Rebbetzin Sterna
Rebbetzin Sterna was the wife of the Alter Rebbe, the first leader of Chabad Chassidus.
Life History[edit | edit source]
She was born to Reb Yehuda Leib Segal, who was among the distinguished members of the Vitebsk community and an eighth-generation descendant of the Maharil Segal, and her mother Beila.
On the 12th of Menachem Av 1760, she married Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi. At the time of the wedding, the bride's family was unaware of his involvement with Chassidim. When this became known, the bride's parents demanded that she divorce him, but she refused and was moser nefesh for her husband. It is said that when she would provoke him, she would become ill for three days. When she asked her husband why he was particular with her, he responded that he was not particular at all, for if he were, she would have been ill for nine days.
For 14 years after their marriage, the Rebbetzin and the Alter Rebbe had only daughters. After receiving a bracha from the Maggid of Mezritch, who instructed them to excel in hachnosas orchim, they were blessed with three sons: the Mitteler Rebbe, Rabbi Chaim Avraham, and Rabbi Moshe. Following the Maggid's instructions, throughout each pregnancy, she would drink a glass of milk with honey every night.
When her husband, the Alter Rebbe, arrived in Liozna and saw thousands of chassidim approaching his house through his windows, he began rolling on the floor crying out in humility and distress, "What do they want from me, what have they found in me?" His wife, the Rebbetzin, approached and told him, "They're not coming to you, but because you are a talmid of the Maggid of Mezritch - they want you to tell them about him." Her husband responded, "If so, then I will tell them," and received the thousands of chassidim.
Her mesiras nefesh for her husband continued even after he became well-known. When they first came to arrest him and he was hiding from the soldiers, they forcefully demanded that she reveal his whereabouts. When she stubbornly refused to reveal anything, one of the soldiers struck her face with such force that it knocked out two of her teeth.
After the Alter Rebbe's histalkus, she moved to live in her grandson the Tzemach Tzedek's house in Lubavitch, whom she had raised since he was a young child and was like a mother to him.
She merited long life, living until the days of her grandson the Tzemach Tzedek's nesius.
Her exact dates of birth and passing are unknown.
Family[edit | edit source]
- Her daughter, Rebbetzin Freida - married Rabbi Eliyahu Klutzker
- Her daughter, Rebbetzin Devorah Leah - married Rabbi Shalom Shachna Altshuler
- Her daughter, Rebbetzin Rachel - married Rabbi Avraham Sheines
- Her son, Rabbi DovBer, the Mitteler Rebbe - married Rebbetzin Sheina Shneuri
- Her son, Rabbi Chaim Avraham
- Her son, Rabbi Moshe - married Mrs. Shifra Shneuri of the Rivlin family