We are in the twenty-eighth lesson in the chain of lineage, in the middle of the account of the life of the Rebbe Rashab. We concluded in 5643, after the Rebbe accepted the leadership. We continue to 5652. About this year, 5652, it is written, let us read the wording: he exerted himself regarding the expulsion from Moscow, worked at length until the summer and helped with appropriate sums for those expelled to settle in new places. It is known that Czar Alexander III had a very antisemitic policy, and during that period they made very harsh decrees against the Jews, among them harsh decrees against the Jews of Moscow. This was expressed in that they expelled them from Moscow, all as a result of the laws of the Pale of Settlement. There were places where they permitted Jews to live and there were places where they were forbidden to live. They expelled them from Moscow, and even those who had a permit as merchants and the like, them too they expelled. A situation arose of thousands of Jews who were forced to leave their homes, and found themselves without livelihood and without housing. Here he describes that the Rebbe Rashab exerted himself greatly in this matter, to delay the decree of expulsion and also to help those Jews with sums so that they could settle in new places and not suffer losses.
Furthermore, in 5653. He re-established the committee of communal activists in Petersburg. In the booklet called "Chanoch LaNa'ar," which is the first testament of the Rebbe Rashab, at the beginning of the booklet there is an account from the history of the Rebbe Rashab's life, and there this point is described—that everything revolves around the involvement in helping the Jewish people in all places. In 5653 the Rebbe Rashab re-established the committee of communal activists.
5654 (1894), he visits the colonies in the Kherson province. The year 5654 is the year that the Rebbe Rashab accepted the leadership with all its particulars—we spoke about this also in a previous segment. This is expressed in several points. First, the Rebbe Rashab established his place of prayer in the same spot where the Rebbe Maharash used to sit regularly; until then he had not sat in that place. An additional point is that the Rebbe Rashab then began to receive chassidim in yechidus on a regular basis—this was only in 5654. He began to answer questions in writing, something that had not been the case before. Another thing, the maamarim that he said, he would have transcribed and publicized. These are things that had not existed for ten years since the passing of the Rebbe Maharash.
That year, 5654, it is told that the Rebbe Rashab was not feeling well, and he traveled to meet with doctors in Kharkov. From there he traveled for several weeks to Odessa, and from there he traveled to the colonies of the Kherson province by way of Nikolayev, because the chassidim asked the Rebbe to come—they wanted to hear chassidus from him, and he needed to greatly strengthen the entire community of chassidim. So the Rebbe traveled to Kamenchuk and so on, and only toward the month of Elul of that year did he return to Lubavitch. He was not in Lubavitch for about two months, and this was the strengthening of the community of chassidim in all the places.
5657. Here a brief statement is written, and there is much elaboration on this in the stories. He founded the yeshivot Tomchei Temimim. We will speak a few words about this, insofar as it is possible to be brief. This occurred at the end of 5657, on the fifteenth of Elul during the sheva brachot of the wedding of the Rebbe Rayatz. It was then that the Rebbe Rashab founded the yeshivot Tomchei Temimim, as it is written in the plural, the first branch in Lubavitch and the second branch in Zhembin. The Rebbe Rayatz relates that a year earlier, in 5656, the Rebbe Rashab visited the holy resting places (ohalim) of all the Rebbes—of the Baal Shem Tov, of the Maggid, of the Alter Rebbe, of the Mitteler Rebbe, and in Lubavitch itself of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek and of the Rebbe Maharash—and he said that with the holy blessing he received from all the Rebbes, he decided to found a yeshiva, to raise chassidishe bochurim possessing good character traits and devoted with mesirut nefesh to the ways of chassidut.
The yeshiva did not begin as a thought at that time, but rather, as is told, he had already been contemplating the matter for ten years, and over the course of ten years he visited the ohalim, mainly of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek and the Rebbe Maharash, until the decision came to found the yeshiva. There is a book called Tomchei Temimim, in which one can see all the details of the things connected around the yeshiva.
Regarding the name Tomchei Temimim, the name was not established when the yeshiva was founded in 5657 (1897); the name took almost two years, a little less. On the night of Simchas Torah of 5659 (1898), in the middle of the hakafos, in the middle of reciting the passage in which is written "Tomech temimim mishayna," the Rebbe Rashab declared that the name of the yeshiva that had been founded would be Tomchei Temimim. Why Tomchei Temimim? He said temimim from the term temimus (wholeness/perfection), that there should be here temimus and the revealed Torah and the Torah of Chassidus, and about this it is said "the Torah of Hashem is temimah (perfect), restoring the soul." And then he connected this to the content of the name, because of the recitation during the hakafos of the matter of "tomech temimim mishayanu." This is all really just the tip of the iceberg. There is an extensive discourse on the foundation of this yeshiva, Tomchei Temimim.
Another line, [in the year] 5658, he makes his journey regarding communal matters to Kiev. In that same year, in the winter, as is recounted in the journals—this was during Parashat Chayei Sarah—there was a secret gathering to which ten men were invited, representatives of various towns: Vilna, Riga, Kovno, Brisk, Odessa, Petersburg, Moscow, and Kharkov. Ten men. And this was a secret gathering to see how to act on behalf of Klal Yisrael. One sees in all the stories, also with our great Rebbeim, how many hours, days, and years they devoted, along with funds, in order to help Jews materially—simply that they should have somewhere to live, that they should have a means of livelihood, and so on.
5659 (1899), he expressed his opinion in opposition to the Zionist party. In 5659 the Rebbe published his first letter against the Zionists, a very sharp letter, that the approach of Zionism is simply heresy in the Holy One, blessed be He. The letter is printed in the Igros Kodesh of the Rebbe Rashab in the first volume, on page 56 and onward, and afterward on page 206. There are afterward more letters on this matter. The Rebbe Rashab was very, very sharp against the entire Zionist movement, because in its essence it truly negates and denies the sovereignty of the Holy One, blessed be He, in the complete Torah of Israel, and so on.
5661, he makes his journey to Ashkenaz — Ashkenaz refers to Germany, France, and Holland — on matters concerning the community at large. In that year, 5661, for almost the entire year, from Kislev until Elul, the Rebbe traveled around the world to various places. All of this was in order to meet with Jews and to arouse various personalities regarding the situation of the Jews in Russia. The question of the Pale of Settlement was such a burning issue that he devoted a great deal of time to it. We see that he dedicated an entire year to this in 5661, and the continuation of this appears in the next passage as well.
In 5662 (1902), he founded—with the help of the generous Poliakov brothers and with the help of I.C.A.—a factory for weaving and spinning wool in the city of Dubrovna, in the province of Mohilev, and approximately two thousand Jews worked in it and earned a comfortable livelihood. I.C.A. is an acronym of foreign words for an organization whose meaning is the Jewish Colonization Association. This is an organization that was established with the goal of helping Jews settle in areas where they could earn a livelihood with dignity. They had operations not only in Russia, but also in other countries, and the Rebbe Rashab was assisted by them, as is told in one of the accounts, that the Rebbe would relate that in 5661 (1901), two years earlier, he received a positive response from the great magnates who were called the Poliakov brothers. They agreed to give assistance to establish a weaving factory, and they said they were prepared to give thirty-five thousand rubles, which was then worth one hundred thousand French francs, for the elevation of the souls of their parents.
Apparently it took time until this was actually established, but everything was in order to help Jews with their livelihood. There is in the Igrot Kodesh of the Rebbe Rashab a letter that he writes to this committee of YEKO, on the topic of establishing this factory. And the letter is signed not only by the Rebbe Rashab, but all the Jewish leaders of that period are signed there, four of them: Eliyahu Chaim Meizel of Lodz, Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk, Charmozinsky of Vilna, and the Rebbe Rashab. All of them together wrote to this organization for the establishment of the enormous enterprise, and one sees here that there was an enormous enterprise in which two thousand Jews earned their livelihood comfortably. How much the Rebbe invested to give Jews livelihood and dignity.