We are in the thirty-second lesson in the chain of lineage, in the life story of the Rebbe the Rayatz, in the second part. We concluded the description of 5662 (תרס"ב) and we continue onward.
In 5665 (1905), he took part in organizing a collection drive for the Passover needs of soldiers in the Far East. We have already told about this in the biography of the Rebbe Rashab, that in those years there was the war between Japan and Russia, and there were Jewish soldiers who were in the army, at the front, in northeastern China, close to the border of Russia. The Rebbe Rashab was very involved in this, and here we add that the Rebbe Rayatz was also involved in obtaining money and obtaining matzos, to distribute to the Jews at the front. There we also told that it reached a point where even the Russian government helped to act in this matter. A campaign for the distribution of matzos already existed then, in those years.
In 5666 [the Rebbe] traveled to Germany and Holland. That is, the Rebbe Rayatz traveled to Germany and Holland, and worked to influence the banks to quiet the spirit of the pogroms. There were then pogroms in Russia against the backdrop of antisemitism and hatred of the Jews, as though they were taking control of the Russian economy. There were large financial institutions in the hands of Jews, who naturally had talents and were active. And this made it seem as though the Jews were stealing all the money and so on, and this incited the masses.
The banks in Holland and Germany had an indirect connection to the Russian economy. There were very large Jewish-owned banks there, such as Rothschild and the like, which operated in Germany and Holland. They invested a great deal of money in economic development in Russia, so they had an indirect influence, through which it was possible to quell the pogroms. The Rebbe Rayatz traveled to these places to meet with the bank directors and to exert influence through them, to help and rescue Jews in the pogroms in Russia. Once again we see the Rebbe's efforts to help Jews in every physical and spiritual matter, on a global scale.
In 5668 he participated in the work of the Vilna assembly. It is not described exactly what took place there, but it was all a continuation of his father bringing him into communal work, and there were various assemblies in various fields. In 5669 he traveled to Ashkenaz, he traveled once again to Germany, to meet with communal activists. These were all world conferences and assemblies, with ramifications and effects on the Jewish people in Russia.
In [the year] 5670, [the Rebbe] was engaged in preparing the rabbinical assembly. Here only three words are written, but in 5670 there was a very famous conference in which the Rebbe Rashab was involved, and printed in the book of the biography of the Rebbe Rashab is a pamphlet that the Rebbe Rashab wrote, describing what took place at this assembly. And the introduction is interesting, for he writes that since there are many people who want to know what happened, and there is a manufacture of rumors, it was necessary to write down precisely the order of events. It was a very important assembly, because under the Russian regime there was a desire to introduce all kinds of reforms into Judaism, to interfere in Jewish education and in the Jewish communities and so forth. The Rebbe Rashab was a very central figure at that conference, and he influenced the decisions so that they would not heed the Russian regime and would not succeed in introducing changes. This was an existential struggle over the Jewish future in Russia. The Rebbe Rayatz also invested greatly, being together with his father in that year in engaging in the success of this conference.
From the year 5662 until 5671, that is, nine years, he was arrested four times at different times, in Moscow and in Petersburg, on account of his profound work on behalf of the Jewish people. Here he brings that he was arrested four times, although in the accounts that the Rebbe himself tells elsewhere about those same years he brings three times, but there was one time that he did not note. These were not lengthy imprisonments, as we know the famous imprisonment of the Rebbe, but rather arrests of a few hours; but this was all during these years. Each time there was a different cause. There was a school whom they called the maskilim (spreaders of enlightenment) in Lubavitch, who informed on him and caused an arrest. There was the Poalei Zion party in Lubavitch, and each time there were others, informers, who caused the Rebbe the Rayatz to be brought into interrogations, into a kind of arrest. They put him in prison in order to halt his activity, but of course they had no success at all. He stood with great fervor in this matter.
In 5677 (1917) he participated in the work of the rabbinical assembly in Moscow. Again, it is not detailed here what it was, as we showed earlier — assemblies in Petersburg, assemblies in Vilna, assemblies in many places. Also at that time there was a rabbinical assembly in Moscow. In 5678 (1918) he participated in the work of the Kharkov assembly.
5680 (1920), he accepts the leadership. We know that the Rebbe Rashab passed away on the 2nd of Nissan 5680. In the will that the Rebbe Rashab left, he wrote that his only son, the Rebbe Rayatz, should be appointed to be his successor in leading the chassidim. He also wrote a personal note to the Rebbe Rayatz, in these words: "You shall speak the words of the living God before our friends, upon the faithful foundations of the words of our holy Rebbes, and you shall endeavor to explain the matters to others with good reason and understanding." Many times he wrote to the Rebbe Rayatz.
The Rebbe Rayatz immediately took upon himself the leadership. This was expressed in that right at the conclusion of the shiva after his father—the seventh day being Shabbos, Shabbos parshas Tzav—on that very Shabbos, after Mincha, the Rebbe Rayatz already delivered his first Chassidus maamar, the discourse beginning "Reishis Goyim Amalek," 5681. This was, as Chassidim understand, the Rebbe Rayatz's acceptance of the leadership.
The matter with which we will conclude, 5681, from the arrangement of the communal work of upholding Judaism and Torah in the country of Russia. This was already a first action after receiving the leadership, in a more significant manner. He founds the "Tomchei Temimim" yeshiva in Warsaw. Regarding the "Tomchei Temimim" yeshiva in Warsaw, there is in one letter written by one of the famous chassidim, Rav Elchanan Morozov, Chonye Morozov, that the yeshiva in Warsaw was established according to a proposal of the Rebbe Rayatz, and he sent there Rav Alter Simchovitz, who was at first the director of the "Tomchei Temimim" yeshiva in Czerin, to direct the yeshiva in Warsaw.
Apparently, the Rebbe Rayatz pushed for the establishment of the yeshiva, but not in an official manner, and perhaps they did not know that it came from him, because in the "Igros Kodesh" of the Rebbe Rayatz there is a letter from that same year, 5681, from the 11th of Tammuz, that he wrote to the "temimim" of "Tomchei Temimim" in Warsaw, and the style of the letter is: "that I received word that the elder students founded a yeshiva," and the Rebbe Rayatz greatly encourages them and guides them as to how the conduct of the yeshiva should be. And as is also related in the book "Reshimos," Rabbi Rivkin relates, that when the Rebbe Rayatz heard that the yeshiva had truly been established, he was "in tremendous, boundless enthusiasm and excitement." He truly describes how much the Rebbe Rayatz rejoiced that the Yeshivas Temimim in Warsaw had been established. This is the point, and the continuation will come, with God's help.