Editing Yisroel Aryeh Leib Schneerson (section)

== With the Rebbe Rayatz ==
In 5684 (1924), after the Rebbe Rayatz moved to live in Petersburg, Yisrael Aryeh Leib moved to live in the city and for a period lived near the house of the Rebbe Rayatz, together with his brother (the Rebbe, leader of our generation). The Rebbe Rayatz drew him very close, and he would enter for private audiences with him from time to time. During one of these private audiences, he asked the Rebbe Rayatz a question about Chassidic teachings, but the Rebbe refrained from answering it, saying that it was not relevant to him. He left the audience broken and burst into tears. After some time, he entered for a second audience and did not ask his previous question, and the Rebbe Rayatz turned to him on his own initiative and answered his question. Upon leaving the audience, Yisrael Aryeh Leib explained to the Chassidim that in order to receive the explanation, he needed to have a "broken heart," and that was why the Rebbe Rayatz initially refrained from answering him.

Reb Leibel (as he was nicknamed) became friends and regularly conversed with Chabad Chassidim in Leningrad, and they would consult with him on various Jewish matters. Yeshiva students from that period remember that he was knowledgeable in all of the "Hemshech 5666" of the Rebbe Rashab. During that time, he also enrolled in regular studies at the university and simultaneously helped the Chabad organization "Tiferes Bachurim" to organize Torah classes for students and young married men.

On the night of 5 Teves 5689 (1928), the Rebbe Rayatz told his son-in-law, the Rebbe, about a night vision in which he merited to hear Chassidic teachings from the Rebbe Rashab together with Yisrael Aryeh Leib.

In 5690 (1930), he left the Soviet Union and moved to Berlin, Germany. He crossed the border with a passport under the name "Mordechai (Mitya) Gurary," who was a Chabad young man from Dnepropetrovsk who had drowned in the Dnieper River. From then until the end of his days, he called himself "Mordechai Gurary." While in Berlin, he became ill with typhus, and the Rebbe and Rebbetzin, who were in Berlin at the time, gave him a bed in their small apartment and cared for him until he recovered.

In 5691 (1931), apparently following his brother (the Rebbe), he enrolled at the University of Berlin and studied there for three years, until 5693 (1933).

During that period, he moved to Paris, France, where his brother, the Rebbe, lived. After a short time, he decided to immigrate to the land of Israel, and for this he needed documents from Germany, where he had stayed before, but in Germany there was already a Nazi regime. His sister-in-law, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, volunteered with self-sacrifice to go to Germany and from there she arranged to obtain the required documents for him from the Nazi government offices.

In recently discovered letters that the Rebbe wrote to his father and mother, the Rebbe writes about his condition, and also about attempts to find a match for him.