We are at the eighth lesson in the chain of lineage, in the life story of the Alter Rebbe, and from here on we will turn to a description of his family - his wife and his sons.
Even before we give her name, it is worth noting the saying in Hayom Yom for 23 Shevat. It is told there that the Alter Rebbe once happened to hear the Rebbetzin saying to a few women, as she spoke about her husband: "'Mine' says such and such" - and by "mine" she meant the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe entered a state of dveikus and said: "Because of one mitzvah I am yours; if so, then with so very many mitzvos - I too belong to the Holy One, blessed be He." This remark of hers aroused in him a very great dveikus.
Her name was "his wife the Rebbetzin Sterna". It is told of her that she was a very distinguished woman, possessed of wisdom and of strong opinion, and she had mesirus nefesh for the Alter Rebbe, and he too honored her greatly.
One of the stories told about her: when the Alter Rebbe came to Liozna, the chassidim began traveling to him. Once he stood by the window and saw the crowds arriving, and he began to cry out: "What do they want from me? Why are they coming to me at all?" It was the Rebbetzin who influenced him to receive them, saying to him: "They are not coming to you. After all, you were with your Rebbe, the Maggid of Mezritch, and they are coming to hear from you what you heard from your Rebbe." The Alter Rebbe said to her: "If that is so, if that is why they are coming - I will tell them and give them a great deal," and from then on he received them. It turns out that she brought it about that the Alter Rebbe would receive chassidim. Her resting place of honor is in Lubavitch.
The Rebbetzin was the "daughter of the katzin Reb Yehuda Leib Segal", a very respected Jew in the city of Vitebsk and a very wealthy man. However, since the Alter Rebbe's ways and conduct seemed very strange in his eyes, the Alter Rebbe suffered very great anguish in the home of his father-in-law and mother-in-law; they pressed him and caused him distress, and there are all sorts of descriptions of this that are not pleasant, and he even sought to compel his daughter, the Rebbetzin Sterna, to divorce the Alter Rebbe - so strange did he appear in their eyes.
When the Alter Rebbe returned from his Rebbe, the Maggid of Mezritch, his father-in-law came down from his greatness, and afterwards he passed away. "And his wife", the Alter Rebbe's mother-in-law, was "Marat Beila". It is told that after Marat Beila saw the splendor of his greatness, and how famous he had become and how many his chassidim were, she regretted very much all the anguish and pain that they had caused the Alter Rebbe while he was with them at home. At that time she became very wealthy, and she pleaded with him to return to them, home to Vitebsk, saying: "Come back, I will honor you and help you, and we will help the chassidim - come, come."
The Alter Rebbe did not want to return, and he said to her in jest: "It is written that the infant in its mother's womb has it good - an angel with a candle over its head teaches it the entire Torah; and conversely, when it comes out into the air of the world an angel comes and slaps it on its mouth, and things become less good for it. And nevertheless, if you were to propose to the infant, after it has come out, that it go back inside, it would not want to - for two reasons: the place has become too small, and it itself has become too big."
His sons: the eldest son - "1) His Honorable Holiness Admur HaRav DovBer". We will speak of him at length, im yirtzeh Hashem, after we finish the entire description of the Alter Rebbe, when we reach the Mitteler Rebbe, the Rebbe who succeeded him.
The second son - "2) His Honorable Holiness HaRav HaChassid Reb Chaim Avraham". He was born in the month of Elul, and there are two versions as to whether it was in the year 5537 or in the year 5538. At the bris his father gave him one name - Avraham - and he announced at the time of the bris after whom he was naming him: after Reb Avraham HaMalach, the son of the Maggid; and he added that it was also after the Alter Rebbe's grandfather, his mother's father, who was called Avraham - as we already mentioned at the beginning of the chain of lineage.
When he was three years old, the child Avraham became very ill. The Alter Rebbe gathered ten of his students and revealed to them that the child's illness had come about because of the displeasure of his grandfather, Reb Avraham, whose memory had been absorbed under the memory of Reb Avraham HaMalach, so that he was not given the commemoration that was fitting for him. On that same occasion the Alter Rebbe revealed a further detail that had become known to him, that the grandfather's full name had been Chaim Avraham and not Avraham alone; and he added to his son the name Chaim. From then on, from the age of three, he was called Chaim Avraham - and through this there became a clear commemoration of his grandfather, since his full name had been mentioned - and the son was completely healed.
It is told of Reb Chaim Avraham that he was great in Torah, great in chassidus and great in fine character traits, a wondrous sage and a man of truth, and he possessed tremendous qualities. After the passing of his eldest brother, the Mitteler Rebbe, the chassidim sought the next Rebbe, the continuation of the generation, and they went to the Tzemach Tzedek. The Tzemach Tzedek, who in the end took upon himself the yoke of leadership, did not want it at first and turned them away, and among other things he told them that they had Reb Chaim Avraham, the second son of the Alter Rebbe, and he would be the one to continue; except that Reb Chaim Avraham, of course, also did not want it.
And it is told that during the time when his brother the Mitteler Rebbe was Rebbe in actuality, whenever there was a need for wonders to bring about salvations - and especially in the matter of the birth of children - the Mitteler Rebbe would send people to his brother Reb Chaim Avraham, and he would work wonders. Although he was not counted among the Rebbeim, the Mitteler Rebbe held him in very high regard and he was able to work wonders. It is further told of him that his facial appearance greatly resembled that of his father, the Alter Rebbe.