We are in the fourth lesson of Shalsheles Hayachas, in the midst of the account of the Alter Rebbe's life. Today we begin with the description of the year 5527.
In the year "5527", when the Alter Rebbe was twenty two years old, he "accepted the position of Maggid of Liozna". In that period there was a practice common in many towns, that they had a "maggid" - the leader of the town, who would deliver words of Torah and the like - and the Alter Rebbe accepted upon himself to be the leader in Liozna. This is the place where, according to various opinions, he was even born.
As appears from the sefer of his life history and the story of the Alter Rebbe's life, apparently in that year he had not yet moved to live there permanently, but rather lived in Vitebsk, and a few years later he moved to live in Liozna permanently.
The people of Liozna agreed to accept him as their permanent maggid even while he was not actually living there, since they recognized his qualities and very much wanted him to be their maggid. And so he became the maggid in Liozna in the year 5527.
In the year "5530", when the Alter Rebbe was already twenty five years old, he "began to arrange the Shulchan Aruch". It is known that the Maggid of Mezritch is the one who instructed the Alter Rebbe to write the Shulchan Aruch, and it is told that the first halachos with which he began were the laws of tzitzis and the laws of Pesach, and these he completed around 5530; the remaining sections of Orach Chaim he continued afterwards, and this took about another two years. The wording "began to arrange" thus teaches that in that year at least these two sets of halachos were already prepared.
Two years later, in the year "5532 - he founded the approach of Chabad chassidus". From examining the histories and the various reshimos it emerges that there are several stages that could be identified as the year of the publicizing and promotion of the Alter Rebbe's unique approach - an approach expressed in the avodah of davening in a special way, and in the study of the works of inquiry and mussar in the Chabad manner. In general there was a difference between the other disciples of the Maggid and the Alter Rebbe: their approaches were called "from above to below", while the Alter Rebbe's approach was called "from below to above" - that a Jew, by his own powers, should learn and elevate himself. This was the Chabad approach in its unique way.
There are those who attribute the beginning of the founding of the Chabad approach to earlier years, already in 5525 or 5526; but the Rebbe notes here the year 5532, in which the matter was already at a more significant stage, as the year identified as the year of the founding of the approach of Chabad chassidus.
"He directed a campaign that the Jews living in the region of Vitebsk should move their place of residence across the border into the country of Russia". About that period the Rebbe added something interesting. In the annals of our Rebbeim, the Nesi'im, we find - and so we will see later with the Mitteler Rebbe and with the Tzemach Tzedek, and we have already seen it in the earlier lines regarding the Alter Rebbe - that they carried out many activities so that Jews should have ample parnassah, good housing and good conditions, and they occupied themselves with this a great deal. Thus we saw earlier that with the "dowry" money that the Alter Rebbe received, he ran a campaign that Jews should engage in working the land.
However, the Alter Rebbe was not content with encouraging agricultural work alone, and was also very much concerned with the general state of Jews in commerce. He was not satisfied that Jews had no orderly and established parnassah, but rather were "managing somehow", and he wanted them to have an orderly parnassah; in this he accomplished much and extended help. He also greatly encouraged Jews who engaged in handicrafts and in honest business dealings and supported themselves from the labor of their hands, and he invested much in this.
There was a custom in Russia to hold a "fair": a market day in the large cities, to which merchants would come from Poland and from Germany and exchange goods with those living in Russia. Generally this took place twice a year, and highly skilled craftsmen would take part in it. The nobles in Russia, the wealthy and the prominent people, would come there and buy various crafted goods - in weaving, in precious stones, in gold vessels, silver vessels and glassware. Many of these were made by Jews - not necessarily Jews, but many of them were Jews influenced by the Alter Rebbe - and the Alter Rebbe greatly encouraged this.
It reached a point that the nobles, out of their fondness for these crafts, would propose to those professional Jews that they remain in Russia for a longer time and not travel away immediately after the fair, and they would pay them for the merchandise they had brought. And so, each year more and more families moved throughout Russia, since they had parnassah and there were buyers for their merchandise.
In addition to being a great gaon and a great tzaddik, the Alter Rebbe was a public activist of the first order in Russia on behalf of Klal Yisrael, so that Jews should have parnassah. And this is the emphasis here, that he directed a campaign that they move their place of residence to a place where they would truly have parnassah, since they engaged in various crafts and would have the possibility of selling their merchandise.
"5533-5538 - the founding of the yeshivah in Liozna". The last point on which we will dwell today is the years 5533 until 5538. In this matter too there are differing versions in the reshimos regarding the years, and here it is written that it took place between 5533 and 5538: the founding of the yeshivah in Liozna. At that time the Alter Rebbe announced that he was establishing a center for avreichim in Liozna, and over time dozens of avreichim came, some forty in number, to be in his yeshivah.
At first they thought that it would be a yeshivah in which each one would learn his daily studies as he wished - in chavrusa or each one on his own - and only the general occupation would be the study of chassidus. However, the Alter Rebbe established schedules for the study of nigleh, very strict schedules. And these are a few examples of the form of study he set:
Gemara b'iyun: four hours every day at the least, in chavrusos according to abilities.
Gemara b'girsa: a daf a day at the least.
Pilpul: his brother, the gaon Rabbi Mordechai, was appointed that at least twice a week, on fixed days and at fixed hours, there be a time in which all the avreichim would engage in pilpul among themselves, in depth, on the things they had learned.
Halachah: his brother, the gaon Maharil, was appointed over the area of halachah - two hours every day of halachah study b'iyun, and in addition to that a siman in Shulchan Aruch each day according to the order of progression; and if the siman was very long, they would divide it into two.
And from the most outstanding avreichim of the group the Alter Rebbe established what is stated in the final sentence: "and it was known by the name Cheder Alef, Cheder Beis, Cheder Gimmel". That is, there were three levels among those most outstanding avreichim: "Cheder Alef" - the highest level, "Cheder Beis" - below it, and "Cheder Gimmel" - below that. Even those in Cheder Gimmel were of course of a very high level of learning, and all of this in nigleh - even before the unique approach of chassidus that the Alter Rebbe instilled in them - a very high level, in halachah and in Gemara alike, as we have noted until here.