted here, what happened in the year 5548: In 5548, the Mitteler Rebbe, at the age of fourteen, had his wedding—he married at the age of fourteen. And as the Rebbe recounts in his sichos, that several matches were proposed to the Mitteler Rebbe, and he chose the match that could be realized as quickly as possible, because he was already yearning to hear the maamarim that his father, the Alter Rebbe, would deliver at the wedding and at the sheva brachos. And this determined for him whom he wanted to marry—as quickly as possible—and he married at the age of fourteen.
The next matter: [in the year] 5551, the guidance of the young chassidim was entrusted to him. Here it is written very briefly. In the notes of the Rebbe Rayatz it is elaborated a bit more. He said that in 5551, when he was only sixteen years old, the Alter Rebbe placed upon him, upon the Mitteler Rebbe, the guidance of all the young married men who were in Liozna. And he also told him that there are many young married men who are supported at their father's table, at their father-in-law's table, meaning they are not here, that he should be in correspondence with them by letters, to manage all that goes on with this matter. And the Mitteler Rebbe occupied himself with this with very, very great interest.
The Mitteler Rebbe once related that when the Alter Rebbe placed this avoda upon him back then, he asked him: How should one look at a young man? How should one look at a Jew? And he answered: One must look at a Jew as he stands in the primordial thought, up to Adam Kadmon. That is to say, to see a Jew as he is at his most perfect, that he is a son of the Holy One, blessed be He. This is how one must look at a Jew, and in such a manner to engage with him.
The next thing that appears here is already the passing—after the passing of the Alter Rebbe and the acceptance of the leadership by the Mitteler Rebbe. In the year 5573, the Mitteler Rebbe was thirty-nine years old; in the month of Tevet he accepted the leadership. It is known that the passing of the Alter Rebbe was on the 24th of Tevet, 5573, and after the passing, of course, "and the sun sets and the sun rises," the one who accepted the leadership immediately thereafter was the Mitteler Rebbe.
In practice, where was the Mitteler Rebbe then? He was not present at the passing of his father, because the Alter Rebbe had sent him beforehand to Kremenchug, to a certain place on a certain mission. When the Alter Rebbe passed away, the Mitteler Rebbe was not present at the time of the passing. He was informed afterward, and later he also accepted upon himself the leadership.
Let us look at one more line, and then we will expand a bit. It says: Chai Elul, that is the eighteenth of Elul, he established his residence in the city of Lubavitch, in the district of Mohilev. As we said, the Mitteler Rebbe was in Kremenchug at the time of the passing of the Alter Rebbe. The burial place of the Alter Rebbe is in Haditch. After the burial of the Alter Rebbe in Haditch, the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, who was the grandson of the Alter Rebbe and the son-in-law of the Mitteler Rebbe, remained living in Haditch for a period, while the rest of the family members moved to a nearby city called Raman.
After the Mitteler Rebbe accepted the leadership, there was a very great awakening among the Chabad chassidim throughout all the provinces of Russia. Every group and every region wanted the Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, to come and live in their area, and there were many delegations from all sorts of places who came to request of the Mitteler Rebbe that he settle in their region.
In practice, the Mitteler Rebbe remained in Kremenchug, in the very place where he had been at the time of the passing; there he stayed. The passing occurred in Teves, and he remained in Kremenchug until the beginning of Sivan. After the festival of Shavuos he left Kremenchug, and then he reached a decision that he would move to reside in White Russia, which was called Belarus.
And the journey there also took several months. In every place he stopped and delivered Chassidus to the people, and more Chassidim drew closer, and so on. Eventually he established his permanent place of residence in Lubavitch. And from then began the dynasty of Chabad in Lubavitch, from the Mitteler Rebbe, after the passing of the Alter Rebbe. The settling in Lubavitch was on Monday, Chai Elul 5573.
The following detail that we have here, and with this we will stop: In the year 5574, that is to say the first year after the Mitteler Rebbe assumed the leadership (in 5573), he established a special committee for the building of the Jewish towns in the region of White Russia, which had been destroyed during the war. In those years there was the famous war between Russia and France. One of the reasons that the Alter Rebbe left his place at all and was cast about on the roads was in the wake of the war.
During the war, Napoleon's army invaded Russia with hundreds of thousands of soldiers in order to reach Moscow, and that entire region truly suffered greatly from destruction, plunder, famine, and the battles that took place between the French and the Russians. As a result, many Jewish communities were significantly harmed and destroyed. One of the things the Mitteler Rebbe accomplished at the beginning of his leadership was to ensure that those Jewish communities that had been destroyed during the war were rebuilt. And this is noted here as something special, that a special committee was established which worked to restore the Jewish towns to their proper standing.