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The Mitteler Rebbe: Difference between revisions
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== Marriage == | == Marriage == | ||
In 5548, at age 14, the Mitteler Rebbe was matched with Shaina, daughter of Reb Yaakov, a poor melamed from Yanowitz near Liozna. This shidduch came about when Shaina's father expressed concern to the Alter Rebbe about being unable to focus on his davening due to worry about marrying off his three daughters. The Alter Rebbe suggested his son as a match, knowing this would encourage other chassidim to seek shidduchim with the remaining daughters. | In 5548, at age 14, the Mitteler Rebbe was matched with Shaina, daughter of Reb Yaakov, a poor melamed from Yanowitz near Liozna. This shidduch came about when Shaina's father expressed concern to the Alter Rebbe about being unable to focus on his davening due to worry about marrying off his three daughters. The Alter Rebbe suggested his son as a match, knowing this would encourage other chassidim to seek shidduchim with the remaining daughters. | ||
== Guiding the Young Chassidim == | |||
In 1790, at age 16, he was appointed by his father to guide the young married men (yungeleit), both those who learned in the Rebbe's court and those who corresponded from their places of residence, and he engaged in this with great energy. It is told that once during a farbrengen with the young men, he spoke with such great emotion that it harmed his health, and he became ill for several days. | |||
That same year, he also began serving as a "maniach" for his father, meaning he would remember and write down the maamarim that his father said. It should be noted that the holy Rav Rabbi Avraham of Kalisk wrote to the Alter Rebbe in a letter from 1798, "I am concerned for the offspring of father, namely his outstanding and distinguished son Rav Dov Ber, as your honor has placed him in a great test, like a ship in the heart of the sea, requiring great advocates to be saved from the trap of pride and haughtiness... and your honor has placed your son in this while he is still young in years and has no weapons of war, and where is the father's mercy on the son." | |||
== Accepting the Nesius (Leadership) == | |||
At the time of his father the Alter Rebbe's histalkus on the 24th of Teves 1813, the Mitteler Rebbe was in the city of Kremenchug, where he had gone to prepare the place for the Alter Rebbe's arrival. Immediately after the histalkus, the family members traveled to Rabbi Dov Ber in Kremenchug, where he accepted upon himself the nesius. | |||
Some of the Alter Rebbe's chassidim chose as their Rebbe one of the Alter Rebbe's great students, Rabbi Aharon of Strashelye, who began conducting himself as an Admor. | |||
In the first three months following the Alter Rebbe's histalkus, there was a great awakening among Chabad chassidim throughout Russia. Chassidim in several major Russian cities sent a delegation to the Mitteler Rebbe requesting that he establish his residence in one of the Russian cities. The chassidim of White Russia also sent a delegation requesting him to return to White Russia and establish his residence in one of its cities. Ultimately, the Mitteler Rebbe decided to accept the request of the White Russian chassidim, and after Shavuos of 1813, he left Kremenchug and began his journey to White Russia. This journey was called the "Coronation Journey" which served as a kind of practical acceptance of the Mitteler Rebbe's nesius. | |||
The Mitteler Rebbe's journey to Vitebsk lasted about three months. In every place he arrived, he delivered deep maamarei chassidus and received chassidim for yechidus. The entourage was received with great honor everywhere by chassidim, Jews, and also by government officials and police officers who received instructions from the Interior Ministry to show special respect to the Mitteler Rebbe, the son of the Alter Rebbe, who had done much for the homeland by assisting in the war effort against Napoleon of France. During the journey, many chassidim joined the Mitteler Rebbe. | |||
== Lubavitch == | == Lubavitch == | ||
The journey concluded with the Mitteler Rebbe choosing the town of Lubavitch as his residence, arriving there with thousands of chassidim on the 18th of Elul 5573. Upon arrival, the Mitteler Rebbe told the chassidim that the Alter Rebbe had studied in Lubavitch during his youth under Rabbi Yissachar Ber of Lubavitch. He added that the Alter Rebbe had appeared to him and requested that he establish his seat in Lubavitch. | |||
Prince Tchekhovskiy, who ruled over the town, commanded his workers to cut trees from his forests to build homes for the Rebbe and the chassidim. | Prince Tchekhovskiy, who ruled over the town, commanded his workers to cut trees from his forests to build homes for the Rebbe and the chassidim. | ||
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# Maamarim Yekarim - His holy manuscripts of teachings received from his father, the Alter Rebbe | # Maamarim Yekarim - His holy manuscripts of teachings received from his father, the Alter Rebbe | ||
# Igros Kodesh - His letters that reached us. Printed in two volumes containing letters of the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, and the Tzemach Tzedek | # Igros Kodesh - His letters that reached us. Printed in two volumes containing letters of the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, and the Tzemach Tzedek | ||
== His Facial Features == | |||
The Mitteler Rebbe is the only one among the Chabad Rebbes for whom there is no picture or drawing, and there is no way to know what his facial features looked like. | |||
In one of the farbrengens, the Rebbe mentioned the instruction of Chazal that during Torah study, "one should see the speaker as if he is standing before him," and explained that for all our Rebbes, this can be fulfilled by imagining their facial features. However, even for the Mitteler Rebbe, there is no deficiency in this matter, since he inserted himself into his Torah (as Chazal said regarding Hashem who inserted His essence into the Torah), and through learning his Torah in a way of seeing, it is not just "as if" he is standing before him, but the speaker is standing before him literally! | |||
== His Family == | |||
* His son Rabbi Menachem Nachum. | |||
* His son Rabbi Baruch. | |||
* His daughter Rebbetzin Sarah Derbaremdiker - married to Rabbi Eliezer Derbaremdiker son of Rabbi Meir of Pikov son of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev. | |||
* His daughter Rebbetzin Beila Walls - married Rabbi Yekutiel Zalman Walls in 1807. | |||
* His daughter Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson - married the Tzemach Tzedek on 5 Kislev 1804. | |||
* His daughter Rebbetzin Devorah Leah Twersky - married Yaakov Yisroel Twersky on 6 Shevat 1811. | |||
* His daughter Rebbetzin Bracha - married Rabbi Yona of Zhitomir on 14 Shevat 1808. They lived their entire lives in Lubavitch. | |||
* His daughter Rebbetzin Menucha Rochel - married Rabbi Yaakov Culi Slonim. | |||
* His daughter Rebbetzin Esther Miriam - no details are known about her. | |||
* His daughter Chaya Sarah - married in her first marriage to Rabbi Aharon Alexandrov of Shklov on 15 Menachem Av 1826. After her husband passed away on 24 Iyar 1837, she married in her second marriage to Rabbi Aharon Zaslavsky of Kremenchug, son of Rebbetzin Freida (daughter of the Alter Rebbe), in 1843. | |||
* His daughter Rebbetzin Sterna Freida. | |||
== Further Reading == | |||
* Rabbi Shalom DovBer Levin, "History of Chabad in Czarist Russia", Kehot Publication Society, New York, 2010 | |||
* Sefer HaToldot - The Mitteler Rebbe, Chanoch Glitzenstein, Kehot | |||
* Beit Rebbi, Rabbi Chaim Meir Heilman, Kehot | |||
* Menachem Ziegelboim, Istalek Yekara - The Story of the Passing of Chabad Rebbes page 95, 2013 | |||
* The Passing of the Mitteler Rebbe, Ohalei Lubavitch Volume 4 page 13, Machon Ohalei Shem | |||
* Rabbi Shalom DovBer Levin, Imprisonment and Liberation of the Mitteler Rebbe | |||
* Silent Storm - The Way the Mitteler Rebbe Led and Guided the Chassidim in His Time, Kfar Chabad Weekly Issue 1933 page 51 | |||
[[he:רבי דובער שניאורי (אדמו"ר האמצעי)]] | [[he:רבי דובער שניאורי (אדמו"ר האמצעי)]] | ||